Marquetry is an art form that uses diverse wood species to create designs on the wooden surface of objects, often furniture. Patterns, shapes, and other pictorial elements are cut from veneer sheets as thin as cardstock, using a scroll saw, … Continue reading →

There’s a layer cake—in the form of a book, of course!—at the entrance to Anniversary: 10 Years of the Charles Altschul Book Arts Studio, the wildly imaginative group exhibition at the Haas Gallery in Rockport. Cake is a limited-edition book … Continue reading →

The Museum of Modern Art opened on November 8, 1929, in several rented rooms on the 12th floor of the Heckscher Building—today the Crown Building—at 730 Fifth Avenue in New York City. Lee Krasner (1908–1984) visited the exhibition on November … Continue reading →

At the entrance to Donald Moffett’s newest sculptural installation, NATURE CULT, SEEDED, is a signpost in playground chartreuse, stood up in a weathered watering can, with the notice “Vacancy” spelled out in twigs painted so heavily they’re more plastic than … Continue reading →

“Installing an exhibition is a bit like moving into a new house,” says Portland Museum of Art (PMA) chief curator Shalini Le Gall. There’s plenty of advance planning, but equally important are the unexpected, in-the-moment decisions that happen in the … Continue reading →

“We’re seeing things now, we’re telling powerful stories now, and you would benefit by engaging with them.” —Mali Obomsawin, from a 2022 interview with Vermont Public Radio New meaning and understanding emerge everywhere in Exploding Native Inevitable: An Exhibition of … Continue reading →

As winter sets in and the days grow darker, I am reminded of the time in ancient Greece when caves symbolized the entrance to the classical underworld. A person entered the cave to seek wisdom in the darkness not the … Continue reading →

On an exposed granite ledge overlooking Perkins Cove perches the Ogunquit Museum of American Art (OMAA). Southern Maine’s modernist gem of whitewashed cinderblock, stone lintels, repurposed wood ceiling beams, and glass is celebrating 70 years with a number of concurrent … Continue reading →

The first time Robert McCloskey (1914–2003) explored the possibility of creating children’s books, he had the great fortune of being rejected by May Massee. Massee, an editor at Viking Press at the time, essentially told McCloskey, “Come back when you’ve … Continue reading →