Kirsten Reynolds, What You See Is What You Get, (detail), 2008.

The 2008 DeCordova Annual Exhibition features a variety of media including painting, installation, performance, sculpture, drawing, and photography. The selected artists are: Mitchel K. Ahern, Matt Brackett, Leah Gauthier, The Institute for Infinitely Small Things, Niho Kozuru, Eva Lee, Yana Payusova, David Prifti, Kirsten Reynolds, Mark Schoening, Vanessa Tropeano, and Marguerite White. The Annual highlights the work of a limited number of artists and emphasizes the quality and variety of works rather than any overarching theme. Organized by Director of Curatorial Affairs Rachel Rosenfield Lafo, Curator Nick Capasso, Assistant Curator Dina Deitsch, and Koch Curatorial Fellow Kate Dempsey.

Essex Art Center

Paper Quilt

Vintage photograph.

A quilt is a personal expression, whether it is made of traditional materials or expanded by applying art principles from drawing, painting, sculpture, photography, bookmaking, or mixed media. Paper Quilt invited artists to create work in response to this concept without setting limitations as to scale, media, or content. Exploring themes of mortality, perception, morality, identity and history, the seventeen artists in Paper Quilt use a contemporary approach together with their own personal expressions to merge the past with the present. Curated by Gayle Caruso and Cathy McLaurin. This exhibition is funded in part by a grant from the Barbara Lee Family Foundation Fund at the Boston Foundation.

The new main entrance of the Currier Museum of Art, featuring monumental sculpture by Mark di Suvero, titled Origins.

The Currier Museum of Art, now open after a twenty-one month expansion project, is featuring its commitment to NewHampshire art and artists in one of its spacious new galleries. Although works by New Hampshire artists are installed throughout themuseum, this particular gallery exclusively celebrates the state’s vibrant arts community.

Although the work in this gallery represents only a fraction of the artists based in New Hampshire, it is the Currier’s way of honoring all New Hampshire artists who, over the course of decades, have advanced the state’s rich cultural heritage.

Peter Kayafas, They Call Me Stan Ion Patras, 2006.

Gallery Kayafas celebrates the publication of The Merry Cemetery of Sapanta. ”This book, an amalgam of photography, anthropology, history, poetry, and folk art, is meant as homage to the cemetery in Northern Romania, its creators, and the unique community from which it precipitated. As one approaches the cemetery, there is first the glimpse of color through the trees surrounding the churchyard. Entering the cemetery, one is struck by the extraordinary nature of the appearance of these memorials, followed by the contemplative immersion in the folk-poetry that is represented by the epitaphs.” Peter Kayafas, 2008.

Amy Sillman, P & H 2 (Behemoth), oil on canvas, 84 x 92", 2008. Courtesy of the artist and Sikkema Jenkins & Co., NY.

Amy Sillman’s influential body of work has built upon traditional formats, such as landscape, portraiture, abstraction, and caricature, only to move past them, pushing these known ways of working into new places. Sillman makes paintings that explore psychological concerns while combining colors, forms, and ideas in ways that are both joyful and uncomfortable. Her artistic investigations spring from a belief in the possibilities of painting and a dedication to delving into personal thoughts and emotions, no matter how anxious or awkward they may be. Fascinated by the act of coupling, Sillman’s most recent series of work begins by drawing couples that she knows, translating her experiences with them into a range of visual interpretations that become increasingly abstract.

Tricia Rose Burt, Four Groups of Floating Cells, 30 x 22", graphite on paper, 2008.

In this Red Room exhibition, Tricia Rose Burt expands her exploration of line and pattern, through a series of paintings, works on paper, and wall installations. Burt finds inspiration in ceramic figurines featuring animals in pairs and molecular constructions. Her compositions of complex patterns and cellular formations articulate not only her aesthetic concerns, but also subtly address spiritual, religious, and the social issues imbued in the societal pressure to be fruitful and multiply.

Andargé Asfaw, Father and son – Beginning the day.

Silver Springs, Maryland, photographer Andarge Asfaw returned to his homeland after a twenty-seven-year absence to find environmental devastation and vanishing traditional Ethiopian culture. The images he has selected for this exhibition are from his recent book, Ethiopia from the Heart and are a celebration of the beauty that still remains amongst its people, landscape, and architecture.

Andarge considers his art to be a vehicle to bring global awareness to the crisis of deforestation and attendant problems that has ravaged this once idyllic land. "This work is my gift to anyone who appreciates life on earth, and the cultural survival of ancient traditions and ways of life."

Harriet Casdin-Silver, 80 + 1, Iris inkjet print (1/3), 41 x 32", 2007.

Boston’s doyenne of holography, Harriet Casdin-Silver, widely recognized as the world’s most important holographic artist, passed away from complications of pneumonia on March 9 at the age of eighty-three. A show of her self-portraits, planned with her before her death, will include both holograms of the past twenty years and new digital prints.

David Prifti has spent the last few years exploring the mysterious world of tintypes. Using the wet plate collodion process, he has captured haunting images of his students, friends, and acquaintances. David Prifti’s work also will be shown in the DeCordova Museum’s Annual Exhibition from May 10 through August 17.