I set out on a beautiful spring night with a nearly full moon a week ago Thursday to troll some Newbury street galleries with the Young Members of DeCordova (YMOD) and my frequent museum buddy L.
We began at Gallery NAGA, where the work of John Eric Byers was on view, entitled “Squares and Rectangles.” It turned out this was my favorite work of the evening – sculpture or furniture or painting I’m still not sure, but I really liked the black on black carved paintings, each one a slab of wood with almost regular gridmarks that start to move around the longer you look at them.
Next up, the Chase Gallery featuring Kathryn Frund’s mixed-media paintings and then Lynda Lowe at the Arden Gallery. Frund’s mixed media paintings took cues from Rauschenberg and Johns, resembling landscapes at times, memory pieces at others. My favorites, a series of six-inch square landscapes. Lowe presented multi-panel paintings with combinations of asian-themed still-lifes and scenes of birds and trees, and her gallerist showed us some interesting stuff in the back room — be sure to check Arden gallery soon and again after the shows change.
Next door at Kidder Smith Gallery we saw Melissa Hutton’s Rough Landing, a series of paintings or prints covered with a thick acrylic-like glaze that formed dangerous-looking stalagtites at the bottom of each canvas. The gallery also had a small stash of David Levinthal photos in the back room, I hope they hang them soon.
Across the street at Judi Rotenberg Gallery, new video work by Mary Ellen Strom and Ann Carlson held the crowd in an odd sort of mesmerism as we watched some hay, a cow and a woman in a clear plastic dress half filled with money wander about a gallery space.
The art evening finished up at the Copley Society of Art where the Patrons’ Choice show was on. Called City Escapes, the show featured the work of many member artists and their takes on various kinds of getaways. The work was too diverse to even start to describe here. If you go, don’t miss the downstairs gallery, too. Even more packed than upstairs, with some real gems.
Stay tuned for more tales of art-peeping. Spring is here, so get out there while the walking is good and see some art!
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