‘Almost a selfish act’
In Francois Bonnel's show "La Part Belle,'' at Lanoue Gallery, Boston, through Sept. 27.
Francois Bonnel is a contemporary French painter known for his minimalist, mid-century modern aesthetic.
His Web site says:
“For François Bonnel, ‘painting is pure pleasure, I don’t paint to convey a message or a philosophy, it’s almost a selfish act’. Inspired by his everyday environment and the music he listens to, musicality is often integrated into his work, forming a unique personal pictorial language that expresses his emotional memories through elements of form, colour, line and space”
Blue falls
“Plumb 36 C (Leaves of Grass)’’ (UV polymer on aluminum), by Henry Mandell, at Lanoue Gallery, Boston.
Aerial view
“Skyway’’, by Sarah Giannobile, in her show at Lanoue Gallery, Boston, March 1-30.
The gallery says:
“So much of that natural world that inspires Giannobile is from observing what is above. ‘Skyway,’ both the title of her exhibition and of one of the paintings in it (above), is a reference to birds and other winged creatures that inhabit that realm and whose abstracted forms frequently appear in her compositions.’’
Art about museums
“NY Times Museum Section with Cy Twombly” (mixed media wall sculpture), by Paul Rousso, in group show at Lanoue Gallery, Boston, through June 9.
#Paul Rousso
Just a quick kiss
“Petite Confidence” (steel), by Franco-American artist Pascal Pierme, in his show at Lanoue Gallery, Boston, through March 18.
He says:
“{The late French President| Francois Mitterrand said, ‘I love the person who is searching, yet I am afraid of the one who thinks he has found the answer.’ In my life I have much more pleasure with the questions than with finding the answers, except when the answer is a new question. And that is where the obsession to create begins.
‘‘...For decades, balance, movement, inquiry, architecture and nature have been reoccurring themes in my work. I am interested in assimilating what is not supposed to fit – the combining of contrasting elements. My main ingredient is chemistry. I feel the movement and then freeze that moment in the interaction and take a ‘snapshot’ – capturing a split second in the evolution. Thereby creating something that is abstract and at the same time, quite figurative. As such, my work can be experienced as organic. It moves. It is alive, it comes from somewhere, it is going somewhere, and you feel that by what you see.
‘‘I try to sculpt in a way where I can change my mind until the last minute. My creativity is at its best when I push the medium of my work to its limit.’’
And have an exciting night
“Push Your Beds Together’’ (acrylic, oil stick, pastel, spray paint and latex on canvas), by Brazilian artist Thai Mainhard, in her show at Lanoue Gallery, Boston, through Aug. 28.
The gallery says:
“Thai Mainhard’s abstract paintings combine expressive mark making with dense blocks of color to create complex and emotive compositions that navigate the space between chaos and calm. Her works draw inspiration from Abstract Expressionism, recalling the work of Willem de Kooning, Cy Twombly and Joan Mitchell. Mainhard works with a variety of media—including oil paint, oil sticks, spray paint, and charcoal—to create intuitive imagery that externalizes her feelings and personal experiences.’’
‘Flowers as departure point’
“Bouquet “(color block & polka dots), (collage, acrylic & silkscreen on canvas), by Emily Filler, in her show “Wild Flowers,’’ at Lanoue Gallery, Boston, through March 26.
The gallery says:
“Canadian artist Emily Filler weaves painting, printmaking and photography together in her ‘painterly collages’. Using old photographs, pieces of fabric, and silk-screened images to create imaginary landscapes and whimsical bouquets of flowers, Filler’s artwork walks the line between the real and imaginary. Flowers act as a departure point to a world that dissolves into abstraction, whereby creating a sense of the familiar, but also the feeling that one is falling into a dream. What began as fragments are finalized into a complete image, something whole.’’
But where to? Spring?
“Follow Me” (dye sublimation print on aluminum), by Irene Mamiye, at Lanoue Gallery, Boston
Light-headed
“Ugly duck” (limited edition archival pigment print on fine art paper), by Flora Borsi, in her show “Identity: The Self-Portrait Series,’’ at Lanoue Gallery, Boston, through Sept. 20.
As paper goes away....
“NY Times Arts with Cat” (mixed media wall sculpture), in Paul Rousso’s show through June 27 at Lanoue Gallery, Boston.
The gallery reports:
“The ink and paper era is drawing to a close. ‘All this stuff,’ as artist Paul Rousso puts it, ‘is going away.’ That ‘stuff’ is no less than the paper-based underpinnings of modern civilization. Texts, images, sheet music, currency – the paper document is being displaced by its transformation into so many bits of binary code, digitized for the screen and everyplace at once. Yet paper documents are themselves an expression of something else entirely. An artist sketches a two dimensional impression of a flower; a novelist commits an imagined conversation to paper – meaning is imbued within a separate medium, altered yet understood.’’
“From his ‘painting with paper’ collages to his latest creations of wildly outsized and convoluted sculptures of money, candy wrappers, and newspapers, Paul Rousso has sought to flatten the dimensional and elevate the flattened: ‘There are many shades from one end of the spectrum to the other, but everything has an opposite. My work is about finding what comes next.’' For Rousso, a good deal of what’s next involves a process of crumpling, folding, tearing, gluing, and re-composing – turning the printed pages of a single Vogue magazine into a sculpted wall hanging, for example, or transforming every printed note of every Beatles’ song into a massive jumble of texture on canvas.’’
Smith’s 'meditations on land, water and air'
“Stream No. 31” (chromogenic print), by British-born (but now of Brooklyn) photographer Jonathan Smith, in his show at Lanoue Gallery, Boston, through May 23.
The gallery says:
Jonathan Smith spent the early years of his career assisting and printing for the renowned photographer Joel Meyerowitz {famous for his photos of Cape Cod}, and has had solo exhibitions in both nationally and internationally. His work consists of large-scale, highly nuanced color photographs of the stark natural beauty and inherent impermanence of landscapes.
“Smith has been photographing natural landscapes for more than 15 years. Shooting precisely and selectively with incredible detail, often revisiting the same site on several occasions until he feels the essential character of the landscape has been revealed to him. This conscious and gradual process of documentation results in meditations on land, water and air.’’
His investigations of landscape have led him to the remote locations of northern Iceland and southern Patagonia, where he photographed streams, glaciers, glacial rivers and waterfalls. These landscapes, devoid of human presence, display a world lost in time. Often abstracted, these photographs of mountain streams and glacial shifts are a reminder of the forces of nature at play; a sublime beauty far removed from the everyday. Drifting into frame, the dreamlike palette of these landscapes offers a window into an ephemeral world where scale and perspective become impalpable. These landscapes inspired the creation of large-scale prints that echo the vastness of the spaces they depict, inviting the viewer in to contemplate their own relationship to the natural world.
Above: Stream No. 31, chromogenic print, available sizes: 30x37.5" ed. of 8, 40x50" ed. of 5, 56x70" ed. of 3
To tide us over to May
“Vintage Bouquet (Blue Hydrangeas)’’ (mixed media on canvas), by Emily Filler, at Lanoue Gallery, Boston
Before Spring's color explosion
“Hiatus No. 2" (encaustic & mixed media on 30" panels), by Robin Luciano Beaty, at Lanoue Gallery, Boston
The Boston-based artist writes:
“My work is driven by the intuitive journey of discovering the reminiscent through process rather than rendering an explicit space. My intention is to spark personal recollections in the viewer from an unconventional perspective using unexpected materials. I’m communicating more of a memory than a representation with the use of texture, neglected everyday objects and forgotten mementos of the past. Though the fluvial and sculptural qualities of wax , I navigate memory. Scraping, tearing, building up and burning down multiple layers to reveal internal compositions brought out only by this tactile and physical experience.
“In my most recent work, I strive to capture the universal and emotional connection to water embedded within our life memories. Oceans, rivers and lakes are instilled in our subconscious scrapbook, creating an undeniable feeling of nostalgia and escape. I am able to reclaim these memories in a significantly more personal way by incorporating vintage photographs, letters, textiles and found objects. By repurposing forgotten objects within my own private retrospective process, I bring back to life the very intimate recollections of another, along with igniting the viewers’ own.”
'Body and self'
“Animeyed: Flamingo” (archival pigment print on Hahnemühle pap), one of the works of Flora Borsi at Lanoue Gallery, Boston.
The gallery says she ‘uses masterful photo manipulation to create surreal images that are thematically focused on identity, relationships, dreams, and universal emotions ranging from lust and desire to despair and loss.’’
“In her ongoing self-portrait series, Borsi often features the female body playing with hiding and revealing the eyes or face to leave only the feminine form, exploring questions of female representation and the relationship between body and self.’’
Make it a regular, and hold the disinfectant
“Flat White” (digital inkjet fragments and foam on board), by Pamela Stretton, in her show this month at Lanoue Gallery, Boston.
Stand-in for spring
“Vintage Bouquet (Pink, White & Blue Flowers)” (mixed media on canvas), by Emily Filler, at Lanoue Gallery, Boston, for December
Murmur of a memory
“In places faded. Tonight a ghost, a murmur of a love epistle’’ (acrylic and mixed media on canvas), by Melissa Herrington, in her show at Lanoue Gallery, Boston, through Nov. 30’.
More than basic black
“After the Storm” (acrylic on canvas), by Tim Forbes, in his show “NOIR: Works on Canvas & Paper,’’ at Lanoue Gallery, Boston, through Oct. 11. He’s based in Blue Rocks, Nova Scotia. (See below.) Hit these links:
lanouegallery.com
and
https://lanouegallery.com/artist/Tim_Forbes/biography/
Don't go out there
Horizon #34, (C-print mounted to dibond), by Jonathan Smith, at Lanoue Gallery, Boston. The gallery says:
“Smith's work consists of large scale, highly nuanced, color photographs of the stark natural beauty and inherent impermanence of landscapes.’’
Fog in SoWa
“Luceombra’’ (Ink & gouache on cotton paper) by Sabrina Garrasi, at Lanoue Gallery, Boston. Hit this link.
In SoWa in happier, pre-pandemic days
Lanoue Gallery is in The SoWa Art & Design District (South of Washington Street) in Boston’s South End. It’s a community of artist studios, contemporary-art galleries, boutiques, design showrooms and restaurants in what was once an area of neglected warehouses. It features the SoWa Open Market, the SoWa Vintage Market and a now-fashionable residential neighborhood.