mixed media – Page 14

November 11, 2024November 12, 2024, by Andrew Fish

Art Spiel Picks: Boston Exhibitions in November 2024

Highlights

Hugh Hayden: Home Work at Rose Art Museum, Waltham, MA.

In the aftermath of the Presidential election, I feel inspired to visit galleries and museums more than ever. Not only am I feeling a conviction to support these now-endangered organizations, but I am finding respite in their halls and holdings. Regardless of your political leanings, this is a tender time for artists and art institutions, as well as for the curators and Directors who organize exhibitions. Obviously, what’s on view this month was curated before Election Day, but now that we’re in a new world, all of it seems singed by the results and potently relevant for the time. Hugh Hayden’s exploration of public education reminds us that the Department of Education may be gutted, and J Rowen O’Dwyer’s portraits of Trans people show us a vulnerable population that’s now even more susceptible to the threats of an angry and fearful nation. It’s a sobering time, but one that calls for art and artists to persevere.

November 6, 2024December 7, 2024, by Amalia Rizos

Elizabeth Insogna: Exquisite Traces at Anne Reid ‘72 Gallery

Elizabeth Insogna, *Veil,* 2024, Glazed ceramic, 15×15”

Large-scale, multi-piece sculptures standing balanced by their own weight accompany ceramic tablets colored cream and periwinkle, which hang along the walls of Anne Reid ‘72 Gallery, echoing in their sudden coalition the deeds of a goddess from centuries ago. Hekate is her name, and she is a Greek goddess associated with fire, witchcraft, and transformation. In our search for the spiritual, returning to the philosophies of ancient times lends fresh wisdom, lighting compelling paths forward.

November 4, 2024November 19, 2024, by Etty Yaniv

Donna Conklin King: Fifty-Eight Feet Down the Ocean

Hot Air

“Bubbly Barnacles” after launch photo, courtesy of UMAFL

Sculptor Donna Conklin King draws on the philosophy of Kintsugi, the centuries-old Japanese art that highlights an object’s imperfections by emphasizing its cracks with gold leaf. She works primarily with concrete, experimenting by casting forms from unconventional materials such as tin ceiling tiles, food containers, and fabric. Her sculptures often incorporate delicate elements like doilies and 24-karat gold leaf, exploring the relationship between nature, architecture, and the inevitable decay of civilization. In her recent focus on public sculptures, Conklin King’s pieces are “openly cracked and repaired,” evolving and enduring over time. They reflect themes of resilience, history, and archaeology.

October 30, 2024November 19, 2024, by Eva Zanardi

All you need is JUST LOVE: Michela Martello at Pen + Brush

*JUST LOVE*, (Mimi), 2024, Acrylic, pigments, ink, pastel on interfacing, Installation view

In the heart of Manhattan’s Flatiron district, Pen + Brush, a 130-year-old nonprofit dedicated to championing women in the arts, proudly presents JUST LOVE, an immersive, large-scale installation and exhibition by Italian-born Brooklynite Michela Martello. Drawing inspiration from the renowned Japanese writer Haruki Murakami, Martello’s 360-degree visual experience invites viewers to embark on an introspective and exhilarating journey, exploring the blurred boundaries between reality and the imagined. The narrative woven throughout the exhibition transports viewers into mythical domains, where the sacred and the fantastical coalesce seamlessly.

October 28, 2024November 19, 2024, by Yasmeen Abdallah

Art Spiel Picks: New York City Exhibitions in October, 2024

HIGHLIGHTS

The *Object Library*, photo courtesy of Yasmeen Abdallah

Mementos abound all around us in our day-to-day activities. Often, they hold dear memories: some we wish to keep, and some we wish to release so that we can move on to new experiences. Be it a trinket that houses memories of better days, a gift from someone we cherish, or a serendipitous discovery that found its way into our orbit, we become fused in inexplicable ways. What happens then, when we are asked or forced to part with such gifts? It can be freeing to release ourselves from materialism, but it can also be devastating, depending on the circumstances.

October 24, 2024October 24, 2024, by Anna Shukeylo

Carrie Moyer: Timber! At Alexander Gray Associates

photo story

Installation view at Alexander Gray Associates. Photo courtesy of the gallery.

Carrie Moyer’s solo show Timber! is her debut with the renowned Alexander Gray Associates gallery in New York City. Her signature vibrant abstractions shine in the airy rooms of the Tribeca gallery space. Centering around “social and environmental instability,” this new body of work offers greater complexity and a more somber tone than Moyer’s previous work.

October 17, 2024October 17, 2024, by Andrew Fish

Art Spiel Picks: Boston Exhibitions in October 2024

Highlights

Signal to Signal by Crystalle Lacouture at Trustman Gallery, Simmons College in Boston, MA.

As Boston’s fall season unfolds, the city comes alive with a vibrant tapestry of exhibitions, from the creative heart of the SoWA Arts District to the bustling streets of Back Bay. University galleries join the celebration, offering a rich array of materials and themes that captivate and inspire. While the leaves change color and the evenings grow cooler, the art scene radiates warmth, keeping the city’s creative pulse strong and steady. Here are some standouts this month.

October 15, 2024October 14, 2024, by Chunbum Park

Contours and Strokes: Between Traditional and Contemporary Art Forms

Mika Kanemura performing at the gallery. calligrapher: Komei

When one looks at Franz Kline’s Abstract Expressionist paintings involving Gestural Abstraction, they cannot help but read a Chinese or Japanese character in calligraphic form. In fact, a relationship can be established between Kline’s “abstract” lines and marks from the calligraphic strokes of Sumi ink made by the masters of the traditional art form—Japanese calligraphy.

October 14, 2024December 7, 2024, by A.E. Chapman

A Leg to Stand On—Melissa Stern at DIMIN

*Melissa Stern: A Leg to Stand On*, installation view

In Melissa Stern: A Leg to Stand On, the domestic meets the fantastic in the aptly named The Living Room, the front room exhibition space at DIMIN complete with a cozy two-seater sofa. Featuring her drawings and sculptures, Stern’s trademark humor and sense of play persists while the underlying thread of darkness that pervades her oeuvre feels especially heightened in this presentation. Deeply shaken by a fall during a winter walk in 2021, the artist’s works in the exhibition explore the precarious and fragile construction of the human body. Cobbling together disparate elements such as vintage shoes, wooden branches, scrap pieces of bannister railings, a doll’s lost arm, linoleum, wallpaper, resin, clay, paint cans, bolts, and screws, Stern balances absurdity with familiarity.

October 9, 2024October 10, 2024, by Claire Haik

Art Spiel Picks: Philly Exhibitions in October 2024

HIGHLIGHTS

Hanne Friis, The Mountain, hand-stitched faux leather and steel, 37 13/16 x 54 5/16 x 37 13/16 inches, at Locks Gallery, photograph courtesy of the gallery

Sometimes, we are confronted with artwork that hums with possibilities so profound you can feel them taking root in your chest and making a new home. You stand in the gallery, soaking it in, and you want to share it with as many people as possible. That said, I hope you take a good chunk of time to sink into the transcendent earthy abstractions of Warren Rohrer at Locks Gallery. Afterward, head upstairs and marvel, open-mouthed, at the unexpected forms created by sculptors Hanne Friis and Lynda Benglis. Then, journey over to Fleisher/Ollman Gallery and get lost in Sarah Gamble’s glittering forest interiors and interdimensional abstractions, filled with mystery and magic.