“Untitled (United States Marine Hospital)” by Firelei Báez at The Institute of Contemporary Art / Boston
There are many excellent art exhibitions to visit in and around Boston this summer. Museums and galleries have created an abundance of programming that’s playful and profound. Dance parties, concerts, salons, and festivals supplement what’s on view, making summertime feel even more celebratory for the arts community. A visit to the Cape and Islands is a must for a reprieve from the heat, but also a great place to see brilliantly curated shows and satellite exhibitions. Within the city you’ll find most galleries foregoing their beach time to maintain regular hours and offering a rich selection of dynamic shows. Here are some highlights.
There is an exciting new gallery in the Crane Building located in the Old Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia joyfully titled Box Spring Gallery, a brainchild of curator and creative director Gaby Heit. Gaby and I go way back to when I knew her as the director of Prelude Gallery in center-city Philadelphia. With her extensive background in both art and design, this place of her own sets high expectations for fresh, new work that is multidisciplinary and accessible.
Elizabeth Meggs’ work in Found & Lost includes prints, posters, fabric design, and clocks. The exhibit explores the discoveries and losses many have experienced in the world in recent years, from profound themes such as hope, time, or love, to mundane items such as umbrellas. Through this exhibition and opening event Elizabeth Meggs expresses a gratitude for life, and a catalyst for connecting with friends and building community through August, after recovering from being hit by a car and sustaining a head injury in late April of 2022.
In Dialogue with Henry Klimowicz, founder and director
The Re Institute empty, 2021, photo courtesy of Henry Klimowicz
The Re Institute is an extension of Henry Klimowicz’s studio, a very large 1960s dairy barn outside of Millerton, New York. About 11 years ago sculptor Henry Klimowicz started the gallery as a response to living in the “center of nowhere”, as he puts it. The artist says that the gallery allows him to have extended working relationships with other artists and their work. “I try not to know what a show will be about before it opens and I get to spend the length of the exhibition becoming aware of all of each show’s nuances,” he says about his curatorial process. A normal season at Re Institute includes 4 to 5 shows, which mostly feature 2 to 3 artists showing in the large space upstairs and another person downstairs. “I try to get each artist to have a specific reason for showing in the gallery outside of the possibility of selling work,” he says. This fits his vision of Re Institute as a non-profit institution. It’s important for him that the featured artists will find reasons to use the space uniquely. “There has to be something in the process of showing an artist that brings depth to the artist’s understanding of their own work or the process of exhibiting their work,” he says. These different ways of interacting with each artist have become the most important aspect of the space for him.
Arina Novak is holding a laptop with the main page of The Alternative States displayed on the screen. Photo courtesy: Robert Oliver
The Alternative States is a virtual exhibition at Project Gallery V on view from May 3 through June 30, 2021. Inspired by a condition of daydreaming, the show explores the alternative states of mind where one finds solace in creative freedom and ethereal fantasies.
In Dialogue with Emilie Ahern and Sherri Littlefield
The curators, Emilie Ahern (left) and Sherri Littlefield (right), stand in the exhibition space among the works from Americans Looking In. Photo credit: Andrew Littlefield
In the thought-provoking group showAmericans Looking Inat the Center for Book Arts the curators Emilie Ahern and Sherri Littlefield explore what it means to be “American” mostly through media such as photography, book art, sculpture and prints. Their personal experience of coming from multicultural backgrounds and growing up in the States has prompted them to ask the question – What is American culture today, and what does an American look like?
All images: Austin Thomas collages, photographed by the author
Austin Thomas’s drawings, Lots of little things, currently on view at LABspace, a small gallery in a tiny town, are diminutive in size but vast in scope. Arranged in three irregular rows on one wall, these forty-odd drawings offer the viewer enough to look at for several hours. I have been to the show three times and was sorry to leave each time. They seem to display almost everything drawing can be. Continue reading “Austin Thomas – Lots of little things at LABspace”
Crystalline City is an exhibition of large-scale installations by Michal Gavish, on view now at the Humanities Gallery at LIU, Brooklyn. Presented in this unique glass walled gallery akin to a large scale oval diorama, the viewer can see the works from the outside. Designed on a combination of translucent fabrics and papers, the hand made prints transmit and reflect the surrounding lights and allow for multiple full views of the installation, through and around these fabrics. Continue reading “Michal Gavish – Crystalline City at LIU”
