If not always welcoming
“Wide Ocean” (painting), by Newburyport, Mass.-based artist Jennifer Day, at Miller White Fine Arts, Dennis, Mass.
And you can't change your mind
“Linked” (oil on panel), by Renee Levin, in the joint show, “Knotty Girls, with Jennifer Day, at Atelier Newport June 17-July 22.
The gallery says:
Ms. Levin’s “large-scale paintings allow her to emphasize the nuances, patterns and textures of these objects while celebrating their unique beauty. Each painting bears witness to her calm and meticulous process. There is a playful juxtaposition of light and shadow, which creates depth and movement in her work. Levin fuses a world of polish with grit, painting elements of her objects with perfect smoothness, yet adding harsh textures overtop creating a surprising harmony of modern, contemporary paintings. Her work was featured in Vogue, in 2021.’’
‘Are melted into air’
From Jennifer Day’s show “Vapors,’ June 30-Aug. 1, at Bromfield Gallery, Boston. The show consists of black-and-white paintings that explore how liquids, mist and light interact. Ms. Day is based in Newburyport.
Prospero’s soliloquy in Shakespeare’s The Tempest:
Our revels now are ended. These our actors,
As I foretold you, were all spirits, and
Are melted into air, into thin air:
And like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capp'd tow'rs, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve,
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff
As dreams are made on; and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.
The Custom House Maritime Museum, in Newburyport
“Hunter in the Meadows of Old Newburyport, Massachusetts” (c. 1873), by Alfred Thompson Bricher. The scene seems to be near the Little River. Route 1 (aka Boston Post Road) had an overlook easily accessible to artists. In the far right can be seen the ridge along the Merrimack River over which High Street runs. Cattle have been turned into the marsh for pasture, a practice still allowed on some marsh farms of the area in the late 19th Century.
'Defying order and logic'
“The Wake of the Gannett’ (oil on panel), by Jennifer Day, in her show “Endless,’’ through July at Bromfield Gallery, Boston. The gallery says that “her monochromatic paintings of oceans explore how the motion of air above and water currents below toss waves into a frenzy, defying order and logic. ‘‘
A sustainable fire hazard
"Corporation Beach'' (toothpicks and wood scraps), by Jennifer Day, in her show "Small Business,'' at Bromfield Gallery, Boston July 5-30. Using wood, she creates dioramas of machinery and vehicles to show the application of medieval technology to modern sustainable energy.
They come and they go
"HOLE'' (photopolymer etching), by JENNIFER DAY, in her show "Deciduous: Prints and Drawings'' at Bromfield Gallery, Boston, through Aug. 2.
The title of course refers to trees that lose their leaves every year, and, thus are reminders of change and disappearance. including all of us. New England, with its seasons, provides perhaps more reminders of our transience than do many other places.