Fine Arts 2D Faculty & Department Administrators
So much flows between self and other, painter and subject, and even individual and collective in “Between You and Me” at LaMontagne Gallery.
The show features work by Boston-area portraitists Isabelle Higgins, a self-portraitist, and Barbara Ishikura, who depicts friends and family. Their portraits share high-keyed palettes; graphic depictions that echo the punch and pathos of Alice Neel; and patterns and accents that make scenes hustle and jump, à la Henri Matisse.
Homage to the Auction Block #65, overlook, 2020
- Alumni in the News
- Fine Arts 2D
- MFA Studio Arts
- Painting
Making a home while making art: Erving couple brings creativity to every project
- Alumni in the News
- Fine Arts 2D
- Printmaking
The couple started out as friends and artistic peers, having met at Massachusetts College of Art and Design (“MassArt”) in Boston. “Bryant had a printmaking set-up out here in western Mass,” said Schermesser, “and I also did printmaking. I came to visit, and really liked it here.” Friendship blossomed into romance, and the couple went on to marry and raise two sons in their Erving home.
Their collaborations have extended beyond home and family: the couple produced large murals at sites including the Big E and the Greenfield Public Library. Working together and separately, Stewart and Schermesser have produced stunning artwork representing many styles.
Alex Sewell (born 1989, Salem, Massachusetts) completed his BFA at MassArt in Boston, Massachusetts, and joined the studios of artists Jeff Koons and Bjarne Melgaard as an assistant sculptor/painter. Sewell’s work is characterized by his use of symbols borrowed from popular, consumer and gaming cultures and his mastery of oil technique.
Artist in residence: Lavaughan Jenkins delivers
- Alumni in the News
- Fine Arts 2D
- Painting
Jenkins, raised in Pensacola, Florida, is a painter, printmaker and sculptor and holds a BFA from the Massachusetts College Of Art And Design. He has recently shown at Kabinet Gallery, Abigail Ogilvy Gallery and the Fitchburg art museum. Jenkins is a recipient of the 2015 Blanche E. Colman Award and the Rob Moore Grant in Painting, and most recently, the 2018 James and Audrey Foster Prize. In 2016, he became the Emerging Artist at Kingston Gallery in Boston. He has exhibited his work widely including venues such as Abigail Ogilvy Gallery, Gallery Kayafas, Lens Gallery, and the Arts Research Collaborative Gallery, all in Boston, as well as at the Oasis Gallery in Beijing, China.
Bradford intaglio printmaker J. Ann Eldridge creates connections to the outside world
- MassArt in the Media
- Fine Arts 2D
- Printmaking
“I’m not doing anything unusual. Almost anyone can go outside in their backyard and see what I’m seeing. I guess I’m trying to get a connection between people and the outdoors,” she said.
Eldridge, who grew up in central Massachusetts, always loved the natural world and had an early knack for drawing. While studying at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Eldridge says she found printmaking upon discovering she was a “terrible painter,” and later learned the intricacies of the intaglio process from a woman in Worcester, whose etching press Eldridge would later inherit.
By Artists, for Artists (and Everyone Else)
- MassArt in the Media
- Fine Arts 2D
- Painting
The Members’ Juried Exhibition at PAAM highlights the continued excellence of working artists on the Outer Cape
“It highlights some of the most interesting artists working locally and positions Provincetown and the Outer Cape as a place where ambitious art is still made. Curated by James Stanley, a painter and professor at Massachusetts College of Art and Design, and Kirsten Andersen, a writer and arts administrator, the show features 29 local artists, chosen from a pool of around 250 submissions.”
Boston-based muralist applies the science of color in his work
- Alumni in the News
- Fine Arts 2D
- Painting
Colombian artist Felipe Ortiz focuses on the practice of painting, from traditional easel painting to murals and public installations. In 2009, he earned a Bachelor in Fine Arts in 2D Fine Arts from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design.
The MassArt Art Museum Announces Winter 2023 Exhibition Schedule Featuring the work of May Stevens and Jace Clayton
- Press Release
- Fine Arts 2D
- MassArt Art Museum
- Painting
Boston, MA – Wednesday, November 30, 2022 – The MassArt Art Museum (MAAM) is proud to present two solo exhibitions this winter, featuring the work of feminist artist May Stevens and interdisciplinary artist, writer, and DJ Jace Clayton.
May Stevens: My Mothers
January 26 – May 21, 2023
May Stevens: My Mothers, on view January 26 – May 21, 2023 in the Sandra and David Bakalar Gallery, pairs paintings of May Stevens’ birth mother Alice Dick Stevens with her “spiritual mother” Marxist revolutionary Rosa Luxemburg. These paintings are tender explorations of both public and personal struggles; celebrations of revolution and public life; and demonstrations of the mundane. Born in Dorchester, MA in 1924, the late May Stevens (MassArt alumna, BFA Painting ‘46) believed that politics and artmaking were intertwined. Stevens was a self-proclaimed feminist, and a founding member of both the Guerrilla Girls and the journal Heresies, who understood class and gender as a fundamental unspoken element in art history and liberation movements. Through figurative paintings, collaged works, and political pop canvases and works on paper, Stevens criticized American patriarchy, championed the Civil Rights movement, and imbued Marxist ideals into everyday life. May Stevens: My Mothers is the first exhibition of Stevens’ work in Boston since her passing in 2019 and since her retrospective at the MFA Boston in 1999.
Jace Clayton: They Are Part
February 23 – May 14, 2023
Jace Clayton creates multisensory experiences that explore the unexpected and conversational nature of music from around the world. Interested in how sounds have and define social meaning, Clayton pens musical compositions, creates new audio instruments, and constructs participatory installations. Jace Clayton: They Are Part, on view February 23 – May 14, 2023 in the Stephen D. Paine Gallery, brings together three of Clayton’s works that interweave memories, sound, and public spaces, to create what he describes as “those waves of magic that happen when the human spirit joins with technology.”
MAAM is proud to present the East Coast premiere of the interactive installation 40 Part Part. Fresh from FRONT International: Cleveland Triennial for Contemporary Art, the installation takes the form of 40 speakers arranged in a large circle pointing inward, transforming sound supplied by visitors via their electronic devices into a variegated and immersive sonic experience. Clayton will also debut a new musical composition performed live by various community choirs throughout the run of the exhibition.
Rounding out They Are Part is Sufi Plug Ins, Clayton’s own suite of poetic-yet-functional software instruments that invite visitors to make their own music. Informed by his roots as a DJ and his long-term collaborations with Moroccan musicians, the artist realized that most electronic music software defaults to Western standards making key features of non-Western music impossible to create digitally. Sufi Plug Ins is hardwired to North African quarter-tone scales enabling globally inclusive music making.
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About the MassArt Art Museum
The MassArt Art Museum (MAAM) is Boston’s only free contemporary art museum. After extensive renovations, MAAM opened in February 2020 in the space formerly known as the Bakalar & Paine Galleries at the heart of MassArt’s campus on the Avenue of the Arts. MAAM is a kunsthalle, or non-collecting museum, showing temporary exhibitions that feature the work of emerging to established artists to bring fresh and varied perspectives to Boston. As MassArt’s teaching museum, MAAM is a resource for MassArt students and faculty, educating students about contemporary art, partnering with faculty to support the curriculum, and preparing students for careers in the museum field. As an extension of the College’s public mission, the Museum offers pathways to education in the arts and free educational programming for the public.
