HOLIDAY HAPPENINGS
Our eighth annual holiday show, Plenty, was recently featured in FLUX Boston! Check out all the great events happening in and around Boston this season.
Clint Baclawski: Light Emerges
Among the many works in 13FOREST Gallery’s current exhibition Plenty is one by Boston photographer and sculptor Clint Baclawski, who is the subject of a concurrent exhibition at California Polytechnic. Using transparent prints and light, Clint creates images that coalesce and disappear as viewers move from place to place, as seen in this Cal Poly video.
Dia De Los Muertos Altar Installation
Held in East Arlington on Sunday, November 1, 4-6 pm, Capitol Square's Day of the Dead festival will showcase a variety of elements of the holiday, including tastings from Acitrón Cocina Mexicana, Menotomy Grill and a strolling Mariachi.
As our gallery manager, Michelle Garcia, is a Latina from Los Angeles who grew up celebrating the holiday, 13FOREST will be highlighting the personal nature of Día de los Muertos as it's typically enjoyed with family or friends at home. We've built a traditional altar, plan to serve Mexican pan de muertos, and will focus on works at the gallery that revolve around personal history, ritual, and memory.
The real joy of Day of the Dead is bringing friends and family back from the grave into our world to celebrate with them. Unlike funerals or death anniversaries when the dead are deeply mourned, the holiday is clearly not meant to be a sad event.
In addition to a non-Western view of death, Day of the Dead also deals with identity and family history and how these elements dictate personal narrative, actions, and decisions.
A preview of the traditional Day of the Dead altar built by 13FOREST Gallery manager, Michelle Garcia, honoring her grandmother Susana Gusi.
Faux trophies add interest to walls
Hand-cut wood elephant head, Fish McGill
Heads up! Fish McGill's wood elephant head was featured in the Enthusiast column in last Sunday's Boston Globe
History, fantasy evoked in Sculptors Gallery show
“Swims at Hingham Islands” by Caitlin & Nicole Duennebier
Congrats, Caitlin and Nicole Duennebier! Great piece on a great piece - go check it out Fri night 8/7 at the Boston Sculptors Gallery, 5-8 pm
Lisa Gent Trunk Show Recap
So great to have our jeweler Lisa Gent down from Maine last night and to see the breadth of her collection in our space. If anything catches your eye here, please let us know and we'll be sure to have her send it down. Thanks again, Lisa!
Opera on Tap's Abigail Krawson Performs at the MFA
Frequent guest to the gallery in her role as a soprano in Opera on Tap, Abigail Krawson will be performing in Lee Mingwei's Sonic Blossom at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston through April 9. More information about the program.
Krawson's performance dates are below. For more information on Abby, check her website
SONIC BLOSSOM by Lee Mingwei at The Museum of Fine Arts
Located in the Koch Gallery this participatory installation will allow MFA visitors to receive the gift of a Schubert Lied by professional opera singers.
Thursday March 19th 1:45pm-5:45pm
Friday March 20th 5:45pm-9:45pm
Sunday March 22nd 9:45am-1:15pm
Wednesday March 25th 5:45pm-9:45pm (public lecture by the artist at 7pm, additional cost)
Thursday March 26th 1:45pm-5:45pm
Wednesday April 1st 5:45pm-9:45pm
Thursday April 2nd 1:45pm-5:45pm
Tuesday April 7th 1:45pm-5:45pm
Wednesday April 8th 5:45pm-9:45pm
Thursday April 9th 1:45pm-5:45pm
Other Opera on Tap singers performing at the MFA include Beibei Guan, Teresa Winner Blume, Christina Pecce and Katie O'Reilly.
Armory Week in Also Snowy New York
Although I've lived in Boston almost twice as long, I think New York will always be home to me. Mainly in town to attend the Armory Week art fairs, I managed to visit with friends and family, catch a couple of Broadway shows, and take in one blockbuster museum exhibit - see recommendations below.
Named for the 1913 International Exhibition of Modern Art, originally held in various US National Guard armories, the main New York art fairs are centered around Piers 92 (Modern) and 94 (Contemporary) on the Hudson River. A loose explanation of the difference between the two is Contemporary generally refers to living artists; Modern, older deceased masters. These lines blur sometimes depending on the exhibiting galleries.
Fairs are now held all over the world - Hong Kong's is finishing up tomorrow - but New York's takes place during the first weekend in March. Adding to the excitement, ancillary shows have sprouted up all over town. In addition to the two main Armory shows, this year I was able to attend several others: Pulse, Scope, Art on Paper and Un(scene). I was lucky to be joined by a few of our exhibiting artists - it's always fun to see what catches their eye.
PROMPT
PROMPT : 5 artists. 4 installments. 8 weeks.
February 27 - April 24, 2015
Stage 1 - Opening Reception: Fri 2/27, 7-9 pm
Stage 2 & 3 - Artist Talk: Fri 3/20, 7-9 pm
Stage 4 - Closing Reception: Fri 4/17, 7-9 pm
Artists:
Xiaowei Chen
Suzi Grossman
Vanessa Irzyk
Lindsey Kocur
Sarah Rushford
The artists in this evolving exhibition have been allotted wall sections in which they have been asked to map out a number of segments in any formation they like. On opening day of the exhibition, each artist will have added one work (or grouping of works) inside one of these segments, leaving the remaining empty. As the show progresses, about every two weeks, the artists will fill another segment with additional work. Over time their respective projects will be prompted by the exhibition segments and by each other's contributions to the site.
Statement
This exhibit considers how objects can perform and respond to each other within the framework of a gallery exhibition. Here the gallery walls will cease to be static receptacles of established work, and become a site for transformation and re-imagining as artists add new work over time. This process of making and un-making of meaning is typically hidden from the public within artists' studios. Prompt is a prolonged discourse that activates the gallery walls by both the artist and the public for a continued learning experience enriched by time.
A 'pop-and-pop-run business' thrives →
Marc Gurton, co-owner, of 13Forest Gallery at 167A Mass. Ave., Capitol Square in East Arlington, met me between snowstorms. He and his husband, Jim Kiely, share ownership of 13Forest. His cozy gallery is just a block walk from the Capitol Theater; all items are made by hand.
I wanted to know how 13Forest had grown from its original location in Medford Square to East Arlington.
"Building relationships with artists" and being a "family business" are what fulfill Gurton. It’s a "pop-and-pop-run business," he says, as the co-owners collaborate in all respects.
Following a successful 20-year career in corporate accounting, Gurton felt his enthusiasm for his job wane, and a need for a change was inevitable. In 2006, the New York native was fortunate to have the time and finances to visit friends in England, France, Ireland, Italy and Tunisia.
Gurton planned the February trip that year to coincide with the three-day St. Agatha festival in Catania in Sicily, near Mount Aetna. Standing up for her faith to the Romans, St. Agatha is known as “the patron saint” of breast-cancer survivors and firefighters. He vividly recalls the 2006 festival, as men in white tunics and black hats led a procession of hundreds of thousands through the streets.
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