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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Liminal Objects at Harvard's Design School Design
A Conference to Discuss the Object in Spatial Context
By: - Oct 25th, 2012Approaching design from differing points of view, Liminal Objects initiated a conference series at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design about design that aims to identify pressing issues within the field by exploring the designed object’s role in diverse spatial practices. Designers, academics, critics and curators looked objectively at the designed object.
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Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson Rocks At SpeakEasy Stage Theatre
A Presidency With Real Rocks & Heads That Rolled
By: - Oct 21st, 2012Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson recreates the life of ‘Old Hickory' as a rock opera star. From humble roots on the Tennessee frontier to his days as our 7th Commander-in-Chief. Using an emo-rock score, the show tells the story of America’s first maverick president. He beat the British, decimated the Indians, overwhelmed the Spanish and eventually outpolled his political adversaries. This was all a function of his incredible ego and love of country. He was an American original.
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Now Or Later Timely At Calderwood Theatre Theatre
Huntington Theatre Company Presents Riveting Political Drama
By: - Oct 17th, 2012During election season, the Huntington Theatre Company has scheduled a timely play about politics when all hell broke loose. Now or Later is set on election night. A presidential candidate's son sends his father’s political team beyond crisis mode when controversial photos of him at a college party go viral over the web. They potentially spark an international incident. This smart topical drama examines inherited religion, freedom of expression and personal responsibility in a time of electionmania.
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The Lily's Revenge Flowers At A.R.T Theatre
Pushing the Boundaries of Theatrical Experience
By: - Oct 14th, 2012This is a marathon performance by many gifted performers who sing, dance and do comedy schtick. The narrative theme is a theatrically variated and vegetative allegory for love without boundaries. Featuring a 30+ person ensemble, The Lily's Revenge integrates movement, film, performance art, and music into five unique acts that shatter cultural expectations and social norms. A sparkling theatrical experience that embraces the conflict of tradition and stability, love and fulfillment as well as transvestite flower girls and sexual mores.
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Andres Institute of Art: A Mountain of Public Art Fine Arts
Artists from all over the World Have Created Sculpture
By: - Oct 08th, 2012Founded by engineer Paul Andres who bought Big Bear Mountain in Brookline, NH and fostered by sculptor John Weidman who lived nearby, the Andres Institute of Art invites sculptors from around the world to work on pieces for 2 to 3 weeks to add to the 72 works sprinkled throughout various hiking trails open to the public. Here art is accessible yet universal, monumental but often intimate. Though many are, all of the work is not spectacular, but the sum of the whole is.
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Urban Branding in the Civic Environment Architecture
Creating the Essence of A Sense of Place
By: - Oct 03rd, 2012Urban branding is the urban design and planning set of tools and techniques that develops character and personality for a civic entity, institution, major event or neighborhood. It is the essence of a sense of place, a literal welcome mat for visitors to experience a location and connect on many levels with it. Urban branding makes a place whole and adds to a shared sense of experience.
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Circa 1963 At Harvard's Carpenter Center Fine Arts
An Exhibition of Iconic works from the 1960s
By: - Sep 29th, 2012Since it opened during the academic year of 1963-64, Le Corbusier's iconic building, Harvard's Carpenter Center for Visual Arts has been a place of serious teaching and often provocative exhibits. It has been Harvard University's closest thing to a visual arts center for undergraduates. Circa 1963 is an elegant exhibit of artwork representing the period of the 1960s by some of the name brand artists of the period. Here the "isms" of the period are displayed by relatively modest artworks. It is if a thoughtful collector had shared her now valuable and at times surprising collection.
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Marie Antoinette: Piece of Cake Headtrip at A.R.T. Theatre
A Spectacular Contemporary Take on Queenly Excess
By: - Sep 22nd, 2012Marie Antoinette at the A.R.T. is a quirky, surreal and profane tragicomedy that provides a look into the life of cake enthusiast and infamous queen starring a stunning Brooke Bloom as Marie. By David Adjimi, playwright of last year’s Off-Broadway phenomenon, Elective Affinities, A.R.T. presents this world premiere in a co-production with Yale Repertory Theatre. This is history drama as part rock opera, comedy and Samuel Becket surrealism with stream of consciousness autobiography thrown in for good measure. A brilliant theatrical event.
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Sensational Good People At Huntington Theatre Theatre
A View of Southie As Origin, Fate and Poignancy
By: - Sep 19th, 2012In working class, Irish-American South Boston, each month’s paycheck barely covers last month’s bills, bingo at the Parish Church is a night on the town (thank you, Father), and put-upon sharp-tongued single-mom Margaret Walsh has just been let go from yet another job. At times poignant, this is a compelling humor-filled drama full of twists of fate and human foibles. Brilliantly cast and beautifully staged, it was created by Boston-born Pulitzer Prize winner David Lindsay-Abaire. This play is a must-see.
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Mikado Sings at Lyric Stage Company Theatre
Gilbert and Sullivan's Classic Brilliantly Contemporized
By: - Sep 16th, 2012When it was first produced in 1885, the Mikado brilliantly resurrected the careers of Gilbert and Sullivan. It brought the recently unveiled exotic far away Japan to a very understandably human level. It is universally considered Gilbert & Sullivan’s most beloved work. With a contemporary twist, wonderfully and energetically staged by Spiro Veloudos, this is a witty musical satire of social mores and politics that is as contemporary today as it was 125 years ago. In great voice, the cast sings mischievous and clever 2012 American-election-year rhyming patter and lyrics.
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Architecture As Sculpture in 2012 Architecture
From PS 1 to China to the London Olympic Park
By: - Aug 05th, 2012Architecture as sculpture was a 20th Century concept embraced by many modernist architects. This year there were several major examples of noteworthy sculptural architectural statements. This is architecture as form. Unlike many other less imaginative Olympic games, the London Olympics showcased several wonderful structures. Perhaps the worst one was by sculptor Anish Kapoor who created a bad piece of architecture as a piece of grandiose functional sculpture. Other fine examples are a wonderful temporary piece at PS 1, a new design museum in Shenzen, China and one at London's Serpentine Gallery.
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The Glass House: Philip Johnson's Masterpiece Architecture
From Its Inception A 20th Century Architectural Icon
By: - Jul 08th, 2012Conceptualized in 1945 and completed in 1949, architect Philip Johnson's Glass House almost immediately became a 20th Century architecture icon. Used by Johnson as a weekend retreat for 58 years, it is now shared with the public as part of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. It is a pilgrimage mecca for architecture buffs to see the eccentric outer structures and contemporary art collection of Johnson and his longtime partner art curator/critic David Whitney. This is a visually-compelling experience of an architectural masterpiece.
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The Wall Is Spectacular At Fenway Park Music
Roger Waters' Rock Opus is Visually and Musically Stunning
By: - Jul 02nd, 2012Thirty-five years after writing the autobiographical rock opera, Roger Waters is touring the World with a complex projection and animation musical presentation at large venues. Last night, July 1, the epic event was presented at 100 year old Fenway Park. If the 50,000+ crowd can be correctly judged, the high ticket costs were well worth the value. This was a event that was visually stunning and musically memorable.
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Car Talk Joy Rides At Central Square Theatre Theatre
Entertaining And Clever Musical Based On NPR Show
By: - Jun 19th, 2012Car Talk is a new automotive musical comedy inspired by the legendary National Public Radio show. The antihero is an overweight, always-late nebbish Rusty Fenders. His life and elderly KIA are both headed for the junkyard. Attempting to salvage happiness, he crashes into his ruthless boss Beaulah Gasket, is clueless about his unrequited office romance with lovely Sheila and has an unaffordable midlife crises over a sexy fantasy car Miata C. LaChassis. Tuned up by parodies of show stopping classic songs and garage gaffaws, Rusty seeks the Wizard of Cahs to drive home. A Summer car trip must-see.
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Furniture with Soul At Gallery NAGA Design
Referencing the Book Furniture with Soul by David Savage
By: - Jun 01st, 2012This exquisite exhibit is a continuation of Gallery NAGA's exploration of the most innovative studio furniture. The show is an assemblage of an all-star cast of furnituremakers from throughout the US and across the Atlantic. Seventeen outstanding examples from the pantheon of master furnituremakers creates a compelling visual and tactile experience to savor.
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Private Lives Sparkles At Huntington Theatre Theatre
Noel Coward's Couples Behaving Badly Still Cleverly Resonates
By: - May 30th, 2012Witty and wonderful, a comedy of bad manners, Private Lives tells the story of divorcés Amanda and Elyot who meet again by accident on their second honeymoons with their ill-suited new spouses. The two discover how quickly passionate confrontational romance can be rekindled in Noël Coward’s elegantly stylish comedy about the people who can’t be lived with or without. A period piece (1930) that seems to be somehow of our time as well. It is a wonderful do not miss theatrical treat to begin the Summer.
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Avenue Q Provocative At Lyric Stage Company Theatre
Puppets And People Interact To Show Growing Up Ain't So Easy
By: - May 14th, 2012Based more than a bit on Sesame Street, Avenue Q is a fun and funny adult musical that tells the story of a recent college grad Princeton who moves into a shabby New York apartment all the way down on gritty Avenue Q. Looking for his purpose in life, through a variety of characters, clever songs, jokes and situations, he eventually discovers it. The show contains bad language, puppet nudity and felt creature sex. This is not for the little ones, but teenagers will think that it is cool. It is selling out fast.
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Xanadu a Hit at SpeakEasy Theatre Company Theatre
Dreams of Fame, Roller Disco and a Greek Muse
By: - May 12th, 2012Based on the 1980 cult film with Olivia Newton-John, this clever and witty new musical on skates that follows the efforts of the magical Greek muse Kira who descends to Earth to help a struggling artist achieve his dream of opening a roller disco. Featuring an ingenious sassy book by Douglas Carter Beane and a score full of chart-topping tunes (Magic, Suddenly, Evil Woman), Xanadu spins hilarity and campy fun on wheels.
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Woody Sez Sings at American Repertory Theatre Theatre
Resonating Musical History of Iconic Folk Singer
By: - May 10th, 2012Woody Guthrie transformed folk music into a vehicle for social protest and evoked the restless spirit of the Dust Bowl and Depression Era generation. By using his own words and songs, Woody Sez brings this musical and cultural icon to passionate life. The various songs and characters transport the audience through Guthrie's life. Sometimes moving, poetic, and tragic, the production features many now classic Woody tunes. How can we not be touched by "This Land is Your Land" and "Bound for Glory" ?
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New Media Art At Boston's Paramount Center Fine Arts
ArtsEmerson Presents Artist Created LED Windows
By: - May 08th, 2012ArtsEmerson: The World On Stage announces a second round of curated programming for the Paramount LED Windows on the façade of 559 Washington Street. The old Arcade Building LED Wall, first programmed last fall, now features a new show of work by three contemporary artists.
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Arnold Trachtman At Galatea Fine Art Fine Arts
Masterful Expressionist Memories of Lynn, Massachusetts
By: - May 04th, 2012Arnold Trachtman is an artist with a social message. At 82, he continues to ply his trade. Currently on view in Boston's SOWA at Galatea Fine Art Gallery are his very personal and compelling Memories of Lynn, Massachusetts exhibit. There is an expressionistic colorful vibrancy and joyfulness to the paintings. This show should become one of our fine memories as well.
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A View from the Interior of Nazi Hell Word
Victor Klemperer’s Editor At Brandeis University
By: - May 02nd, 2012A life-long diarist, Jewish-born Professor Victor Klemperer documented the Nazi Regime from his hellish nightmare in the City of Dresden. His records of how one man and his family were humiliated and tortured by the Gestapo, how the very German language was distorted for Nazi use and the lies and degradation of an intensely evil regime are now historical evidence of what the Third Reich really was. In a lecture at Brandeis University, his former student Walter Nowojski told the story of finding and publishing Klemperer's voluminous writings. It took Nowojski 16 years, and it is a gift to civilization.
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The Emotion of Design Design
Why Does the Best Design Viscerally Connect To Us?
By: - Apr 26th, 2012Why do we "like" even "love" certain objects? And others we do not? Is it somehow in our DNA? How did Apple (Steven Jobs) connect so well with our wants despite what our needs are? Our objects of desire strike emotional chords. It isn't just about aesthetics, but certainly that is a major aspect of what the resonance of desire and ownership are. Designers wrestle constantly with an element's functional form. Getting it just right has less to do with science than art. This is true of a structure, object or fashion statement.
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American Rep to Host Post-Show Hootenannies Theatre
Songfest After Selected Performances of WOODY SEZ
By: - Apr 26th, 2012In the spirit of composer/balladeer Woody Guthrie, as the nation celebrates the 100th anniversary of his birth, the American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.) is hosting post-show hootenannies after select performances led by cast members and other local artists. The audience is invited to bring their own instruments and join in a free-form musical celebration in the Loeb Drama Center’s West Lobby and Patio, following selected performances.
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Two Exhibits Open Aug 1 at ICA/Boston Fine Arts
Brazilian Os Gêmeos and Dianna Molzan Show New Work
By: - Apr 25th, 2012Two new exhibitions open Aug. 1 at the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston. The ICA is presenting the first solo U.S. museum exhibition of Brazilian street artists Os Gêmeos and work by Dianna Molzan who is creating an all new body of work for ICA exhibition
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