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‘Cold Fish’ at NESAD, Inuit art at the Peabody Essex
BY RANDI HOPKINS
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If it takes two to tango, and a village to raise a child, then the number of participants required to create painter/sculptor Mary Sherman’s increasingly complex, large-scale art works falls somewhere in between. Her new installation, "Cold Fish: When Painting and Mechanics Collide," opens at the New England School of Art & Design on November 19, when Sherman will unveil a large, mechanized piece incorporating small painted-wood and colored-glass boxes set in large white panels. "When you try to get close, to look at the boxes, they move away from you; hence the name ‘Cold Fish,’ " she explains in the show’s press material. Also known for her sharp art reviews in the Boston Herald, Sherman started her artistic life as a painter. In recent years, she has not just pushed but really shoved the definition of traditional painting into the 3-D and kinetic realm, with work that swings, slides, and otherwise responds to viewers willing to take it on. In the process, she’s come to work closely with industrial designers and mechanical engineers — "I am fortunate to have amazing collaborators that put up with my crazy notions, support them and often push me into new and fruitful directions," she says. Underscoring this aspect of her work, "Cold Fish" will include the mechanical drawings and computer diagrams for the piece, along with photos of the artist at work assisted by artist and mechanical engineer Peter Lindenmuth and Walter Lenk, who have been helping her to realize her ideas for several years now. "Cold" might be an understatement describing Nunavut, a large Canadian territory stretching from Hudson Bay to the North Pole that was created in 1999 from a portion of the Northwest Territories and Baffin Island in a historic transfer of power that made the dream of their own land a reality for Canada’s ancient Inuit people. "Our Land: Contemporary Art from the Arctic," which opens at the Peabody Essex Museum on November 26, celebrates this artistically prolific area with art that touches on themes including Inuit cosmology and spirituality realized in media that run a gamut from traditional Inuit throat singing and storytelling to a video installation by Zacharias Kunuk that was recently shown at the happening contemporary art biennial Documenta 11. The work here was all created in the past 50 years, a time of emerging artistic vision and pride for this community; it’s state-of-the-art contemporary with roots that reach back thousands of years. The season of great holiday art-buying opportunities starts up next Friday with a venerable annual event that benefits the education and exhibition programs of the New Art Center in Newton. "Icons + Altars: 11th Annual Holiday Benefit Exhibition" opens at the NAC with work by 99 hot regional artists — some familiar names, some brand new — that will be distributed by way of a ticketed drawing process. The show itself is free, but for a $225 raffle ticket, you’re guaranteed a piece of art; whether you get your first choice or one lower down on the list depends on the luck of the draw, which will take place at the closing reception on December 19. Not to fear, there’s lots to choose from! "Mary Sherman: Cold Fish — When Painting and Mechanics Collide" is at the New England School of Art & Design at Suffolk University, 75 Arlington Street in Boston, November 19 through December 23, with a free opening reception on November 19 from 5 to 7 p.m.; call (617) 573-8785. "Our Land: Contemporary Art from the Arctic" is at the Peabody Essex Museum, East India Square in Salem, November 26 through January 30; call (866) 745-1876. "Icons + Altars" is at the New Art Center, 61 Washington Park in Newtonville, November 19 through December 19, with an opening reception on November 19 from 6 to 8 p.m. and a closing reception and ticket drawing on December 19 from 3 to 5 p.m.; call (617) 964-3424.
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