Institute of Contemporary Art

Seemingly unworried by the current economic state, the ICA announced today the addition of two prominent new curators to their staff. Jenelle Porter is an institutionally well-travelled curator bringing a quality background to the ICA. Also added is Pedro Alonzo, one of the truly cutting edge museum professionals in the contemporary art world. These appointments will add depth and breath to the ICA's mission.

When the Boston Expressionist Hyman Bloom (March 29, 1913 to August 26, 2009) passed away none of his works were on view in the major New England museums. Bloom, his partner Jack Levine, and Karl Zerbe were the leaders of what is regarded as the most significant and influential movement of artists in Boston during the 20th century. Their neglect has been a scandal for Boston's Museum of Fine Arts. We are informed that a work by Bloom will be hung in the new wing of the MFA which opens in November. It remains to be seen how the museum will treat Levine and Zerbe. The MFA owns a minor work by the still living Levine which it acquired through the WPA.

Staying only for a few months at various locations around the world, Puma City is a movable piece of temporary utilitarian architecture. Made of metal shipping containers, it is a three tiered architectural retail event now being bolted together near Fenway Park. Red and flashy yet cool and made from recycled materials, it is architecture as brand.

Arnold Trachtman is the best Boston painter you probably have never heard of. Part of that is his own fault for sticking to a life long commitment to depicting social and political issues in art when that is definitely not in fashion. We pay tribute to a great artist and friend on the occasion of his 80th birthday.

The American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.), under the Artistic Direction of Diane Paulus, is pleased to announce further details of its 2010/11 Season, beginning on August 31 with Cabaret, followed by Alice vs. Wonderland, The Blue Flower, R. Buckminster Fuller â€" The History (and mystery) of the Universe, Ajax, Prometheus Bound, and Death and the Powers: The Robots’ Opera.

After 6500 miles and 33 days, we returned home ! We had traveled through more than ten states, visited many museums and other cultural sites. We saw America's natural wonders, spent lovely days with old friends and met many interesting people along the way. Please follow us through our journey via photos and entries in my diary.

This show of recent acquisitions from the last 6 years of collecting by the Museum of Fine Arts is full of small gems, and one big one. Does it hint of more substantial works to come in the East Wing this fall?

Originally constructed in the 1930s to lift dangerous freight trains off Manhattan's streets, the High Line is an abandoned elevated train track. When completed, this piece of dormant infrastructure will be a 1.5 mile public park running through Manhattan's Lower West Side neighborhoods. Created as an integrated landscape, designed by landscape architects James Corner Field Operations, with architects Diller Scofidio + Renfro, the High Line combines meandering concrete pathways with naturalistic plantings. It is already an urban jewel.

Every three years, the Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt has its Triennial. Every three years, it is a mix of truly good sometimes great design along with examples of eccentric sometimes simple-minded objects and systems. The jurying process has always been questionable and less than transparent. Too often it seems friends of friends are chosen. This year the Tricentennial of the Unites States' design museum has gone global with designs from both emerging and industrialized countries. No other country's design museum would feature foreign designers. Instead, they would celebrate their own country's best design and designers. In addition, the exhibit is rather strangely laid out, captioned to confuse and badly focused. Other than that Mrs. Lincoln, how did you enjoy the play?

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.