Upcoming Events for the Week of October 12th
Queer Animals
When:September 17-November 13, 2009
Where:13 Forest Gallery
167A Massachusetts Avenue
Arlington, MA 02474
How: Official Website
Cost: Free
What/Why:” Writer Charles Mortimer got it right in his 1947 book of children’s verses Some Queer Animals and Why when he declared “I think by now it’s pretty clear, most animals are somehow queer.” The work selected for the show ranges from Bren Bataclan’s cozy cartoon characters to Ann Smith’s whale constructed with the detritus of the modern age including old windshield wipers and typewriter parts.
Resa Blatman will be among the artists in Queer Animals who depicts animal personalities. In her large-scale painting Aphrodite’s Garden, two great herons sit atop an abundance of plant life, looking off to the side with regal detachment from the viewer. Calm and quiet, the painting captures the assured soul of one of North America’s greatest birds.
In stark contrast to her work are a number of personifications. In the drawing Brotherhood of the Powdered Wing, for instance, Joe Keinberger evokes the spirit of Egon Schiele with his image of an oddly solitary insect. Bundled in fur and holding a candlestick, the subject makes its way through the dark with the apparent trepidation of humans who, unlike insects, have an innate fear of the night.
Book artist and printmaker Peter Madden’s work Icarus, retells the myth of the man and his son who plunged to their death while attempting to fly on wax-and-feather wings. This strongly vertical and delicately stitched work presents a dispassionate sun, a torrent of waves and, between them, telltale feathers drifting silently downward. But all is not lost, painter Scott Chasse reminds us. In his work Burt Reynolds the subject is captured in his youthful glory. Hairy and smug yet still approachable, here the celebrity is a wolfen archetype as much embraced as feared by American culture.”
People, Places and Horses
When:October 01-October 22, 2009
Where: The Distillery Gallery
516 E 2nd St., first floor
Boston, MA
How: Official Website
Cost: Free
What/Why:”The Distillery Gallery presents “People, Places & Horses,” a straight-forward exhibit of four Boston-based painters individually consistent in their chosen subject matter.
People:
Nick Ward’s close-up portraits reveal exaggerated elements of facial characteristics mixed with sparse use of text or vivid color as a backdrop. Each work is an uncontrived study of texture and form punctuated by the suggestion of everyday routine.
David Wooddell exhibits a clear appreciation of his predecessors and a mature, diligent work ethic by painting live models in a modernist manner. The focus of his rich, heavy-bodied figure studies balances between the subject and the individual brush stroke, resulting in luminous portrayals of the human form.
Places:
Aimee Belanger blurs the lines between imagination and reality with landscapes based on photographs, memories, and dreams. Her juxtaposition of stark architectural elements with colorful organic settings results in imagery of places that may or may not exist.
and Horses:
Monica Nydam’s “Horse Series” entertains the viewer with painterly renditions of snapshots involving the subject. While some pieces use thick linear brush strokes to create “pixelated” visions of the mare or stallion, others involve hints of distortion or motion. Each work shares a candid, stolen-moment quality with the next.”
Leslie Wilcox:Canniballistic
When: October 09-November 08, 2009
Where: Boston Sculptors Gallery
486 Harrison Ave.
Boston, MA 02118
How: Official Website
Cost: Free
What/Why:”Canniballistic carries dual connotations in the hands of Leslie Wilcox. While utilizing a sculptor’s prerogative to mutate
a previous sculptures’ materials onto new work, she simultaneously realigns the scale, bulk and opacity of each piece with
the sole purpose of locating its essence from within. Each of these unseen and incomplete works becomes drastically
transformed in the process. And rather than building from scratch or removing the unnecessary bits, she re-works each
piece until she finds the works’ only and best possible configuration; its’ guts or soul or essence.
The show’s installation also facilitates Wilcox’s intentions by showing both a “before” and “after” for each piece. Her wall
line drawing of the unseen work (the “before’) is juxtaposed near the finished new work (the “after’) to clearly follow her
thought process and compare incomplete idea with finished thought.”
Rebecca Chamberlain
When: October 15-November 14, 2009
Where:Judi Rotenberg Gallery
130 Newbury Street,
Boston MA 02116
How: Official Website
Cost: Free
Arlington Open Studios 2009
When: October 17-October 18, 2009
Where: Gibbs Center
41 Foster Street
Arlington, MA 02474
How: Official Website
Cost: Free
What/Why:”Featuring 80 artists from Arlington & surrounding communities.
Artforms include: blown glass, collage, fiber arts, handcrafted paper and books, jewelry, mosaic, mixed media, oil painting, original poetry, photography, sculpture, sumi-e brush painting, watercolor, woodcuts, wood turning, and more…”
