Ampersand (a concert series put together by WMBR and the List Visual Arts Center) held the inaugural concert of its soon-to-be monthly concert series this evening.

Luke Damrosch opened for Julia Kent. Damrosch combined pre-recorded sounds with live drum set and visual projection. The visual imagery traced the historical evolution of telephonic sound transmission, with instructional imagery translucently overlaying scenes of urbanity and nature: the intellectually analytical overlaid with the experiential.  Damrosch’s performance blended the science of sound with the experience of sound art, keeping the audience engaged not only with the performance itself, but also with their own experience of listening.

Left: “Black Ant Optional” by Danielle Fiesta, Right: “T-Stop” by Seth Berkowitz

The Nave describes “Entering Somerville” as: “Art and music inspired by or created from the people, events and geography taking place in the 4.2 sq miles that make up the City of Somerville, MA.”

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Quinn Gorbutt is Director of Exhibitions and Lead Lab Technician at the Aviary Gallery. “Near Than Far, Near Then Far” is first solo show at the Aviary.

Photos by Quinn Gorbutt

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Left: Fabiola Menchelli, Right: Lindsay Metivier

Carousel Slideshow (formerly known as All Visual Boston) put on its fourth slideshow this past Thursday night at Spontaneous Celebrations in Jamaica Plain. Trevor Powers organized the first slideshow a few years ago as a spinoff of All Visual LA and when he moved to Texas, Aviary Gallery decided to carry on the tradition. Different from a traditional photo exhibition, Carousel is a one night event that brings artists together, not only to take in some stunning photography, but also to network and discover new artistic connections. Since Carousel is digitally projected, the featured artists don’t need to pay to print or frame their work, a welcome reprieve from the expenses of displaying artwork. It also offers a chance for artists to show work that might be so new it hasn’t yet found its way into print form.

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“Singer” by Katie James

“Katie James: Sewing Machines” features all new paintings by Katie James of vintage sewing machines. Done in gouache and pencil on paper, each painting is incredibly precise and photorealistic without losing the charm and personality of a handmade work. James’ writes in her artist statement, “I sit in down in front of something better made and more functional than you could possibly get today, and just try to do it justice.” She artfully balances form and function, memorializing an era, while creating artwork that is still very fresh and new.

Left: “Riccar” , Right: “Spencer” by Katie James

James’ sewing machine subjects are displayed along with the paintings in the gallery. Not paired directly beneath, but scattered about the gallery tables and in the front window, the machines feel at home in the Aviary’s comfortable setting. Even when inspected side-by-side neither the machine nor the painting diminishes – each stands alone as an art object and enter into conversation when viewed together.

Sewing machines inhabiting the Aviary Gallery

James is selling the each painting with the sewing machine it’s of as a *very reasonably priced* pair.

“Katie James: Sewing Machines” is only up at the Aviary Gallery until July 28th, so hurry over before the show comes down!

See More of Katie James’ work here.

Learn more about the Aviary Gallery here.

Mobius hosted a unique performance and drawing event this Sunday from 12-5. I Arrived around 2, so I missed the first performer, El Putnam, therefore my writeup will focus on Performance Artist, Syed Zaman, who performed “Love is Black” with Singer/Songwriter, Jennifer Matthews.

Mobius is a small venue, so the performance was intimate, with less than ten audience members. Viewers were encouraged to create drawings in response to the performance in progress. I’m used to simply observing or taking photos of performances, which always seems to require a slight, if momentary, mental and physical distancing from the performance to raise the camera and take the photo. Drawing in response to the performance on the other hand proved to be engaging through allowing viewers to express their responses to the action rather simply trying to document.

The performance began even while Zaman and Matthews were still setting up for the “official” performance – as each new item was added to and rearranged in the performance space, it became a part of the catalogue of physical elements that would shape the coming performance.

Drawing by Alex Taylor

The performance officially began as Matthews began to play her guitar and Zaman climbed on a chair, wrapped himself in black fabric, and began to make charcoal marks on the paper tacked to the wall and floor.

Performance by Syed Zaman and Jennifer Matthews

As Zaman bent and twisted his body, creating an ever shifting net of cloth and string and charcoal, Matthews wove her voice into the web. Together they used shifts of musical motif and artistic media to create a flow of vignettes exploring the color and feeling of love. Black string became black cloth, became charcoal, became black paint, became red tissue paper, became red ink, became red string.

Performance by Syed Zaman and Jennifer Matthews

It was an interesting challenge to attempt to capture even a moment of the swiftly changing scene, my leisurely cataloging of the set-up process

Drawing by Suzi Grossman

gave way to form studies,

Drawings by Suzi Grossman

gave way to frantic explorations of line and space,

Left: by Suzi Grossman, Right: by Alex Taylor

and finally re-formed into a representative moment.

Drawing by Suzi Grossman

A challenge, a way to focus, a fun afternoon – I highly recommend that you all try drawing to performance art ASAP.

More selections from drawing responses:

Drawings by Marcus Graly

Drawings by Alex Taylor

Drawings by Alex Taylor

More about Mobius here.

Mobius on Facebook here.

More about Performing on Paper here.

A few highlights from a hot and humid First Friday at 450 Harrison:

Cobi Moules – “Playing With Myself, Again” @ Carroll and Sons Gallery

A few of Cobi Moules’ self-portraits were hanging up in the back gallery the first time I ever visited Carroll and Sons and I was very happy to see Moules’ work there again, this time filling the main gallery.

“Untitled (6-7-12)” by Cobi Moules

The show winds together four different projects. Most immediately striking are the slightly larger than life self-portraits that Moules has been painting periodically since 2009. The self-portraits create a visual chronicle, most directly of his gender transition, but also of his painting style and maturity.  Interwoven with the 30″x40″ portraits are smaller canvases on which Moules has created sylvan tableaus featuring a cast of Cobi clones. The picturesque but surreal images recall Anthony Goicolea’s photo composite scenes of himself roleplaying adolescent queer narratives, but Moules carefully paints where Goicolea Photoshops and the scenes are less obviously queer, focusing more on a communal exploration of nature.

by Cobi Moules

Shrinking even further, Moules abstracts his painted selves from nature and lets the tiny figures tumble together, collaged onto a blank paper void.

by Cobi Moules

Moules’ show combines pristine painting technique with rich exploration of self-identity and engages the viewer in the process of carefully inspecting each painting. Moules invites the viewer to look for subtle differences between many versions of the same person, but leaves the question open as to what the many divisions of self add up to. I look forward to more work from Moules in the years to come.

Phil Fryer and Tom Maio – “EPOCH” @ Anthony Greaney 

The ever-engaging Anthony Greaney featured duel performances by Phil Fryer and Tom Maio going on throughout the evening on Friday. I missed Maio, but caught Fryer’s Patriotic themed performance, involving a red dress, blue and red paint, a keyboard, and a projection of a bed.

Phil Fryer performing

Linda Leslie Brown – “Chimeric” @ Kingston Gallery

Brown’s installation transforms Kingston Gallery into a forest sculpture, strings of moss linking together twisting metal towers.

“Chimeric” by Linda Leslie Brown

I enjoyed ducking in amongst the different sections to inspect the pale green sculptures that almost resolve into recognizable forms before the resemblance dissolves.

“Chimeric” by Linda Leslie Brown

Mobius held a performance art extravaganza at Studio Soto this past Saturday – lasting from 7-11:30pm and featuring 21 different performances, SPEED was quite the event. Despite its long duration, I was captivated from beginning to end. The performances were polished and the transitions between them were smooth and orchestrated down to the minute, such that every time one came to an end the audience had to spin around to locate the next performance. I was impressed with the high level of audience participation throughout the evening, whether in the form of needing to move around the shifting performance area or being directly engaged by the artist in the performance itself.

Kaethe Hostetter

Karthe Hostetter bewitched her audience with electric looping violin and dramatic lighting.

Tom and Ryan treating an audience member a “trombone sandwich”

Trombonists Tom and Ryan offered “trombone sandwiches” to eager volunteers. Although a few lucky audience members received their own personal ear concerts, the rest of us got to watch as their expressions shifted from wary to surprised to gleeful, even the most unsure participant soon unable to hold back grins and giggles.

Andary Dance moved almost too fast to photograph

Andary Dance wound in and around onlookers, combining speed, interpretive dance, and incredible precision.

Jimena Bermejo-Black

Jimena Bermejo-Black proved that performance doesn’t require polished speech. Her impersonal and confessional dialogue and utmost trust in her audience drew us in as she performed her midlife crisis blindfolded, wrapped in bubble wrap, and to the tune of a song selected by an audience member.

Left: Jessica Borusky, Right: Liz Roncka and Jason Sanford

Jessica Borusky never fails to impress, using her impeccable sense of timing and personal rhythm to explore the fidgety agony of waiting, the explosion that happens when someone snaps, and finally, with over 100 “I’m sorry”-ies, a failed attempt to re-conform to polite expectations. Jason Sanford DJed as Liz Roncka dance/twitch/exercised, displaying incredible muscle control with an intensity that made all my muscles tighten up just watching.

Left: Kirk Amaral Snow, Right: Sara June and Max Lord

Kirk Amaral Snow showed strength and commitment as he transformed his legs into feet of sand. Sara June took on the persona of the Fastest Woman on Earth.

Ian Deleón and Anabel Vázquez

Towards the end of the evening, Ian Deleón and Anabel Vázquez performed a slow dance that was one of the few performances of the evening that did not break the fourth wall and maintained an air of the theatrical throughout. Deleón’s solo show, Cuba + Puerto Rico: Invitación a Volar, (which I wrote about previously here) is still on view at La Galería through June 21st.

Moments from the many performances have kept popping into my head over the past couple days as I work to process them all. With both faces I knew and loved and new artists I now plan to look out for, SPEED was an evening to remember and a testament to Boston’s thriving performance art scene.

I left work early on Friday to drive up to Essex Junction, VT for the Artists’ Reception of We Are Family at the Darkroom Gallery. I decided to apply to the show back in April because it was being juried by Chris Verene, a favorite photographer of mine. I enjoyed seeing what Verene chose to represent the theme of family and was honored to be chosen, when his own photographs of his family are so distinctive.

Me with my photo “The Reading Room” at the Darkroom Gallery

My favorite photos in the show were the ones that took everyday moments and combined them with a sort of surreal elegance.

“Bliss Boys 1” by Denise Trotier Johnson

“Cousins” by Tytia Habing

“Morning Boys” by Patricia de Ocio Dudley

If you find yourself in Vermont, you should definitely check out the show, up till the 23rd.

Sunday was hot hot, but I was able to enjoy South Boston Open Studios at The Distillery by taking it slow to take in all the cool art.

The Distillery is a unique space – a historic brewery converted into artist work and live/work spaces. It was strange and wonderful to walk through closets and living rooms and emerge in studios filled with art.

A few painters that stood out were:

Painting by Nick Ward

Painting by Cassandra Long

Painting by Khaldoun Hijazin

With her spacious studio hall, the sculptor Joyce McDaniel seemed to be a bit of an outlier in the Distillery, but in the best way possible. Her elegant sculptures soared above visitors heads, immense without being ungainly, their layered-paper construction giving them a sense of lightness.

Joyce McDaniel’s studio

Of all the work I saw on Sunday, it was Derek Hoffend‘s sound sculptures that truly made me stop and pay attention. Hoffend has previously taught in the Museum School’s Sound department and has a background in electrical engineering, but has studied sound design and sound architecture extensively. Upon entering Hoffend’s studio, visitors were greeted by a pleasant drone-hum coming from the sculpture’s speakers. Hoffend draws his sound samples from sources such as brain-wave tones and notes associated with yoga chakras, these tones then create live and constantly changing music based on a set algorithm.

A geodesic sounds sculpture installed in Derek Hoffend’s studio.

Hoffend’s sculptures combine geometry, sound design, sacred forms, and healing energy. In a less capable artist’s hands, the outcome could have been hokey or “new-age”, but Hoffend is so sincere and thoughtful in his execution that his sculptures feel like true instruments of healing. Hoffend’s sculptures are polished and professional – healing involves a great deal of trust, and I felt no hesitation when climbing into the sculpture.

Lying inside the sound dome.

I have a chronic pain condition, so I’ve spent a good amount of time investigating non-traditional healing methods, and while I wasn’t expecting to find one at the Distillery, I was open to the experience. Lying inside the sculpture was incredibly calming and peaceful. The mattress base lay on a second lower ring of speakers, which emitted low frequency vibrations that felt wonderful on my spine. Although I only stayed inside the sculpture for around five minutes since others were passing through, it was hard to leave!

Inside the “Incubator” sound sculpture.

I’m glad I made the hot trek to the Distillery for Open Studios, I knew it was somewhere I needed to check out, I just didn’t know quite how full of life it would be!