CULTURE SCENE and SEEN
Enthusiasts & Creatives Across the Circuit
NOVEMBER 23 2022
Peter Webber’s retirement party at the Emerson Inn in Rockport.
Experimental Group: Unexpected #19
Rockport Arts Association & Museum
Through November 27
Victoria Wallins, Peter Holton, and Karen Watson obliging the photographer's battle with the overhead spotlights. At these shows, the artwork is illuminated, the guests are secondary. Karen is standing below her lovely mixed media collage, Hole in the Sky.
The Rockport Art Association & Museum’s Experimental Group opened its nineteenth exhibition, with a powerful selection of new works from these innovative artists. The socializing in the midst of all this creative display once again made for a splendid night in the gallery! Works on view range in medium to include paintings, mixed-media, graphics, sculpture, digital art, and photography.
Nella Lush, artist and founder of the Experimental Group, banters with Ruth Mordecai, another artist who has produced a much admired portfolio. Their decorative scarves were no competition for the painting shown on the wall behind, Gordon Massman's Mary Poppins' Miscalculation.
Donna Caselden, Alphabet City, mixed media on copper panel. This work is among the many standouts in the show.
Attending the reception, Gordon Massman, creator of Mary Poppins' Miscalculation.
LAND | SEA
InnerSpace Fine Arts Gallery
Opening reception for artists Karen Krieger and Elise Freda
Exhibition through December
The InnerSpace Gallery features the works of two artists along with a carefully curated selection of handcrafted gifts. Karen Krieger is a Boston area artist who is exhibiting a special series rendered with Chinese ink on rice paper. Elise Freda draws inspiration from the natural terrain which she then translates into abstract forms.
Proprietor Allyson Paladino with two artists attending the opening reception. InnerSpace gallery is located in an iconic octagonal building, which adds to the aesthetic experience of the destination.
Artist Elise Freda, works in her studio in New York’s Catskills, translating inspiration from nature into abstract forms.
Works on display by Karen Krieger, a Boston area artist exhibiting a special series rendered with Chinese ink on rice paper.
An Afternoon at Gordon Massman's Rockport Studio
A group gathered recently to see Gordon’s latest and always large paintings, which continue to push the aesthetic pressures of the primitive and the abstract. In April 2023, Gordon will have a show in New York City, more information to follow. We hope a band of COSMOS supporters will be there to enjoy the fun and add support for one of our region’s most audacious artists.
Dennis Flavin standing in front of Gordon’s new work made in honor of his friend, Dennis Ecstasy. Dennis is an artist, restauranteur, and new COSMOS subscriber.
Gordon Massman, Motif #1
Did Gordon finally capture the essence of this much painted landmark? And we are happy to announce here: Gordon has greenlighted another COSMOS produced studio open house to be held in 2023. If you attended the June 11 2022 event, you know how electrifying the experience can be. To those who missed the first one, here's your second chance!
Ryan Oakes (left) is half of the Ryan and Trevor Oakes identical twin American artists and draftsmen, best known for collaborative large scale drawings using a concave gridded easel. Their drawings, paintings, and sculptures explore the intersection of art and mathematics. In this photo Ryan is showing Gordon and Judith Massman the easel and device used to capture images for their creative process.
A glimpse of the Oakes Twins' invention, the concave gridded easel.
Peter Webber Retires from Greater Cape Ann Chamber of Commerce
After 17 years of highly valued contributions to the management of the Chamber, through different phases and officialdoms, Peter finally passes the baton with grace and dignity. In true fashion, his final remarks thanked the business owners and the risks and investments they make in the regional commerce. While Peter will be missed by his colleagues at the Chamber, he will still reside in Rockport and will likely cross paths frequently with the many friends made during those 17 years.
The event at the Emerson Inn was well attended, including many people who worked with Peter in the past. This was a glowingly affectionate sendoff, and a true testimony to Peter's time with the Chamber - cherished, admired and respected by all who worked with him.
Peter shares some thoughts with Stephen Buckley, the new CEO of the Greater Cape Ann Chamber of Commerce, taking over when Ken Riehl steps down on December 4. The Greater Cape Ann Chamber of Commerce is the fifth largest Chamber in the commonwealth, with more than 1,000 members. The communities represented at Rockport, Gloucester, Manchester-by-the-Sea, Essex and Ipswich.
Representative Ann Margaret Ferrante delivers a poignant tribute.
Peter relaxes into his new retirement chair, with the help of someone who might be spending more time with him.
Boston Art Book Fair
COSMOS sometimes ventures beyond the Greater Cape Ann terrain of coverage and checks out the action elsewhere. Recently the Boston Art Book Fair, staged at the Cyclorama in the South End from November 4 to 6, filled the great atrium with vendors of all sorts of printed paraphernalia, including books. An event like this attracts the most fashion forward or at least stylized individuals, who have a way of ignoring convention when they dress in the morning.
The two attendees shown in photo were aesthetic stand outs, even in this crowd.
Well dressed gent at the Boston Art Book Fair.
A brilliant impermanent substitution for permanent tattoos.
Is it a shirt? A jacket? A shout out to Andy Warhol?
This bag makes a statement - with few words. Courtesy of Harvard University.
CULTURE SCENE and SEEN
Enthusiasts & Creatives Across the Circuit
NOVEMBER 9, 2022
Exhibition of new work by Pia Juhl at Jane Deering Gallery.
Sharon Thesen delivers the Annual Charles Olson Lecture at the Cape Ann Museum. ©Bing McGilvray
Annual Charles Olson Lecture
With Sharon Thesen
October 29 Cape Ann Museum and Gloucester Writers Center
Author Sharon Thesen's presentation addressed Charles Olson's personal and intellectual relationship with Frances Boldereff, which included the first disclosure of his Maximus poetics appearing in their correspondence. Thesen also discussed working with Ralph Maud on the Olson/Boldereff correspondence (two editions, A Modern Correspondence, published by Wesleyan in 1999, and After Completion: The Later Letters published in 2014). The talk was recorded and available through Cape Ann Museum. Sharon Thesen is a Canadian poet who lives in Lake Country, British Columbia and teaches at University of British Columbia Okanagan.
Henry Ferrini, American filmmaker and Director of Gloucester Writers Center, introduces the speaker.
Post-lecture confab on the Cape Ann Museum rails, with scholars Bing McGilvray, Willie Alexander, and Antony Ohman.
The 19th Annual Crane Estate Art Show & Sale
November 4-6, Castle Hill at Crane Estate, Ipswich
The gala opening of the annual Crane Estate Art Show is a favorite gathering of local artists and connoisseurs. The event was a continuous appetizer of art, wine, conversation, and special morsels from the kitchen. A bountiful table of coffees and desserts completed the evening, one spent in the company of both new artwork and the many permanent treasures of the estate and its architecture.
Chatting in the corner of the elegant Castle Hill dining room, Rebecca Reynolds, Executive Director of Manship Artists Residency, with artists Donna Caselden and Arnie Casavant.
The woodwork throughout the house was selected by the world-renowned architect David Adler, during the 1920s, from English estates that were under demolishment. Thus one observes an interesting melange of columns, details, and finishes throughout the 59 rooms of the Stuart-style mansion.
Stopping for a chat with old friends or having an exchange with a new acquaintance is all part of the evening.
The exhibition artwork was shown on two floors of the estate, with many enclosed gallery spaces and dedicated rooms.
Great Marsh Symposium
The future of roads through the Great Marsh:
Balancing Access with Natural Resource Protection
November 3, 2022, The Essex Room at Woodman's of Essex
The symposium brought out a full house of stakeholders including many leading conservation organizations as well as citizens who live near the Great Marsh. The agenda covered status of sea level projections, overview of existing roads and potential threats, engineering solutions, and the perspectives from NGO, resident, and student concerns. This is a community conversation in its infancy, now a central concern of the people with the knowledge and forebearance to responsibly strategize. The event included an art exhibition curated by Peter Van Demark, with artwork capturing the beauty of the Great Marsh.
With more than 20,000 acres stretching from Cape Ann to New Hampshire, the Great Marsh is the largest salt marsh in New England. Its vast landscape provides critical habitat for threatened species of plants and animals and serves as an important source of climate resiliency for the region by protecting shorelines from storms and absorbing excess runoff. The Great Marsh Coalition.
The Great Marsh Symposium was a sold out event, with 160 attendees at Essex Room, Woodman's function space. Among the many compelling topics of discussion was the concern with possible flooding of Argilla Road, as well as other sites close to the coasts. The raising of Argilla Road by 4 feet,or so, is a consideration on the drawing board, as the citizenry debates strategies for coping with future sea levels.
Ed Monnelly, with Great Marsh in Mist, photo. Plus Susan Ellis, Marsh Captain (detail), pastel, and Sandy Belock-Phibben, Marsh Shack 1 Idetail), oil on canvas.
(clockwise from top left) Carole McCauley, Engagement Manager, The Trustees - Crane Estate, Peter Van Demark, head of the Artists for the Great Marsh initiative, Kate Bowditch, President, Greenbelt, Essex County's Land Trust, Peter Phippen, Upper North Shore Regional Coordinator, Massachusetts Bays National Estuary Program, Wayne Castonguay, Executive Director, Ipswich River Watershed Association, Kathryn Glenn, North Shore Regional Coordinator, Massachusetts Coastal Zone Management.
Larry Grob, one of the artists included in the Great Marsh Symposium Art Show, with a selection of his elegant pastels. Lower image, detail from the Great Marsh painting by Eileen Mueller, another well-known regional artist.
Patrick Kelly: Runway of Love
Exhibition closes at Peabody Essex Museum, November 6
The effervescent PEM exhibition of fashion design star Patrick Kelly (1954-1990) was given a beautiful farewell, with two of the region's leading curators of fashion art, Petra Slinkard, PEM’s Director of Curatorial Affairs and The Nancy B. Putnam Curator of Fashion and Textiles, and theo tyson, MFA's Penny Vinik Curator of Fashion, providing the final walk-throughs of Kelly's history and body of work.
Patrick Kelly broke all the color barriers. Why not fuchsia ostrich feathers when heading out for an evening of fun?
With her own Grace Jones stylized perfection, theo tyson, the MFA Penny Vinik Curator of Fashion, gave the crowd an overview of this chapter in Kelly's life, which both intertwined and included some of the most fascinating characters in the Paris scene of that era.
Patrick Kelly had the knack needed to combine the playful, comical and sexy into one easy design. Pure genius.
Just as Patrick Kelly's designs were a study in detailing, we can see the similar attention in theo tyson's impeccable accessory choices.
Pia Juhl — Velkommen!
An exhibition of new work at the Jane Deering Gallery, through November 27
Guests enjoy the new Gloucester skyline of Pia's wonderful modernist paintings...
At her opening reception, Pia Juhl gave every guest, including Christian Keller, a warm Danish welcome!
Another Danish Velkommen from Pia!
With her husband Lee providing backup, the splendid reception closed with an empty cheese board, several sold paintings, and a lot of Danish Hygge.
