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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Prelude To A Kiss at Huntington Theatre Theatre
Magical Realism As Contemporary Couple
By: - May 25th, 2010The play starts with a whirlwind romance. Then a storybook wedding with a strange kiss for the bride that suddenly changes everything. Playwright Craig Lucas (The Light in the Piazza, Longtime Companion) explores the enduring power of love and the nature of commitment in this awkward but life-affirming comedy directed by Artistic Director Peter DuBois.
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Why Design Now? At Cooper-Hewitt Museum Design
Design Museum's Triennial Confusing Again
By: - May 15th, 2010Every 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?
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Anish Kapoor's Olympic Public Art Fine Arts
You Can't Always Get What You Want
By: - May 08th, 2010The 2012 Olympics will be celebrated in East London by a piece of giant public art created by Anglo-Indian megastar sculptor Anish Kapoor. Like the 2012 logo, steeped in controversy, the project's cost and aesthetic are hotly debated. The question is what is the Olympics for and how does art serve it or damn it? This huge scale project combines towering ego, ambiguous symbolism and indifferent aesthetics.
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Dr. Lakra at Institute of Contemporary Art Fine Arts
Tattoos Blurring Cultural and Art Forms
By: - May 04th, 2010Dr. 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.
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Harborarts Large-Scale Artwork Celebration Fine Arts
Saturday, June 12 Opens International Exhibit
By: - Apr 23rd, 2010A 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.
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Designing Wayfinding For Accessibility Design
Compliance With ADA Regulations By Design
By: - Apr 23rd, 2010Universal design or accessibility for everyone is one of the major themes of 21st Century design. The other is sustainability. The United States is at the forefront of accessibility requirements worldwide. A recent Toronto conference focused upon Canadian issues regarding accessible wayfinding and ease of navigation in, through and around the built environment. Mark Favermann was one of conference's speakers.
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Exit Through The Gift Shop Reels Art Film
World's First Street Art Disaster Movie
By: - Apr 23rd, 2010Mysterious Banksy is a street artist with a global reputation whose clever and often poignant work can be seen on walls from post-hurricane New Orleans to a Palestinian segregation wall on the West Bank. Guarding his anonymity to avoid prosecution, Banksy has so far resisted all attempts to be identified. Exit Through the Gift Shop is the story of how an eccentric French vintage clothes shop owner and amateur film maker attempted to locate and befriend Banksy, only to have the artist eventually turn the camera back on its owner with spectacular results. This film contains exclusive footage of Banksy, Shephard Fairey, Space Invader, Ron English and many of the world's most infamous graffiti artists at work. But is it real or just a reel?
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SHIFTboston, A Competition of Ideas Architecture
Urban Notions, Both Thoughtful and Trivial
By: - Apr 01st, 2010SHIFTboston 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?
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The Art of the Steal At the Coolidge Film
Heist of Barnes Foundation Art Documentary
By: - Mar 28th, 2010Dr. Barnes hired the best Philadelphia Lawyers he could to protect his collection in Merion, PA from the Philadelphia Main Line toffs and phonies. Yet, somehow the estimated $25 billion collection of Modern and Post-Impressionist masterpieces has been appropriated through politics, power, wealth and subterfuge. This well-crafted documentary by Don Argott shows what, how and where it happened.
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Museum Madness In Boston Design
Moving Venues, Great Recession and Big Egos
By: - Mar 17th, 2010Winter finally moves into Spring, Daylight Savings Time and NCAA Basketball March Madness are now being joined by a museum madness in Boston. News keeps coming about new museums promised, contracted and postponed in the Hub of the Universe. It is the Great Recession, resources are limited and apparently so are a lot of folks involved in the pursuit of the creation of new museums with or without actual buildings, collections or financial support. Does ego trump resources?
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Gallery NAGA Exhibit For North Bennet Street School Design
Studio Furniture Benefit Celebrating 125 Years
By: - Mar 13th, 2010Gallery NAGA is presenting a spectacular benefit exhibition, for the North Bennet Street School to celebrate its 125th anniversary. Founded in 1885 in Boston's North End to teach crafts – bookbinding, locksmithing, cabinetry, the making of musical instruments to immigrants, it has a long and distinguished history of training skilled craftsman. Twenty-seven studio furniture artists from throughout the country, including many of the most storied names in the field of studio furniture, are in the show. Generously, the artists and the gallery are donating 50% of the works' selling prices to the school.
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Clever Becky Shaw at Huntington Theatre Co. Theatre
A Funny Blind Date and a Family From Hell
By: - Mar 10th, 2010Gina Gionfriddo is a playwright to watch. Her Becky Shaw at the Huntington Theatre Company is clever, sassy, funny and full of sizzle. Each of her characters is a complex layered individual who interact sometimes like oil and water, but have an affection, even a love for each other that is very hard to dissect and equally hard to define. This is a play about contemporary folkways and mores with humor. These personal exchanges, histories and connections are often uncomfortable to watch and perhaps even more uncomfortable to think about. However, laughter heals all.
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It's Not Me, I Swear Is Wonderful Cinema Film
Museum of Fine Arts Hosts Quebec Film Series
By: - Mar 07th, 2010Our neighbors to the North, the Province of Quebec, have a tradition of culture and regional cultural awareness. Their filmmakers are a strong and vibrant creative voice internationally. Currently, being presented at the Boston Museum of fine Arts is a series of fascinating and provocative films from Quebec. The festival began with "It's not me, I swear." This is a brilliantly made and acted film about a young boy seemingly from Hell.But is he really? It is an unexpected treat.
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Paradise Lost At American Repertory Theatre Theatre
Clifford Odets' Social/Political Drama Misplaced
By: - Mar 04th, 2010It is the 1930s and the Great Depression is raging, the Gordon family of five is struggling to keep afloat. Bad things happen. Characters representing aspects of the social/political society in turmoil are unable to alter events for the better. An urban setting is the place and the time is vague. Is it the 30s or sort of our present? Does it matter? Though the acting is very good, Clifford Odets' story is a bit dated and the play is not really in focus. Nothing much good happens. "Lost" may be the best description for this drama.
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Jonathan Demme Honored At Coolidge Film
Films and Colleagues Celebrate Coolidge Award
By: - Mar 02nd, 2010The Coolidge Award presented yearly to a distinguished filmmaker or actor is celebrated by film series, special screenings, This year's recipient, Academy Award winning Director Jonathan Demme, is one of the truly great film directors. His work has embraced not only commercial and independent films, but documentaries and music videos. Accessible, urbane and well-spoken, Demme is a man of his times. The Coolidge Corner Theatre is one of those special institutions, and Demme is a special cinematic artist. The 2010 Coolidge Award celebration was just right.
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I.D. Magazine Dead At 55 Design
Influential Design Publication Is Terminated
By: - Feb 27th, 2010Started in 1954, I.D. Magazine published its last issue in December 2009. To its loyalists including its rather inconsistent in quality and thought processes former writers and editors, it was a crying shame. They blamed a heartless and (gasp) an unsophisticated Midwestern philistine publisher, the Great Recession, severely reduced advertising revenues and the internet. Some others wonder why the New York-centric magazine's demise did not happen sooner. I.D. Magazine RIP.
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Stick Fly Brilliant At Calderwood Pavilion Theatre
Class, Race and Humor Dramatically Rendered
By: - Feb 24th, 2010Continuing its 28th Season focusing upon American stories, the Huntington Theatre Company's production of Stick Fly by playwright Lydia Diamond is a brilliantly written, well-acted and elegantly staged production about an upper class African-American family. It showcases the complexity of this family with a smart, often moving and humorous portrait of contemporary life and mores. See this show now as it could easily move to Broadway.
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Vancouver's Olympic Look of the Games Design
Failing By Trying Too Hard On a World Scale
By: - Feb 16th, 2010The 2010 Olympic Winter Games opened in Vancouver on February 12. In the last 40 years or so, this has been an opportunity for a locality or country to showcase itself, among other ways, visually to the world. Billions of people are watching luging, triple toe loops and big air at remarkable speeds and often elegance by gifted athletes. This is an occasion for designers to strut their stuff as well. Vancouver 2010 seems to be a design opportunity lost. Too many cooks? No executive vision? Or too much television imaging? Vancouver 2010's "Look" just does not resonate.
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Foster Prize Finalists Named By ICA Fine Arts
Nine Emerging Boston Artists To Exhibit
By: - Feb 05th, 2010First 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.
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Harborarts to Exhibit at East Boston Shipyard Fine Arts
Longterm Temporary Exhibit of Public Art
By: - Feb 02nd, 2010Unlike 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.
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Antoni Gaudi's Casa Batllo and Casa Mila Architecture
Two Extraordinary Residences in Barcelona
By: - Jan 31st, 2010Antoni Gaudi's genius can be seen in the design of private residences. Two of his most cherished projects are now museums in Barcelona. In Casa Batllo and Casa Mila, his personal style can be seen intersecting with Catalan Art Nouveau, Moderniste, to express his unique vision. These examples are a family home and a large apartment building that in two somewhat different ways illustrate the master's unique hand in architecture, design and art. Each one is a startling structures of wonder and delight.
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Jonathan Demme Wins Coolidge Award Film
Annual Film Award To Be Presented March 1&2
By: - Jan 28th, 2010The Coolidge Award is an annual celebration honoring a film artist whose body of work is recognized as consistently original and challenging. The category from which the recipient is chosen each year rotates, to reflect the broad range of film arts championed by The Coolidge Corner Theatre throughout its history. This year's recipient is Director, Producer and Screenwriter Jonathan Demme. His films include Melvin and Howard, Swing Shift, Silence of the Lambs, Philadelphia and Rachel Getting Married to name a few.
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Fumihiko Maki Designs MIT Media Lab Building Architecture
Pritzker Prize Architect Creates Style For Substance
By: - Jan 27th, 2010The MIT Media Lab and Visual Arts Building has recently opened. The building was designed by Pritzker Award architect Fumihiko Maki who is known for elegant fusion of East and West aesthetics. An uberModernist, Maki studied and worked both in the United States and Japan. His signature is crisp, exact design forms and attention to building materials and details. In a time of the Great Recession, MIT is continuing to complete its campus projects while other prestigious universities have put their's on hold.
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Antoni Gaudi's Soaring La Sagrada Familia Architecture
An Architectural Vision of Devout Religious Mysticism
By: - Jan 22nd, 2010Spain's most visited site, Barcelona's La Sagrada Familia is a cathedral like no other in the world. Antoni Gaudi's masterwork is a soaring almost other worldly edifice to his devout Catholicism and his original creative process. This is an architecture of passion and mysticism that was the architect's great obsession for 43 years.
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Renzo Piano's Gardner Museum Addition Architecture
A Special Project of Preservation and Imagination
By: - Jan 21st, 2010Pritzker Prize-winning architect Renzo Piano is one of the premiere designers and renovators of museums in the world. He was chosen in 2003 to preserve the existing century old Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum as well as create an imaginative new addition. Mrs. Gardner, who embraced everything Italian, would have absolutely loved Renzo Piano. At the recent announcement unveiling the new designs at the museum, Piano mentioned his love of the light in the space, the beauty of the courtyard and the special quality of the institution.
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