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BRATTLEBORO â Five new exhibits open at the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center on Saturday. The exhibits include group shows featuring paintings inspired by the idea of âexpeditionâ and artworks reflecting the legacy of famed photographer Minor White, as well as solo exhibitions by Delano Dunn, Charlie Hunter and Erick Johnson.
An opening reception, free and open to all, will take place on Saturday at 5 p.m. Refreshments will be served outdoors, and many of the exhibiting artists and curators will be in attendance. In addition to the five new exhibits, visitors can view two outdoor installations that opened in May: âDelita Martin: Between Worldsâ and âScott Boyd: Endangered Alphabets.â
Simone Leigh
Anderson Ranch Arts Center’s “Summer Series: Featured Artists and Conversations” program returns with a full lineup of live, in-person events this summer, according to a news release.
“The Summer Series: Featured Artists and Conversations speakers at Anderson Ranch are dynamic and diverse,” Anderson Ranch President and CEO Peter Waanders said in a news release. “The 2021 series will bring a wide variety of voices and dialog to the campus throughout the summer. We look forward to a great season of big ideas and stimulating dialog here at the Ranch.”
The lineup includes contemporary painter Alexis Rockman on July 8, 2021 International Artist honoree Simone Leigh in conversation with author Saidiya Hartman on July 16, photographer Tyler Mitchell on July 22, multidisciplinary artist Derrick Adams on July 29 and curator Scott Rothkopf on Aug. 5. All talks will take place at 12:30 p.m. on the scheduled date at the Anderson Ranch campus.
From masterpieces looted by the Nazis to maritime paintings and works by gay artists, a wide variety of art in a wide variety of media will be on display.
The pandemic stripped away the social side out of Aspen’s historically lively art and gallery scene. Yes, galleries were able to open quickly after the spring 2020 lockdown and, yes, they provided sanctuary for people seeking solace or inspiration when most every other cultural hub was closed.
But there were no opening receptions and shoulder-to-shoulder crowds, no walk-throughs, no in-person artist talks. Art viewing has mostly been a solitary or virtual venture. Even as several new players arrived on the local scene, they arrived quietly.
There were positives to be found in the experience of gallery hopping during the pandemic – you had more conversations with gallerists, for example, and you realized how little you actually get to look at the artwork at a crowded opening.
Medusa (2020). (Jesse Costa/WBUR)
Shipwrecks have stoked fear in our collective imaginations throughout history. But what can these disasters at sea say about humans damaging impact on the planet? That s something artist Alexis Rockman confronts in his new series of psychedelic, large-scale paintings on view at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem.
“Alexis Rockman has been described as an eco-warrior,” curator Trevor Smith explained. “His weapons in that battle are really paintings.”
Smith said the artist is driven to create complicated, even confusing visual narratives about unintended consequences. He helped organize the show, “Alexis Rockman: Shipwrecks,” which was curated by Andrea Grover of Guild Hall in East Hampton, New York.