The Cambridge Art Association’s 70TH exhibition year, opened Friday, September 12, with the 70th Fall Salon, CAA announced in a press release, yesterday.

The salon  runs through September 26, 2014, in both the Kathryn Schultz Gallery (25 R Lowell St)   and
University Place Galleries (125 Mt. Auburn St). Awards were presented on Friday, September 12.

CAA Event Calendar

The opening  honored the memory of longtime member and supporter Mary Schein, whose husband, Edgar Schein, has provided longtime sponsorship and support of the Fall Salon. The 70th Fall
Salon features artwork in a range of media from 144 Cambridge Art Association Artist Members.

Of the prizewinners, who were each awarded $250, Edgar Shein writes:
Jim Kociuba (Cambridge, MA) – November Rain, oil on canvas
This painting captures the style, color and content of what I always thought Mary appreciated—gentle
colors, a simple natural beautiful theme of the receding stream, and a softness of style we associated with some of the paintings of Vuillard and Redon both of whom Mary loved. I have to admit after looking them up on Google that much of their work was anything but gentle and soft, but when they did achieve it, it had a special quality that always attracted us greatly.

Susan Burgess (Cambridge, MA) – Maine Retreat, oil on canvas
This painting is a wonderful reminder of the summers Mary and I spent in Maine. We divided our time
between Bethel, where I worked, and the ocean that she loved, having grown up in Carmel, California. The two coasts are totally different, with the young California coast plunging steeply into the sea, while the geologically much older Maine coast gently eases into the ocean as this painting so elegantly shows. Our favorite places were Boothbay Harbor and Rockland where we spent several summers at the grand old Samoset Hotel. The peaceful and calming and eternal vista of this painting could be seen over and over again all along the coast.

Upcoming exhibits: 

• Time Travelers – a small group show with work by Stephen Martin, Conny Goelz-Schmitt, and Lorraine Sullivan October 2–30, 2014. Opening reception, Thursday, October 2, 6-8pm at Kathryn Schultz Gallery
• 70th Members Prize Show, juried by Al Miner (Assistant Curator of Contemporary Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)October 10 – November 15, 2014. Opening reception: Friday, October 10, 6-8pm at University Place Gallery
• Motion Envisioned – a small group show with work by Bea Grayson, Bob Hesse, and Ruth LieberherrNovember 4-29, 2014. Opening reception, Saturday, November 15, 1-3pm at Kathryn Schultz Gallery
• PLATINUM – Northeast Open Show, juried by Alise Upitis (Assistant Curator, MIT List Visual Art Center)December 4, 2014 – January 16, 2015. Opening reception Friday, December 5, 6-8pm at the Kathryn Schultz Gallery and University Place Gallery.

–Anita M. Harris
New Cambridge Observer is a publication of the Harris Communications Group, an award-winning PR and marketing firm based in Kendall Square, Cambridge, MA. 

Anita Harris is a communications consultant and the author of Broken Patterns, Professional Women and the Quest for a New Femninine Identity (2014) and the forthcoming Ithaca Diaries, Coming of Age in the 1960s. (Spring, 2015).

The Cambridge Art Association’s 13^th National Prize Show,will open May 13, CAA announced today. The show will exhibit the work of 82 artists chosen by Dr. James Welu, Director Emeritus of the Worcester Art Museum from among 383 artists from 13 states.  Prize winners, include artists from Lexington, Belmont, Duxbury, Lexington Providence, Roslindale, Providence, and West Yarmouth.

The show will run  through June 26, 2014, at both the Kathryn Schultz Gallery (25 Lowell Street, Cambridge) and the University Place Gallery (124 Mt Auburn Street, Cambridge).  An opening reception will be held on Friday, May 16, 6-8pm, in both galleries.

The prizewinners are:

Best in Show: Zoe Perry-Wood (Lexington, MA)

Mixed Media Prize: Warren Croce (Belmont, MA)

Photography Prize: Dorothy Pilla (Duxbury, MA)

Painting Prize: Wilson Hunt, Jr. (Roslindale, MA)

Sculpture/3D Prize: Jesse Thompson (Providence, RI)

Work on Paper Prize: Carol Flax (West Yarmouth, MA)

Welu, who selected  the exhibitors and the award-winners said: “Jurying the National Prize Show was exciting and challenging–exciting to see such a wide range of art from across the country, but challenging to narrow a field of over a thousand entries to an exhibition of about 85 works.”

In jurying the show,  Welu  focused on  visual impact and originality with the goal of representing the variety of media that was submitted, he said.  “I was particularly attentive to the artists’ choice and use of medium for expressing the subject of their work. It was reassuring to see so many fresh and innovative approaches to a number of traditional subjects.” Welu said he was also impressed by the number of outstanding abstract paintings.

Previous jurors have included: Toby Kamps (Menil Collection) Malcolm Rogers (MFA, Boston); Clara Kim (Senior Curator, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis); Joseph Thompson (Director, MassMoCA); Lisa Dennison (Guggenheim); Marc Pacter (Director, National Portrait Gallery); Robert Fitzpatrick (Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago), among others.

–Anita M. Harris
New Cambridge Observer is a publication of the Harris Communications Group, an award-winning PR and marketing firm in Kendall Square, Cambridge, MA. Anita Harris is the author of Broken Patterns, Professional Women and the Quest for a New Feminine Identity, the forthcoming Ithaca Diaries–and managing director of the Harris Communications Group.

Hatry photo, Menard Gallery Heads and Tales

If Heide Hatry’s provocative photographic show—Heads and Tales–at the Peirre Menard Gallery, (10 Arrow St. in Cambridge) is meant to shock: it does. In fact, for a few moments,  it made me fear for the mental health of the artist, who has (beautifully–even lovingly)  photographed her sculptures portraying female victims of violent death.

Hatry, who grew up in Germany and moved to New York City in 2003,  sculpted life-sized female mannequins from clay and covered them with untreated pigskin (a cold wet sample of which is available in the gallery with the notice: “please touch”). She added raw meat for the lips and fresh pig eyes—and in some cases, flies, safety pins, and other props—creating, according to the gallery writeup, “the illusion of life where there is none”.

Hatry then photographed the mannequins—some enlarged to 20”x 30”, others more life-size, at 12” x 18”.

Viewed from afar, the photographs appear lifelike, but close up, you realize the subjects are constructs—adding physical and intellectual layers to the artist’s statements on the horrifying situations faced by many women—and on photography’s role in bringing the inanimate to life.

Hatry’s “views” are further emphasized by accompanying tales about the “women’s” lives (and deaths) as imagined by 27 writers—some of them well known feminists.

The show is well-conceived and displayed, which makes its subject matter all the more disturbing.

The exhibit, which opened Feb 13, 2009, will run through March 15. It corresponds with the release of Hatry’s book, Heads and Tales, and with readings, book signings and the premiere of a play.

AMH

New Cambridge Observer is a publication of the Harris Communications Group of Cambridge, MA.