family – Art Spiel

October 14, 2026October 13, 2026, by Etty Yaniv

Call Mom: Olive Ayhens and Ezra Johnson at Bookstein Projects

Olive Ayhens and Ezra Johnson, installation view at Bookstein Projects

Pairing artists with assorted bodies of work spanning over a decade is not an easy task. In the current two-person exhibition at Bookstein Projects, it helps that each artist, regardless of subject matter, has a distinct approach to color and composition. And then, there is a story. Call Mom features paintings on canvas and paper by mother and son Olive Ayhens and Ezra Johnson. The family tie is a good cue for the curator and for us. Yet it may be more interesting to set aside the biography for a moment and, as you enter, experience the vibrant visual dialogue unfolding between two painters.

December 11, 2024December 10, 2024, by Andrew Fish

Art Spiel Picks: Boston Exhibitions in December 2024

Highlights

*Georgia O’Keeffe and Henry Moore* at Museum of Fine Arts, Bosto

It’s the end of 2024 and a new year is upon us. As we go into the holiday season to celebrate, reflect, and make resolutions for a new year, let’s also remember to take time to see all the amazing art on view. In Boston, there are several knockout shows to catch while you’re out and about. Whether you’re gathering with friends or going to your favorite gallery’s holiday party, you’ll be spending time with family – chosen and inherited – to feel centered, grounded, and a sense of belonging. Family can be wondrously complicated and beautifully complex in its array of characters.

November 7, 2023November 6, 2023, by Etty Yaniv

Reef Avni – This Was My Home

Photo Story

For 18-year-old photographer Reef Avni, photography became a way to speak at 14 when words were hard to find, a tool against his social anxiety. His father, Hagi, was not only a strong supporter but also a frequent face in his photos, becoming an integral part of the narrative Reef was creating with his camera. The other constant in Avni’s work is documenting daily life in his Kibbutz. As a fourth-generation member of Kibbutz Be’eri, his roots were as embedded in the kibbutz as the farmlands and community his great-grandfather founded in the arid Negev in the south of Israel on the night of October 6, 1946. His grandfather was among its first newborns.

September 10, 2021September 10, 2021, by Lauren Krasnoff

Briana McLaurin: Unlearning Portraiture

Briana McLaurin in front of her painting titled, Hope, Love, and What Else…?, 2020, Oil, pencil, and sharpie on canvas, 40 x 30 in. Photo courtesy of the artist

Briana McLaurin takes on an intimate subject matter in her large scale oil paintings, as her practice primarily consists of painting her family members. Her vibrant portraits serve as a tribute to her own experiences and upbringing, while creating a relatable narrative that celebrates African American presence. The honesty and value of family are extremely present in McLaurin’s recent body of work, where she reflects on her relationships with loved ones by depicting intimate snapshots of domesticity.

April 5, 2021March 3, 2021, by Etty Yaniv

Brian Zegeer: Porous Identities

*O for the days to be yowling down the valley at a full galoop! On Pfizer! On Moderna! On*
*AstraZeneca!* clip from 22 second cg animation, 2021

In his stop-motion animation and mixed media installations the Brooklyn based artist Brian Zegeer creates fantastic landscapes which draw on his domestic family life, dissecting what is the meaning of identity – body as an organism, cultural heritage of childhood in Appalachia with Lebanese roots –altogether fuse into a mysterious and complex system where the viewer is prompted to get immersed.