Mark Favermann
Bio:
Architecture, design, film and theatre critic/associate editor Mark Favermann, is an urban designer and public artist who over the past two decades has written extensively on art and design. A former Fellow at the Center for Advanced Visual Studies at MIT, he was the first leader of the Boston Visual Artists Union (BVAU), the 1970's Boston activist artists organization, served as the former Director of Visual and Environmental Arts for the City of Boston and has been an adjunct professor at several universities. He was a columnist and/or editor for a large number of prominent publications. His own design work has included creating the award-winning marquee for the Coolidge Corner Theatre in Brookline, designing the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games, creating the look for the 2000 NCAA Final Four in Indianapolis and the 1999 Ryder Cup as well as the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester, England. For the past eight seasons, he has been a design consultant to the Boston Red Sox. His 2005 public art commission, The Birds of Audubon Circle, was nominated by the Boston Art Commission as one of the best pieces of public art in America. In the Fall of 2007, his Recognition Gateway sculpture was installed in South Brookline.
Recent Articles:
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AJAX at American Repertory Theatre Theatre
Sophocles Like Never Before
By: - Feb 16th, 2011An examination of how war affects the mind of a solider, this contemporary interpretation of Sophocles’s tragedy attempts to speak to our times. Considered second only to Achilles in greatness and strength, Greek warrior Ajax struggles under the weight of his deep psychological and physical injuries. Trying to maintain his dignity, identity, and honor in the face of the dynamics of war and its aftermath, this play shows the flaws even among the greatest of heroes. Director Sarah Benson explores the relationships between soldiers and civilians--family and neighbors representing the community as the Greek Chorus. As always, the unique A.R.T. twist is put on the production.
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The RISD Museum Announces 2011 Spring Schedule Fine Arts
Architecture, Art and Design Exhibitions
By: - Feb 09th, 2011PROVIDENCE, RI - The RISD Museum announced its new schedule of exhibitions for 2011. The shows will nclude Cocktail Culture, the major spring show, Building Blocks, examining the relationships between architecture and art, highlights from the Museum's extensive collection of 17th-century French etcher and engraver Jacques Callot, and Pre-Retroscope VI, British artist Conrad Shawcross' exploration of Brooklyn's Gowanus Canal.
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Suffolk Announces Modern Theatre’s Inaugural Season Theatre
Featuring Performance, Cinema, and Conversation
By: - Jan 31st, 2011An ambitious program has been scheduled for Suffolk University's inaugural season for The Modern Theatre. Focused upon a variety of film, literary, performance and conversation, this will include prominent filmmakers, writers and theatre people.
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Shakespeare's Jew at ArtsEmerson Theatre
A Panel Discussion with F. Murray Abraham
By: - Jan 27th, 2011Oscar-winner F. Murray Abraham joined Robert Brustein, founding director of A.R.T., Jeffrey Horowitz, artistic director of Theatre for a New Audience and Tina Packer of Shakespeare and Company, to talk about Shylock, considered the most famous and infamous Jewish character in dramatic literature. They discussed the perception of Jews in Shakespeare’s England, the many sides of Shylock’s character, and his various portrayals ranging from comic buffoon to villain to tragic hero. Abraham appeared in anticipation of his starring role as Shylock in ArtsEmerson’s presentation of The Merchant of Venice, opening March 29, 2011. The distinguished panel was enhanced by a knowledgeable and thoughtful audience participation adding depth and breath to the discourse. It was an entertaining and thought-provoking experience.
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Buckminster Fuller At American Rep Theatre Theatre
Thomas Derrah in Tour De Force Performance
By: - Jan 20th, 2011He was a writer, a philosopher, an architect, an inventor, a philosopher, a mathematician, a futurist, an environmentalist. R. Buckminster Fuller was an American original. This ravishing one man show at the American Repertory Theatre explores the man in a dazzling multimedia performance. The title role is amazingly embodied by A.R.T. veteran actor Thomas Derrah. Inventor of the geodesic dome, Bucky Fuller was a true visionary, and this play provides an expansive look at his life, his concepts, and his beliefs. This wonderful production takes the audience on a Spaceship Earth ride of ideas, emotions, and critical paths. Run, don't walk to see it.
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Amie Siegel 2010 Winner of ICA Foster Prize Fine Arts
Works With Issue-Oriented Cinematic Imaging
By: - Dec 16th, 2010Every two years, the Institute of Contemporary Art chooses an emerging artist to recognize by celebrating their work and awarding them $25,000. This year's winner of the James and Audrey Foster Prize is Anie Siegal. Siegel works in 16mm and 35mm film, video, photography, sound, and writing. She often uses cinematic images as a material means to a conceptual end. For the ICA's 2010 Foster Prize exhibition, Siegel created Black Moon, a 20-minute film accompanied by prints of individual frames from the film.
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Decorative Arts In America At The MFA Design
The New Wing Showcases Objects of Desire
By: - Nov 28th, 2010Throughout the new Art of the Americas Wing at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the curators have integrated the beautiful and often seminal objects of specific time periods into the displays. These objects often compare vividly to the great paintings and sculpture that they are grouped with. The quality of these objects, often objects of desire, is often brilliant and sometimes even breathtaking. A sampling of a few is not enough to understand the breath and depth of the MFA's astounding collection. Revisiting the museum is necessary. The greatness of the collection is now better seen than ever at the MFA's new wing.
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Vengeance Is The Lord's At Huntington Theatre Company Theatre
World Premiere of Bob Glaudini's Family Drama
By: - Nov 20th, 2010The Horvath family is not like many other American families. Its business is crime. Though this new play is supposed to be about the moral questions surrounding justice, in this case the parole release of the murderer of a Horvath daughter, the dilemma here is not about morality but storytelling. Though the play cloaked in some jokes, tough love, disfunctional relationships and foul-mouthed conversation, the whole is worse then the sum of some really awful parts including the dialogue, the actors performances and the narrative. A long an often uncomfortable evening was had by all.
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Eric Homberger’s Window On Walker Evans Photography
An Exhibit At Highgate Gallery, London
By: - Nov 19th, 2010A major exhibition of Walker Evans' photographs is currently being shown at Highgate Gallery in North London. University of East Anglia cultural historian Eric Homberger gave a lecture about the photographer and some of his most famous pieces. His speech gave a thorough interpretation, warts and all, of the prickly but precise photographic master.
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Boston MFA Opens Art of Americas New Wing Architecture
New Inviting Space Frames Vast Collection
By: - Nov 15th, 2010After much anticipation and over a decade of planning, fundraising, design and construction, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts has opened to great fanfare its new Art of the Americas Wing. Under the guidance of Director Malcolm Rogers and the design of Foster+Partners, the new wing adds 27% new space to the building, creatively installed galleries and a refreshed experience for the MFA visitor. This is a stunning addition to a great cultural institution.
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Animating the Inanimate Design
Judy Kensley McKie At Gallery NAGA
By: - Nov 14th, 2010One of the most acclaimed and beloved studio craftsman of the last few decades, Judy Kensley McKie continues to produce works of profound grace and sublime quality using imaging and abstraction derived from geometry, animals and plants. In her new exhibition at Boston's Gallery NAGA, she enlivens simple objects by giving them life and spirit. Her pieces are not just beautiful objects but resonating visual narrations.
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Alessi: Creating Home Product Icons Design
New Exhibit Underscores Design Magic
By: - Nov 07th, 2010For the last three decades, the Italian home products manufacturer, Alessi, has through collaboration with star architects and designers been at the forefront of design, producing instant icons like Michael Graves’s bird-whistle teakettle and Richard Sapper’s elegant espresso pot. All are fixtures on many design devotee’s kitchen or bar counters. The Philadelphia Museum of Art is celebrating the 90-year-old company with an exhibition, ‘‘Alessi: Ethical and Radical,’’ opening Nov. 21 through April 10.
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ICA Appoints Two New Curators Fine Arts
Jenelle Porter and Pedro Alonzo Added
By: - Nov 04th, 2010Seemingly 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.
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Conviction On All Levels Film
A True Story About Sibling Devotion
By: - Oct 31st, 2010Struggle and resolution are formulaic for theatre and film story lines. But the recently opened film, Conviction, applies this formula in a true but narratively unreasonable but provocative way. Here a wrongly convicted brother is finally exonerated by the efforts of his determined sister, a former high school dropout and single mom who wills her way through college and law school to properly defend her brother. Rather than unbelievable, corny or maudlin, this a film about class, family and uneven American justice. New BFA contributor George Abbott White has known Betty Anne Waters for years, not as a legal hero, but as a pubkeeper in Bristol, R.I.
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Inside Job Film
Real Greed, Theft and Villainy On Wall Street
By: - Oct 17th, 2010"Inside Job" is the first film to expose the shocking truths behind the economic crisis of 2008. The global financial meltdown resulted in millions of people losing their homes and jobs. Through extensive research and interviews with major financial insiders, politicians and journalists, "Inside Job" traces the rise of a rogue industry and unveils the corrosive relationships which have corrupted politics, regulation and academia. It is all appalling and scary. And the story isn't over yet.
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Shipping Container Architecture Architecture
Puma City Store Near Fenway Park
By: - Oct 08th, 2010Staying 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.
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Christopher Lloyd In Death Of A Salesman Theatre
Roxbury Latin Hosts Major Theatrical Event
By: - Oct 05th, 2010Death of A Salesman is the American classic award-winning tragedy by Arthur Miller. The recent wonderful production starring distinguished character actor Christopher Lloyd at Roxbury Latin School (founded 1645) was a broadway quality show. This is the beginning of a major artistic direction for the prep school, Culture with a capital "C."
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Brilliantly Renovated Paramount Center Architecture
Superb Venue That Speaks of Form For Function
By: - Sep 30th, 2010Built in 1932, and abandoned in 1976, The Art Deco Paramount Theatre has been smartly revitalized this year by Emerson College into the multipurpose Paramount Center. The project merges the old and the new with flair, sensitivity and beauty. Besides its educational value, it will serve as a major piece of the new ArtsEmerson program's venues. It also is another repair to the City of Boston's urban fabric.
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A Conversation With Robert Orchard Theatre
Director of ArtsEmerson Charts the Future
By: - Sep 26th, 2010Robert Orchard brings a long, distinguished background to the leadership of ArtsEmerson. This new multiarts and multicultural iniative has opened this Fall in Boston's Theatre District. Focused at the The Cutler Majestic Theatre and the newly renovated Paramount Theatre, this program will literally bring cutting-edge and traditional theatre, dance and performance from initially Europe and eventually from all over the world. Mr. Orchard speaks about his new post in the following interview.
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Bus Stop At Huntington Theatre Company Theatre
In A Blizzard In Kansas Theatrically Trapped
By: - Sep 25th, 2010Bus Stop by William Inge opens the Huntington Theatre Company's 2010-11 Season. The quirky story first starred a magnetic Marilyn Monroe in a 1956 film version. This production, directed by Nicholas Martin, the former artistic director of the Huntington Theatre Company,, has no strong lead to act as the core of this show. Instead, it has a spectacular set that appears to overwhelm the mixed performances. In spite of the flaws, the audience seems to appreciate the play.
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Toronto International Film Festival 2010 Film
Ten Days of Cinematic Immersion and Revelation
By: - Sep 17th, 2010Ten days in September marks the Toronto International Film Festival. It is the largest film festival in the world in terms of films shown and the most highly attended in terms of audience. It is an escape into the world of cinema that is enjoyed annually by the film community and film lovers. As any year, this year there were the good, the bad and the ugly. This year the buzz was about a very British film that could get a lot of Oscars. TIFF is a wonderful way to get lost and found in the dark.
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John Storrs: Machine Age Modernist Fine Arts
Elegant Exhibit at Boston Athenaeum
By: - Jun 21st, 2010Considered one of America's most important Modernists, Sculptor John Storrs (1885-1956) invigorated a previously academic medium with a vitality and dynamism virtually absent in the United States. This exhibit is the first of the artist's work in over 20 years. It is a quality touch of early 20th Century Modernism that was informed by and also informed the stretching of creative visual expression. This small but strong exhibition is a must see.
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Johnny Baseball Hits Grand Slam At American Repertory Theatre Theatre
Myth, History and Love At Fenway Park
By: - Jun 02nd, 2010Johnny Baseball is the ART's world premiere musical about the Red Sox. It traces the origin of the Curse of the Bambino to a collision of three souls: Johnny O’Brien, a right-hander on the 1919 BoSox, his idol, Babe Ruth and Daisy Wyatt, a beautiful African-American blues singer. These three are the reason for the Curse and the secret to its end in 2004. Johnny Baseball hits a commentary on American social history into a clever and spirited musical homer. This is a spectacular hit, a four bagger that should not only reach Landsdowne Street but bounce on to Broadway as well.
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Rising Currents: Projects For New York's Waterfront Architecture
Global Warming Solutions Exhibit at MoMA
By: - May 25th, 2010The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and its satellite in Long Island City, P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, joined together to address one of the most urgent challenges facing, New York, the nation’s largest city: sea-level rise resulting from global climate change. Five interdisciplinary teams were brought together to re-envision the coastlines of New York and New Jersey around New York Harbor. Their task was to imagine new ways to occupy the harbor itself with adaptive “soft†infrastructures that are sympathetic to the needs of a sound ecology of one of New York’s great open spaces. The current MoMA exhibit establishes the dialogue on this potentially dangerous topic.
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High Line: Masterpiece NYC Urban Park Architecture
Building Upon Infrastructure In Creative Ways
By: - May 25th, 2010Originally 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.
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