Buckle up…

The future is almost here! Join me and FeministFuturist at the Installation Space July 7th, 5-8pm for the opening of AUTOMATIC AURA. Worried about AI, AR, VR, bots, cybermen, and the Future in general? See the exhibit and … Don’t Panic!

The floating world, and quiet light

Curated by long-time Boston gallerists Nina Neilsen and John Baker, “Quiet Light” is up now at Concord Art Center until August 8^th. The 23 artists in the show are favorites of the gallerists, and two of my favorite sculptors, including the seldom-seen Daisy Youngblood, are included.

Daisy Youngblood’s profound sculpture calls into question the viewer’s physical relationship with art: as always, she subtly disrupts assumptions about scale and conventions of display. In this case, a life size meditation stool serves as a pedestal for a half-life size bronze figure of a man (a portrait of the real life Sri Ramana Maharshi) seated in a half lotus position.

Sachiko Akiyama is the other standout in the exhibit, which is largely given over to painting and dominated by lesser and more casual pieces. Akiyama’s mastery of carving combines flawlessly with her beautiful polychrome finishes. In “Quiet Light” are examples of how Akiyama employs both lifelike and symbolic coloration. Through her use of surface color, the sculptor brilliantly amplifies the meanings and visual languages of her work. This is a difficult feat to accomplish, and perhaps only Marisol did it better.  Four Corners of the Floating World shows the artist, holding hands with another, smaller version of herself, surrounded by a flock of herons. The artist’s small alter ego looks out at the viewer, the larger figure looks at the herons, and the herons un-self-consciously look back, and take flight. In Parallel World Akiyama’s beautifully carved bust is mostly blue, as though sitting in water. The intense blue pigment almost reaches the figure’s eyes, stopping just short of the artist’s agents of vision.

There’s a catalog of the exhibit online. Images at top, L-R: Sachiko Akiyama, Parallel World 2017. wood, resin, oil paint 12 x 6 x 7.5 inches; Sachiko Akiyama, Four Corners of the Floating World, 2011, polychromed wood, oil paint and wire. 69x24x8 inches; Daisy Youngblood, Sri Ramana Maharshi, bronze, 2003 13.5×12.75×11.5 inches. Photos by Carolyn Wirth.

…and speaking of studio/climate change…

I’ve got to share my college friend Mary Ellen Hannibal‘s newest article titled “When Did the Anthropocene Begin?” An environmental journalist, author of books like The Spine of the Continent and Citizen Scientist, Hannibal probes both deeply and clearly into our current environmental crises and documents methods to save and even improve life on Earth. She inspired me to become a citizen scientist, which has, in turn, strengthened my resolve to reclaim my studio practice.