Canvas Fine Arts Opens Two New Exhibits
Boston City Hall has long had artwork spicing up its dreary walls, but on Wednesday, September 17, the first curated exhibit to grace the city council president’s office opened. Suzanne Schultz of Canvas Fine Arts and Keith Whitmore of Masterpiece Fine Art Gallery curated the show to represent both Bill Linehan and Boston in a subtle yet relevant way.
Linehan represents the SoWa District, where many artists and galleries are located, including Canvas Fine Arts.
The orderly offices behind the brutalist façade of City Hall make for an unlikely oasis for the art in the exhibit. But there is something poetic about the way the pieces reflect the city council’s mission.
Robert Hickox’s piece Maelstrom is featured prominently in one of the seating areas of the president’s chambers. In a contemporary cubist style it depicts an Atlas-like figure lifting the world on his shoulders.
“It’s an attempt to bring order to mayhem,” says Hickox, “which is exactly what they do in this office.”
Artist Doug Caves contributed two landscape paintings to the installation. The green fields and lightly sketched barns breathe a sense of serenity into the ever-busy office.
”There’s something about the spirit of New England that’s very calm and very stoic,” says Caves.
Other pieces in the show carry comparable significance to the councilman. One such piece is a photograph of the number “2” on the side of a railway car. This piece by C.E. Morse represents Linehan’s district. A series of pieces from Randi Siu’s Asian Aspects series represents the Chinatown area of the city.
With so many artists comprising this exhibit, Linehan hopes that some people will come to his office to see the art rather than to dispute parking tickets.
The very next night Schultz and Whitmore opened another exhibit in the South End at Hammond Residential, a premier Massachusetts real estate firm.
This installation The World We Live In features work by nine artists, many of whom are also showing at City Hall. The list includes Robert Hickox, Beth Barry, Gloria Bernstein, Anna Comella, Tally Forbes, Gloria King Merritt, Matthias Lupri, Matt McKee and Randi Siu.
The visual and performing arts are two of Hammond Residential’s main focuses when it comes to corporate philanthropy. They have fine art exhibits in their South End, Hingham and Hull offices, and they sponsor free chamber music concerts as a platform to feature emerging talent.
When artists are represented by the same gallery and are so frequently paired in exhibitions together, it’s hard not to become friends. The dynamic at the opening is something like a dinner party where a group of longtime cohorts are reunited.
Artists Robert Hickox and Matt McKee stand at a tall round table in a room full of McKee’s works. They are brainstorming for McKee’s next piece.
“What about a grapefruit?” says Hickox, surveying the photographs of fruit and vegetables that surround them.
“Well, I’ve already got the cherry bomb,” says McKee. “So you can see some of that dripping there.”
“Wait, I’ve got it. A yam or a sweet potato,” says Hickox.
McKee stops to consider then slowly begins to nod. “Yes, with the orange color, I can see that.”
McKee’s series Sweet Shrapnel features everyday pieces of food juxtaposed with explosive devices. People take many different meanings away from his images but he insists, “I don’t think of my work as political.”
The group Schultz and Whitmore assembled is full of very different artists, but they seem to be ultimately on the same page. Whether the work is of explosive fruit, peaceful seascapes or cubist matadors, the show represents the global, multi-faceted world we live in.
-Celina Colby
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Image Credit: Robert Hickox, Faneuil Hall, 2014, Oil on GWC. Photo courtesy of artist01.com. ________________________________________________________________________________________________
Celina Colby is the editorial assistant at Art New England and the editor and founder of Trends and Tolstoy.