by Elin Spring and Suzanne Révy
April, finally! We hope Mother Nature gets the memo and April showers bring May flowers – blankets of colorful, ebullient flowers. In the meantime, here are some seasonal tips for cultivating joy and beauty in your life: our Best Picks for photography exhibits and events around Boston – and beyond – in the month ahead, with exciting openings and significant, continuing shows arranged by region.
SOWA – BOSTON’S ART GALLERY DISTRICT
Crabs and People, Skinningrove” by Chris Killip (courtesy of the artist and Howard Yezerski Gallery, Boston).
Howard Yezerski Gallery – An exhibit of Chris Killip’s seminal work in rural Skinningrove, England from 1982-1984 will be on view from April 19th – May 21st, 2019. These black and white images, mostly made on 4×5 film, are regarded as one of the most important visual records of 1980s Britain, revealing a gritty lifestyle out of sync with the prevailing trends of the Thatcher era (paralleling our Reagan era in the US). For information, go to: https://www.howardyezerski.com/
“Hay Bale 2” by Mags Harries (courtesy of the artist and Gallery Kayafas, Boston).
Galatea Fine Art – “What We Have Wrought” group exhibit, guest curated by Philip Gerstein, features photographic perspectives of man’s heavy hand on the environment, with Mags Harries’ sculptural visions of bound hay bales and silver-topped seaside boulders, Neal Rantoul’s shrink-wrapped boats and Eleanor Steinadler’s rusted construction equipment on the Outer Cape. On view from April 3rd – April 28th, 2019, there will be an Opening Reception with the artists on First Friday, April 5th, 2019 from 6:00 – 8:00pm. On Sunday, April 14th, 2019, the gallery will host a Q&A with the artists from 2:00 – 4:00pm. For information, go to: https://www.galateafineart.com/current–upcoming.html
“Easter Dinner” by Lee Kilpatrick (courtesy of the artist and Griffin Museum of Photography).
Griffin Museum satellite gallery at SoWa – Lee Kilpatrick’s solo show “Together” indulges our natural fascination with group interactions, particularly holiday gatherings, adroitly shot in panoramas to mimic the perspective of a participant. On view from April 9th – July 21st, 2019, there will be a Reception in June. For information, go to: https://griffinmuseum.org/show/lee-kilpatrick-together/
THE FENCE is up in SoWa, Boston’s South End Gallery District (Photo courtesy Iaritza Menjivar).
THE FENCE – THE FENCE is up! The annual outdoor photography exhibit featuring 5-6 works each by dozens of jury-selected photographers across five categories has been mounted for the season in SoWa! Now that the weather is improving, enjoy a stroll there and stay tuned for a Griffin Museum Walk through the show in June.
Continuing Shows of Note in SoWa
“Pretty Please with Sugar on Top, 2018” from the series On Beauty by Kimberly Witham (courtesy of the artist and Gallery Kayafas, Boston).
Gallery Kayafas – Photographs from Kimberly Witham’s “On Beauty” and Emily Belz’s “Forward From Where We Came” offer distinctive and affecting expressions of impermanence, on view only through April 6th, 2019 with an Artists’ Reception on First Friday, April 5th, 2019 from 5:30 – 8:00pm. To read our review of this show, go to: https://whatwillyouremember.com/kimberly-witham-on-beauty-emily-belz-forward-from-where-we-came-at-gallery-kayafas-boston/
To read our “Meet the Artist” interview with Emily Belz, go to: https://whatwillyouremember.com/emily-belz-home-territory/
For more information about this exhibit, go to: http://www.gallerykayafas.com/home/exhibitions/current/
BOSTON PROPER
“Red Bowls, 2005” from the Simple Text series by Sarah Charlesworth (courtesy of Krakow Witkin Gallery, Boston).
Krakow Witkin Gallery – In the last years of her life, conceptual artist and photographer Sarah Charlesworth (1947-2013) turned her attention to small-scale works. “The Small Versions, 2000 – 2012,” her inventive exploration of the language of images in contemporary culture features characteristically luscious Cibachromes. This show serves as the first survey of these pieces and encompasses works from five of her last series, on view March 30th – May 4th, 2019. For information, go to: https://www.krakowwitkingallery.com/sarah-charlesworth-exhibition-2019
Continuing Shows of Note in Boston
“Nour, Beirut, Lebanon, 2017” from the series SHE by Rania Matar (courtesy of the artist and Robert Klein Gallery, Boston).
Robert Klein Gallery – Rania Matar has spent her photographic career delving into female states of becoming, comparing the subjective experiences of girls and women in the US and Middle East, even as she highlights their commonalities. In her latest series, “SHE”, Matar presents young women on the brink of adulthood, as they navigate personal aspirations and doubts. On view through April 27th, 2019. For our review, go to: https://whatwillyouremember.com/rania-matar-she-at-robert-klein-gallery-boston/
For more information, go to: https://www.robertkleingallery.com/
“Before the Daily Swim” Mytlilene, Lesvos, Greece, 2018 by Stella Johnson from the series Zoi. (Courtesy of the artist and Leica Gallery Boston).
Leica Gallery Boston – In a palette of whites and warm colors made under the temperate sun of the Greek islands, Stella Johnson’s solo show “Zoi” is a joyful ode to familial connection and reconnection, on view through April 21st, 2019. For our review, go to: https://whatwillyouremember.com/stella-johnson-zoi-at-leica-gallery-boston/
For more information, go to: http://leicagalleryboston.com/
“Cascade, 2018” cyanotype by Cynthia MacCollum (courtesy of the artist and Panopticon Gallery, Boston).
Panopticon Gallery – Shake off your winter blues with the group show, “Shades of Blue,” pairing the ancient cyanotype photographic process with the fresh aesthetics of contemporary photographers Christina Z. Anderson, Jesseca Ferguson, Jacek Gonsalves, Cynthia MacCollum, Emma Powell, Andrew Seguin and Stephen Sheffield, on view through April 30th, 2019. For our review, go to: https://whatwillyouremember.com/shades-of-blue-group-photo-show-at-panopticon-gallery-boston/
For information, go to: https://www.panopticongallery.com/
Angel Woman, Sonora Desert / Mujer Ángel, Desierto de Sonora México, 1979 Graciela Iturbide (Mexican, born in 1942) Photograph, gelatin silver print, Elizabeth and Michael Marcus, © Graciela Iturbide *Courtesy, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston – Don’t miss two vastly different and worthwhile photography exhibits currently on view! “Graciela Iturbide’s Mexico” is a broad and passionate retrospective of four decades spent elucidating the complex and colorful Mexican culture, on view through May 12th, 2019. “Postwar Visions: European Photography 1945-60” explores a selection of exuberant photographs that contributed to rise to Modernism, a movement experiencing renewed interest with the 100th anniversary of Bauhaus, the celebrated school of art, architecture and design, on view through June 23rd, 2019.
For our review of Graciela Iturbide, go to: https://whatwillyouremember.com/graciela-iturbides-mexico-at-museum-of-fine-arts-boston/
For our review of Postwar Visions, go to: https://whatwillyouremember.com/postwar-visions-european-photography-1945-to-1960-at-museum-of-fine-arts-boston/
For more information, go to: https://www.mfa.org/exhibitions
CAMBRIDGE
“Ball and Bowl, 1928” by Etel Mittag-Fodor (courtesy Bauhaus-Archiv, Berlin).
MIT Museum – In celebration of the Bauhaus centennial, the Museum presents “Arresting Fragments: Object Photography at the Bauhaus”, featuring 90 prints from Bauhaus Archive, Berlin, collections. The photographs, made primarily by Lucia Moholy (1923-28), Walter Peterhans (1928-33) and Erich Consemüller, celebrate the modernity of items of everyday use, many of them designed at the Bauhaus. A selection of photography of furnishings and buildings is also included, on view through September 1st, 2019. For information, go to: https://mitmuseum.mit.edu/bauhaus
THE BURBS
“Girl Crush” from the Shibui series by Paula Riff (courtesy of the artist and Griffin Museum of Photography).
Griffin Museum of Photography, Winchester – Spring adorns the walls in the Main Gallery exhibit “Down Garden Paths” featuring the work of Craig J. Barber, Joan Lobis Brown, Jimmy Fike, Ivana Damien George (feature image), Emily Hamilton Laux, Marcy Palmer, Paula Riff (above), and Vaughn Sills. “Flora,” Marcy Palmer’s solo exhibit, is featured in the Griffin Gallery and the Atelier Gallery plays host to the “9th Annual Self-Published Photobook Exhibition.” All shows run from April 11th – June 2nd, 2019, with a free, public Opening Reception on Thursday, April 11th at 7:00pm, preceded by Gallery Talks with Paula Riff and Craig J. Barber 6:15 PM. For more information, go to: https://griffinmuseum.org/upcoming-exhibitions/
Polaroid by Rachel Loischild (courtesy of the artist and Danforth Art Museum, Framingham).
Danforth Art Museum, Framingham – At long last, the Danforth Art Museum is re-opening in its new home on the campus of Framingham State University! The group photography show, “Armchair Travel: Work by Emily Belz, Rachel Loischild and S. Billie Mandle” is among their inaugural exhibits, exploring wide-ranging journeys made close to home, on view from April 14th – July 14th, 2019. For information, go to: https://danforth.framingham.edu/exhibition/armchair-travel/
“Woman Driver, June 1977” by John Goodman (courtesy of the artist and Howard Yezerski Gallery, Boston).
Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover – Photographs made from recently rediscovered Kodachrome and Ektachrome slides, “John Goodman: not recent color” features vibrant cinematic views of the American cultural landscape through the lens of the young street photographer in the 1970s and 1980s, on view from April 13th – July 31st, 2019. Also at the Addison, the multi-media exhibit “Harlem: In Situ,” featuring the work of many renowned photographers, such as Roy DeCarava, Dawoud Bey, Aaron Siskind and Lucien Aigner, on view through July 31st, 2019. For information, go to: https://addison.andover.edu/Exhibitions/Pages/default.aspx
Photograph by Alexander Diaz (courtesy of the artist and NESOP, Waltham).
New England School of Photography (NESOP), Waltham – Documentary photographs that capture “the thrilling, unseen, odd, absurd reality of the human experience” comprise NESOP’s 3rd Annual Juried Exhibit, “Stranger Than Fiction,” juried by Hank Hauptmann, photographer and Director of Robert Klein Gallery, Boston. On view through April 26th, 2019, there will be an Opening Reception on Tuesday, April 9th, 2019 from 6:00 – 7:30pm. For information, go to: https://www.nesop.edu/events/the-garner-center/juried-group-show/
“Marshall’s Farm Stand Greenhouse, late summer, West Gloucester, MA 2006” by Esther Pullman (courtesy of the artist and Cape Ann Museum).
Cape Ann Museum, Gloucester – Esther Pullman’s film photographs in panoramas of two to seven frames of fields, nurseries and greenhouses are not only lovely, but taken together, they become a metaphor for our threatened planet, addressing the passage of time, the cycle of the seasons, death and rebirth. Pullman’s solo show, Green Places/Green Spaces/Greenhouses, will be on view from April 13th – June 16th, 2019. There will be an Opening Reception on Saturday, April 13th, 2019 from 3:00 – 5:00pm and a Gallery Talk with the artist on Saturday, April 20th, 2019 at 9:30am (fees apply for both events). For more information, go to: https://www.capeannmuseum.org/exhibitions/green-placesgreen-spacesgreenhouses/
Continuing Shows of Note in the Burbs
“Greenland is Shrinking, iPad 2018” by Tabitha Soren (courtesy of the artist and Davis Museum, Wellesley).
Davis Museum at Wellesley College, Wellesley – By highlighting the smudges and finger swipes dancing across the surfaces of cell phones, while allowing the underlying image to bleed through, Tabitha Soren sets the premise of her solo show, Surface Tension. In oversized prints of pictures born in tiny phones, image and artifact interact to create layers of visual and visceral messages. On view through June 9th, 2019, Soren will be giving an Artist Talk at the Museum on Wednesday, April 17th, 2019 at 6:00pm. To read our review, go to: https://whatwillyouremember.com/tabitha-soren-surface-tension-at-davis-museum-wellesley-ma/
For information about the exhibit and/or talk, go to: https://www.wellesley.edu/davismuseum/whats-on/upcoming/node/161576
BEYOND BOSTON – Shows Worth a Road Trip!
Photograph by Craig Schwanfelder (courtesy of the artist and Vermont Center for Photography, Brattleboro).
Vermont Center for Photography (VCP), Brattleboro, VT – Boston-based photographer Bruce Myren made the selection for VCP’s “2019 Open Juried Exhibition,” featuring a broad range of traditional and non-traditional photographic work by eight artists: Tom Condon, Elizabeth Ellenwood, Madge Evers, Forrest Holzapfel, Tira Khan, Marc Newton, Craig Schwanfelder (above) and Dawn Watson. On view from April 5th – June 2nd, 2019, there will be an Opening Reception on Friday, April 5th from 5:30 – 8:00pm. For information, go to: https://vcphoto.org/2019-open-juried-exhibition/
Continuing Shows of Note Beyond Boston
Rhode Island Center for Photographic Arts (RICPA), Providence – “Outspoken: Expanded,” the celebration of female voices curated by Marky Kauffmann has grown to nine women photographers: Nadine Boughton, Blake Fitch, Nancy Grace Horton, Marky Kauffmann, Tira Kahn, Susan Lapides, Sunjoo Lee, Rania Matar and Emily Schiffer, on view through April 12th, 2019. There will be a Roundtable Discussion moderated by photographer and URI professor Annu Palakunnathu Matthews on Monday, April 8th, 2019 at 7:00pm. For more information, go to: https://www.riphotocenter.org/outspoken-expanded/
Photograph by DM Witman (courtesy of the artist and Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Rockland).
Center for Maine Contemporary Art (CMCA), Rockland – “Melt Down,” a group show curated by Bruce Brown, features visually and emotionally stunning responses to climate change by ten remarkable Maine photographers and videographers: John Paul Caponigro, John Eide, Ella Hudson, Jonathan Laurence, Justin Levesque, Jim Nickelson, Jan Piribeck, Peter Ralston, Shoshannah White, and Deanna Witman (above), on view through June 9th, 2019. For hours, directions and more information, go to: https://cmcanow.org/event/melt-down/
“Marilyn Monroe, actress, New York City, May 6, 1957” © Richard Avedon (courtesy of the Estate of Richard Avedon).
Portland Museum of Art, Portland, Maine – “Richard Avedon: Portraits 1952-1970″ is an intimate exhibit featuring a selection of portraits from the 1970 Minneapolis Portfolio, which marked a significant stylistic shift in Avedon’s work, casting his celebrity subjects anew. Show extended through June 19th , 2019. For our review, go to: https://whatwillyouremember.com/richard-avedon-portraits-1952-1970-at-the-portland-museum-of-art-in-maine/
For more information, go to: https://www.portlandmuseum.org/exhibitions/richard-avedon-portraits-1952-1970
“Somnyama Ngonyama, Hail the Dark Lioness, Oslo, 2015” ©Zanele Muholi (courtesy of Stevenson, Cape Town/Johannesburg and Yancey Richardson, NYC).
Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, Maine – There are currently two compelling exhibits that explore a range of female Black experiences: South African visual activist Zanele Muholi presents a mosaic of identities in more than seventy self-portraits from her series “Somnyama Ngonyama, Hail the Dark Lioness,” posing pointed questions about social justice, human rights, and representations of the Black body, on view through June 9th, 2019; on view for the first time in the United States, Theaster Gates’s “Facsimile Cabinet of Women Origin Stories” is an original installation that re-contextualizes nearly 3,000 images from the archives of the Chicago-based Johnson Publishing Company, which chronicled the lives of Black Americans for more than seven decades through the magazines Ebony and Jet. Gates’ work invites viewers to think anew about these rich and varied representations depicting women in their everyday lives, historical moments, and studio poses, on view through September 8th, 2019. For information, go to: https://www.colby.edu/museum/exhibition/
Photograph from the archives of the Johnson Publishing Company. Courtesy of Theaster Gates.
ENGAGING EVENTS – In Chronological Order
Photographer Cary Wolinsky (courtesy photo).
“Anatomy of a Story – National Geographic and Beyond: Lecture by Cary Wolinsky” Wednesday, April 3rd, 2019 from 7:00 – 8:30pm at the Firehouse Center for the Arts in Newburyport, MA, part of the North Shore Photography Lecture Series. For information and tickets, go to: https://www.firehouse.org/see-a-show/294-northshore-photography-lecture-series
Spring 2019 RefrigeCurators David Carol and Ashly Stohl.
The call for (free!) submissions to The Curated Fridge Spring 2019 Show has been extended to Saturday, April 6th, 2019. “Family Values” is the theme, juried by curators Ashly Stohl and David Carol, founders and publishers of Peanut Press. For details, go to: https://www.thecuratedfridge.com/Call-for-Entree
Screening and Panel Discussion: “RISK: Women on the Frontline”on Thursday, April 11th, 2019 at 7:00pm at Lesley University, Cambridge. Sponsored by the Photographic Resource Center: https://prcboston.org/risk-women-on-the-front-line/
Mark Alice Durant (photo courtesy Aiden Durant).
Call for Entries is now open for EXPOSURE: The 23rd Annual PRC Juried Exhibition until April 12th, 2019. Noted artist, writer, educator and publisher Mark Alice Durant juries this year’s show. For submission info, go to: https://prcboston.org/exposure-2019-call/
Karen Davis will be one of the presenters at Documentary Matters in April 2019.
Documentary Matters meeting on Wednesday, April 17th, 2019 from 6:30 – 9:00pm at Digital Silver Imaging, Belmont, MA, featuring presenters Karen Davis (above), Nicholas Pfosi and Janet Jarman. For information and free registration, go to: https://socialdocumentary.net/cms/doc-matters-4-17-19
PRC Nights hosts “Reflections on War” (Photo ©Hector René)
PRC Nights hosts viewings and discussion on the theme “Reflections on War” with guest presenter Hector René on Tuesday April 23rd, 2019 from 6:30 – 8:00pm, at the Lunder Arts Center, Lesley University, Cambridge. Information and free registration: https://prcboston.org/hector-rene-4-23-19/
Griffin Museum guest juror Julie Grahame (Photo courtesy Michael Putland).
Griffin Museum of Photography’s 25th Annual Juried Members’ Exhibition is now accepting submissions through April 24th, 2019. Guest juror is Julie Grahame. For information and details: https://griffinmuseum.org/show/25th-annual-juried-members-exhibition/
Feature Image: “Tending the Beet Seedlings in June,” Limited Edition Pigment Ink Print on Recycled Fiber Paper from the Sustained series by Ivana Damien George (courtesy of the artist and Griffin Museum of Photography).
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