Artsy Magazine Your Daytrip Guide to the Art of the Berkshires
The July 15, 2015 editorial in Artsy Magazine lists the “six stops not to miss” on your art tour of the Berkshires. Among them are FERRIN CONTRMPORARY and CYNTHIA-REEVES galleries.
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“The gradual re-inhabitation of this noble complex of mill buildings has been an organic process, interweaving art from afar with homegrown projects, layering galleries, stages, and art fabrication facilities into the existing physical fabric in ways that preserve the site’s very special sense of place, while also being useful, direct, and practical,” notes MASS MoCA’s Founding Director, Joseph Thompson.
Modern landscapes, digitally refracted
Exhibit showcases a pioneer of using computers in visual art
By JOHN SEVEN
Contributing writer
NORTH ADAMS, Mass.
Works by Anne Morgan Spalter, who wrote a widely used textbook on the use of computers in the visual arts, are the focus of a new exhibit at the Independent Art Projects gallery in North Adams.
In Anne Morgan Spalter’s world, physical structures take on spiritual dimensions literally. The artist uses her own customized computer software to transform the architectural structures of humankind into even more precise constructs. Using mosaic patterns that build on design concepts in Muslim art, her software reveals what the human eye can never see on its own.
Spalter’s work is the focus of a new show, “Modern Renaissance” that opened Nov. 22 and runs through Jan. 4, presented by CYNTHIA-REEVES at the Independent Art Projects gallery, at 1315 Mass MoCA Way in North Adams. “Modern Renaissance” comprises different bodies of work, including several pieces that use a cathedral in Prague and others that use aerial footage of Manhattan combined with images from the Hieronymus Bosch painting “City of Earthly Delights.”
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Photo credit: Martina Caruso
Sin-ying Ho
by Anthony Merino
“Sin-ying Ho dissects the complexity of human identity in two semi-monumental vases: Temptation: Life of Goods No.1 and One World, Many Peoples No. 2 exhibited at Independent Art Projects, North Adams, MA. Across the surfaces of the two vases are human forms in silhouette floating amidst a field of flowers, mimicking traditional blue and white floral patterns found in traditional Chinese porcelain imports. Ho uses the silhouette device to suggest that humans are vessels and within them are their identities.
Renaissance painter Titian’s Fall of Man serves as the template for the figures on Ho’s Temptation. Titian’s painting depicts the moment Eve plucks the forbidden fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Within the silhouettes are designs inspired by Chinese coins: a circle with a square hole cut in its center. Each circle includes a corporate logo. In the end, Ho asserts that humans largely identify themselves by what they consume. Thus, this work challenges viewers to ask themselves, do you define your purchases or do they define you?”
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Photo credit: John Polak
ART NEW ENGLAND2. At Independent Art Projects, North Adams, MA, for its grand opening reception.
Martina Caruso (r.), showing Tanya Marcuse’s portfolio to visitors.
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Ten years ago, a private, commercial art gallery downtown was just a pipe dream.
But one of the Steeple City’s newest exhibition spaces, Independent Art Project, aims to make that dream a reality.
In the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Arts’ Building 13, owners Leslie Ferrin and Cynthia Reeves have opened the gallery as a collaborative project.
The 2,500 square-foot exhibition space, under the direction of curator Martina Caruso, will hold its grand opening today at 1315 Mass MoCA Way, while Downstreet Art fills the downtown with gallery openings and performances.
Ferrin and Reeves are both accomplished art curators in their own right — Ferrin is the director of Ferrin Contemporary of Cummington and co-owned Ferrin Gallery on North Street in Pittsfield; Reeves, like Ferrin, is involved in art projects across the country.
They also graduated from Hampshire College together, Reeves said, and have remained close ever since.
“[Leslie] reached out to me when she became aware of the opportunity to lease space from Mass MoCA,” she said. “The fact that it’s right on the museum’s campus is meaningful to me, especially because of the kinship I feel between our programming and the mission and programming of Mass MoCA.”
The museum has a large amount of site-based installation, she said, and IAP does as well.
“With both of us presenting multiple projects simultaneously in various locations in the U.S. and abroad, our programs can feed one another,” Ferrin said. “Establishing a base in the Berkshires provides our collectors and art professionals a place to see the artwork we represent in a public context.
Our artists and collectors enjoy visiting the many outstanding visual arts venues in the cultural corridor during the summer and, increasingly, year round. It is our hope that we can expand our audience and provide an opportunity for established contemporary artists to show works in a gallery setting.”
Reeves expressed similar sentiments, and said she picked up on “a wonderful energy” around Mass MoCA.
“They’ve really done something phenomenal there,” she said. “My sense is it’s really coming into its own … More and more [artists] are coming [to New England] because it’s a nice place to live … To me, that’s really exciting.”
The gallery has displayed works spanning both Eastern and Western artworks during its first month — it opened as part of Downstreet Art on June 26 with art by Lianghong Feng, Sin-Ying Ho and Sergei Isupov.
“With both of our galleries representing artists who live, work and show internationally, there will always be subject or content expressed in the art they produce exploring issues of cross cultures,” Ferrin said. “Our exhibitions and works shown will change regularly. Martina Caruso is looking at curatorial themes for the future that help make connections between the artists and their audiences.”
From July 31, IAP will present work by artists Tanya Marcuse and Christopher Russell, Shuli Sadé, Steven Young Lee. Works by Ho will remain until Thanksgiving.
Born in Hong Kong, Ho emmigrated to Canada in the 1990s and is now based in New York City. She has returned to China many times, she said.
She was struck by how the country has changed, she said. Much of her art speaks to the accelerated commerce and increase in consumer culture in China.
Two seven-foot vessels will be on display in North Adams: “One World, Many People No. 2” and “Temptation: Life of Goods No. 2.” She completed both in several sections in her New York studio.
“Temptation” combines floral motifs with the shape of a human figure. Inside the human outline are small circles with a square in the middle, representing Chinese currency. Inside each circle are numerous international brand name logos — Coca Cola, Chanel and Disney, to name a few.
She said she has a particular interest in what these symbols mean to her and how they connect to today’s society.