Best Photo Picks December 2020

By Elin Spring and Suzanne Révy

No sugar coating, here’s the ghastly truth: it is hazardous to gather with family and friends, let alone to venture out and immerse ourselves in artwork at museums and galleries. If they are even open.  It is an understatement to say we feel conflicted about publishing our Best Photo Picks of photography exhibits that are open to the public around the Boston region this month. But we also sympathize with that desire for nourishing one’s soul that art provides. If you want to attend a show, please call ahead to check hours and policies, as they are in flux. If you choose to visit an exhibit, please exercise utmost caution. Our collective good depends on each one of us.

BOSTON PROPER

Nayla, Ted, Alexandra, Nick, March 30, 1995, 1995 Elsa Dorfman (American, born in 1937) Photograph, Polaroid Polacolor, Gift of Elsa Dorfman in memory of Dorothy Glaser, © Elsa Dorfman, 2013, all rights reserved, Photograph © Museum of Fine Arts, 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 will be on view through January 9th, 2021. For more information about the exhibit and associated programming, go to: https://www.mfa.org/exhibition/elsa-dorfman-me-and-my-camera

“Wellfleet Spectral” 2018 by Fran Forman, courtesy of the artist and Pucker Gallery, Boston.

Pucker Gallery – Fran Forman’s alchemy of influences – from the stirring light in Dutch paintings to the spare, reflective moods of Edward Hopper – echo the unsettling effects of Covid-19 with alluring stillness in her solo show Self-Illumination, on view through January 10th, 2021. For information about visiting the gallery and the virtual gatherings and events accompanying the exhibit, go to: https://www.puckergallery.com/

Featured Image: Edward Boches “Pandemic Day 49: A commuter outbound on the Red Line” from the series Somewhere along the Curve courtesy of the artist and Panopticon Gallery, Boston.

Panopticon Gallery – Initially launched as a website, Pandemic Boston: One Moment in Time, Six Photographers, collectively explored the empty streets and social isolation in Boston brought on by pandemic lockdown last spring. The conversation between the six photographers Edward Boches, Lou Jones, Margaret Lampert, Jeff Larason, Coco McCabe and Juan Murray moves offline to a physical venue at the Panopticon Gallery in Kenmore Square through January 25th, 2021. For more information go to https://www.panopticongallery.com

Yana Paskova “Woman in Blue” 2019, from the series “Where Women Rule: The Widows of Varanasi” courtesy of the artist, Getty/Lumix and the Leica Gallery Boston.

Leica Gallery, Boston – The Leica Women Foto Project was launched last year to promote “the expansion and diversity of inclusion in photography.” In their first year, they have chosen three women for a grant and the loan of a camera to further projects that address topical issues around identity and culture: Yana Paskova (above), Debi Cornwall and Eva Woolridge. The exhibit has been extended, due to the pandemic-induced closure earlier this year. To read our review, go to: https://www.whatwillyouremember.com/leica-women-foto-project-yana-paskova-debi-cornwall-eva-woolridge/

For gallery/store hours and information, go to: https://leicagalleryboston.com/exhibitions/

THE BURBS

“Pia Towle-Kimball, Iraq” from the series Many Wars by Suzanne Opton, courtesy of the artist and Griffin Museum of Photography.

Griffin Museum of Photography, Winchester, MA – Tours of Duty spans all of the Museum’s galleries, featuring solo shows by eight photographers: Todd Bradley: War Stories I Never Heard; Binh Danh: Military Foliage and One Week’s Dead; Susan Opton: Many Wars (above); David Pace/Stephen Wirtz, WIREPHOTO; William Betcher: War Games; Allison Stewart Bug Out Bag: The Commodification of American Fear; and D. Clarke Evans: Before They Are Gone: Portraits and Stories of World War II Veterans. LAST CHANCE! All exhibits will be on view through December 6th, 2020.

To read our review, go to: https://www.whatwillyouremember.com/william-betcher-todd-bradley-binh-danh-d-clarke-evans-suzanne-opton-david-pace-stephen-wirtz-allison-stewart-at-griffin-museum-ma/

For information, including a schedule of virtual artist talks and events accompanying this exhibit, go to: https://griffinmuseum.org/show/tours-of-duty/

“Starry, Starry Night, Self-Portrait” © Holly Worthington, courtesy of the artist and Griffin Museum of Photography.

The Griffin Museum‘s annual, non-juried, member Winter Solstice Exhibition will be on display from December 8, 2020 – January 5, 2021. Photographs will be presented in the Main Gallery of the Griffin and display a spectrum of genres and processes. The virtual reception is Sunday, December 13, 2020 from 4-6:00 PM. Nearly all pieces are available for purchase and many artists have donated the proceeds back to the Griffin. For more information, go to: https://griffinmuseum.org/show/winter-solstice-2020/

Kerry James Marshall “Souvenir II”, acrylic, collage and glitter on unstretched canvas banner, 108″x120″, purchased as a gift of the Addison Advisory Council in honor of John “Jock” Reynolds’ Directorship of the Addison Gallery, courtesy of the Addison Gallery of American Art.

Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, MA – The Addison boasts an embarrassment of riches from its deep photographic archives: an exhibit of Robert Frank’s The Americans through April 11th, 2021, a selection of photographs by Roy DeCarava through January 3rd, 2021, An Incomplete History of Photography: 1860’s to 1960’s through February 21st, 2021, and the many photographs included in the engaging multi-media exhibit To Make Visible: Art and Activism, 1980-2000 (above) through January 3rd, 2021.

To read our review of To Make Visible: Art and Activism, 1980-2000, go to: https://www.whatwillyouremember.com/to-make-visible-art-and-activism-1980-to-2000-at-addison-gallery-of-american-art/

For information about these exhibits, the Museum’s restricted public hours and their pandemic rules and precautions, go to: https://addison.andover.edu/Exhibitions/Pages/exhibitions.aspx

From the series and book Women in Pants by Catherine Smith, courtesy of the artist.

Danforth Art, Framingham State University – To honor the one-hundredth anniversary of the passage of the 19th amendment giving (white) women the right to vote, the Danforth presents Catherine Smith: A Cabinet of Curiosities, which includes her collection of nineteenth century photographs that were the basis of her book Women in Pants. The photographs will be presented in conversation with works from the museum’s permanent collection. The exhibition will be on view through February 28th, 2021. For more information go to: https://danforth.framingham.edu

ROAD TRIP!

LEFT: Six Polaroid Photographs (Polaroid Type 108 film) “Kay Fortson, 1976” (Courtesy of the Davis Museum at Wellesley College, Gift of The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.)
RIGHT: “Portrait of an American Lady, 1976” Synthetic polymer paint and silkscreen ink on canvas (Courtesy of Kasmin Gallery, New York). Installation photo by Elin Spring.

Newport Art Museum, Newport, R. I. – Andy Warhol: Big Shot focuses on the famed conceptual artist’s photography, specifically work made with Polaroid Big Shot and SX-70 cameras. Warhol’s masses of instant photographs served as a diary documenting friends and events, as inspiration for commercial and personal work, and as experiments in self-portraiture that forecast the popularity of today’s ubiquitous “selfies” on social media. It’s a special treat to see a selection of Warhol’s Polaroids with the final works they generated, along with some photo booth portraits and his rare, stitched photographs. On view in the Museum’s Cushing Building through December 20th, 2020.

To read our review of this show, go to: https://www.whatwillyouremember.com/andy-warhol-big-shot-at-newport-art-museum-newport-ri/

For more information, go to: https://newportartmuseum.org/exhibitions/warhol/

Rhode Island Center for Photographic Arts (RICPA), Providence R.I. – In Crossing Cultures: Family, Memory and Displacement, currently on view through December 11th, 2020, Claudia Ruiz Gustafson brings together her work alongside three other artists, Astrid Reischwitz, Vivian Poey and Nilou Moochhala, who relate stories of family, home and immigration through photography, collage, video, and installation.

To read our review of this exhibit from its installation at the Cambridge Art Association last year, go to: https://www.whatwillyouremember.com/crossing-cultures-claudia-ruiz-gustafson-astrid-reischwitz-vivian-poet-nilou-moochhala-at-cambridge-art-association/

There will be an Online Reception for this show on Thursday, December 3rd, 2020 at 7:00pm. Email Gallery@RIPhotoCenter.org for your invite to the Zoom session.

For more information, hours and directions to the RICPA installation, go to: https://www.riphotocenter.org/crossing-cultures-family-memory-and-displacement/