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‘Ocean View’ at Montserrat, ’What is Big?’ at Brickbottom
BY RANDI HOPKINS
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What is it about the ocean that’s so stirring? The immense, changeable sky? The powerful expanse of water, ever in motion? The light reflected off clouds, rocks, waves, and sand? The sense of infinity, of the beginning of time, of eternity? Whatever it is, it’s long been inspiring artists and artistic hobbyists to run for their brushes, cameras, and sketchbooks, and Boston’s beautiful North Shore has certainly sparked its share of seaside art, from major paintings by Martin Johnson Heade and John Marin to enthusiastic efforts by countless Sunday painters. But there are contemporary artists who have a different vision of sand and sea, a vision that’s explored in the new "Ocean View," which opens at the Montserrat College of Art Gallery on July 12. Curated by Katherine French, the gallery’s director, "Ocean View" aims to challenge the familiar view of seascape painting as an easy-to-look-at representation of nature’s splendor. "This is a show of seascapes," French explains, "but it is less about scene representation or traditional landscape than it is about expressing the experience of place that the artist has while looking at sky and sea." To this end, she’s assembled a group of artists whose work ranges from abstract painting to photography, from watercolor to sculpture, and from personal expression to formal exploration. British artist Michael Porter, who lives and works in Cornwall, has spent this year as artist-in-residence at Montserrat, and his oil paintings are based on his intensive studies of rocks in seascapes; he focuses in on such small areas that the paintings read as abstractions. Jane Goldman, who created the imaginative images of Atlantic Ocean aquatic life on the new floor tiles at Logan Airport, contributes images of swirling seaweed that are based on the artist’s own underwater photographs and presented on sheets of paper close to five feet tall. John Walker is represented by three prints and a large oil painting from his "Of Time and Tides" series, a personal meditation on family and history that grew out of his father’s experience in World War I. Three of Jon Imber’s large oil paintings from the "Mussels and Shells" series will also be on view, works that French calls "lovely, expressionistic studies of seashells, very mucky. They are painted with thick impasto and are more about the act of painting than about representing the shells." George Nick, Paul Cary Goldberg, George Herman, Masako Kamiya, Isabel McIlvain, Richard Raiselis, Ryan Smith, and Lynn Swigart round out "Ocean View." Meanwhile, Brickbottom Gallery in Somerville presents "What Is Big?", which opens on July 9 with oversized efforts by 15 artists whose work pushes the scale envelope. Included are Debra Olin, who explores history and identity by way of media and imagery — fabric, gloves, dresses — associated with "women’s work," and Beverly Sky, who creates landscapes from handmade paper. "Ocean View" is at the Montserrat College of Art Gallery, 23 Essex Street in Beverly, July 12 through September 25; call (978) 921-4242 extension 1319. "What Is Big?" is at the Brickbottom Gallery, 1 Fitchburg Street in Somerville, July 9 through August 21, with an opening reception July 9 from 6 to 8 p.m.; call (617)776-3410, or visit www.brickbottomartists.com
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