Praça do Comércio (Commerce Square), is one of Lisbon’s most iconic landmarks
Lisbon, once a soft whisper in Europe’s art discourse, has shed its translucent slipper. No longer the Cinderella of the continent’s cultural ball, the city now strides confidently onto the stage—a radiant, artful sovereign commanding attention and acclaim. Its metamorphosis over the past decade borders on the operatic—a triumphant crescendo of resilience, urban reinvention, and creative flair.
Tsipi Ben-Haimstarted CITYarts because she saw how often young people—especially teens—are left out of important conversations. She believed that if kids had the chance to express themselves through art, they could inspire real change in their communities. The idea was simple: when young people create, they don’t destroy—they build, they imagine, they connect.
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.
Latte Capitalizm, hand embroidery on cotton, 8×14 inch
Polish artist Monika Drożyńska brings her resistance embroidery to a New York audience in a solo show at Open Source Gallery and her Urban Embroidery project. The connections she makes with words within many different languages are a dexterous game of text and symbols on fabric, an adept study of transformative change for a better world. Polish curator Bartek Remisko, speaking about the work, said, “Embroidery can be about threads that bring us together to create social change.” Remisko’s insight speaks to Drożyńska’s focus on embroidery techniques in contemporary art and textiles in public spaces to further the collective conversation and play with conventional expectations.
Swoon, Swimming Cities of Switchback Sea, photo courtesy of Tod Seelie
Brooklyn-based artist Caledonia Curry, known as Swoon, is celebrated internationally as one of the first female street artists in a male-dominated field. For over two decades, Swoon has explored human experiences through public art, museum exhibitions, and film. Her latest projects look at the ties between trauma and addiction, inspired by her own life in a family affected by opioid addiction. She works closely with communities, using art to show empathy and help people heal. Over the last ten years, Swoon has led important projects in places like Braddock and Philadelphia in Pennsylvania, New Orleans in Louisiana, Venice, and Komye in Haiti, tackling everything from natural disasters to the opioid crisis.
On view at Carrie Haddad Gallery through November 26
Artist Profile
The Artist in his Studio, Great Barrington, MA. Image Credit: Matt Moment
When Dai Ban first traveled from his native Japan to the United States, he was struck by the nonchalant vibrance of American street art. The year was 1985, and although the golden age of graffiti had come and gone, its ethos had indelibly permeated the fine art world. Imagery that had been considered lowbrow just ten years prior became astronomically salable, so long as it decorated a canvas and not a subway car. Ban was bemused by the transformative power of gallery spaces. “Anything you show at the gallery looks like some kind of art,” he observed.
Shortly after the outbreak of the war between Israel and Hamas, flyers suddenly sprouted on New York streets. These flyers were attached to streetlamp posts, tree trunks, and subway stairwells, showcasing photos of infants, children, teens, and grandparents. beneath bold red banners that read “KIDNAPPED.” These photos capture moments from everyday life of people prior to the Hamas attack on October 7th—babies being fed, grandmas smiling, and teens taking selfies. This public art campaign was the brainchild of Israeli street artists Dede Bandaid and Nitzan Mintz. The couple, partners in life and art, have a history of engaging with public spaces globally in places like Tel Aviv, Berlin, Warsaw, and New York. They have recently arrived in New York to pursue their art. However, the events of October 7th shifted their focus. While trying to grasp the enormity and brutality of the terror attack on Israel, they felt compelled to respond by using the street art techniques they were proficient in. Art Spiel had the opportunity to speak with graffiti artist Dede Bandaid over the phone about the inception of this guerrilla street art campaign, which went viral and all over the globe.
Detail, Sunflowers & Graffitit’d Sky in the Garden State, 2022, 24 x 36. Digital Image with embroidery and textiles. Photo Credit: Megan Maloy
Sunflowers & Grafitti’d Sky in the Garden State is a large-scale wall-based work by artist Woolpunk® in the Laurie Stairwell exhibition space at the Montclair Art Museum. It consists of a photo highlighting inspirational communal land use and dietary wellness, juxtaposed by a spray-painted sky-blue mural that is visible from behind the sunflowers. The use of the graffitied wall in the photo reminds us of the air-polluted sunsets, which are so beautiful that they make us almost forget what causes them. “The sunflowers are treated as mutating militants filled with patterns and iconic images multiplying throughout the community garden,” the artist says.
Melinda Riddle McCoy, inside Tomas Vu’s spherochromatic dome. Photo by Nathan West @nathanwestphoto
The mission of ELM Foundation is to promote the healing power of the arts. Our methods include advocating the benefits of arts therapy, providingmultidisciplinary arts education, and building sustaining mentorships—all working together to cultivate a lifelong love of self-expression and awarenessthrough a creative process. ELM Foundation was launched on February 20th, 2019 in honor of Emma Lauren McCoy whose intense childhood experience inspired the creation of this nonprofit organization which offers children who have experienced parental loss or family structure adjustments, paths for healing through art and art therapy. In addition to its multidisciplinary art education and therapy, ELM hosts at the adjacent boiler space exhibitions, currently featuring Tomas Vu’s solo project, The Man Who Fell to Earth 76/22. Melinda McCoy, the founder of ELM sheds some light on the foundation and how art plays a pivotal role in it.
Installation view of Pauline Decarmo: Exit at LABspace, 2022, photo courtesy LABspace
Some artists paint stunning abstractions, some artists deftly execute exquisite realistic images, while others ingeniously develop astute conceptual work, but the truly magical art is work that can intelligently create the aura of time, space, and experience. Fortunately Pauline Decarmo, by using any means necessary, does exactly that in her exhibition, Exit, on view at LABspace in Hillsdale NY through May 29.
