BOSTON, MA – East Boston Open Studios takes places this Saturday and Sunday, May 18 and 19. artscope managing editor Brian Goslow cornered June Krinsky-Rudder co-founder of the East Boston Artists Group Open Studios to discuss event preparations, what makes the open studio experience special and what they offer to the arts community.

HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN OVERSEEING YOUR OPEN STUDIOS WEEKEND?

This is my third year doing it primarily myself, but I oversaw it with one other person in 2005, and as a founding member of East Boston Artists Group, I have been one of the organizers since our first Open Studios in 2001. Elsa Campbell and Jesse Kahn handled much of the overall organizing in the early years. I didn’t organize in 2008 or 2009, when it was completely run by Todd Antonellis, who co-organized with me in 2005, and Liz Nofziger.) We skipped 2006 due to construction, and 2010 because no one took on the organizing.

WHAT – OR WHOM – BROUGHT YOU ABOARD?

I co-founded the East Boston Artists Group in August 2000, along with Anna Salmeron and Jesse Kahn. In 2011, Neil Wyatt, one of the participating artists, put out an email asking about interest in holding Open Studios. Somehow the meeting ended up in my studio. I’ve been organizing ever since. (*Most of the artists feel it’s important for the neighborhood that we hold Open Studios. Not all of the artists feel qualified to organize, or have time to do so. I make time because I feel it’s a vital event.)

WHAT DOES THE JOB ENTAIL?

The job entails many different things. The main thing is getting in touch with all known artists from East Boston. (Our definition is artists who live, work and/or create in the neighborhood.) It’s important to get as many of them ‘on board’ as possible — more artists = a better event for the visiting public, as it means more art to view. Some years (like this year) it involves applying for grant funding to cover expenses. (The East Boston Foundation has been a generous funder in all the years that we requested their assistance.) It involves making sure that the participating artists send their images and information to the person handling the website and to the person or people designing our print media. (This year, our web site is to be redone, by Liz Nofziger, our original web designer.) Planning Open Studios includes getting word out to the press and to the City of Boston. It involves budgeting – figuring out how much money will come in from artists’ participation fees and/or other sources, and determining the most important things that must be purchased with these funds. In the case of grants, it also involves arranging for a fiscal agent at East Boston Artists Group is not a not-for-profit organization. ZUMIX will be our fiscal agent — a role they have graciously undertaken in many past years. Bookkeeping is also important — tracking artists’ payments, and making sure bills are paid. It’s also important to make sure that we have signage at the locations where artists will be showing. Postcards and maps must be designed, printed and distributed. Studio/exhibit locations must be prepared for the public.

Though the coordinator/main organizer makes sure that all of this takes place, it is not work done alone. All of the artists involved, as well as many supporters of the arts who live in the neighborhood, take on different roles, primarily promoting the event and preparing their own spaces. ZUMIX not only acts as fiscal agent, but also opens their doors on Saturday each year. This year they are hosting a closing event, “Jazz at the Fire House.” HarborArts, Inc. Outdoor Sculpture Gallery at the Boston Harbor Shipyard, will be hosting a number of artists, and will provide maps of the sculptures on site. “Studios Without Walls”, a Brookline-based group that will have a featured exhibit this summer, will have at least one artist with work on site in time for Open Studios.

HOW MUCH TIME GOES INTO IT OVER THE YEAR AND WHEN DO YOU REALLY BEGIN TO RAMP UP PREPARATIONS AS THE EVENT APPROACHES?

A lot of time goes into it, and though it would probably be a much larger event if I had the ability to work on it year-round, I teach full-time, so I squeeze in about 8 months of work during the year. (More than I should, but less than it needs.) Neither I, nor anyone else is paid for coordinating. We try to pay the web designer each year, or whoever is updating (though none ever charge what the job is actually worth). When there is enough money, we also pay the person or people who design our cards and other print media.

WHAT MAKES YOUR OPEN STUDIO WEEKEND UNIQUE?

You can travel to HarborArts via the Water Taxi, for one thing. Ours is now held in the spring, as everything is beginning to bloom and the weather is usually nice enough to merit exploration of the neighborhood. We probably have some of the best restaurants in Boston, and the best water views of the city. We also get a lot of visitors who fly into Logan and then explore the area before moving on to their intended destinations.

WHAT MAKES OPEN STUDIO WEEKEND AN IMPORTANT EVENT FOR YOUR FACILITY AND THE PARTICIPATING ARTISTS?

Our Open Studios event provides us an opportunity to interact with the neighbors. It’s a real ‘family day’ — with not only multi-generational visitors, but many people arrive with their dogs in tow. The Atlantic Works Building, located at 80 Border Street, was once associated with ship-building, so it’s a unique spot in the neighborhood, and a lot of the ‘old-timers’ like to come in to see what’s going on as they “always wondered what was in there” while growing up. Some artists make sales of their work; it’s always nice to sell your work and to find new collectors. It’s always been more of a wonderful social event than anything else, and the variety and quality of the work in our neighborhood is always fabulous.

IN THE PAST, WHAT HAVE ATTENDEES SAID WAS AMONGST THEIR FAVORITE PARTS OF THE EVENT?

Sadly, I’ve always been running around checking to make sure that everyone was in their spaces, or that signage was up and visible, or taking care of other administrative tasks during the events, so I don’t necessarily know. I usually don’t even get to clean my space until the night before, or have work on exhibit. My goal is to change that this year.

WHAT DO YOU LIKE BEST ABOUT IT?

I like meeting neighbors and having friends stop by. I also like to see other people’s work when I can get out of my studio.

FROM AN ARTIST’S STANDPOINT, WHAT IS THE VALUE OF THE EVENT? HOW MUCH IS ABOUT INTRODUCING THEIR WORK TO NEW AUDIENCES AND HOW MUCH IS ABOUT MAKING SALES?

I think that for most of us, it’s about sharing our work and introducing it to new audiences. Obviously, sales are good, but most of us don’t make sales, and we don’t have that as our main motivation.

I’VE FOUND MYSELF OVERWHELMED WHEN I ATTEND OPEN STUDIO EVENTS. ANY SUGGESTIONS FOR FIRST-TIMERS?

I would suggest looking at the website to see what kind of art you might want to see, and then determine where the artists are located. In East Boston we have 3 locations so it’s likely less intimidating. One can start at HarborArts (arriving by Water Taxi) and then hit ZUMIX before moving on to 80 Border Street or the other way around. Maverick Station, on the Blue Line, is in between ZUMIX and 80 Border. I would also look into the local restaurants and consider bringing a camera to capture some of the beautiful harbor views.

ANY SPECIAL PERFORMANCES OR ACTIVITIES SCHEDULED FOR THIS YEAR’S EVENT?

ZUMIX is hosting “Jazz at the Fire House” on Sunday, May 19th at pm.

WHAT WILL YOU BE DOING ON THE MORNING PRIOR TO THE DOORS OPENING?

I will probably be delivering balloons and running to Costco to get food for my visitors.

AND WHEN THEY CLOSE?

This year I will clean as quickly as I can, and run over to ZUMIX for “Jazz at the Fire House”. Most years I also go get food and then go home and crash.

(East Boston Open Studios takes places on Saturday and Sunday, May 18 and 19. For more information, please visit http://www.eastbostonartistsgroup.org.)

Cambridge Open Studios takes place Saturday and Sunday, May 11 and 12 (North/West) and May 18 and 19 (East/Central). Artscope managing editor Brian Goslow cornered Julie Barry, Director of Community Arts for the Cambridge Arts Council, who oversees Cambridge Open Studios, to discuss event preparations, what makes the open studio experience special and what they offer to the arts community.

HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN OVERSEEING YOUR OPEN STUDIOS WEEKEND?

The Cambridge Arts Council took over the organization of Cambridge Open Studios in 2009. This is our fifth citywide Open Studios even. I have been working on the event since its inception as I started at the Arts Council in the summer of 2008.

WHAT – OR WHOM – BROUGHT YOU ABOARD?

The Cambridge Arts Council had been in dialogue with the local open studios volunteers’ organizations NoCa and CAOS for some time around the possibility of use becoming the administrations for the Open Studios in Cambridge. They had been opportunity independently in their neighborhoods for almost 20 years and had come to a point where they needed some assistance with the organization of the events so the Arts Council took up the charge and opened participation to anyone living or working in Cambridge and made it a citywide event. NoCa still exists and operates markets and the like but CAOS has dissolved.

WHAT DOES THE JOB ENTAIL?

This is a big questions, as the organizer for Open Studios we do everything from securing empty store fronts for artist displays to collecting artist data and populating a detailed brochure with maps of the areas and each artist participating. We also organize a free shuttle service, MBTA and other marketing campaigns, community meetings to help educate artist about open studios and how to market their work, a VIP launch party and much much more.

HOW MUCH TIME GOES INTO IT OVER THE YEAR AND WHEN DO YOU REALLY BEGIN TO RAMP UP PREPARATIONS AS THE EVENT APPROACHES?

We start registration in November and then really get things moving in January working diligently all the months through until the fruition of the events in mid May.

WHAT MAKES YOUR OPEN STUDIO WEEKEND UNIQUE?

Our weekend is unique because it is actually TWO weekends, because we have so many artists and so many business and other venues that wish to participate we have split the city down the middle with all artists in the North/West region opening their studios and homes on one weekend – May 11 & 12 and all artists in the East/Central on another weekend – May 18 & 19. Our open studios is also unique in that we as the organizing body arrange for empty store fronts and other locations where artists who do not have a place in which to show their work may still participate in what we have come to call our ‘common venues’.

WHAT MAKES OPEN STUDIO WEEKEND AN IMPORTANT EVENT FOR YOUR FACILITY AND THE PARTICIPATING ARTISTS?

It is important because it provides artist with an opportunity to showcase their works to a large audience that they would normally not have access to.

IN THE PAST, WHAT HAVE ATTENDEES SAID WAS AMONGST THEIR FAVORITE PARTS OF THE EVENT?

Seeing the individual characteristics of the neighborhoods where Open Studios takes place, getting an inside peek at home, and seeing an unprecedented amount of art work in just a few short days.

WHAT DO YOU LIKE BEST ABOUT IT?

Meeting the artists that I represent throughout the year, getting to know them personally and experiencing their work.
From an artist’s standpoint, what is the value of the event? How much is about introducing their work to new audiences and how much is about making sales? It depends on the artist that you ask — so would say audiences some would say sales; I think it’s about 60/40.

FROM AN ARTIST’S STANDPOINT, WHAT IS THE VALUE OF THE EVENT? HOW MUCH IS ABOUT INTRODUCING THEIR WORK TO NEW AUDIENCES AND HOW MUCH IS ABOUT MAKING SALES?

It depends on the artist that you ask — some would say audiences, some would say sales; I think it’s about 60/40.

I’VE FOUND MYSELF OVERWHELMED WHEN I ATTEND OPEN STUDIO EVENTS. ANY SUGGESTIONS FOR FIRST-TIMERS?

Plan ahead!! Visit the website or pick up a brochure and really look it over, know which artists you really want to see and understand that realistically you, might not be able to get to them all. Also take advantage of the free shuttle services to help get around.

ANY SPECIAL PERFORMANCES OR ACTIVITIES SCHEDULED FOR THIS YEAR’S EVENT?

For the last few years we have help a performing artists show case at CCTV in Central Square this year it will be on Saturday May 18 from noon-4 p.m. This too is free and open to the public.

WHAT WILL YOU BE DOING ON THE MORNING PRIOR TO THE DOORS OPENING?

Helping artists in our common venues put on the finishing touches and getting ready to great the visitors.

AND WHEN THEY CLOSE?

On the Sunday of each weekend we assist out artists in helping to uninstall their works, pack up, and head home for so much needed rest after an art filled weekend. It’s during the day on Saturday and Sunday that I love the most though as that is when I do my very best to get to each and every one of the studios and common venue participating in a specific area to show support to Open Studios artists and to experience their work.

(Cambridge Open Studios takes place Saturday and Sunday, May 11 and 12 (North/West) and May 18 and 19 (East/Central). For complete details, please visit http://www2.cambridgema.gov/CAC/Community/Cambridge_Open_Studios_Visitors.cfm?minor.

By Brian Goslow

Milton, MA – “Percy Fortini-Wright: The Spray Can and the Brush” opens on May 3 with a Friday evening reception from 6-8 p.m. at Milton Academy’s Nesto Gallery. Artscope managing editor Brian Goslow “cornered” Fortini-Wright, who teaches at the Art Institute Of Boston at Lesley University and Montserrat College of Art, to talk about the exhibition, how he fell in love with graffiti, the four-decade long hesitation by the art establishment to accept the genre, and who’s buying his work.

TELL ME A LITTLE BIT ABOUT THE WORK THAT’LL BE IN THE SHOW …
The show consists of approximately 30 paintings with multiple subject matters ranging from cityscapes to portraiture all the way to 3-dimensional graffiti pieces; some are a melting pot of all the above. Working primarily as a traditional oil painter and a traditional graffiti artist, a portion of the works are more representational but done with only spray paint while others are in only oil paint and many are a combination of the two.

These paintings explore the interaction between language — graffiti style — and form. I use my language as a way to thread different images together creating an abstracted conversation. I’m not interested at all of what the words I write mean, but the angles and rhythms they create and how they relate to the architecture of forms and images I make. Like a DJ scratching words creating a new sound, I take a similar attitude with my work where I scratch into my images with tags, marks as well as scratching images into my words. I literally deface the portrait…

HOW DID YOU END UP IN THE MILTON GALLERY?

A close friend and colleague, Ian Torney, is the art director there. We met at the AIB grad school program. We have maintained a working friendship since his days as art director of St. Paul’s Academy, coordinating exhibits and workshops merging the spray can and brush as part of a visiting artist series.

HAVE YOU HAD MANY SOLO EXHIBITIONS IN THE PAST — AND WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED WATCHING YOUR AUDIENCE’S REACTION TO YOUR WORK, FROM BOTH THOSE FAMILIAR TO THE STYLE AND THOSE WHO ARE NOT?

I have had several solo shows and the reaction has been positive and constructive. Many people are amazed at the level of realism you can get with a spray can. My more hybrid graffiti pieces laced with imagery people view as different, which is my intention. With these pieces they are to be viewed as the other, I like how they are a melting pot of images and really can’t be pinned down to a specific genre. This gets to the core of who I am as an artist

WHOSE WORK INITIALLY DREW YOU INTO BEING A GRAFFITI ARTIST?

I learned how to write graffiti at an early age by an older friend named DJ KON world-renowned record collector that I’ve known since I was in diapers. To me he had the illest style, a true letter technician, but he’s mostly known as a DJ.

WHEN DID YOU START?

I started probably around 9 years old writing in black books but didn’t do real graffiti till about 14.

DID YOU DO YOUR SHARE OF “STREET ART?” IF SO, WHAT DID YOU LOVE MOST ABOUT IT?

I did a lot of graffiti, I loved the technical aspects of graffiti learning and mastering different lettering styles. I don’t really consider street art graffiti or at least want to acknowledge the subtle differences. I loved every aspect of graffiti besides the cultural aspects and the who’s who and so on. I was more into the technical aspects of tagging, bubble letters on rooftops and trains to wild style lettering with intricate images and murals. I liked it all.

I take an academic approach to studying the angles of lettering the same way I do when painting a portrait. I’ve found an interesting relationship between the proportions and rhythms of language that correspond to patterns seen in nature, as also seen in the “flower of Life.” For me, that gives the art form more power; that makes it timeless. I hate even calling it graffiti; somehow I feel that limits its power keeping it in a time box. Writing on the walls was probably the first form of communication among the ancients.

I STILL FEEL A BUZZ GOING PAST TRAINS AND TRAINS OF FRESH ART; IS IT POSSIBLE TO REPLICATE THAT SENSATION IN A GALLERY SETTING?

I get a buzz off seeing someone’s name up a lot, but doing it with class, style and finesse. Even though the trains and galleries are different objects they are both ultimately both surfaces. Even though the early trains painted by subway artists or people who paint the freight trains now I see it just as a mobile canvass or surface. I try with my work to bring the wall to the gallery and the gallery to the wall.

DESPITE IT BEING ALMOST 40 YEARS SINCE NYC GRAFFITI STARTED GRABBING MAINSTREAM ATTENTION, MOST MUSEUMS STILL SEEM TO SHY AWAY FROM DEVOTING GALLERY SPACE TO THE GENRE — UNLESS, IN MOST INSTANCES, IT HAS ACCESS TO A BASQUIAT, AND IN THE PROCESS, ARE IGNORING ONE OF, IF NOT THE PREVALENT, ART FORMS OF THE PAST TWO, IF NOT THREE GENERATIONS? WHY DO YOU THINK THIS CONTINUES AND ARE YOU SEEING ANY SIGNS OF A BREAK IN THIS ATTITUDE?

I have. I feel graffiti has contributed in the last 40 years the most exciting work to the art world because it is bold and daring; I’ve risked my life at times to make my mark or sign my name. The untamed nature of the art form gives graffiti its edge and rise to its popularity, but in the same sense this untamed expression leads to its seclusion. For me personally, the edginess of graffiti validates my fine arts and my fine arts background validates graffiti work. The more people who walk in both worlds, the more you’ll see interesting projects merging the private and public sphere.

HOW ARE YOUR SALES AND WHO IS BUYING?

Sometimes the dough rolls in, sometimes there’s no dough to roll. On the serious side, teaching helps to supplement my income, while giving me freedom to create. There is something for everyone, it’s a wide demographic, yet, the majority of my higher sales range from 35 to 65 — many of whom grew up observing the birth of the graffiti culture.

BESIDES PREPARING FOR THE OPENING, WHAT PROJECTS ARE YOU CURRENTLY WORKING ON?

I divide my time between teaching at the Art Institute Of Boston, the Montserrat College of Art and various projects. Many of my projects include, but are not limited to, non-profit organizations — i.e. Barlett Yard, Harbor Arts, One Love productions and educational institutions. As well as maintaining my private commissions, live mural pieces and performances, I just recently was in a photo shoot featuring my work of this month’s Improper Bostonian centerfold and of course creating my art work for gallery exhibitions.

(“Percy Fortini-Wright: The Spray Can and the Brush” continues through May 31 at the Nesto Gallery at Milton Academy, 170 Centre Street, Milton, Mass. For more information, call (617) 898-2335. To see more of Percy’s work, visit http://www.p14ewright.com.)

Somerville, MA – The Boston area will see a series of Open Studios Weekends in the month of May. Artscope managing editor Brian Goslow cornered Rachel Mello, Coordinator, Somerville Open Studios (May 4-5); to discuss event preparations, what makes the open studio experience special and what they offer to the arts community.

HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN OVERSEEING YOUR OPEN STUDIOS WEEKEND?

I am only serving as coordinator for one year, starting in May after SOS 2012, and finishing my term this May. Before that I served on the Board of Directors for two years.

WHAT – OR WHOM – BROUGHT YOU ABOARD?

Just wanting to be a part of SOS. I came to some volunteer meetings in 2007, after wanting to help for several years. Then I just kept getting more involved.

WHAT DOES THE JOB ENTAIL?

The SOS Coordinator oversees the event, manages budgeting and planning, keeps the various departments working together, and tracks the timeline. Probably the most important part of the job is recruiting key team-lead volunteers. SOS is all volunteer run so we need a lot of very strong, committed members. The coordinator helps build and maintain the community and recruits from that, and works to help communication flow between them and make sure everyone is aware of each other’s needs. The coordinator is also the spokesperson for SOS.

HOW MUCH TIME GOES INTO IT OVER THE YEAR AND WHEN DO YOU REALLY BEGIN TO RAMP UP PREPARATIONS AS THE EVENT APPROACHES?

Ideally we would have each year’s coordinator in place by the end of the previous year, though that doesn’t always happen. I started in May of 2012 recruiting major team leads and working with the board to put in place some new initiatives for this year. My busiest time was probably the end of November into January. Since then mostly I have been staying out of the way of the team leads and letting them do their jobs, and handling unexpected things that pop up.

WHAT MAKES YOUR OPEN STUDIO WEEKEND UNIQUE?

Somerville Open Studios is a truly citywide event. We have over 400 artists distributed across a city that’s about three square miles in area. Because of the density of artists in Somerville we have an unparalleled diversity of work. Our artists are in old industrial factories, and in single-family homes. Resident artists with no place to show are able to participate in our community space. We’re fully volunteer, independent event run by participating artists and members of the community coming together. We loop free trolleys around the city and have pedicabs in town to help people get around and which add to the festival air. It’s a fully immersive event.

WHAT MAKES OPEN STUDIO WEEKEND AN IMPORTANT EVENT FOR YOUR FACILITY AND THE PARTICIPATING ARTISTS?

With over 400 artists there are probably over 800 reasons why SOS is important! Some artists use SOS as a way to get feedback on new work, some use it as a way to prioritize art-making in busy schedules, some focus on sales and have an important opportunity to sell work directly to the public. As a community the power of the shared experience and the shared goals, being part of a large art-centric city, brings us together. Sometimes being an artist can be isolating working alone in your studio, but when artists come together and volunteer to help make the event happen, lasting friendships are built and critical professional networking occurs.

IN THE PAST, WHAT HAVE ATTENDEES SAID WAS AMONGST THEIR FAVORITE PARTS OF THE EVENT?

Again we get a range of responses when we ask that. Some love the giant industrial buildings with so many artists together; others like the almost voyeuristic intimacy of going into a home studio. Most say they loved being able to talk with the artists and ask them questions about their art, about their artistic life, and to see the places where art is made. It’s a hugely social event, and many talk about bringing their whole families, running into friends, seeing colleagues from work in one studio, and an old school friend in another. Many buy work that they especially cherish having purchased it as part of this event.

WHAT DO YOU LIKE BEST ABOUT IT?

As a volunteer and as coordinator I love the strong friendships and wide network I’ve made working with so many artists and art enthusiasts. I love that people come and see art they might not otherwise see. I love how we connect with our neighbors, and unite our city.

FROM AN ARTIST’S STANDPOINT, WHAT IS THE VALUE OF THE EVENT? HOW MUCH IS ABOUT INTRODUCING THEIR WORK TO NEW AUDIENCES AND HOW MUCH IS ABOUT MAKING SALES?

As an artist I most love connecting with visitors. At a certain point in a professional art career, it becomes very hard to get honest feedback. But at Open Studios often people will just say what’s on their minds. I always learn a lot during Open Studios. I do also make a lot of sales and line up commissions — not always during SOS, though. I recently made a significant art sale that will pay an entire year’s studio rent, to a person who came to my studio for three years before making a purchase at all. I’ve had my work in galleries because someone saw my work during SOS and called me months later. I think anyone looking to show new artists is seriously missing out if they don’t go to open studios.

I’VE FOUND MYSELF OVERWHELMED WHEN I ATTEND OPEN STUDIO EVENTS. ANY SUGGESTIONS FOR FIRST-TIMERS?

Plan in advance to get the best out of it, and don’t try to do too much. We have a very extensive website and printed map book, as well as a comprehensive group show at the Somerville Museum where you can see the work in person and note which artists you want to see. If you take an evening in advance to look through the listings, you can make design your own walking tour. The time outside between studio sites helps give you a chance to clear your head and refresh a little and process what you saw.
Don’t try to get everywhere: *enjoy* that you’re surrounded by more art than you can possibly see, and let that knowledge bring you back to new places next year.

ANY SPECIAL PERFORMANCES OR ACTIVITIES SCHEDULED FOR THIS YEAR’S EVENT?

Yes! On Wednesday, May 1 there’s “Beyond the Pattern: An Independent Designers’ Fashion Show.” It’s a full runway fashion show of work of Somerville based fashion, clothing, and accessory designers, as well as work from the Somerville High School students “Young Designers’ Challenge.” Like every SOS event, it’s completely free, too. That will be at the Arts at the Armory building, 191 Highland Ave at 7 p.m. (doors open at 6 p.m.).

On Thursday, May 2 Somerville Community Access Television present ”Somerville Open Cinema Film and Video Festival” of independently produced shorts. SCATV, Union Square Somerville, 8pm

We have three group shows: the comprehensive Artists’ Choice exhibit at the Somerville Museum, the show of the art of over 40 volunteers on view at Bloc 11 Cafe in Union Square, and the shop window display in the ”Inside Out Gallery” in the CVS window in Davis.

All SOS events are free. Info on all of these is on our website under the ”Visit” tab.

WHAT WILL YOU BE DOING ON THE MORNING PRIOR TO THE DOORS OPENING?

As coordinator, I’m taking this year off from exhibiting. Usually the morning of, I’m making labels and finishing matting. This year I’ll start at the Somerville Museum and catch a pedicab over to the Armory, then continue on from there.

AND WHEN THEY CLOSE?

Sleeping. Definitely sleeping.

For complete details on Somerville Open Studios, which takes place Saturday and Sunday, May 4 and 5, please visit http://www.somervilleopenstudios.org).

(This is the first of a three-part “Cornered” series with Boston area open studios organizers; look for Julie Barry, Director of Community Arts for the Cambridge Arts Council, who oversees Cambridge Open Studios, during the week of May 6 in advance of COS events on May 11-12 & May 18-19); and during the week of May 13, June Krinsky-Rudder of East Boston Artists Group Open Studios, which takes place on May 18-19.)

By James Foritano

Cambridge, MA – My neighbor in Cambridge was a very quiet guy who turned his considerable intellect towards the psychology of children and childhood.

Who, except his intimates, knew that Ed Mason possessed a kinetic imagination — an imagination that takes the viewer by the hand, inviting him or her down the same rabbit hole that Alice discovered in Lewis Carroll’s curried prose?

Ordinary things photographed and then doctored with photo-shop revealed to Ed, and through his artist’s eye to us, engaging qualities that a quick glance would never credit.

Take an ordinary table and chairs patio set in that cream colored plastic which appeared everywhere about last mid-century to announce a new middle-class leisure style. Then, tip up the chairs around the table as though they’re nesting decorously for the night or a weekend away.

This set-up was apparently license enough for Ed to roam the spaces of said patio with his camera’s eye and document what to others was a non-event.

In his workshop, Ed would decide on a color more appropriate to the “mise-en-scene” he imagined rather than this static and banal reality and “Maddy’s Table” would become green and yellow and even a touch of hot orange. It would become the new green of early spring as well as the darker hues of summer in a fluid seethe that seems to mime the now volcanic, now quiescent
pan-pipe of growth.

This provocative image urges the viewer to find and ask “Maddy” if she did indeed see what Ed saw when she tipped her chairs down to entertain and be entertained by the magic of a semi-suburban evening – by a season which impresses as it evanesces into yet another phase of our quick-silver New England.

If patio furniture, however poetically presented, is not your fare, perhaps you’ll resonate to “Chain Bridge.” Here, Ed’s camera moves so close up to the brawny rivets that bind this bridge together that the viewer seems to feel those rivets popping home.

But since nothing, not even iron and steel, are forever, the color of this structure is a feast of orange rust. There’s a drama here that speaks not only to the material bridges we all cross but also to those spiritual ones that sway precariously beneath our everyday footing.

Never the black and white moralist, Ed Mason in “Chain Bridge” appreciates, to this viewer, both the solid plans that ‘mice and men’ lay down as well as the feisty beauty of those forces which thwart our plans, inviting us to an ever-vigorous regime of maintenance and re-design.

A strenuous eye, both lyric and ironic, records in this exhibition a spectrum of nature as varied as the humble, slow-dancing “Caterpillar” to “South Beach Memories,” drawn with a fingertip of pastel light that mimes and mines that coast’s precious frivolities.

(Ed Mason’s work roosts through April 29th on the white, winding walls of La Capelli Salon at 1776 Mass. Ave, Cambridge. Hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Call (617) 491-1116.)

I can’t believe April is already here, especially since that means my time interning for Artscope Magazine has ended. Each week I’ve covered two events or galleries for the Zine online, condensing a performance or an exhibition down to 500 words. I’ve learned there isn’t really a formula for this kind of writing, but a list of aspects to cover, and each story has its own hierarchy of which parts are most important.

Boston, MA- Since I came to Boston after three and a half years spent in the middle of Manhattan, it took a while to shake off the incredibly high expectations that New York tends to give you about the amount of money in the arts. Compared to New York, the artwork I found in Boston was more traditional; technical perfection seemed the most important aspect, so most works were representational paintings and a lot were landscapes, each more serene and beautiful than the last.

First I visited Newbury Street and later I went to the South End, never forgetting the galleries sprinkled outside the city. I found the most contemporary works in the South End and on Newbury Street — exhibitions filled with innovative, abstract works with each gallery establishing an individual flavor among the ones that surrounded it.

Covering performances gave me some diversity of subject, and I practiced shifting gears between describing things that moved and things that stand still in a gallery or hang on its wall. I saw the Boston Ballet and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, which were both phenomenal, but my favorite assignment was interviewing the Boston Cello Quartet — four talented musicians with an incredible passion for their instruments. It felt like an impossible task, trying to put that kind of dedication into words, so I opted for a Q&A-style post so the musicians could speak for themselves.

More than anything though, writing for artscope gave me the opportunity to explore another city’s art world, one that’s proud of its New England landscape and formal training. I was able to see my words in print for the first time in last month’s Seventh Anniversary Issue — especially exciting after journalism school had prepped me for the death of print media. Come summertime I’ll be moving to California for a writing position at Huffington Post’s Social Impact section, where I’m hoping to write about all the wonderful things people do as if they were works of art.

(Artscope greatly appreciates Lindsey’s contributions to our zine blog and magazine over the past three months; if you or anyone you know would like to intern at artscope magazine, please contact us at info@artscopemagazine.com. You can continue to follow Lindsey writing at http://www.thingsworthdescribing.com)

By Lindsey Davis
 

Jamaica Plain, MA – Shari Rubeck uses her work to reveal interpretations of the human psyche — she visualizes feelings and emotions by embodying them in a single figure against a simple background. Her new show at The Hallway Gallery, in Jamaica Plain, Mass., “Being Human,” is comprised of 14 works that focus on her fascination with animals, combining elements of rabbits and rams with the human figure as a way of assigning attributes and drawing comparisons.

One of the works on view is titled “Long Hare,” painted in 2011. It shows a woman’s figure in the middle of an empty textured background painted a green/brown color. She’s laying sideways without any real concern for gravity, in a simple black dress and with an oversized rabbit’s head instead of a human one, the long bunny ears transformed into white thread that squiggles down to the front of the canvas.

Shari also uses elements of robots in her work to create a visual connection between people and technology. Her work “Robot Swimmer” features a girl holding down her pink dress as she casually leans back and lifts a leg to reveal the laced up flippers she’s wearing as shoes. On her head sits a space helmet that looks more like a robot’s head. It hides her face, stripping her of individuality so that we can all see ourselves inside the helmet.

Rubeck uses both animals and robots in the simple scene of “Sharp Intrusion.” A similar girl in a robot helmet wears a long blue dress and leans unnaturally far to the right; A cluster of birds fly on the left, aimed at her head and pushing her over as she tips gracefully without falling.

In addition to her solo show at The Hallway Gallery, Shari is also currently exhibiting at Gallery Z in Providence, as a part of “The Square Show,” on view until April 27. Thirty artists were given three different sizes of square canvas, to be painted and sold evenly at low, pre-determined price points. Shari painted three different robot portraits titled “We Are Human” on her square canvases — simple shiny toys shown from the neck up before a patterned background.

“The figures in my work represent all of us — humans and humanness,” she said, “Some pieces are more representative of my own self and direct experiences, while others are observations from distant perspectives.”

(The opening reception for Shari Rubeck’s “Being Human” exhibition is this Saturday, April 6 from 6-9 p.m.; the show continues through April 28 at The Hallway Gallery, 66a South Street, Jamaica Plain, Mass. For more information, call (617) 818-5996. “The Square Show” continues through April 27 at Gallery Z, 259 Atwells Ave, Providence, RI; call (401) 454-8844.)

By Meredith Cutler

Boston, MA- Boston-area artist Karen Meninno opens her third solo show at the Kingston Gallery this week — but, in many aspects, the show represents a “first” for this New Delhi born, London-bred sculptor. In a marked departure from the physically ornate, anthropomorphic sculptures we’ve seen previously from Meninno, “Sculpture Remix” cleanly transports a dolled-up, cast-plaster model influenced by cities, both real and imagined, into the 2-D realm as coolly kaleidoscopic digital C-prints and glossy scrolls of custom-printed wallpaper.

I caught up with Meninno via email just after the show’s installation. Here’s what she has to say about her shift between worlds.

WHAT LED YOU TO PURSUE A TWO-DIMENSIONAL INTERPRETATION OF YOUR SCULPTURE?

The real impetus behind presenting my sculptures as 2-D manipulated images was to engage viewers in 3-D art. I want to seduce viewers into falling in love with sculpture before they even realize it. I feel that unique sculpture is not given its dues in galleries and museums, as it is [still] seen as a poor cousin to painting or photography. I want people to engage with sculpture, to be surprised and not bored by it. Historically, sculptors photographed their work, as they would have had to melt it down to re-use materials. That (document) is then all that is left. My plaster city sculptures are temporary, but their essence will be preserved through the images in my show.

IN TERMS OF PLACE, YOU MENTION FRITZ LANG’S (1927) FILM ”METROPOLIS” AND IMPRESSIONS OF YOUR VACATION TO MODERN ROME AS JUMPING OFF POINTS FOR THE WORK. DO YOU IMAGINE THE DENIZENS OF YOUR CITY? DESCRIBE THEM…

KM: Yes, I have imagined my citizens many times! Not exactly human… more like abstracted human forms, they are gloriously attired in sumptuous fabrics and the weirdest headwear that you can imagine. They don’t speak a particular language, although their clothing and skin comes from a variety of cultures. Their limbs may be non-existent or extraneous, just enough to shuffle around in this gaudy environment. Perhaps, what I am feeling is that we will evolve as a species to where we don’t actually do anything except float around in an exquisitely designed baroque set, telepathically communicating with cyborg parts! Their environment, represented by my fictional city, reflects their own form.

TELL ME ABOUT THE CAST-PLASTER CITY YOU CONSTRUCTED AS YOUR MODEL AND MUSE…

The forms were made by casting plaster into plastic trays for Christmas ornaments, food storage boxes, etc. I tried to collect molds that hinted at architecture, either real or imagined. After the pieces cured, I carved into them with vintage dental tools, then painted and embellished them as I would with some of my jewelry designs. Then, I would stack pieces on top of each other until a building would emerge. I am a proponent of stacking, and am inspired by the sculptures of [Constantin] Brancusi. This part of the process took a very long time. I would ask myself “How much of this city should I construct?” The answer came in the end when I started to think of not presenting the actual sculptures, but images of them instead.

SPEAKING OF CITIES, ARE YOU A “CITY MOUSE,” “COUNTRY MOUSE,” OR SOMETHING ELSE ENTIRELY?

KM: I am a city girl, born (New Delhi) and raised (London), but now live out in the suburbs of Boston. I love my countrified life, but yearn for the city lights. Perhaps, living in relative artistic isolation can help me appreciate the City, extol it, point out its obscene consumption and so on. The City is our greatest achievement as a species…we keep re-creating it and it drives our evolution to higher and greater invention. Check out all those crazy skyscrapers in Dubai! That’s human ingenuity and sculpture at work… it will reach to the stars and beyond.

(Karen Meninno: “Sculpture Remix” is on view April 3 through 28 at the Kingston Gallery at 450 Harrison Ave. #43, in Boston’s SoWa District. Her opening reception is this Friday, April 5 from 5-7:30 p.m. For more info call: (617) 423-4113.)

By Elizabeth Michelman

Norton, MA- This wide-ranging drawing exhibition at Wheaton College, located 30 miles south of Boston, was juried by Judith Tannenbaum, the Richard Brown Baker Curator of Contemporary Art at the RISD Museum of Art. Sensitively mounted by Gallery Director Michele L’Heureux, the 54 diverse works represent both regional and national trends in what can currently be called “drawing.” Included are 30 New England artists (22 from Massachusetts), another nine from New York and Illinois, and the rest from a smattering of Midwestern and Western states as well as France. With the future of Boston’s own biennial Drawing Show now uncertain, Wheaton’s exhibition, if repeated, may fill an important regional gap.

Speaking to a crowd of students and visitors in her gallery talk, Tannenbaum emphasized a focus on qualities rather than “quality.” Noting that every selection will reflect some cultural bias, she aims for eclecticisms, presenting a wide range of formal experimentation. Tannenbaum chose works capable of satisfying at least one set of criteria in standard dictionary definitions. She found a number of common approaches: in materials (cut paper and collage, thread, yarn and stitching, glitter and old photographs); organization (grid compositions, narrative sequencing, large scale installation on walls, transparency and layering, and sculptural form emphasizing open structure); and method (tendencies toward repetitive mark-making, pattern and decoration, arabesques and curves, and the incorporation of text). In addition, the exhibition reveals frequent strategies of unexpected juxtaposition of objects and disciplines, conceptual and participatory strategies, and video documentation of studio processes.

Tannenbaum’s trained eye delights in a direct approach to risk. She favors the internally compelling over skilled but empty statements. She tolerates the awkward gesture, more concerned about what is possible than what is good or art or salable. Tannenbaum also values concepts capable of generating a host of alternative visions. A casual visitor might walk away from the seething stew of images, materials and forms, wondering, “What’s the point?” But the works included here, encountered in a strategic layout that guides, obstructs and surprises, lead us to appreciate that there are many points of view.

Many works and pairings are compelling, amusing, or awe inspiring. Adrienne Der Marderosian’s tiny tour-de-force “Tattoo Trails, No. 1,” hardly bigger than a spread palm, incorporates collaged, paper, cut plastic, maps and altered photographs, employing stitchery as a means of repair and integration of the broken image. Nearby, David Curcio’s post-lapsarian sampler ruminates on the text “What Will Survive of Us is Nothing,” drawing us into its tight focus through intricate mark-making with pen-and-ink, embroidery and woodcut on a book-sized sheet of mulberry paper.
Occupying the other end of the scale, Michael Ryan’s monochromatic “Bedford Hills School GR-8-F” blows up the nostalgic imagery of an old class picture across a 10-foot sheet of wrinkly paper (mixed media, including drawing, painting and erasure, on paper).

Carrie Scanga’s “Mountain Invention” offers drawing-as-sculpture. She begins on the flat with a diagram in graphite and cerulean gouache, upon which float translucent bubbles made of folded drypoint prints. Margaret Rack’s four openwork abstractions of annealed wire, graphite, paper and cotton come alive in “Quartet Seeking Balance,” reaching across the wall to each other as well as outward to the viewer.

Resa Blatman’s curvaceous multileveled PVC relief, appropriately named “Tangled,” confronts the gallery’s main entrance with computer-drawn and lasered cut-outs, obsessively illuminated and elaborated in oils, beads and glitter like a medieval manuscript. Reminiscent of Frank Stella’s layered and polychromed wall-reliefs, Blatman’s abstract swirls intertwine flora with birds, bats, bambis and bunnies, as well as the occasional lurking arachnid. Right outside the gallery doors and insinuating itself as part of the exhibition is artist-in-residence Debra Weisberg’s giant floor-to-ceiling work “Swoop.” The black-and-white free-form installation of paper and tape, constructed by Wheaton art students emulating her process, zigzags over walls and corners in a feathery, flying extravaganza.

The politics of two apparently simple works give pause. Aparna Agrawal’s stop-motion video “Mapmaking” slithers an X-acto blade around buff-and ochre paths on a large piece of paper. A pink-sleeved, dark-skinned hand carving out abstract tracery hints at cultural and gender identity (Agrawal’s two-minute 15-second piece can also be seen on Vimeo.).

Identity is also at issue in Alphonso Dunn’s meticulous pencil portrait of a pensive, crew-cutted African-featured man flanked by lollipop-trees and a grimacing cat in the lower half of an unframed, lime-green sheet of paper. In the upper half a childish drawing of a man runs toward the right, with wing-like arms, flapping tie and long legs merged with trunk. The feet have slashes for toes. At mid-page, the scrawled inscription, “Last night I died of drapetomania R.i.P,” both joins the two images and provides the title.

Will all viewers easily snap to recognize an image of Barack Obama or decipher the mystifying word-choice? Or is the artist narrowing his address to only a limited audience? “Drapetomania” is the name of a raw Spanish punk Los Angeles band. It also refers to a racist pseudo-scientific conception of the slave mentality, defining the wish to run away as a form of mental illness curable by cutting off the runner’s toes. Dunn offers little to clarify his message, only mentioning “deep processes” of perceptions and a “gerrymandering of worlds in and outside the mind. Though stimulated to decipher the painter’s dream-process, we are barred from figuring out how it relates to his experience. We may only surmise that the curator seeks to demonstrate that freedom in drawing is much like dreaming. It allows connections to be made and explored — if not for immediate understanding and interpretation, then to lead the maker along an unknown path, and, eventually, to bring his audience along with him.

(“The Wheaton Biennial: Drawing Out of Bounds” continues through April 13 at the Beard and Weil Galleries, Watson Fine Arts, Wheaton College, 26 East Main Street, Norton, Mass. For more information, call (508) 286-8200.)

By Lindsey Davis

East Cambridge, MA – Alexandra Rozenman’s show “Transplanted” works to do just that — move you from this world into another, one with more hope, less worry, and more wonder. Scenes of bliss simply painted, the 11 large works hang in the Multicultural Arts Center’s Upper Gallery like 11 rectangular portals, most inspired by famous hands from art history.

In “Moving in with Breugel,” Alexandra’s world of painting clashes at a diagonal with the worlds created by the Flemish Renaissance painter Pieter Bruegel the Elder. She casts green grass against white snow that’s complete with the hunters and their dogs from Bruegel’s 1565 painting, “The Return of the Hunters.”

“Moving with Turner to Brooklyn” shows a girl facing a city with paint dripping all around her — a fantasized version of J.M.W. Turner’s characteristic melting, blended use of color. It’s a reinterpretation of Turner’s “Rain Steam and Speed: The Great Western Railway,” completed in 1844 at the height of the industrial revolution. But in Alexandra’s work, the train is speeding away from a city that’s become over industrialized, and it’s not a steam engine bustling towards a new world of invention, but a subway taking commuters to Manhattan.

Alexandra came to America as a political refugee from Moscow at the end of the 80s, and after living in New York and Boston, she moved to the Midwest where she taught at various colleges including Minneapolis College of Art and Design. She returned to the East Coast only three years and now lives and works in New England. She says she likes to work in isolation, listening to loud music after drinking strong black tea. When she’s not painting, she’s teaching others, spending almost five hours every day at a private art school she started called Art School 99.

Her past as a refugee is combined with a childlike sense of playfulness in each painting, all searching for some kind of identity, but enjoying the process of looking. “I tell my viewer a story, allow them to enter into the world of magic and hope that they will get curious and will spend some time thinking and looking around,” she said, “My work expresses longing for understanding and being understood, for non-belonging and finding a place to be.”

(Transplanted is on view until April 8 in the Upper Gallery at the Multicultural Arts Center, 41 Second Street, East Cambridge, Mass. For more information call 617-577-1400.)