ArtSake

If you’re in Boston this weekend, check out the Fort Point Arts Community 8th Annual Art Walk. It’s a great opportunity to see the work of 75 artists who defiantly create work in this vibrant, eclectic, artist community. 

And if you have the economic luxury to dream of ways to spend your federal rebate check, how about considering supporting some talented local artists by purchasing a work of art?

Image: Jason Pechinski, A Street, 24″ x 30″, oil on canvas

On Tuesday, April 29 at 4:30 PM, Barbara O’Brien, Director of the Trustman Art Gallery at Simmons College, will moderate a roundtable discussion with three MCC 2007 Photography Fellows: Anne Rearick, Rania Matar and Claire Beckett.

The discussion marks the opening of Uncommon Denominator, a new photography exhibition running through May 30 at the Trustman. The exhibition features photography by 10 2007 Fellows and Finalists.

“I’m so excited about this show,” says O’Brien, “and its depth, quality and range of ideas.” She’s interested in the way the artists’ work reflects the documentary tradition, from both a political and a personal perspective, and the intersection of the two.

Since starting at Simmons in 2006, O’Brien, who oversees the arts administration program in addition to directing the gallery, has specialized in organizing group shows “that create dialogue.” She often selects artists that don’t know each other, or several artists from Boston along with one from outside the region. O’Brien, who previously served as editor-in-chief of Art New England for four years, brings an uncommon perspective to her assessment of the Massachusetts contemporary art scene, having served as a critic, curator and photographer in her own right.

As the curator of a college gallery, O’Brien feels a responsibility to create opportunities for artists that commercial galleries do not. She sees the density of colleges and universities in the region as the biggest asset to its professional art scene.

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If the Massachusetts art scene were a middle school, and we were crackpot junior news reporters, our overzealous (but earnest!) headlines might look something like this:

ART MUSEUM FOSTERS TALENTED PHOTOGRAPHER
Rania Matar is named a finalist for the ICA’s prestigious Foster Prize.

“STATE OF THE ART” A SPATE OF GREAT ART
Dawn Lundy Martin joins chuck d, Sonia Sanchez, Nikki Giovanni, Carl Phillips, and more for a poetry reading and panel discussion at Boston University.

“SOUTH OF TEN” TO NORTH OF ADAMS
Liza Johnson’s short film “South of Ten” screens at North Adam’s MASS MoCA.

SPACE WALK POET WALKING ON AIR
Tom Sleigh is the 2008 winner of the Kingsley Tufts Award for his book of poems, Space Walk.

For more good news (but fewer punny headlines), check out the April Fellows Notes.

Image is a detail from Julie Levesque’s “What Remains,” Wood & mixed media, 26″ x 34″ x 12″ (2002).

We are pleased to announce three upcoming exhibitions of work by MCC Artist Fellows and Finalists.

Painted Visions runs through April 17 at ArtSpace Maynard and features the work of eight painters recognized by the MCC’s 2006 Artist Fellowship program.

Uncommon Denominator, an exhibition of 2007 photography Fellows and Finalists, runs April 28 - May 30 at Simmons College’s Trustman Gallery in Boston. A panel discussion with artists Barry Goldstein, Rania Matar and Anne Rearick is Tuesday, April 29, 4:30-6 pm, the opening reception follows.

En Mass features sculpture Fellows at Boston Sculptors Gallery (May 21 - June 22; opening reception, June 6).

Barry Goldstein (Photography Fellow ‘07) has spent time as an imbedded photographer in Iraq and is creating a portrait and oral history project. He used a portion of his fellowship award to purchase his own body armor. Barry has graciously allowed me to reprint a portion of a letter he wrote regarding his current project.

Dear Friends and Colleagues-

As some of you know, I recently spent a month in Iraq finishing up a portrait and oral history project following the 2/69 armored and infantry battalion. When I arrived at Forward Operating Base Rustamiyah on the eastern edge of Baghdad in mid-June, the battalion had been deployed for three months. This was the second deployment for over half of these soldiers and the third deployment for many.

The soldiers of the 2/69 are responsible for a large urban area. They run both mounted and dismounted patrols, advise Iraqi army and police units, and work closely with the District Action Councils - local organizations overseeing neighborhood security and welfare. They have to be warriors, politicians, civil engineers, social workers, economists, and whatever else is called for in their area of operations. The weather is extreme- between 110-120 deg F, and these men and woman carry over 70 lbs. of gear and weaponry. The issue as to what we’re doing in Iraq, or whether we’re being at all successful, is moot. They go where they’re sent, do what they’re told, and try and make the best possible job of it.

Jane D. Marsching (Photography Finalist ‘03) is a digital media artist deeply engaged in creating work as it relates to climate change. She is an artist-in-residence at the Blue Hill Observatory in Milton this winter and also has an ongoing project called Arctic Listening Post 2005-09.

If you are interested in learning more about her work you should brave the cold and check out any of the following events: 

Ecocentric: Video Lounge
Sonoma County Museum, Santa Rosa, CA
Thru April 20, 2008

Nature Version 2.0: Ecological Modernities and Digital Environmentalism
exhibition, Colgate University, Clifford Art Gallery
Thru February 16

Environmental Art and New Media Technologies: Imagining Sustainable Futures, a two-day symposium, Colgate University, February 8-9

Platform2: a series of events in Boston, MA, that are designed to facilitate dialogue about art & social engagement (with Andi Sutton and iKatun)
next event: Failure, February 15, 6:30 pm, Democracy Center, Cambridge, MA

Rania Matar (Photo Fellow ‘07) creates stunning images, particularly of women and children currently living in the Middle East. You can see for yourself her exhibition Lebanon at the Crossroads at Gallery Kayafas in Boston’s South End. (Image: Rania Matar, “Girlfriends, Beruit” 2007, archival pigment print, 24″ x 36″)