Gainsborough: The Fashion of Portraiture examines the dynamic relationship between Thomas Gainsborough’s portraits and the culture of fashion in eighteenth-century Britain. The exhibition explores how style shaped not only the sitters’ attire but also the scale, composition, and facture of painted portraiture. Bringing together more than two dozen works from North America and the United Kingdom, the show spans Gainsborough’s four-decade career and marks the museum’s first special exhibition devoted to the artist—and the first focused on his portraiture in New York. Technical studies conducted with major conservation partners further illuminate his materials and process, linking his practice to the textiles, pigments, and luxury goods that defined the era.
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reMastered: Jac Lahav’s Record Paintingsisa solo exhibition at Mana Contemporaryfeaturing a selection of over two hundred intimate 12 x 12 inch paintings of iconic album covers celebrating the slow, tactile process of gouache on canvas. The project asks what painting can add to images that already live in our collective memory. This iteration of Lahav’s work opens a new line of inquiry into what artists listen to, drawing from record collections of artist icons Jackson Pollock, Georgia O’Keeffe, Francis Bacon, and Dan Flavin. Artist Jac Lahav and curator Michele Jaslow sat down to discuss the exhibition for Art Spiel.
Installation View. Phong H. Bui and Sol LeWitt. Craig Starr Gallery (1)
For both Phong Bui and Sol LeWitt, the line is a democratizing gesture. The line as a line: a mark; steering focus towards the method of an image’s creation rather than convincing the viewer of the realism of its ultimate subject. And, at least for both of these artists, this means we begin to deal with units. With LeWitt, the unit is the geometric shape — a square, cube, or even a diagram-a nugget of information, often placed within another diagram, offering multiple levels in the narrative of the work’s process and arrangement.
Installation View, Doron Lanberg at Victoria Miro, courtesy of the writer
With the excitement of the art fairs behind us it’s time to take one look back at The Armory Show and note a couple artists to watch this year who clearly stood out in the whirlwind of that weekend.
This month’s lineup takes us through Brooklyn, Queens, and Jersey City, where intimate thoughts, melded with the political repercussions we grapple with individually and collectively, are presented to the public in moving forms that are explorations in artistic practice as a means of activation against the norms we must confront to maintain our humanity. Through rejections of subjugation and exploitation, be it patriarchal economies or the fallout of colonialism, these selected exhibitions put artists at the forefront who contend with these issues and make space for constructive discourse.
Vojislav Radovanović at the studio. Photo by Jason Jenn
Vojislav Radovanović’s multidisciplinary practice spans painting, drawing, installation, video, and performance. His work touches upon themes of queerness, memory, the immigrant experience, spirituality, and the complex relationship between humans and the natural world. Influenced by his upbringing in Serbia during a time of war and social upheaval, Radovanović approaches art as a therapeutic space for healing and transformation. His process-driven works often combine recycled materials, vibrant color, and symbolic imagery to create poetic, emotionally resonant narratives. Through layered compositions and dreamlike logic, he invites viewers into a shared space of reflection, imagination, and emotional release.
Lucy Kim: Pigment Spells at Praise Shadows Gallery, Brookline, MA. Photo by Dan Watkins, courtesy of Praise Shadows Gallery
Several wonderful exhibitions are on view in Boston this month and many more are scheduled for the summer, along with artist talks, performances, and events. Boston’s Public Art Triennial kicked off with a ribbon cutting and a party to celebrate the arrival of several new public art installations around the city for art goers to enjoy throughout the summer. The schools are getting ready for summer break but many of their galleries remain open with dynamic shows. Whether you visit the city, the Cape, or the Islands over the next few months, there is always something to see. Here are a few highlights to consider.
As a textile artist, I am drawn to works that uphold the tradition of fibers vis a vis labor, technique, material, craftsmanship and innovation. In this presentation put forth by Bravin Lee Programs, The Golden Thread 2 displays fiber-themed works taking various forms. Filling the old seaport building from floor to ceiling, room after room reveals different interpretations on what constitutes a “textile” work.
If They Told You, Would You Listen? at Thayer Academy, Braintree, MA
Spring has sprung and many beautiful exhibitions are in full bloom across the city of Boston. Several exhibitions celebrating fiber art are on view along with multiple shows that highlight the season of rebirth. One of my favorite things about Spring in New England is seeing the trees awake from their dormancy and plants sprouting from the earth. The area thaws out and inspires a creative push toward summer. This means a lot of play, or spiel, for artists who experiment with unconventional materials and new media. This is wonderfully evident in the work on view this month as artists and galleries display playful and profound creations for a new season. Here’s some Art Spiel for you.
This past weekend New York saw the latest iteration of the Outsider Art Fair. Started in 1993, it has become a NYC institution and seems to be thriving after a few lean pandemic years. The Fair serves a field that has evolved a great deal over the past 30 years, and I really felt that this year more than in the past. As the number of now “blue chip” or “Old Master Self-Taught” artists dwindle, there’s been an influx of both younger artists and some who push against the definitions of self-taught in the first place. It’s a sticky subject and one that I have no answer to.
