Institute of Contemporary Art

Dr. Lakra, is a renowned tattoo artist who lives and works in Mexico. Under his pseudonym, loosely translating as Dr. Delinquent, he draws (tattoos) over vintage printed materials and found objects rather than skin, manipulating images of pin-up girls, 1940s Mexican businessmen, Mexican professional masked wrestlers or luchadores, and Japanese sumo wrestlers. Playful, witty, rather sleazy, and often intentionally vulgar, his work challenges social norms by blurring cultural identities and art forms. Included at the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) are works presented from a variety of series and a newly-commissioned mural.

During his years in Boston the exhibitions of the Mario Diacono gallery were legendary. The Italian born poet, curator and critic generally displayed a single work. The projects which entailed renowned international artists were accompanied by detailed and complex critical essays. Some 30 of these essays have now been published by his Italian patron.

A unique art happening in Boston is taking place in a special setting.The HarborArts Outdoor Gallery at the 14-acre Boston Harbor Shipyard at 256 Marginal Street in East Boston is inviting the public to take a stroll through this working shipyard for a walking tour of their first international outdoor exhibition of large-scale 2D and 3D artworks. The exhibit includes works by over 25 artists from three continents, including works by renown and emerging sculptors from the region. The Opening Celebration will be have the artists greeting and explaining their works as well as information tables by environmental organizations. Art and refreshments will be served.

The group exhibition Natural Selections opens on Friday, April 23 at Greylock Arts in Adams, Mass and remains on view through June 5. The project includes Christian Cerrito, Charles Giuliano, Alex Kauffmann, Henry Klein, David Lachman, Michelle Vitale Loughlin, Jeremy Rotsztain, Martha Denmead Rose, Gregory Scheckler. It has been curated by the artists Marianne Petit and Matt Belanger. The exhibition explores aspects of responses to nature by a range of contemporary artists.

Following up on its museum level 2008 exhibition, Zero NY, the Sperone Westwater Gallery in Chelsea is featuring one of the founders of group Zero, Otto Piene. The focus is on seminal work including paintings, works on paper and light sculptures from 1957-1967. Piene has shown at documenta, the Venice Biennale, and the Munich Olympics. He is Professor Emeritus at MIT where he was director of the Center for Advanced Visual Studies (CAVS).

SHIFTboston was originally intended as a local competition but became an international event, attracting 142 entries from 14 different countries and several dozen states. The challenge was to look at Boston in a futuristic way. A "distinguished" jury was chosen to review the entries. The result was a little of everything from the terrific to the trivial. Surely, something better could have won than the eventual prize winner. Perhaps the jury started sipping wine too early in the day?

The Neue Galerie in New York organized the first American retrospective of the German artist Otto Dix (1891-1969). The exhibition traveled to the Museum of Fine Arts in Montreal. While the New York installation was widely viewed as a mess the exhibition had a profound impact. Many critics and publications list the Dix survey as among the best exhibitions of 2010.

The low key, scaled back, modest and manageable Whitney Biennial 2010 curated by Francesco Bonami and Gary Carrion-Murayari has been dubbed the Obama Biennial. He is even on the cover. The Whitney has used this occasion to reflect on its history and critical reception since the series started in 1932. It begs questions about its mandate, the status of American art, and its relationship to a former partner, the Museum of Modern Art.

Back in the day the Berkshire Museum, the oldest in the region, collected everything from soup to nuts. The museum's director, Stuart Chase, is challenged to find projects drawn from a vast collection of 30,000 objects. The interactive exhibitions are fun for families and instructive for 13,000 annual visiting students.

This is the second annual award list organized by Greg Cook the publisher/ editor of The New England Journal of Aesthetic Research. A gala celebration was held at the Burren in Somerville. You had to be there.

First established in 1999, the James and Audrey Foster Prize (formerly the ICA Artist Prize) recognizes Boston-area artists of exceptional promise. The biennial program creates a significant opportunity for locally-based artists to exhibit their work in a leading contemporary art museum, and offers a substantial financial award of $25,000 to the winner. This year there are nine finalists ranging from photographers to sculptors to painters to filmmakers and mixed media artists.

Unlike many other cities, Boston has no structured program for encouraging public art. There is no ordinance for a percentage of construction budgets and no major designated funding sources for public art. Artists working on a large scale generally must fend for themselves. This past Fall, an ambitious competition was held to create a longterm temporary exhibit of public art in East Boston's Harbor Shipyard. The result may give a shot in the arm to public art in New England's largest city.

Catching up with Rachel Perry Welty at the DeCordova last week we learned that she is super busy. With a solo show in Miami at Gallery Diet, a Duo at the ICA with Kelly Sherman, and a group show at the Arts Council of Princeton, New Jersey. And that's just February. You go girl.

The 2010 DeCordova Biennial, under new director, Dennis Kois, has parted from its prior annual format. It has also progressed to a mix of master artists like Otto Piene and Paul Laffoley, established artists, William Pope.L and Liz Nofzinger, and the usual blend of emerging artists. In all the museum is displaying 17 artists from all six New England states.

Filmmaker John Waters will converse with artist Roni Horn. It is but one of the many events planned for the Winter/Spring at Boston's Institute of Contemporary Art.

In the art world equivalent of musical chairs Boston's Institute of Contemporary Art has snatched its new chief curator, Helen Molesworth, from Harvard. Not long ago the ICA lost a young curator, Jen Mergel, to the MFA. What next in these musical chairs with an empty seat at Harvard which has put on indefinite hold its plans for a new modern/ contemporary museum.

With Jack Levine and Karl Zerbe the artist Hyman Bloom, who was born in Latvia in 1913, was a founding member of the Boston Expressionists. He recently passed away at 96. Yeshiva University a memorial exhibition, through January 24, 2010, is traveling from the Danforth Museum curated by Katherine French.

Final summer series Talking Taste presents Frank McClelland proprietor of Sel de la Terre and L'Espalier that combines French culinary traditions transformed by regional ingredients.

Before Charlotte Salomon (1917-1943)and her husband were murdered at Aushwitz, in the South of France, where she had fled from Germany she created 769 works on paper comprising a picture play "Life? or Theatre? A play with music." Attempts to mount the play in Israel resulted in the disaster and conflict that is conveyed in the one woman performance of "The Actors Rehearse the Story of Charlotte Salomon" stunningly performed by Penelope Kreitzer.

During some time in a Maine cottage by the beach we took a day trip to view the Portland Museum of Art's 2009 Biennial. The jurors, Elizabeth Burke, Dan Graham and Denise Markonish selected 17 artists from 970 applicants.

Remembering two of the great 20th Century Avant-Garde Artists, now deceased, and Yoko Ono, very much alive, and presenting important work in the 21st Century.

When General Electric moved out in the late 1980s, with 10,000 lost jobs, Pittsfield fell on hard times. The recovery started in 2003 when the new Mayor, James M. Ruberto, mandated that arts and culture would be a focus for economic development. Megan Whilden disussed how she joined the team in 2005 and the remarkable progress since then that has reshaped the city as a cultural destination.

There are hundreds of artist-in-residence programs world wide. They are available for US artists and architects, writers, musicians and composers to participate. They come with and without application deadlines. And a creatively working person should be able to find a suitable place in the world to work, gain great experiences and new friends - "research and apply."

Innovative theater artist Sebastienne Mundheim recreates a child's fantasy world at the Hunter Center of Mass MoCA in North Adams, using striking, large kinetic paper sculpture, dancers, live musicians, and video projection in a rich mix of the arts. It is said that Sea of Birds is like "Pan's Labyrinth", only on steroids and in person.

Depending upon your point of view the installation "Universal Gym" by the artist Thomas Hirshorn is insightful and provocative or just a cluttered bunch of workout equipment taped to the floor.