Montserrat College of Art

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2009: The year in Art

The year started off with a kick in the teeth when, in January, Brandeis University announced plans to shutter its Rose Art Museum and sell off its masterpieces.
Saints, sinners, paint
By GREG COOK | December 25, 2009

Breakthroughs

Tufts University Art Gallery's "Sixth Annual Juried Summer Exhibition" is one of those summer sampler shows that's got about a million people in it.
Summer round-ups at Tufts and Montserrat
By GREG COOK | July 10, 2009

Grand seductions

If you've been desirous of an eminently tasteful exhibit that undermines the sanctity of marriage, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum's "The Triumph of Marriage: Painted Cassoni of the Renaissance" may be for you.
Marriage at the Gardner, decoration at Montserrat, Milton Rogovin at Kayafas
By GREG COOK | December 16, 2008

When the red, red robin . . .

This exhibit explores the basic nature of color and its relationship to survival and pleasure in the world.
‘Language Of Color’ at the Harvard Museum of Natural History, ‘Speaker Project’ at MassArt, Cathy McLaurin at Montserrat
By RANDI HOPKINS | September 17, 2008

Dollhouses and dream states

Autumn highlights in the museums and the galleries.
Memory, sound, time, and toothpicks define the season
By RANDI HOPKINS | September 08, 2008

One world, several dreams

It’s no secret that recent years have seen a new “cultural revolution” in the visual arts in China.
“Business as Usual: New Video From China” at MassArt, “Text in Video” at Axiom, and “Many Kinds of Nothing” at Montserrat
By RANDI HOPKINS | August 12, 2008

Cape light

Pinpricks and irregular streaks of light illuminate a circular orb that might be the moon, or a partly peeled orange in each of Judith Larsen’s series of photographic works called “Phasing and Solon."
‘Light And Artifice’ at The Schoolhouse Gallery; ‘What Is Big?’ at Brickbottom; ‘Birds Do It’ at Montserrat
By RANDI HOPKINS | July 02, 2008

Waxing poetic

New York–based artist Joanne Mattera wrote the book (literally) on encaustic, an ancient method of painting with pigmented wax.
Joanne Mattera and encaustic painting plus sculpture At Montserrat; Ceci Méndez at the Center For Latino Arts
By RANDI HOPKINS | June 03, 2008

Live at five

The Tufts University Art Gallery has taken the off-season opportunity to celebrate its year-round neighbors.
Fifth Annual Juried Summer Show at Tufts, Norman Laliberté at Montserrat, Julie Vinette at Atlantic Works, and Annual Juried Members’ Show at the Danforth
By RANDI HOPKINS | May 28, 2008

Greenheads

When Al Gore won the Nobel Peace Prize last October, it was a triumph for anti-global-warming forces as well as a triumph for art.
Global warming inspires eco art at Montserrat and the BCA
By GREG COOK | March 03, 2008

Bought and sold

So I’d like to declare that art about consumerism is one of the æsthetic trends of our young millennium.
Rampant consumerism and Iván Navarro at Tufts, ‘Some Sort of Uncertainty’ at Axiom
By GREG COOK | January 22, 2008

Waste management

One of the essential lessons I’ve gleaned from the magazine Martha Stewart Living is that if you put together a collection of junk that’s all the same color, it’s almost always interesting to look at.
‘Cornucopia’ at Montserrat, ‘Ad/Agency’ at the PRC, and Jim Lambie at the MFA
By GREG COOK | January 07, 2008

We’ll fry anything

The dead of winter is a great time to conjure the seedy pleasures and heady aromas of a good country fair, steeped in sheep and fried dough.
Corn Dogs + Blue Ribbons at Montserrat, Boston Does Boston at Proof, and Some Sort of Uncertainty at Axiom
By RANDI HOPKINS | January 02, 2008

Tempo tantrum

In 2008, the fourth dimension, time, steps to the fore in the art world.
Artists mess with time, re-enact art history, and hop up on stage in ’08
By RANDI HOPKINS | December 26, 2007

Jury’s got the verdict

Two well-judged shows light up the holiday horizon.
‘Trans’ at Atlantic Works, ‘Red’ at Cambridge Art Association, Caroline Jones and David Joselit at MIT, Ralph Gibson at BU
By RANDI HOPKINS | December 09, 2007

Buying in

In late September 2001, President George W. Bush urged Americans to go shopping in support of the slumping US economy, equating purchasing with patriotism in the aftermath of 9/11.
Consumer Culture at Montserrat, Mini Golf at Mass Art, and ‘Seek Alternate Routes’ at 119 Gallery
By RANDI HOPKINS | November 20, 2007

People get ready

Fourteen New England artists/artist teams hook up to produce a variety of interconnecting installations.
‘Trainscape’ at the DeCordova, ‘Merging Influence’ at Montserrat, and more
By RANDI HOPKINS | August 22, 2007

Premier coup

American modernist painter Edwin Dickinson has never fit easily into art history’s categories.
Edwin Dickinson in Provincetown, ‘The Exposure Project’ in Brookline, and architectural drawings at Montserrat
By RANDI HOPKINS | July 17, 2007

The soft shock of the new

One of the great dreams of any art aficionado is the dream of stumbling on a new, unheralded talent.
‘New Art Collective’ at Montserrat College, ‘New Art ’07’ at Kingston Gallery
By GREG COOK | July 17, 2007

Know when to fold ’em

Origami has been practiced in Japan for at least the past 400 years, and we’ve all seen the usual paper cranes, boats, hats, boxes.
‘Origami Now!’ at the Peabody Essex
By RANDI HOPKINS | June 05, 2007

Staged?

In a photograph taken in 1978, you see a kid staring blankly into an open refrigerator.
Philip-Lorca diCorcia at the ICA, ‘Self-Entanglements’ at GASP, Jim Falck at Montserrat, and ‘Jamaica Plain Spoken’ in JP
By RANDI HOPKINS | May 22, 2007

Culture war games

Karen Finley sat at the edge of the stage of Emerson College’s Cutler Majestic Theatre last week and spoke about a woman who got off on war.
Karen Finley moves on, ‘It’s Alive’ goes after bio-tech, ‘Personal Computer’ gets Webby
By GREG COOK | March 27, 2007

Oh, snap!

Whether pasted tidily in albums, framed and displayed in the den, tossed in a shoebox in the closet, or abandoned to the thrift shop, family photos — our own, or those belonging to total strangers — are mesmerizing.
‘Shoot the Family’ at Mass Art, Camilo Ramirez at Montserrat, and Art for PDAs at Axiom
By RANDI HOPKINS | January 02, 2007

Bodies and souls

Preserved flayed corpses at the Museum of Science, Americans in Paris at the Museum of Fine Arts, underground art at the Rhode Island School of Design Museum, beavers at Mass College of Art — it was that kind of year, capped off by the arrival of the n
A year in art
By JEFFREY GANTZ | December 19, 2006

War paint

There’s no shortage of photographic images of the war in Iraq — live footage on TV, front-page news photos, streaming video on-line.
Steve Mumford’s ‘Baghdad and Beyond,’ plus ‘Pure Thought’ in Brighton and ‘Urban Art’ from Los Angeles
By RANDI HOPKINS | October 24, 2006

Wild things

One hundred corrugated cardboard monkeys hanging from trapezes greet visitors to “Going Ape: Confronting Animals in Contemporary Art,” which opens at the DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park on September 2.
‘Going Ape’ at the DeCordova, George McNeil at Montserrat, and ‘Offspring’ at BU
By RANDI HOPKINS | August 23, 2006

Les fleurs du shopping mall

Are we what we buy?
‘Made in America’ at Judi Rotenberg, Jetta Indeck at Montserrat
By RANDI HOPKINS | July 25, 2006

A galaxy far, far away

Recently I found myself aboard the Air Chair, a padded seat atop what looks like a riding lawnmower, at the Museum of Science’s “Star Wars: Where Science Meets Imagination” exhibit.
Is the Empire defining the current avant-garde?
By GREG COOK | March 27, 2006

Sophomore effort

As our popular society gets more complicated and faster paced, Local Nothing, among the best of a slew of young bands to come out of the Saco/Thorton Academy area, seem almost quaint for their blitzkrieg guitars and shouted vocals.
Local Nothing give it the old college try
By SAM PFEIFLE | March 01, 2006

Super graphics

There must be a better word than “graffiti” to describe the site-specific, often text-embracing, street-smart art of the intrepid artists who use their environment as their canvas, plastering buildings, street signs, decaying walls, and skinny lamp posts
“SPOTHUNTERS,” Ryan McGinness, and Christian Marclay
By RANDI HOPKINS | February 22, 2006

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