* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * « MCC grant deadline approaches * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * THE NEW ENGLAND JOURNAL Help us prepare 2010 Art Awards ballot » TALKS FROM OUR ARCHIVES OF AESTHETIC RESEARCH NEJAR’s picks for best art of 2010 We proudly offer more New England art news and reviews than anyone else. Contact our researchers. Disconcerting evidence concerning the nature of our existence. Learn more about our founder and his Invisible Museum. Lynda Barry, Oct. 2, 2008. Search our extensive research Eleanor Callahan and Barbara, Nov. archive. 11, 2008. Nick Cave, Oct. 8, 2007. NEW ENGLAND ART AWARDS Randy Regier was the star of the “2010 DeCordova Brian Chippendale, May 16, 2008, Biennial,” with his “lifesize” spacecraft (pictured above), part one and two. spacesuit, and ephemera that combined boyish wonder Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Sept. with questions about how 1950s American Dreams had 23, 2008. devolved into today’s dreary reality. For the biennial, Chuck Close, Nov. 1, 2007. moreover, curator Dina Deitsch rebooted the DeCordova Gregory Crewdson, Oct. 29, 2008. Sculpture Park + Museum’s regular local-talent search Lynda Hartigan of the Peabody with a vital selection of familiar faces (Otto Piene, Paul Essex Museum, Salem, July 16, Laffoley) and emerging artists, demonstrating that local 2008. round-ups don’t need to be stuffy or square. Regier’s Anish Kapoor, May 27, 2008. year also included his amazing NuPenny installations, Dennis Kois, director of DeCordova Museum, June 9, 2008. Twilight Zone toy stores installed in three successive Ernest Morin, July 21, 2008. storefronts across Maine, as well as an installation at Dan Moynihan, Brookline cartoonist Wentworth Institute of Technology that looked like a Learn more about the New and illustrator Oct. 8, 2009. England Art Awards. ’60s living room with a lamp tumbled over and an Damian Ortega, Sept. 15,2009. electric “shocking” robot singeing the carpet. Something Gary Panter, April 11, 2008, and had gone horribly awry. Using his unique craftsmanship Sept. 20, 2006. to suggest pulpy, poignant tales, the Portland sculptor Martha Rosler, Nov. 21, 2008. demonstrated once again why he is one of the best artists Stefan Sagmeister, April 25, 2008. in the country. Neil Salley of the Musée Patamécanique in Bristol, Rhode Island, Aug. 16, 2007. Jon Sarkin, July 31, 2008. Peter Schumann of Bread and Puppet Theater (pictured above), PHOTOS Aug. 12, 2008, part one, two and three; Jan 23, 2008, part one and two. Richard Serra, June 1, 2008. Rachel Whiteread, Oct. 14, 2008. NEWS TO US Order photos by The New Order photos by The New Washington Street in Boston, between Stuart Street and England Journal of Aesthetic Boston Globe: The New England Research of the Honk Parade, Downtown Crossing, was long the city’s officially Journal of Aesthetic Research is Boston Caribbean Carnival sanctioned area for adult bookstores, clubs, and movie one of "The best of the (local) (above), Salem’s Haunted Happenings Grand Parade, houses — as well as not-so-sanctioned prostitution. It web." Bread and Puppet Theater, St. was mostly cleaned up in the 1990s, but this year Edgar Allen Beem of Yankee Peter’s Fiesta in Gloucester, Magazine: "Indispensable ... and more. Howard Yezerski Gallery revisited our sordid past in its Probably the best regional art site exhibit “The Combat Zone: 1969–1978.”“The Combat YOKELISM in the country." Zone: 1969–1978.” Gritty vintage photos by Roswell Art Connect: "Cook covers so much Angier of Cambridge, Jerry Berndt of Paris (pictured ground that you get the feeling above: Jerry Berndt, “The Combat Zone, Washington St., that he must be aware of Boston,” 1968), and John Goodman of Wellesley everything that goes on in the documented the strip clubs, hookers, and sketchy street New England art scene." denizens. The show was a model of local history and Wikipedia: One of the "Notable art Yokelist Manifesto Number 1: local art (plus sex) that our museums could learn from. blogs." Boston lacks alternative spaces? Nicest curatorial touch: in the gallery’s window hung the Drawn & Quarterly blog: The New England Journal of Aesthetic Yokelism at the 2008 Boston blinking neon sign from the Naked i strip club, which Research is "the best coverage of Art Awards. was demolished in 1996. the New England area art scene Yokelist Manifesto Number 2: In a notch in a three-story-tall cliff in Boston’s Franklin out there." Montreal case study. Park, Brandon Nastanski erected his officially Modern Kicks: "When it comes to Yokelist Manifesto Number 3: art in New England, the man sees Hire locally. unapproved hermit hut. Dubbed the “Unofficial Franklin everything. I don't even want to Yokelist Manifesto Number 4: Park Research Outpost,” it was a sort of ramshackle know what the mileage on his car We need coverage of our clubhouse built from sticks and junk the Jamaica Plain is." living artists. artist had scavenged from the park — but it was also a Joel Brown of HubArts: "Cook has Yokelist Manifesto Number 5: haunted witch shack, a voodoo shrine, and a meditative been a veritable Woodward and We need local retrospectives. homage to Thoreau’s Walden cabin. In other words, the Bernstein on the Rose." Yokelism update: Coverage of kind of surprise you might happen upon or hear about Art Fag City: "The most detailed our living artists: Sebastian and never find — a brand new legend. report [on the Rose Art Museum Smee responds. that] I’ve read thus far." Yokelism update: Dangers of In his installation “The West is Now Closed” at Online University Reviews: One of Provincialism. Montserrat College of Art’s 301 Gallery, John Osorio- the "100 Best Scholarly Art Yokelism update: Re: Dangers Buck of Cambridge constructed an outpost that seemed Blogs." of Provincialism. like contemporary survivalist version of Thoreau’s Sara Agniel: "The Journal is worth Yokelist Manifesto Number 6: Walden shack. He assembled a cord of firewood, a picnic adding to your regular reading Could the CIA help? table, shipping container, pickup truck cap, boxes of list." Yokelism at the 2009 New instant noodles, and a porta-potty (most of these Caleb Neelon: "The best regional England Art Awards. constructed from scratch) into a squatter’s camp. With arts news source out there." Yankee Magazine blog: The New NEW ENGLAND TREASURES these raw materials, he pondered living on the edge — as England Journal of Aesthetic Fawcett’s Antique Toy & Art well as the end-of-the-19th-century idea that Americans Research is one of the "Best Art Museum, Waldoboro, Maine. had pushed so far into the West that the frontier — that Blogs in New England." Gropius House in Lincoln, defining element of our national psyche — was extinct. Ethan Ham: "Excellent." Massachusetts. Boston artist Cristi Rinklin’s painting “The Weight of the Thomas Garvey of The Hub Frank Lloyd Wright's Review: "Thoughtful." Zimmerman House in World” at Steven Zevitas Gallery in Boston featured Geoff Edgers of the Exhibitionist: Manchester, New swirling scarves and curtains and lumpy clouds. In the "Always compelling." Hampshire. background, rose trees and mountains. All in a Boston Photography Focus: symphony of antifreeze blue. It was a continuation of SEEING ART FOR FREE "Excellent overview and coverage Rinklin’s exploration of the meeting point of painted and Always free: of the breaking gallery news since digital representations, and the junction of realism and Addison Gallery, Phillips the spring as it happened." abstraction. Plus a shout out to 19th century Hudson Academy, Andover, ArtSake: "Incisive analysis of the Massachusetts. River School landscapes. It was a tour de force of New England art scene." AS220, Providence, Rhode perception and painterly technique. And fun. Modern Kicks: "Greg Cook has Island. continued to be on top of the Perhaps what you noticed first about Charles LeDray’s Boston Athenaeum. story." 25-year survey “workworkworkworkwork” — which was Boston Center for the Arts. Anne Elizabeth Moore: "Has organized by Randi Hopkins at Boston’s Institute of Boston College's McMullen excellent taste, and is tracking the Museum. Contemporary Art — was that the New York artist had SHIT outta the local arts scene." Brown University's Bell managed to fill half the museum’s galleries with doll- Boston Lowbrow: "Who would've Gallery, Providence, Rhode sized clothes. But his marvelously hand-tailored thought Cook's unrivalled Island. Lilliputian ensembles asked big, soulful, heartbreaking thoroughness of local gallery Davis Museum, Wellesley questions about whether men can still be protectors, coverage would translate so well College, Wellesley, fixers, and providers in Great Recession America. The to investigative journalism." Massachusetts. ICA followed this up with another hit: the Wexner Newcritics: "Cook gets it right." Harvard’s Carpenter Center, Center for the Arts’ 10-year survey of the giant, brooding, Robert Castagna: Cook and The Cambridge, Massachusetts. New England Journal of Aesthetic urban-archæology collages of Los Angeles artist and Hood Museum of Art, Research are the cause of, and MacArthur “genius” grant winner Mark Bradford. Dartmouth College, Hanover, solution to, all of Boston art New Hampshire. criticism's problems. MassArt Galleries, Boston, Jon Petro: "Cook's review reads like Massachusetts. a sophomoric attempt at art MIT's List Visual Arts Center, criticism." Cambridge, Massachusetts. Also our favorite footnote (see 32). Montserrat College of Art, Beverly, Massachusetts. Musee Patamecanique, Bristol, Rhode Island. National Heritage Museum, Lexington, Massachusetts. Rhode Island College's Bannister Gallery, Providence, Rhode Island. Deb Todd Wheeler’s exhibit “Blew” at Miller Block Simmons College's Trustman Gallery in Boston was full of magical special effects, but Art Gallery, Boston, her masterpiece was the 11-foot-wide photographic Massachusetts. image “High Sea” (detail pictured above), which looked Tufts University Art Gallery, like an angry rogue wave thundering across a blue-black Medford, Massachusetts. sea. In fact, it was an image of several temporary Williams College Museum of sculptures — blue plastic bags that the Newton artist had Art, Williamstown, rippled atop her computer’s scanner.