By Elin Spring and Suzanne Révy
Welcome a little light and magic into the chill and dark of December! Here are our selections of the most engaging photography exhibits and events around Boston and beyond, arranged by location for your planning convenience. But hurry! Several shows close soon!
SOWA- Boston’s South End Arts District
“Beyond” by Caleb Cole from the exhibition Collective Feelings, altered and collaged found photographs, courtesy of the artist and Gallery Kayafas, Boston.
Gallery Kayafas – In the solo exhibit Collective Feelings, Caleb Cole deploys his creative powers in photography, collage, assemblage, and video to juxtapose images and objects from different time periods. The emergent conversations prompt viewers to consider the lineage of queer culture and engage the act of looking backward at a fraught, often violent history to imagine possibilities for new queer futures. LAST CHANCE! On view in all three galleries through December 4th, 2021 with a closing reception planned for Friday December 3rd, 5:00 to 8:00 pm.
Go here to read our review.
For more information: https://www.gallerykayafas.com
BOSTON PROPER
“Hair Advertisement” 2005, by Deana Lawson, pigment print. Courtesy the artist; Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York; and David Kordansky, Los Angeles. © Deana Lawson
Institute of Contemporary Art – The first museum survey dedicated to the work of Deana Lawson comes to the ICA. Known for portraits featuring both family and strangers, Lawson employs a variety of photographic languages including the family album, studio portraits, constructed pictures and appropriated imagery to challenge conventions regarding representation of Black life. Her aim is to impart a sense of beauty, power and intelligence to the everyday experiences of Black Americans. On view through February 27th, 2022.
For more information: https://www.icaboston.org/exhibitions/deana-lawson
Feature Image: “Snowy Egret” from the series Antique Aviary by Dianne Yudelson, courtesy of the artist.
The Griffin Museum at Lafayette City Center – Once Upon a Time invites viewers to write a story inspired by one of the pictures in this exhibition featuring dozens of photographs selected for their narrative possibilities. The Museum will later host an event for writers to read their stories as the photographs are projected. Jurors for the writing, Cassandra Goldwater and Jill Frances Johnson, will award cash prizes. On view through February 19th 2022 with a reception planned for January 9th, 2022.
For more information: https://griffinmuseum.org
“Rayven, Miami Beach, Florida, 2019” from SHE by Rania Matar, courtesy of the artist and Robert Klein Gallery, Boston.
Robert Klein Gallery – In her solo exhibit and new book SHE (Radius, 2021), Rania Matar’s sensitive and lyrical individual portraits of young women from the U.S. and Middle East embrace the fragility and hope that attends coming of age in today’s geopolitical climate. On view through January 8th, 2022 by appointment. Or come meet Rania Matar at the gallery on Tuesday afternoon, December 14th, 2021 – she’ll be happy to discuss her work, answer your questions and/or sign your copy of her book.
Also on view at RKG, The Fine Print, a curated selection of photographs by master darkroom printers, such as Paul Caponigro, George Tice, Edward Weston and Jerry Uelsmann.
Go here to read our review of She by Rania Matar.
For information, go to: https://www.robertkleingallery.com/
“Two Pears, Cushing, Maine, 1999” © Paul Caponigro, courtesy of Robert Klein Gallery, Boston.
CAMBRIDGE
“Auto Immune Response: Confluence of Three Generations” 2015, by Will Wilson, courtesy of the artist and the Harvard Art Museums.
Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge – “Devour the Land: War and American Landscape Photography since 1970” considers how contemporary photographers have responded to the US military’s impact on the domestic environment. Assembled by Makeda Best, Harvard Art Museums Richard L. Menschel Curator of Photography, the expansive exhibit features over 160 photographs by 60 artists across six thematic groupings, presenting a wide range of views, such as that of Shun Chi Yin (above), which addresses the tensions between beauty of the vast western landscape and its use as a nuclear testing ground. Creatively conceived and presented,“Devour the Land” raises awareness of the ways violence and warfare surround us, in a selection of images from artists including Robert Adams, Terry Evans, Lucas Foglia, LaToya Ruby Frazier, Susan Meiselas, Richard Misrach, Steven Tourlentes, Alex Webb and Will Wilson, to name a few. On view by advance reservation through January 16th, 2022.
Go here to read our review. For more information: https://harvardartmuseums.org
THE BURBS
“Old Harbor 1, Block Island, 2020” from the series Places I Never Lived by Joy Bush, courtesy of the artist and Griffin Museum of Photography.
The Griffin Museum of Photography, Winchester, MA – “Home Views” presents a broad interpretation of structures, dwellings and the domestic spaces we share with family or neighbors. Featuring the work of eleven photographers in ten solo shows plus one video: Joy Bush, Anton Gautama, Judi Iranyi, Charles Mintz, Colleen Mullins, Roberta Neidigh, Jane Szabo, Brandy Trigueros, Kathleen Tunnel Handel, Ira Wagner and Melanie Walker. LAST CHANCE! On view through December 5th, 2021.
Go here to read our review. For more information: https://griffinmuseum.org
“Lenore” from the series and book Major Arcana by Frances Denny, courtesy of the artist and ClampArt, NYC.
Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, MA– As a descendent of both the accusers and those accused of witchcraft in the Salem Witch Trials of 1692, photographer Frances Denny explores the face of modern American witchcraft in Major Arcana, her series of portraits including healers, artists and tarot readers across a spectrum of identities and spiritual practices. Thirteen of Denny’s portraits are featured in an expansive fall show at PEM, “The Salem Witch Trials: Reckoning and Reclaiming” on view through March 20th, 2022.
For more information about the exhibit, go to: https://www.pem.org/exhibitions/the-salem-witch-trials-reckoning-and-reclaiming
“Remnants Betty” by Greg Sands, courtesy of the artist and The Photographic Resource Center, Cambridge, MA.
Photographic Resource Center at the Fuller Craft Museum, Brockton, MA – PRC guest curator Sage Brousseau brings together photographers who employ textile design such as embroidery, stitching or weaving in crafting prints addressing memory, identity and history in Hand Eye Coordination. In collaboration with the Fuller Museum of Craft in Brockton, the artists include Lala Abaddon, Edie Bresler, Katherine Chudy, Lauren Davies, Letitia Huckaby, Kyle Meyer, Astrid Reischwitz, Chelsea Revelle, Greg Sand, Charlotte Schmid-Maybach, Heather Evans Smith and Liz Steketee. LAST CHANCE! On view from through December 5th 2021
For more information: https://www.prcboston.org/hand-eye-coordination/
“Blue Handkerchief, Red Handkerchief” 1977 by Hal Fischer, from the series Gay Semiotics, courtesy of the artist, Project Native Informant, London, and the Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, MA.
Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, MA – Language, Sequence, Structure: Photographic Works by Lew Thomas, Donna-Lee Phillips, and Hal Fischer presents a trio of Bay area photographers who sought to infuse conceptualism into photography in an attempt to disrupt the emotional tenor prevalent in the west coast aesthetic of the late 70’s. All the prints in this show were recently acquired by the Addison and they expand on an exhibit last year at SFMoMA called Thought Pieces which brought the trio’s work together for the first time in thirty years. On view through January 23rd, 2022.
For more information: https://addison.andover.edu/Exhibitions/LSSPhoto/Pages/default.aspx?in=On+View+Now
From the series Hidden Waters by Bremner Benedict, courtesy of the artist and Sun Stone Studio, W. Concord, MA.
Sun Stone Studio, West Concord – Classic and alternative photographs presented in conversation between Bremner Benedict’s desert landscapes, Cynthia Katz’s cyanotypes and encaustics, photographs and hand-made paper by Fay Senner. On view through December 30th, 2021.
For more information: https://www.threestonesgallery.com/sun-stone-studio
“Camera Obscura: View of Florence Duomo in Tuscany President’s Office in Palazzo Strozzi” by Abe Morell (American, b. Cuba 1948) from the exhibit Projecting Italy, courtesy of the artist and the Fitchburg Art Museum.
Fitchburg Art Museum, Fitchburg, MA – The master of the camera obscura, Abelardo Morell comes to the Fitchburg Art Museum with Projecting Italy. Morell’s use of this ancient technique brings Italian vistas into sumptuous rooms to honor the twentieth anniversary of the Center for Italian Culture at Fitchburg State University. If you go, be sure to check out Joyride: Cars in American Art from the Terry and Eva Herndon Collection, on view through January 9th, 2022; Projecting Italy will be on view through February 6th, 2022.
Go here to read our review.
For more information: https://fitchburgartmuseum.org/projecting-italy/
“Oak Street” 2017 by Justin Kimball from the series Elegy, courtesy of the artist and the Mead Art Museum, Amherst College.
Mead Art Museum, Amherst College, Amherst, MA – Amherst College student photographer Jonathan Mark Jackson and his mentor, photography professor Justin Kimball create a visual and historical conversation in their exhibit, The Room that Grew. Jackson’s ancestor, Robert Roberts, was the first African-American to publish a commercial book, The House Servants Directory. Inspired by this primer for domestic workers, Jackson’s photographs interact with Kimball’s images from his series and book, Elegy, looking at the economic impacts of the 2008 market crash on small towns in the northeast. On view through January 22nd, 2022.
For more information: https://www.amherst.edu/museums/mead/exhibitions/2021/a-room-that-grew
ROAD TRIP!
Rhode Island
“War Paint” 2001, Black Bear Jr. (Arapahoe), ca.1900. Photographer F. A. Rinehart. Original photograph courtesy of Western History/ Genealogy Department, Denver Public Library, Denver, CO. From the series An Indian from India by Annu Palakunnathu Matthews.
Newport Art Museum, Newport, RI – ReVision, an expansive and mind-expanding mid-career retrospective of photography-based works by artist Annu Palakunnathu Matthews features six projects across three galleries, ranging from her dreamy Holga series Memories of India (begun in 1996), to her humorous and biting diptych series An Indian from India (2001-2008), to her affecting current work in The UnRemembered, featuring installations of video and stunning projections in crystal that will take your breath away. On view through January 9th, 2022.
Go here to read our review.
For more information: https://newportartmuseum.org/exhibitions/revision/
Maine
“Parked Car, Small Town, Maine Street” 1932 by Walker Evans, gelatin silver print, printed circa 1969 by Charles Rodemeyer. The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gift of the artist, 1975. © 2021 Walker Evans Archive, The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Portland Museum of Art, Portland, ME – To commemorate the 75th anniversary of Walker Evans’ landmark show at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City and the accompanying influential monograph, American Photographs, former MoMA curator Sarah Hermanson Meister along with Collections Specialist Tasha Lutek organized this selection of Evans’ pictures, LAST CHANCE! on view through December 5th, 2021.
For more information: https://www.portlandmuseum.org/walker-evans
Vermont
From the exhibition Frost by Michael Poser, courtesy of the artist and the Vermont Center for Photography, Brattleboro, VT.
Vermont Center for Photography, Brattleboro, VT –Frost brings poet Melissa Whalen Haertsch and photographer Michael Poster together to present a series of sensitive portraits made in care facilities for elderly women, all the more poignant for their fragility and mortality. On view through January 2nd, 2022.
For more information: https://vcphoto.org
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