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magidLast night I went to the ICA (free Thursday evenings courtesy of Target) to see the Shepard Fairey exhibit. Since his stuff has been pretty visible since the capaign, I didn't find much of it surprising in general look, but there were a number of pieces I really liked, mostly ones with lots of background texture and design, rahter than the clear, sharp edges of the one- or two-color designs. Some were huge, taking up most of a museum wall, but most were smaller, more accessible (no surprise, given his career arc).
The ones that stand out for me now include:
* the one picture with a tree (gracefully wide, stylize red fruit above spreading black branches, with four small designs hanging off them, making me think of some Japanese holiday where wishes are hung on trees),
* a poster that made his iconic stylized Andre the Giant face wholly out of type covering the page (changing the intensity by using uppercase and lowercase letters to cover more or less area, and boldfacing some for yet more emphasis),
* seeing the original of the ubiquitous Obama picture
* concert posters with lots of detail, the words hiding in the design
* the motif of veiled women, used again and again
There was time to hang out and have a picnic with views of the harbor and the city, the breeze blowing constantly, which was a nice change from the heat that was yesterday.
The exhibit is up through August 16, so there's lots of time left to see it.
Today I finally made it to the Book as Art exhibit at BC's McMullen Museum. It showcases the work of about 40 artists, all women ("women artists" just sound wrong), all based in some way on the idea of books (some very literally, some much more loosely so). Iwas pleased to see a number of pieces by M.L. Van Nice: I'd gone to her gallery show The Library at Wadi ben Dagh a couple of years ago, and was blown away; her art continues to amaze.
A few of the ones I really liked (though it was a rather high percentage of 'winners' for me, things I'd be happy to own to have the leisure to ponder more completely):
* M.L. Van Nice's Swiss Army Book (all sorts of things coming out of an open book, rather like the 40 blades of a Swiss army knife)
* journal-page-like collages combining script, sketches, stamps, and other ephemera
* a love poem in a salad
* a huge painting incorporating poetry in rounded, rune-like script, with darker gold paper woven in
* a book of pop-up Italian towers, with sketched architectural plans of each
* a year's worth of dreams in an accordion of two-inch squares
* six wings of stories
I know I'm forgetting bunch; there was just so much excellence. The only frustrating part was how so many of the pieces, designed as books, were displayed with only one or a few spreads open enough to read, so the narrative was mostly lost. I don't know how this could have been remedied, though, since there just wasn't room enough for video loops of all the pages.
It's up through the end of the month (though not open on Memorial Day); definitely recommended if it fits your schedule.
Also, biking out to BC in the middle of the day given this heat was perhaps not the smartest idea ever.
The ones that stand out for me now include:
* the one picture with a tree (gracefully wide, stylize red fruit above spreading black branches, with four small designs hanging off them, making me think of some Japanese holiday where wishes are hung on trees),
* a poster that made his iconic stylized Andre the Giant face wholly out of type covering the page (changing the intensity by using uppercase and lowercase letters to cover more or less area, and boldfacing some for yet more emphasis),
* seeing the original of the ubiquitous Obama picture
* concert posters with lots of detail, the words hiding in the design
* the motif of veiled women, used again and again
There was time to hang out and have a picnic with views of the harbor and the city, the breeze blowing constantly, which was a nice change from the heat that was yesterday.
The exhibit is up through August 16, so there's lots of time left to see it.
Today I finally made it to the Book as Art exhibit at BC's McMullen Museum. It showcases the work of about 40 artists, all women ("women artists" just sound wrong), all based in some way on the idea of books (some very literally, some much more loosely so). Iwas pleased to see a number of pieces by M.L. Van Nice: I'd gone to her gallery show The Library at Wadi ben Dagh a couple of years ago, and was blown away; her art continues to amaze.
A few of the ones I really liked (though it was a rather high percentage of 'winners' for me, things I'd be happy to own to have the leisure to ponder more completely):
* M.L. Van Nice's Swiss Army Book (all sorts of things coming out of an open book, rather like the 40 blades of a Swiss army knife)
* journal-page-like collages combining script, sketches, stamps, and other ephemera
* a love poem in a salad
* a huge painting incorporating poetry in rounded, rune-like script, with darker gold paper woven in
* a book of pop-up Italian towers, with sketched architectural plans of each
* a year's worth of dreams in an accordion of two-inch squares
* six wings of stories
I know I'm forgetting bunch; there was just so much excellence. The only frustrating part was how so many of the pieces, designed as books, were displayed with only one or a few spreads open enough to read, so the narrative was mostly lost. I don't know how this could have been remedied, though, since there just wasn't room enough for video loops of all the pages.
It's up through the end of the month (though not open on Memorial Day); definitely recommended if it fits your schedule.
Also, biking out to BC in the middle of the day given this heat was perhaps not the smartest idea ever.