By Elin Spring and Suzanne Révy
Springtime seems to be coming verrry slooowly to New England this year. And from imminent threats against women’s sovereignty over their own bodies in the US to unrelenting devastation in the Ukraine, world news continues to be dire. Need a pick-me-up? We invite you to seek solace and inspiration in the most vibrant, engaging photography shows and events in and around Boston, listed geographically for your planning convenience. With the travel season gearing up, we are also including more shows outside of Massachusetts. Be sure to check back throughout the month, as we update regularly.
BOSTON PROPER
“Votes for Women” from the exhibition Real Photo Postcards: Pictures from a Changing Nation on view in the Herb Ritts and Clementine Brown Galleries at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston. (Installation photograph by Suzanne Révy)
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston – In 1903, Eastman Kodak Company introduced the “postcard camera” which allowed users to produce pictures both rapidly and inexpensively. This spurred an ongoing postcard craze and hastened the end of a Victorian photographic formality. Suddenly pictures of everything from train wrecks to silly antics were plentiful, inadvertently providing a chronicle of how America was growing and changing in the early 20th century. Featuring more than 300 works drawn from the MFA’s Leonard A. Lauder Postcard Archive, this exhibition will be on view through July 25th, 2022.
To read our review: https://www.whatwillyouremember.com/real-photo-postcards-at-the-museum-of-fine-arts-boston/
For more information, go to: https://www.mfa.org/exhibition/real-photo-postcards
Dawoud Bey: Night Coming Tenderly, Black in the Frances Vrachos Gallery / Mary Stamas Gallery at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. (Installation photograph by Suzanne Révy)
Also at Museum of Fine Arts, Boston – Dawoud Bey: Night Coming Tenderly, Black imagines the routes traveled by escaped enslaved people as they traveled nights through northeast Ohio seeking freedom. Bey’s low key, moody prints carry viewers through marshes, dark woods, and quiet back yards en route to Lake Erie. On view in the Frances Vrachos Gallery / Mary Stamas Gallery (Gallery 148).
For more information: https://www.mfa.org/gallery/dawoud-bey-night-coming-tenderly-black
“Election Victory Party aboard the SS Great Britain, Bristol, England, 1988” from the series The Cost of Living, © Martin Parr, Magnum Photos.
McMullen Museum of Art at Boston College – Martin Parr: Time and Place is the first major U.S. museum survey for the Magnum photographer, featuring over 135 works and an extensive collection of photobooks, curated by Karl Baden. With an emphasis on four decades of images from Ireland, his vivid social documentary photographs made throughout Europe, North America, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia underline Parr’s signature documentary style of juxtaposing feelings of familiarity and alienation in a colorful and often humorous anthropological study of humanity. On view through June 5th, 2022.
To read our review, go to: https://www.whatwillyouremember.com/martin-parr-time-and-place-at-mcmullen-museum-of-art-at-boston-college-ma/
For information about the exhibit and associated programming, go to: https://www.bc.edu/sites/artmuseum/exhibitions/parr/
“Iguazu Falls, Argentina” by Lois Conner, 2005, from the series Flat Earth, three 17″x7″ gelatin silver contact prints, courtesy of the artist and Robert Klein Gallery, Boston.
Robert Klein Gallery – A solo show of Lois Conner’s vintage gelatin silver landscapes and platinum prints, Flat Earth, is curated by Leandro Villaro (Penumbra Foundation) and features twenty-three multi-panel and seventeen individual prints. Dedicated to the school of slow looking, Conner’s images are at once sweeping and detailed, decontextualized and specific, sumptuous and serene. On view through May 21st, 2022.
To read our review, go to: https://www.whatwillyouremember.com/lois-conner-flat-earth-at-robert-klein-gallery-boston/
For more information, go to: https://www.robertkleingallery.com/contact
Feature Image: “Waiting in New Orleans” 2012, by Linda Haas, courtesy of the artist.
The Griffin Museum at Lafayette City Center – Color Theory group exhibition gathers imagery that recognizes the profound ways that color shapes our emotions. Curated by Crista Dix, Executive Director of the Griffin Museum, the selection also celebrates our emergence from a lengthy pandemic and dark winter. On view through June 13th, 2022, with an Artist Reception on May 15th from 4:00 – 6:00pm.
For information about planned events, go to: https://griffinmuseum.org/show/color-theory/
“Time Study” by William Mark Sommer, courtesy of the artist and Panopticon Gallery, Boston.
Panopticon Gallery – The themed, group show Film Is Not Dead, curated by Alexa Cushing and Brandon Dunning from Panopticon Imaging, indulges us with the real deal – pleasingly sensual prints from film. On view from May 2nd – June 30th, 2022, there will be an Opening Reception with many of the artists on Thursday, May 12th from 6:00 – 8:00pm.
For more information, go to: https://www.panopticongallery.com/
SOWA AND FORT POINT
“Sunday Morning” 2016 by Tynan Byrne, courtesy of the artist and Gallery Kayafas, Boston.
Gallery Kayafas, SoWa – The gallery is exhibiting four solo shows by artists in differing media, including Tynan Byrne’s Opening Echoes, featuring photographs, hand bound books and writing exploring magical realism in interpersonal relationships and queer life. On view through May 28th, 2022, there will be an Artists Reception on First Friday, May 6th from 5:30 – 8:00pm.
For more information, go to: https://www.gallerykayafas.com/
“The Camaro” 2018, from the series Dulce by Kathya Maria Landeros, courtesy of the artist and Abakus Projects, Boston.
Abakus Projects, SoWa – Mexican-American photographer Kathya Maria Landeros continues to explore bi-cultural representation and belonging in Latinx communities in her solo show Dulce (Spanish for “sweet”). There will be an Opening Reception with the artist on First Friday, May 6th, 2022 from 6:00 – 8:30 pm. The work will be on view Saturday and Sunday, May 7th and 8th, from 11:00 am – 5:00 pm and thereafter throughout the month by appointment.
For information, go to: https://www.abakusprojects.com/upcoming-exhibitions
“Ophelia” 2021, from the series My Terra Cognita by Sandra Stark, courtesy of the artist and Howard Yezerski Gallery, Boston.
Howard Yezerski Gallery, SoWa – Sandra Stark’s solo show My Terra Cognita features theatrical, surreal constructed landscapes in which she invokes the outdoors from within her studio to create “destabilizing and enigmatic still lifes.” On view from May 13th – June 18th, 2022, there will be an Opening Reception on Friday, May 13th from 5:00 – 8:00pm.
for more information , go to: https://www.howardyezerski.com/
Reconstructed features five artists exploring the challenges of immigration at FPAC Gallery.
FPAC Gallery, Fort Point – In the group show Reconstructed, five photographers who immigrated to the United States explore the challenges of identity and assimilation with a depth, poignancy and range of approaches that reflects the diversity of their personal experiences. Exhibiting artists include (L to R above): Eleonora Ronconi, Astrid Reischwitz, Iaritza Menjivar, Hugo Teixeira, and the show’s curator Yorgos Efthymiadis. On view through June 4th, 2022. PLEASE NOTE! There will be a closing reception at the gallery on Friday, May 20th, 2022 from 5:30 – 8:00pm.
To read our review, go to: https://www.whatwillyouremember.com/yorgos-efthymiadis-astrid-reischwitz-hugo-teixeira-eleonora-ronconi-and-iaritza-menjivar-in-reconstructed-at-fpac-gallery-in-fort-point-boston/
For more information, go to: https://www.fortpointarts.org/programs/galleries/gallery-at-300-summer/
“Isolation Haircut” 2020 by Eric Nichols, courtesy of the artist.
FP3 Gallery, Fort Point – The Photographic Resource Center (PRC) presents a group show When Time Matters that explores the perception of time – how it seems to fly or stand still – all the more intensified by the pandemic. Featuring the work of PRC Board and/or Programming Committee members Eric Nichols (above), Steven Duede, Faith Ninivaggi and Suzanne Révy, the show will be on view through June 29th, 2022 with an Opening Reception on May 15th from 4:00 – 6:00pm.
For more information, go to: https://www.prcboston.org/when-time-matters/
CAMBRIDGE AND WATERTOWN
Marta Hoepffner, German, Portrait of Anneliese Hager, c. 1950. Gelatin silver print. Harvard Art Museums/Busch-Reisinger Museum, Gift of the German Friends of the Busch-Reisinger Museum, 2019.112. Estate of Marta Hoepffner. Image courtesy of Harvard Art Museums; President and Fellows of Harvard College.
Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge – “White Shadows: Anneliese Hager and the Camera-less Photograph” showcases the photograms of an accomplished and influential surrealist artist. An inventive naturist and poet, Anneliese Hager (German, 1904-1997) created over one hundred photograms, many of which were lost to the bombing of Dresden in 1945. The Harvard Art Museums recently acquired 29 of these rare prints and places them into context with work by 19th century predecessors like Anna Atkins, famous for her cyanotypes of plants, as well Hager contemporaries, including Marta Hoepffner and László Moholy-Nagy. On view through July 31st, 2022.
To read our review: https://www.whatwillyouremember.com/white-shadows-anneliese-hager-and-the-camera-less-photograph-at-harvard-art-museums-cambridge-ma/
For more information about the exhibit and associated programming, go to: https://harvardartmuseums.org/exhibitions/6120/white-shadows-anneliese-hager-and-the-camera-less-photograph
“Dark Spring, Part One” 2021, by Vanessa Leroy, courtesy of the artist and Gallery Kayafas, Boston.
PRC at Storefront Art Projects, Watertown – Documents for an Imagined Future brings together the work of Vanessa Leroy (above), whose work envisions an uplifted future for marginalized people and and DM Witman, who explores ecological grief and strategies for surviving in the Age of the Anthropocene. Independent curator Sarah Pollman presents this conceptually themed show, on view from May 7th – June 4th, 2022.
There will be a free online conversation with the artists on Thursday, May 19th, 2022 from 6:30 – 8:30 pm. Registration is required: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/artists-in-conversation-online-tickets-326758853527
For directions, hours and more information, go to: https://www.prcboston.org/documents-for-an-imagined-future/
THE BURBS
“Lone Ranger” 2014 from America! America! Exploring History, Myth and Memory by David Levinthal, courtesy of the artist and Griffin Museum of Photography, Winchester, MA.
Griffin Museum of Photography – Winchester, MA – Since the early 1970’s David Levinthal has been playing with toy soldiers, cowboys and matchbox cars in still life images that question the myths of American news events, wars and cultural life. A selection of his luscious Polaroid images will be on view in America! America! Exploring History, Myth and Memory organized by former Polaroid Collection curator Barbara Hitchcock, on view through June 5th, 2022.
Also on view, Stephen Albair’s Silent Scenes and Philip Sager’s Veiled Actualities with an artist talk on May 17th. Both exhibitions will be on view through June 5th 2022.
To read our review, go to: https://www.whatwillyouremember.com/constructing-myths-at-griffin-museum-in-winchester-ma-with-david-levinthal-philip-sager-and-stephen-albair/
To register for online talks and/or more information about these exhibits, go to: https://griffinmuseum.org
“North Patio Corridor” by Georgia O’Keeffe, 1956-7, gelatin silver print, courtesy of the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe and the Addison Gallery of American Art, © Georgia O’Keeffe Museum.
Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, MA – Primarily known as a painter of flowers, skyscrapers, animal skulls, and the southwestern desert, Georgia O’Keeffe had a lifelong interest in photography. This exhibition is the first to examine the role of photography in her artistic practice. Featuring nearly one hundred rarely seen prints, the images reveal her interest in modernist form, texture, light and shadow. For context, the Addison is exhibiting work by one of O’Keefe’s teachers, Arthur Wesley Dow as well as a series of photogravures from Camera Work, the early 20th century magazine published by her husband, photographer Alfred Stieglitz. On view through June 12th, 2022.
To read our review, go to: https://www.whatwillyouremember.com/georgia-okeeffe-photographer-at-the-addison-gallery-of-american-art-andover-ma/
For more information: https://addison.andover.edu/Pages/default.aspx
“Pond Light Enchantment” 2021, by Emily Belz, courtesy of the artist and Gallery Kayafas, Boston.
Danforth Art Museum, Framingham, MA – Five Years of Aspect Initiative brings the online gallery “Aspect Initiative” created by Steven Duede in 2016, into the real world. Several times a year, the online gallery showcases the work of one artist along with a short curator’s essay, and has so far amassed a collection of over thirty of the brightest contemporary New England based photographers. Co-curated by Danforth director Jessica Roscio, this inspiring show underscores the breadth of our region’s photographic practice and will be on view through June 5th 2022.
To read our review, go to: https://www.whatwillyouremember.com/five-years-of-aspect-initiative-group-show-at-danforth-art-museum-in-framingham-ma/
For more information: https://danforth.framingham.edu/see-art/
“Coshocton, OH” 2019, from the exhibition American Roadsides: Frank Armstrong’s Photographic Legacy, courtesy of the artist and the Fitchburg Art Museum.
Fitchburg Art Museum, Fitchburg, MA – In American Roadsides, we are treated to recent color imagery by veteran photographer Frank Armstrong, whose discerning eye and droll sensibility pinpoint cultural markers through revealing landscapes. Armstrong’s influence and legacy are further demonstrated by the inclusion of photographs by seven of his students: Russell Banks, Sarah Bilotta Belclaire, Rachel Loischild, Greer Muldowney, Jasper Muse, Eric Nichols, and Catherine Wilcox-Titus. On view through June 5th, 2022.
To read our review, go to: https://www.whatwillyouremember.com/american-roadsides-frank-armstrongs-photographic-legacy-fitchburg-art-museum-ma/
For more information, go to: https://fitchburgartmuseum.org/american-roadsides-frank-armstrongs-photographic-legacy/
Photograph ©Stephen Tourlentes, courtesy fo the Davis Museum, Wellesley, MA.
The Davis Museum at Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA – Organized by Aperture Foundation, Prison Nation explores how photography records the toll of mass incarceration on American society. The group exhibition includes work by Stephen Tourlentes (above), Zora Murff, Lucas Foglia, Deborah Luster and Chandra McCormick, among others. The museum recently re-opened to the public and this show will be on view through June 5th, 2022.
To read our review, go to: https://www.whatwillyouremember.com/prison-nation-at-the-davis-museum-at-wellesley-college-ma/
For more information, go to: https://www.wellesley.edu/davismuseum/whats-on/current/node/189951
Barkley L. Hendricks, Self-Portrait with a Black Hat, 1989–2013. Digital c-print. © Barkley L. Hendricks. Courtesy of the artist’s estate and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York.
The Rose Museum at Brandeis University, Waltham, MA – The painter Barkley L. Hendricks (1945-2017), renowned for his “tender and immaculate” life-size portraits of people of color, liked to refer to his photographs as “my mechanical sketchbook.” Barkley L. Hendricks & Photography highlights the significant role of photography in the artist’s practice, illuminating relationships between photographs, Polaroids, prints and paintings. On view through July 24th, 2022.
For information about the exhibit and associated programming, go to: https://www.brandeis.edu/rose/exhibitions/2022/barkley-hendricks.html
From Garden Fantasia by Kimberly Witham, courtesy of the artist and Gary Marotta Fine Art, Provincetown.
Gary Marotta Fine Art, Provincetown, MA – Celebrated still-life photographer Kimberly Witham envelops viewers in sumptuous natural beauty in her solo exhibit of breath-taking immersive images, Garden Fantasia, opening on May 6th and 7th, 2022. There will be an Artists Reception on Saturday May 28th, 2022 from 7:00 – 9:00pm.
For more information, go to: https://garymarottafineart.com/
María Magdalena Campos-Pons, When I am Not Here/ Estoy Allá, Identity Could Be a Tragedy, 1995-1996. Composition of 6 Polaroid Polacolor Pro 20×24 in photographs. Framed: approx. 26x22in each (66×55.9 cm). © María Magdalena Campos-Pons. Purchased through the Eliza S. Paine Fund. Image courtesy of the artist. 2003.4
Worcester Art Museum (WAM), Worcester, MA – Addressing identity as a socio-political issue has been a central theme for artists since the 1970s. Us Them We | Race Ethnicity Identity addresses ways that contemporary artists accentuate concepts like race and ethnicity through various visual strategies. Co-curated by Nancy Kathryn Burns, Stoddard Associate Curator of Prints, Drawings and Photographs at WAM, and Toby Sisson, Associate Professor and Program Director of Studio Art at Clark University, the exhibit features over 50 objects across a broad spectrum of media including photography by artists including María Magdelena Campos-Pons and Lorna Simpson, along with prints, painting, and sculpture. On view through June 19th , 2022.
For more information, go to: https://www.worcesterart.org/exhibitions/us-them-we/
ROAD TRIP!
Connecticut
“Sunset at Sherwood Island State Park, CT” 1978 gelatin silver print © Larry Silver, courtesy of Bruce Silverstein Gallery, NYC.
Walsh Gallery, Fairfield University Art Museum, Fairfield – In 13 Ways of Looking at Landscape: Larry Silver’s Connecticut Photographs, guest curator Leslie K. Brown, Ph.D. has gathered over 80 photographs that bring together over 40 years of Photo League photographer Larry Silver’s images, made since he re-located from his native New York City to Westport, CT in 1973. Referencing the famous Wallace Stevens poem, “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird,” Brown has organized the exhibit into 13 clusters, visual and thematic equivalents of the poet’s stanzas. Each focusses on an aspect or aesthetic strategy of Silver’s multifaceted land- and sea-scapes from several regions of Connecticut. This unique viewing and spatial experience will be on view through June 18th, 2022.
For more information, go to: https://www.fairfield.edu/museum/larrysilver/
“Icarus”, 1970 silver gelatin print © Adger Cowans, courtesy of Bruce Silverstein Gallery, NYC.
Bellarmine Hall Galleries, Fairfield University Art Museum, Fairfield – Curated by Halima Taha, Sense and Sensibility presents “Adger Cowans’s use of photography to articulate the beauty within the human condition and the world we live in with over fifty images from his illustrious career.” One of the founding members of the famous Kamoinge Black photographers group and former assistant to Gordon Parks, Adger’s retrospective will be on view through June 18th, 2022.
For more information, go to: https://www.fairfield.edu/museum/adgercowans/
Rhode Island
Mayor’s Parade Baltimore © by Kimberly Keller, courtesy of the artist.
Rhode Island Center for Photographic Arts, Providence – Featuring the work by sixty-three artists, the 8th International Contemporary Photography Exhibition, juried this year by Jessica Roscio, Curator at Danforth Art at Framingham University, will be on view through May 13th, 2022.
For hours, directions and information, go to: https://www.riphotocenter.org
Vermont
From the exhibition Mark Guglielmo: Spirits in the Land, courtesy of the artist and the Vermont Center for Photography, Brattleboro, VT.
Vermont Center for Photography, Brattleboro – Mark Guglielmo: Spirits in the Land explores the artist’s Italian heritage in vibrant photographic collages that address memory, family and immigration. Made during pilgrimages to Sicily over three years, Guglielmo employs his own pictures with archival images, which are as layered as the diverse cultures of southern Italy. An Opening Reception is planned for Friday, May 6th, 2022 from 5:00 – 7:00pm, and an Artist Talk is scheduled for the exhibition’s final day on Sunday, June 26th, 2022 from 6:00 – 7:00pm.
For more information: https://vcphoto.org
Maine
“Untitled” c. 1959 by Ralph Eugene Meatyard, courtesy of the Colby College Museum of Art.
Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville – Act of Sight: The Tsiaras Family Photography Collection features 150 images from this important 2020 gift to the museum, including work by Ralph Eugene Meatyard (above) and a veritable hit parade of masters from the Modernists to Magnum. On view through August 14th, 2022.
For more information, go to: https://museum-exhibitions.colby.edu/exhibition/act-of-sight-the-tsiaras-family-photography-collection/?fbclid=IwAR3AGap3kMv4HSpMq27fH2cRzTLruwlXGqSwpiW3M2jeHPtXwejwJX319Es
Share On Facebook
Tweet It
