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View Anne Lilly's sculpture Calendar for Parmenides in a group exhibition at the Concord Center for Visual Art

March 28 - May 1, 2019 | 37 Lexington Road, Concord MA 01742

Curated by Kate James and Kathleen O’Hara

Dante said it best when he called the moon our “eternal pearl”, changing, glowing, layered and forever. The moon is science; the moon is art; the moon tangoes with the earth and the sun. The moon plays a major role in astronomy, romance, literature, poetry, navigation, tides, the uncanny, storytelling, art making and politics. Harold used his purple crayon to draw the moon and locate his bedroom window. Thoreau liked it for night walks and Neil Armstrong walked on its surface 50 years ago. It continues to captivate us throughout our lives as it morphs in size and shape prompting mystery, myth and metaphor over the centuries. This exhibition marks the 50th anniversary of Armstrong's scientific and poetic moment. We have assembled a diverse group of artists whose practice has been moon-centric. With conceptual and visual results, each prompts our own relationship to the moon. We ask them each the question and hope the exhibition prompts you to ask “what is it about the moon”?

https://www.concordart.org/exhibitions/the-moon

March 5 - May 14, 2019. Curated by James Little. New York Centric Catalogue. 

View works by Sponder Gallery artists including Stanley Boxer, Dan Christensen, Gabriele Evertz, James Austin Murray and Peter Reginato.

Foreword by KAREN WILKIN, New York, 2019

“Too much is expected of Art, that it mean all kinds of things and is the solution to questions no one can answer. Art is much simpler than that. Its pretentions more modest. Art is a sign, an insignia to celebrate the faculty for invention.” Stuart Davis wrote this in 1956, but it seems newly relevant today. Over the past three decades, art has been increasingly required to “mean all kinds of things” and to offer solutions to “questions no one can answer,” often at the expense of any other considerations. Today, in many prestigious art schools, students who wish to be taken seriously (and, sometimes, receive acceptable grades) are urged to make work that addresses such daunting issues as political unrest, climate change, civil rights, gender equality, animal welfare, poverty, and all the rest of it....

It's been a long process getting an interview going with Donald Martiny. Not because he's is difficult to contact but because it takes me a while to think of the right questions to ask such a complex artist. I had the pleasure of meeting Martiny at my weekly Whitehot Magazine Art Party that happens every Tuesday night at the Jane Hotel Roof Bar in New York City. Martiny is an intelligent, warm individual who has obviously spent many years studying and perfecting his work. I've spent time with Frank Stella and I hold Martiny in the same regard as a modern master in the making. The following conversation took place aproximately one week before I met him at my party. 

Where are you from?

I was born in upstate New York in the early 50s. My family lived in a small split-level house nestled in the middle of an orchard near Ballston Lake.

When did you discover art?

The first art that I remember being aware of was the Midnight Ride of Paul Revere by Grant Wood which was printed in a repeat pattern on the upholstery of our living room couch. That fantastic imagery was mesmerizing to me and as spellbinding and entertaining as any storybook or film. By the time I was in my early teens we had moved to Holland, Michigan and I was devouring every art book I could get my hands on. At fourteen I began making day trips on my own to the Art Institute of Chicago via Greyhound bus, something no parent would tolerate today.

January 26 - February 20, 2019 | 6215 South Flagler, West Palm Beach, FL

Sponder Gallery participated in the 2019 edition of the Kips Bay Showhouse in West Palm Beach, Florida. Works by Dan Christensen, Jane Manus, Donald Martiny, Ernest Trova and Larry Zox are in view in spaces designed by Leanne Yarn, Andres Paradelo and Amy Meier.

Each year, celebrated interior designers transform a luxury Manhattan home and a Palm Beach residence into an elegant exhibition of fine furnishings, art and technology. This all began in 1973 when several dedicated supporters of Kips Bay Boys & Girls Club launched the Kips Bay Decorator Show House to raise critical funds for much needed after school and enrichment programs for New York City children. Over the course of four decades, this project has grown into a must-see event for thousands of design enthusiasts and is renowned for sparking interior design trends throughout the world. The Show House receives as many as 15,000 guests annually from across the nation. Since its inception, the Show House has raised over $21,000,000 for Kips Bay Boys & Girls Club, which currently reaches over 10,000 young people at nine locations throughout the Bronx. Today, the club is proudly one of the most prominent and responsive youth development agencies in New York City and a “flagship” of the Boys and Girls Clubs of America. 

The 2018-2019 edition of Mizner's Dream is available, featuring an editorial about Max-Steven Grossman.

By The Book

Max Steven Grossman is a celebrated digital photographer. But he's also, in a more unorthodox sense, a librarian. Each photograph is his signature series, Bookscapes, is a collage of related books - extravagant coffee-table tomes, biographies, critical compendiums, art history surveys - that do not exist outsite the artist' imagination. As art professor Natalia Brizuela wrote in a 2017 essay about Grossman's work "The books in every image have never quite been placed in that way except in the virtual space of his computer... When looked at from a close distance, you can see that the each book spine has a distinct image quality, revealing their different provenance, their composite or collage character." 

Read the full text (pages 120-123) here.

Mass Cultural Council’s Artist Fellowships recognize exceptional work by Massachusetts artists across a range of disciplines. These highly competitive awards provide artists crucial validation among their peers and the public. They catalyze artistic advancement and pave the way for creative innovation of enduring cultural value. In 2018 they proudly supported 67 artists with grants totaling $441,000.

The Mass Cultural Council works to elevate a rich cultural life in Massachusetts. They partner with communities across the Commonwealth to expand access, improve education, promote diversity, and encourage excellence in the arts, humanities, and sciences. 

Mass Cultural Council | 10 St. James Avenue, 3rd Floor | Boston, MA 02116-3803

https://massculturalcouncil.org/artists-art/artist-fellowships/funding-list/

On View Feburary 9 - November 30, 2019

The Open Museum at Tefen Industrial Parkwill open a comprehensive exhibition of Boaz Vaadia works. The exhibition includes his last
reliefs, made shortly before he died from a terminal disease in February 2017. Vaadia’s journey is one of movement between continents and
cultures. Presenting an exhibition of his sculptures in Israel, at the Open Museum, Tefen Industrial Park, offers something of a closure to this path. Vaadia’s sculptures are exhibited in public places and private collections around the world. Only two of his works are publicly displayed in Israel, Asa & Yehoshafat, installed at Tel Aviv’s Independence Park, and Re’uven, in the sculpture garden at the Open Museum, Tefen. Many of Vaadia’s outdoor sculptures are on permanent view in the United States, including at the entrance to the Time Warner Center in Manhattan, near Washington DC and Chicago Illinois, as well as many international temporary public loans over the years, including in Barclay’s Bank HQ Square in London, and more.

Watch the official trailer for Tigran Tsitoghdzyans upcoming documentary American Mirror: Intimations of Immortality HERE

American Mirror: Intimations of Immortality

Oscar-winning screen icon Susan Sarandon and Armenian painter Tigran Tsitoghdzyan discuss time and identity, and how the apparently in conflict values of beauty and aging are perceived in our modern society dominated by social media, as he limns her portrait during a timeless sitting session.

The film reveals how Tigran, a highly dedicated and painstakingly trained craftsman, brings the ancient spirit of the old masters into a unique post-modern hyperrealism deeply interwoven with NYC’s culture and social landscape. Shot over the period of three years, the film takes us on a rare, thought-provoking, timeless reality-and-fiction setting to reveal how one of the most striking artists in recent art history climbs up the art-world ranks on the winding journey to success and recognition.

From producer David Shara and writer-director Arthur Balder, with an original soundtrack by composer Mark Petrie, American Mirror stars Susan Sarandon, Tigran Tsitoghdzyan, Donald Kuspit and Florence Faivre. With the participation of Ashley Hinshaw Grace, Jules Wainstein, Hilary Rhoda, Morgan Shara, Ryan Ross, Sirey Moran.

Museo Boncompangi Ludovisi, Rome | October 11 - December 31, 2018

After the Tribes is a site-specific installation structured around twelve circular paintings on semitransparent PVC that enliven an imposing four-meter-high metal structure. The work relates the story of the Twelve Tribes of Israel, who descended directly from the sons of Jacob to form the Jewish people. Along with research into cartographic materials at the National Library of Israel, Beverly Barkat based her work on these historical studies, concentrating in particular on color and material to conjure a complex universe of symbols and references. The artist’s color palette derives from soil collected from the lands where each of the twelve tribes dwelt, from the natural elements gathered from the earth and from the gemstone representing them, associated with their occupations. All these elements, ground up and then mixed with acrylic paints and pastel pigments, give rise to each individual work, which is therefore unique and unrepeatable.

Bus Shelter Ad Takeover... September 2018