Re-creational vehicle‘Broken Home: 1997/2007,’ ‘Empires and Environments,’ and ‘Arp to Reinhardt’ at the Rose, ‘Selections ’08’ at Mass Art, and Liz Linder at Space 242 January 14,
2008 12:47:57 PM
Natalie Frank, Pact (2006)
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When guest curators Meg O’Rourke and Caroline Schneider organized the 1997 group show “Broken Home” at Greene Naftali Gallery in New York’s then-new Chelsea art neighborhood, the practice of bringing in outside curators to organize a “museum quality” exhibition in a commercial gallery was relatively new. The ambitious show, which included work by Robert Gober, Vito Acconci, and Thomas Demand, among others, received mixed reviews, and very few of the works in the show were sold. Fast-forward to 2007, one brief decade later, and not only do works by these artists sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars but gallery exhibitions organized by high-profile outside curators have become an art-season staple. Opening at Brandeis University’s Rose Art Museum on January 23, “BROKEN HOME: 1997/2007” re-creates the 1997 Greene Naftali show in order to examine the increasingly blurred lines between museum and gallery exhibitions, and between commercial and curatorial artistic concerns. Getting these works back together was no easy task, since most are now in the hands of private collectors all over the world, but the Rose has been able to obtain almost everything, including a re-creation (with the assistance of the artist’s estate) of Glen Seator’s installation comprising a black bristled broom and scattered green powdered laundry detergent, and Vito Acconci’s floor model of a fantasy suburban tract, which pays its own weird homage to the backyard swimming pool.
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“Broken Home: 1997/2007,” “Empires and Environments,” and “Arp to Reinhardt” at Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, 415 South St, Waltham | January 23–April 13 | 781.736.3434
“Selections ’08” at Mass College of Art, Paine Gallery, 621 Huntington Ave, Boston | January 31–March 12 | 617.879.7333
“Records and Refuse: New Photography by Liz Linder” at SPACE 242, 242 East Berkeley St [second floor], Boston | January 25–February 22
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Key works from the Rose’s permanent collection come out of storage and into the public eye together with new work by contemporary artists in “EMPIRES AND ENVIRONMENTS,” which will open in the Lois Foster wing on January 23. Guest curators Dominique Nahas and Margaret Evangeline have selected works from the collection that resonate with art by emerging artists — for example, paintings by Early Modernist Florine Stettheimer can be seen alongside new work by Natalie Frank, whose colorful tableaux create a fine dialogue with the theatrical Stettheimer. Andy Warhol, Elizabeth Murray, Wayne Gonzales, and Nicole Cherubini are among the many other artists on view. Also opening at the Rose on January 23, “ARP TO REINHARDT: ROSE GEOMETRIES” presents geometrical abstractions from the museum’s collection, including work by Mary Heilmann, Brice Marden, and Robert Mangold.
Mass College of Art shows off faculty who are either returning from sabbatical or have been newly hired in “SELECTIONS ’08,” which opens on January 31, with work by Taylor Davis, Steve Locke, and Abelardo Morell. And a new South End Gallery, Space 242, opens on January 25 with “RECORDS AND REFUSE: NEW PHOTOGRAPHY BY LIZ LINDER.” This long-time photographer of the Boston music scene has gathered some of her musician portraits as well as a series that explores the connection between “trash and advertising” in a new spin on product placement.
On the Web
“Broken Home: 1997/2007,” “Empires and Environments,” and “Arp to Reinhardt”: www.brandeis.edu/rose
“Selections ’08”: www.massart.edu/calendar
“Records And Refuse: New Photography By Liz Linder”: www.space242.com
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