By Elin Spring and Suzanne Révy
Got wanderlust? After an unprecedented and extremely long year trapped at home, the ability to get out and about again is arriving with that energizing infusion of light we call springtime. It’s enough to make you break out in song or, say, start venturing out to see art in person again. Safely, of course. Here are our April Best Photo Picks for exhibits open to the public around Boston and beyond, listed geographically for your convenience.
SOWA – BOSTON’S SOUTH END ARTS DISTRICT
“40th Anniversary of Elvis’ Death, Graceland, 2017” ©Bill Chapman, courtesy of Gallery Kayafas, Boston.
Gallery Kayafas – To put it mildly, the year of the pandemic has brought seismic changes across the globe. In a creative response, various cultural inflection points are the focus of the gallery’s current exhibits: In A Flash!, work by Harold Edgerton (1903-1990), the inventor of time-stopping strobe photography, A Fool Such As Us!, Bill Chapman’s documentary photographs of the cult around Elvis Presley, and Safe In My Garden, Kevin Bennett Moore’s cinematic vignettes investigating cultural shifts over the last half century in relation to the LGBTQ community. In the Alcove, Nicole Buchanan’s Strange Fruit takes the pulse of Black Lives Matter protests following the murder of George Floyd. On view through April 24th, 2021, for more information about these exhibits and associated programming, go to: https://www.gallerykayafas.com/
“Satellite of Love, October 2020” © Kevin Bennett Moore, courtesy of Gallery Kayafas, Boston.
BOSTON PROPER
Feature Image: “Eiffel Tower #5, 2019” ©Jeffrey Milstein, courtesy of Robert Klein Gallery, Boston.
Robert Klein Gallery – In May of 2019, the illustrious aerial photographer Jeffrey Milstein was granted rare permission to photograph Paris from a helicopter. One thousand feet up, with the door off, and tethered by a harness as he leaned out over city landmarks, Milstein’s training as an architect and keen eye for finding exquisite patterns of form and color have come together in “Jeffrey Milstein-From the Air,” on view from April 1st – May 15th, 2021 by appointment only, Wednesday – Saturday from noon – 5:00pm. Milstein’s latest monograph, “Paris From the Air” will be released by Rizzoli mid-April.
For more information, go to: https://www.robertkleingallery.com/jeffrey-milstein-1
“Two Chambermaids, Prague” © Paul Ickovic, courtesy Robert Klein Gallery, Boston.
Robert Klein Gallery will also be showing B&W photographs by street photographer Paul Ickovic, onetime assistant to Henri Cartier-Bresson, in conjunction with his retrospective exhibit, In Transit (alongside a Cartier-Bresson show) at the Biblioteque nationale de France (BnF) in Paris from April 15th – June 7th, 2021. To schedule an appointment, go to: https://www.robertkleingallery.com/
“Flight” 2019 from the series Life Could Be A Dream by bill Gore, courtesy of the artist and Griffin Museum of Photography.
Griffin Museum at Lafayette City Center Passageway, Downtown Crossing – In the group exhibition Digits: A Parallel Universe, eleven photographers use a range of digital manipulations to create exciting explorations of altered states, times or dimensions: Debe Arlook, Diana Cheren Nygren, Najee Dorsey, Cathy Cone, Miren Etcheverry, Dennis Geller, Bill Gore (Feature Image), Marcy Juran, Deborah Kaplan, Lisa Ryan and Gordon Saperia. On view through June 9, 2021, there will be a Virtual Exhibition Reception/Artist Talk on April 25, 2021 at 4:00pm EST. For more information and/or to register, go to: https://griffinmuseum.org/show/digits-parallel-universe/
To read our review: https://www.whatwillyouremember.com/digits-a-parallel-universe-at-griffin-museum-satellite-in-lafayette-city-center-boston/
Elsa Dorfman, Me and My Camera, 1986. Dye diffusion photograph (Polaroid print). Gift of Elsa Dorfman in Honor of Harvey A. Silverglate. © Elsa Dorfman, 2013, all rights reserved (courtesy of MFA, Boston).
MFA, Boston – Elsa Dorfman: Me and My Camera highlights a selection of 20″x 24″ Polaroid self-portraits by the famed Cambridge portrait photographer, as well as a group of smaller B&W images from her landmark 1974 photobook Elsa’s Housebook: A Woman’s Photojournal. This autobiographical chronicle of Dorfman’s ebullient, fascinating life has been extended through May 23rd, 2021. For more information, go to: https://www.mfa.org/exhibition/elsa-dorfman-me-and-my-camera
THE BURBS
“Present Day Refugee with Dormitory Ship ‘Flotel Europa'” 1995 by Shimon Attie from the series Portraits of Exile, courtesy of the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, gift of Cathy England.
deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, Lincoln, MA – Two new shows will incorporate photography among other media. The first, What We Do In The Shadows will feature prints and photographs that explore places hidden in shadows where people can either flourish in secret or where governments conceal something more sinister. A second show, Sonya Clark: Heaven Bound will include six large scale vinyl print portraits of former enslaved Americans, such as Frederick Douglass and Sojourner Truth, among several unidentified faces. On view from April 10th through September 12, 2021.
For more information: https://thetrustees.org/program/decordova-exhibtions/
From the series Balancing Cultures by Jerry Takigawa, courtesy of the artist and the Griffin Museum of Photography.
Griffin Museum of Photography, Winchester, MA – Jerry Takigawa explores his grandparents’ demeaning experience in the internment camps where Japanese-American citizens were held during World War II. The hardships endured are illuminated by piecing together photographs, artifacts and memories in his series Balancing Cultures (above). In addition, the museum will present Anonymous by Edie Bresler, a series of repurposed collages and Claudia Ruiz Gustafson’s Historias Fragmentadas, which mines the grief and longing for the artist’s late grandmother and her Peruvian roots. The winner of the John Chervinsky Emerging Photographer Award, Tavon Taylor’s The Last Rose of Summer remains on view through May 23rd 2021. On view from April 1st through May 23rd, 2021.
For more information and to make a reservation to visit: https://griffinmuseum.org
Hector Mediavilla “Patrice Ngolo, the Sapeur” 2008(left), Gil Blank, “Untitled” (center) Hector Mediavilla “”Delagrace aka ‘The Icon of Beautiful Color'” 2010, installation photograph by Suzanne Révy
Fitchburg Art Museum, Fitchburg, MA– FAM has just reopened to the public, showcasing recent acquisitions in their ongoing two part exhibition called The Big Picture: Giant Photographs and Powerful Portfolios featuring large prints in the first part and a selection of portfolios in the second. Prints measuring up to six by eight feet offer a visually stimulating antidote to the small screen blues that have dominated our recent views of photography, with work by a global list of photographers alongside New England artists Laura McPhee and Brian Ulrich. In addition, the museum is presenting a selection of portfolios from the classic black and whites of André Kertesz to the quirky street pictures of Ruben Natal-San Miguel and Steve Locke’s penetrating portfolio, “Family Pictures” which addresses the history of racism. The Big Picture: Giant Photographs and Powerful Portfolios will be on view through June 6th 2021. For more information go to: https://fitchburgartmuseum.org
To read our review: https://www.whatwillyouremember.com/the-big-picture-giant-photographs-and-powerful-portfolios-at-fitchburg-art-museum/
A complete, original selection of prints from Robert Frank’s “The Americans” is on view at the Addison Gallery of American Art.
Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, MA– Last chance!! The Addison is one of only four museums in the world to own a complete set of the images from Robert Frank’s book, The Americans, (published 1958 in Europe, 1959 in the US), and they are currently on view for another week and a half! HURRY! Only on view through April 11th, 2021!
For more information: https://addison.andover.edu/Pages/default.aspx
ROAD TRIP!
“Lenox Chirp with Plum” 2019 by JP Terlizzi, from the series The Good Dishes, courtesy of the artist and Sohn Fine Art, Lenox, MA.
Sohn Fine Art, Lenox, MA – The gallery presents a juried show “Perspective” that wanders between landscape, still life, the figure and abstraction in enticing and lush hues from photographers Richard Alan Cohen, Marcy Juran, Ana Leal, Ralph Mercer, Bruce Panock, Julia Smith and JP Terlizzi. A reception is planned for Saturday April 10th, and the exhibition will be on view through May 3rd, 2021. For more information: https://www.sohnfineart.com
From Above and On the Ground by Neal Rantoul, courtesy of the artist and Martha’s Vineyard Museum, Tisbury, MA.
Martha’s Vineyard Museum, Tisbury, MA – In his solo show Above and On the Ground, Neal Rantoul’s large format B&W landscape photographs from the 1980’s and ’90’s trace the island’s rapid development, while his recent sweeping and immersive aerial color photographs capture the essence of its natural splendor with graphic beauty. On view through April 25th, 2021. For information, go to: https://mvmuseum.org
Donna Ferrato, selections from the series Living with the Enemy, courtesy of the artist and the Newport Art Museum.
Newport Art Museum, Newport, Rhode Island – Selections from Donna Ferrato’s seminal book, Living with the Enemy, probing the challenges women face under the threat of domestic violence and the repercussions of breaking free. Ferrato’s decades-long advocacy has resulted in funding for shelters and education and this exhibition features selections that have been donated to the museum’s permanent collection. On view through June 6th 2021. For more information: https://newportartmuseum.org
Installation view of Behind the Lens: Expanded at RI Center for Photographic Arts (RICPA) in Providence.
Rhode Island Center for Photographic Arts (RICPA), Providence, R.I. – Last year’s online exhibit Behind the Lens: Women in Photography finally gets a physical exhibit in the gallery in an “expanded” format that combines photographs and projections, on view through April 13th, 2021. For hours and information, go to: https://www.riphotocenter.org/behind-the-lens-plus-online/
“Flow #7” by Jane Yudelman, courtesy of the artist and Cove Street Arts, Portland, Maine.
Cove Street Arts, Portland, Maine – The essence of natural formations is expressed in Abstract Nature, a group show curated by Bruce Brown. Five photographers manipulate their images in ways that invite viewers to consider the natural world differently: Carl Austin Hyatt, Carol Eisenberg, CE Morse, Jane Yudelman (above) and John Woodruff. On view through April 24th, 2021. For more information, go to: https://www.covestreetarts.com/exhibitions-1/current-exhibition-abstractnature
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