A 'pop-and-pop-run business' thrives →

Marc Gurton, co-owner, of 13Forest Gallery at 167A Mass. Ave., Capitol Square in East Arlington, met me between snowstorms. He and his husband, Jim Kiely, share ownership of 13Forest. His cozy gallery is just a block walk from the Capitol Theater; all items are made by hand.

I wanted to know how 13Forest had grown from its original location in Medford Square to East Arlington.

"Building relationships with artists" and being a "family business" are what fulfill Gurton. It’s a "pop-and-pop-run business," he says, as the co-owners collaborate in all respects.

Following a successful 20-year career in corporate accounting, Gurton felt his enthusiasm for his job wane, and a need for a change was inevitable. In 2006, the New York native was fortunate to have the time and finances to visit friends in England, France, Ireland, Italy and Tunisia.

Gurton planned the February trip that year to coincide with the three-day St. Agatha festival in Catania in Sicily, near Mount Aetna. Standing up for her faith to the Romans, St. Agatha is known as “the patron saint” of breast-cancer survivors and firefighters. He vividly recalls the 2006 festival, as men in white tunics and black hats led a procession of hundreds of thousands through the streets.

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Boriana Kantcheva: Likely Stories at 13FOREST Gallery

Arlington, MA – “Monsters, ghost stories, horror movies and dreams have fascinated me since childhood and now serve as reference points,” said Boriana Kantcheva, whose “Likely Stories” exhibit has recently opened at 13FOREST Gallery in Arlington. The show features paintings that fuse people and animals and is inspired by fairy tales and folklore of Eastern Europe.

Despite the common theme throughout her collection, every painting is unique and especially eye-catching. The different uses of color and subject matter guarantees that the spectator will have plenty to look at. What is truly fascinating about her work is the amount of detail that goes into each piece; the more one looks at her paintings, the more detail is discovered, but the painting never becomes overwhelming.

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BROADSIDE - Oct. 21 - Nov 14, 2014

An exhibition based on modern reinterpretations of the one-sheet broadside. This body of work finds its place between the ephemeral, commercialized object and something more lasting, tactile, and intimate or conceptual. The artists investigate a range of interests including aesthetics, politics, humor, cartoons, poetics, and social issues.

Of its many variations there are several elements of the broadside that have remained constant throughout its history. Whether manifested in an 18thcentury ballad or a notice for a public hanging, a 1960’s social activist leaflet or today’s illustrated poem, the broadside’s consistent traits are that it is aportable, accessible, and affordable form of communication.  It is not surprising that these pieces of street literature have been a useful tool for artists and artist activists looking to reach the larger public without limits placed by editors, curators, and other art market gatekeepers.


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Xu Bing Phoenixes Soar at St John the Divine

Made from discarded construction materials common to the Chinese landscape, Xu Bing's majestic phoenixes combine elements of folklore and political commentary.  Weighing over 12 tons and measuring more than 90 feet long each, the installation required special accommodations to the late 19th century St. John the Divine, the fourth largest church in the world. Massive scaffolding was built to hold the sculptures 20 feet off the ground and between the magnificent stained glass windows.

 


Having missed the Xu Bing exhibition at Mass MOCA, Jim and I went down to New York last weekend to see the two mythical birds in their new home, where they were installed over four days earlier this month.  I'm glad we waited.  Entering the towering cathedral on Amsterdam at 112th just before 5pm last Sunday, we were coincidentally treated to an organ recital by Marijim Thoene of Ann Arbor, Michigan on the newly restored Great Organ.

 

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Into the Light: An Interview with Nicole Duennebier

Painter Nicole Duennebier is the featured artist in 13FOREST Gallery’s exhibition The Great Season. Her work evokes thoughts of Dutch Baroque art in which objects, sometimes just past their prime, emerge from deep space bathed in light. But there is ambiguity. Based on biology and the feeling of discovery, Duennebier’s forms reference the world but do not represent it. They are defiant and have lives of their own.

One February afternoon I sat with the artist in a crowded cafe as snow mounted outside. Over the sound of beard-and-tatted pool players, we spoke for nearly two hours about everything from music and science to life on an island and in the city. Her hands conveyed nearly as much as her words.

 

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A Visit to the New Barnes Foundation

The Postman (Joseph-Étienne Roulin), Vincent Van Gogh, 1889, oil on canva

The Postman (Joseph-Étienne Roulin), Vincent Van Gogh, 1889, oil on canva

On a recent trip to Philadelphia, I was excited to visit the new downtown location of the Barnes Foundation, which opened in 2012 and houses what is generally considered one of the most compelling collections of modern art in the world.  How it arrived there, on a grand promenade lined with museums, which ends at the imposing neo-classical Philadelphia Museum of Art, is a contentious and complex legal matter.  As I learned more about the museum and its history, it became clear that the shiny new museum, its café and shop, were completely out of line with the will and wishes of the late Albert Barnes.  Though the artwork is unquestionably stunning and his unique curatorial style is very much in evidence, Barnes’ plans for his collection to remain solely an educational destination have been more or less overturned.

 

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This Will Have Been – now through March 3, 2013 at the Institute of Contemporary Art

Art in the 1980s fueled social reform, challenged governments, documented different cultures and engaged with more diverse audiences than ever before.  Artists were influenced by street art, mass media, feminism, the AIDS crisis, and a changing art market, both conceptually and geographically. 

This Will Have Been tells a cohesive story about the culture and art of the 1980s.  Nevertheless, the quality of individual works is stunning.  From Koons to Holzer, to Mapplethorpe and Bright, many of the artists are superstars in their own right.  And the artwork showcased is not only visually compelling, but has become iconic in today’s popular culture.

 

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