Scene in SOWA

By Elin Spring and Suzanne Révy

This month there are many noteworthy photography shows popping up around Boston. To provide more comprehensive coverage, we are combining our reviews of four solo exhibits in SoWa, Boston’s South End arts district: Jon Henry at Abakus Projects, Greg Heins and Zia Ayub at Gallery Kayafas and Michael Grecco at Anderson Yezerski Gallery.  These exhibits could hardly be more different. It’s a testament to the vibrancy of Boston’s art scene to be able to view such an artistic range in one spot. Join us on a journey to the scene in SoWa.

“Untitled #48, Inglewood, CA” 2019, from the series Stranger Fruit by Jon Henry, courtesy of the artist and Abakus Projects, Boston.

Abakus Projects

Jon Henry’s Stranger Fruit is conceptual portraiture at its best. In locations from churches to city streets and fields to mountain ranges, Henry recreates a version of Michelangelo’s famed Pieta sculpture in the Vatican. Only in Henry’s portraits, instead of Mary holding the crucified Jesus, Black women of all ages hold their sons in repose. At once confrontational and unsettlingly calm, they acknowledge a horrible truth about the persistent killing of Black men from sea to shining sea.

“Untitled #24, Birmingham, AL” 2016, from the series Stranger Fruit by Jon Henry, courtesy of the artist and Abakus Projects, Boston.

The mothers engage directly with the viewer, challenging us to acknowledge this racial legacy, while their fallen sons rest limply in their arms, eyes closed or averted in symbolic execution. The boys and men appear harmless, vulnerable and sensuous, with bare chests and feet, while their mothers’ piercing stares implore us to stanch this variation on lynching, referenced in the title that Henry adapted from the mournful Billie Holliday song “Strange Fruit.”

“Untitled #2, Co-Op City, NY” 2015, from the series Stranger Fruit by Jon Henry, courtesy of the artist and Abakus Projects, Boston.

In a subset of this series, Henry pictures women alone, looking away. As potent as they are poised, we cannot tell if they are waiting for the return of a son, aching from the loss of a beloved, or pondering what the future holds for a young Black son coming of age in America today. Replete with loaded references, Henry’s images share bold and clear compositions that bear crushing emotions and an urgent call to action. To me, one of the most brilliant aspects of these stirring portraits is the artistry with which Henry slips the viewer into his many unnerving scenarios. Way too many.

Jon Henry will be on view at Abakus Projects through May 28^th, 2023.

For more information or to schedule a visit, go to: https://www.abakusprojects.com/

“Hotel Pillows” by Greg Heins from the show More and More and Then Some, courtesy of the artist and Gallery Kayafas, Boston.

Gallery Kayafas 

Wandering around a neighborhood – or really, anywhere – can refresh the body, clear the mind and open our eyes to the mundane details that surround us. In More and More and Then Some, Greg Heins has roamed near his home with a camera, attentive to what photographer Saul Leiter called “the overlooked ordinary.” There is a purity to this photographic process that can form a psychological connection between the viewer and the artist. I sense a languid rhythm in his stride, the buzz of cicadas, the distant sounds of a train or the leaves gently blowing in the wind as I look at his pictures. Heins’ photographs meander inside and then outside and through the seasons, escorting us on a journey to endow the familiar with a poignance.

“Wetland Boardwalk” by Greg Heins from the show More and More and Then Some, courtesy of the artist and Gallery Kayafas, Boston.

Throughout these pictures, Heins repeats visual elements, either within the frame as in the PEM Stairway or the three pillows in an unmade bed or revisiting locations several times, as he does with a wetland boardwalk. Probably most arresting, though, is a series of pictures that he made of boundary marker streamers or caution tape tied to tree limbs or small branches. Their artificial color is in stark contrast to the more subdued hues of surrounding leaves. Round or oval framing focus attention on these bright ribbons flapping in the wind. Heins found them unnerving during the chaotic times of the pandemic, and wondered, are we being warned to keep out of nature? Or are we trying to assert some control over it?

“Cuidado, Queen Anne’s Lace” by Greg Heins, from the show More and More and Then Some, courtesy of the artist and Gallery Kayafas, Boston.

“Photogenic Drawing 1” 2018, by Zia Ayub, courtesy of the artist and Gallery Kayafas, Boston.

On view in the Alcove at Gallery Kayafas, Zia Ayub presents two series of his alternative process photographic prints, Photogenic Drawing and Ethereal. In Photogenic Drawing, Ayub creates enlarged reproductions of camera-less photograms featuring leaves and twigs, rendered with warm-hued and textural, moody backgrounds. Ethereal is a series of landscapes captured utilizing B&W film and a toy camera, infamous for its capricious and quirky results. Ayub develops and prints these in a darkroom using experimentally derived methods that recall the historic, painterly and soft-focus style favored in pictorial photographs from the 1800’s. In each image, Ayub’s hands-on techniques embrace the natural world and venerate his physical and spiritual relationship with lyrical romanticism.

“Ethereal 25” 2016, by Zia Ayub, courtesy of the artist and Gallery Kayafas, Boston.

Greg Heins and Zia Ayub will be on view at Gallery Kayafas through June 10th, 2023, with a First Friday reception on June 2nd from 5:30 – 8:00pm.

For more information, go to: https://www.gallerykayafas.com/

“Philip Oakey from Human League performing in Boston” by Michael Grecco, 1980, from the show Days of Punk, courtesy of the artist and the Anderson Yezerski Gallery, Boston.

Anderson Yezerski Gallery

Striking a vastly different mood, the Anderson Yezerski Gallery presents Micheal Grecco’s Days of Punk made at performances from the late 70’s and early 80’s. Grecco captured the frenetic energy of pioneers such as Wendy O. Williams of the Plasmatics or the stilted robotic rhythms of Devo during live performances in Boston, rendered in emotionally analogous high contrast black and white prints. A backlit picture of the Human League creates a visual pause from the sweaty and sometimes destructive antics of performers and audiences. The show is punctuated by two color photographs, one of Billy Idol performing on stage, and the other of Martha Davis licking a giant cake celebrating an album by her band, The Motels. You can almost smell the stale beer. Grecco brings alive reminiscences of the nighttime world of downtown venues filled with colorful denizens rebelling against the conservative tide of Ronald Reagan and his counterpart across the pond, Margaret Thatcher.

“Martha Davis from the band The Motels” by Michael Grecco, 1982, from the show Days of Punk, courtesy of the artist and the Anderson Yezerski Gallery, Boston.

Michael Grecco will be on view at Anderson Yezerski Gallery through June 17th, 2023, there will be an Opening Reception and Book Signing on Friday, May 19th from 5:00 – 9:00pm and an Artist Talk on Saturday, May 20th at 1:00 pm and at 2:00pm.

For more information, go to: https://andersonyezerski.com/