The anti-Boston provincialism of local curators and critics becomes even clearer when you consider that when internationally revered local artists like Nicholas Nixon, Joan Jonas, and Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons enjoy major career retrospectives, they're organized elsewhere. Do the shows even come to Boston? Campos-Pons's 2007 retrospective, organized by the Indianapolis Museum of Art, didn't. Instead, we get things like a one-room show of Nixon at the MFA ("Family Album," through May 1). Last winter, the ICA set aside one room and a small lobby for Wodiczko, even as Mexican artist Damián Ortega, who's half Wodiczko's age, got half the museum for a retrospective.
Or consider the Los Angeles County Museum of Art's "New Topographics" photography exhibit, which showcases the most influential group of photographers of the past generation. Of the 10 artists in the show, two — Nixon and Frank Gohlke — have spent most of their careers in Boston (Gohlke moved away a few years back), and a third, Joe Deal, lived in Providence for the decade before his death this past June. The show is traveling to nine venues in the US and Europe, but there are no stops in New England. The international art world recognizes our people's talent. When will we?
Read Greg Cook's blog at gregcookland.com/journal.
Topics:
Museum And Gallery
, Institute of Contemporary Art, Institute of Contemporary Art, Harvard, More 
, Institute of Contemporary Art, Institute of Contemporary Art, Harvard, Amie Siegel, Red Dawn, Foster Prize, Laura Hoptman, Matthew Rich, CHAKAIA BOOKER, Morgan Prize, Less 
