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Fresh Paint, New Media, The Historic and the Contemporary Over the past few months, we visited several recently opened gallery spaces in Massachusetts, Maine, and New Hampshire. The guiding passions of the gallery directors are as diverse as contemporary art itself. Represented are new media, painting by emerging and established artists from the avant-garde to postmodern representational, secondary-market work by established artists, sculpture, and fine art glass. We have included a sampling, which is by no means an exhaustive roundup. We will continue the quest in future issues, visiting each New England state.
MASSACHUSETTS Executive Director Colin Rhys is excited about his carefully chosen and renovated new space. Positioned on the corner of Harrison Avenue and East Berkeley Street, he sees his spacious and light-filled RHYS Gallery as a beacon and ersatz gateway to the rest of the SoWa (South of Washington) art scene. "I'm a big believer in the white box," he says, gesturing at his expansive, just-completed interior, which seems more about open areas and easy passage than about white walls. Shelves, walls, drawers, and windows are placed asymmetrically, and Rhys is proud that there's only one right angle in the whole space. Yet because of the scale and the proportion of the elements, the feeling is one of openness and flexibility. The space has at least three major distinct exhibition areas, and a very visible window facing the exiting highway traffic. Rhys and Director Lydia Ruby plan to rotate new work for the window display frequently. Rhys combined his studio art studies at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, with entrepreneurial studies at Tufts University, and he seems to have that rare combination of talents that make for a successful art dealer: business acumen combined with creative sensitivity. Across the river, Pierre Menard Gallery has a unique guiding vision. Director Nathan Censullo doesn't see the unusual location in Cambridge as any sort of logistical challenge. "Think of the galleries spread all over the city in New York, and then think of the distance from here [Harvard Square] to Newbury Street. We're a T-ride away." Positioning is paramount to galleries, which, after all, are stores for art. But Censullo and owner John Wronoski clearly see Pierre Menard Gallery not only as an extension of the sphere of Boston art, but as a locus itself, a nurturing haven for impending art shows and events. This gallery, renovated from industrial and business space in a side street off Harvard Yard, makes its uniqueness known immediately to certain literary visitors who get the joke inherent in the name. Pierre Menard isn't a real person, but a character from a Jorge Luis Borges story, a character who re-wrote Don Quixote without knowing it had already been written. This literary side is a reflection of Wronoski, who is also an antiquarian bookseller, and the gallery combines a personal passion for art with materials he has access to through his book business. Censullo showed me several works of art by well-known writers that the gallery sells, including quite competent nudes by e. e. cummings. Wronoski has worked extensively with the archives of both writers and artists, including writers who paint and artists who write. It's a bit of a niche market, but not an unpopulated one. "I'm less interested in showing new artists," Wronoski admits. "I appreciate artists who have shown a deep commitment over many years to their body of work. I want to support artists who are in mid or late career, but who perhaps haven't had the success or attention they deserved." Pierre Menard Gallery also has a flexible space, with two skylit rooms above ground and two basement rooms, all painted white and suitable for various sorts of installations, though paintings predominate. "I'm interested in art that makes me want to think, that shows a kind of questioning, an uncertainty. I have a need to know 'why?'" says Wronoski. Artists who fit the bill and are on the schedule for 2007 include Jim Peters, Josef Váchal, and Carolee Schneeman. Peters has a narrow focus on the nude figure and sexuality in squalid, grubby interiors. He explores this theme not only through abstract expressionist gesture, but through Rauschenbergesque combines and figural sculptures that augment and expand on his bulky, physical paintings. Josef Váchal is a Czech artist who Wronoski describes succinctly as a "mystic, demonic bookmaking visionary, in the manner of William Blake." Váchal's dense and ornate artists' books would seem to be a perfect match for the goals of Pierre Menard Gallery (where each show is accompanied by a printed catalogue), and Wronoski is clearly excited about presenting his unusual work. Schneeman is a celebrated pioneer of feminist
performance art, whose frank approach to sexuality
has led to controversy and a difficulty in presenting
her work in some contexts. Wronoski isn't quite sure
what form their collaboration will take, but hopes to
showcase her work by next fall.
MASSACHUSETTS Though the definition of new media is in constant flux, for Axiom the term refers to work made by processes utilizing video, digital imaging, various computer-generated effects, installation, performance, and innovative combinations of nontraditional art-making materials. Axiom Gallery promotes artists whose work may be time-based, or otherwise unsaleable. As a nonprofit, the gallery takes no commission, collaborating with other service-minded and media-oriented organizations. As Axiom's driving force, Kayser's determination has attracted a volunteer core, the LEF Foundation, plus donors and institutions that contribute equipment resources. With Boston at the vanguard of media arts, Axiom's mid-January inaugural exhibition, iArt, attracted hundreds of technology-friendly visitors. The exhibition engaged, entertained, and succeeded in expanding the concept of art. In April, Axiom participates in Boston's Cyberarts Festival with an exhibition of selected artists from ASPECTmagazine. Founded by Michael Mittelman, another Mass Art graduate, ASPECT's biannual, DVD-only format makes original video and sound works available to the viewer. Optional audio remarks inform and make the works more accessible. The ASPECT exhibition includes Jim Campbell, Tony Cokes, Jill Magid, and Christopher Miner, whose work utilizes single-channel video with text, as well as video portrait imaging and surveillance technology, providing the ASPECT-published artists welcomed three-dimensional exposure. With roughly six shows per year, Axiom
plans to be a resource for artists who push the
limits of new media and technology. *
MAINE Kany recently returned to his childhood home of Maine, continuing a successful curatorial career in New York and Seattle. With expertise in the field of contemporary studio glass, Kany's new gallery fills the void of recently closed Stein Gallery, which was one of the region's leading glass galleries. Expanding in scope beyond solely glass, the new gallery exhibits a level of scholarship and curatorial acumen that separates it from the hoards of craft galleries in Portland's Old Port. Kany is a firm believer in the importance of contemporary craft and passionately argues against the separation and hierarchies prevalent in comparative discussions of craft and art. "I don't see craft and art as a split. I don't see them in opposition or as a duality," said Kany, "but I also don't see them as a continuum." In this spirit, Kany will exhibit a mix of painting, sculpture, and glass. Pointing to a landscape by Emily Leonard, Kany remarked, "There are object qualities to the paintings that I show. This work is more actively engaged in a discussion of the painting as an object than the history of landscape." While the Kany Gallery will focus on finished objects, Drawing Room, which debuted in December, will turn its attention to process. Drawing Room's owner and founder Alex Rheault is a working artist who holds degrees from the Parsons School of Design and Vermont College. While meeting over coffee in downtown Portland, Rheault shared her inspiration for opening a public space. "As artists we choose solitary practices for the most part." The Drawing Room's tag line "where community and drawing collide" suggests her intention to break this mold and invite public interaction into the artistic process. Drawing Room will blend exhibition and studio space, providing a home for discussion, instruction, events, and experimentation. "There is something that I have learned from collaborating with others. I want to foster and share that," explains Rheault.
Whitney Art Works is a large space with a Chelsea feel, tucked in between Portland's Old Port and Arts districts. Known for featuring emerging artists and avant-garde works, the gallery is supported by an art handling and art storage business that names numerous museums and high-profile artists as customers. In December, Whitney expanded into a second exhibition space that will build on these connections. With a focus on secondary market and multiples, the new Whitney Art Works debut exhibition featured Alex Katz, Robert Motherwell, Frank Stella, and Elizabeth Murray. Alongside these established names, the work of local and emerging artists was prominently displayed. When I sat down with owner-curator Deb Whitney in January, she was enthusiastic about the opportunity to exhibit local artists within a new and expansive spectrum. According to Whitney, the new gallery "is forming a bridge between the local and national. The higher profile of Congress Street is drawing people in and introducing them to the York Street gallery and artists." The new space also offers an opportunity to see work by major artists who are rarely represented in Maine galleries. During the first month of operation, peeking out the front window was a Jeff Koons Puppy. "The secondary market work and editions of work on paper are relatively inexpensive, despite the fact that they are being made by international artists," says Whitney. The April exhibition The Other Biennial at the Whitney will feature gallery artists who will appear in the 2007 Portland Museum of Art Biennial. The new Whitney Art Works on Congress Street cements the downtown presence of art galleries, with the
ICA at MECA, June Fitzpatrick Gallery, SPACE, and the Artist Studio in close proximity. A few blocks away,
Aucocisco Gallery recently expanded into a larger and newly renovated home. Portland continues to see galleries
open and close, but the quality of work and the connections that these new spaces have to a larger market
bode well for the continued existence of a strong downtown art scene. *
NEW HAMPSHIRE
New in 2006, the Banks Gallery features "high-quality contemporary representative and postmodern art," according to owner Jamie Banks. "I have tried to focus on work that excites me in subject, technique, and concept. I try to put art into context with the history of painting in New Hampshire and New England. This is achieved by juxtaposing historical paintings with contemporary works," he said. The intimate space is closely hung with small nineteenth- and twentieth-century representational paintings by artists such as Frank Weston Benson, Childe Hassam, and Albert Bierstadt, as well as living New Hampshire artists such as Sally Ladd Cole, Sean Beavers, Carl Austin Hyatt, and Tom Glover. Most of the exhibitions are theme-based and are accompanied by hardbound publications. Island Light focused on images of the Isles of Shoals; Visions in Granite featured landscapes of the White Mountains. Banks says, "Many of the arts and artists that we publish are works that only a limited number of people would ever be exposed to. By putting the work into print we are able to extend the gallery well beyond the walls and the time frame of the exhibition." In January 2007, a second Banks Gallery opened in New London, New Hampshire.
The Burlingame Gallery in Exeter opened in October 2006. It is one of the first commercial fine arts galleries in the small
town, which has been traditionally anchored by cultural events at Phillips Exeter Academy. The gallery owners, Emily Leach
and Nancy Phillips, are breaking new ground. "We feel like we are a frontier gallery, testing to see if the growing community
can support a fine arts gallery," says Susan Stafford, gallery manager. The space itself is fantastic. Located downtown on the
third floor of an old brick Odd Fellows Hall, the large main room has a high ceiling, wall of tall windows, and polished
wood floors that recall the
best of New York City loft
spaces. The light glows off
the cream walls and illuminates
architectural details.
The space holds a lot of
large work. In the exhibition
Still Life, In Action (January
10-February 18), it held
many paintings by New
Hampshire's best artists
such as Arthur DiMambro
and Grant Drumheller. The
gallery is elevating the quality
of life which Exeter has
to offer and giving New
Hampshire's best artists an
inspirational venue. Daniel Kany Gallery |
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