May Stevens made the ordinary extraordinary.
The Santa Fe-based painter devoted her art to political causes, such as civil rights, feminist and antiwar movements. She believed in art as an instrument of progressive politics and personal liberation.
Open at SITE Santa Fe, “May Stevens: Mysteries, Politics and Seas of Words” surveys the artist’s career from 1970 to 2010. Stevens died in 2019 at the age of 95. Brandee Caoba and the writer/critic Lucy Lippard, an early champion of feminist art, curated the show.
Caoba spent about five years as Stevens’ studio assistant.
“She was a firecracker and she had a deep ability for empathy,” Caoba said. “She loved to give voice to the voiceless and the unseen.”
In the last year, we have all become digital humans, casting our virtual net far and wide as our lives shrank to hearth, home and heath, punctuated with the odd supermarket visit to spice things up. In visual arts, festivals and galleries alike have had to weather many a storm in order to come out the other side. The good news is that Scotland s art spaces should start opening up after April 26. So if like me, you have been missing seeing actual art, what is there to look forward to this year?
1. Glasgow International
www.glasgowinternational.org, June 11-17 Last year, just weeks away from opening, Glasgow International (Gi), Scotland s major biennial festival of contemporary art was forced to postpone. It s back with a Director’s Programme of commissions and exhibitions in collaboration with partners and venues. News of the full programme is still to be announced, but a highlight is sure to be a new installation by Barbadian-Scottish multimedia artist, Alberta Whittle and I
A contemporary art festival is expanding from London to take place across the country, from the Isle of Skye to Wales this summer.
Art Night 2021 will take place in more than 10 locations around the United Kingdom including Abergavenny train station, Eastbourne, Leeds and Cambridge, while a series of commissions will unfold online.
For the first time the festival, this year titled Nothing Compares 2 U, will take place for a month, running from June 18 to July 18.
It will include a series of billboards across the country by Guerrilla Girls, their biggest UK public commission to date, titled The Male Graze which will explore bad behaviour both historically and in the present day.