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Nasty paper cuts
‘Kara Walker’ at the MFA, plus ‘Overlap’ at Tufts and December sales
BY RANDI HOPKINS
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Village Voice art critic Jerry Saltz has written, "No one gets out of Kara Walker’s world alive, not even the artist," referring to the way Walker’s provocative art has caused almost as much criticism as praise (and a MacArthur Foundation Award) to rain down on her, and from every side of the political spectrum. Walker uses the demure medium of the cut-paper silhouette to create parading casts of racially stereotyped characters — mammies and pickaninnies, naked tribal girls and top-hatted white plantation owners — marching across gallery and museum walls and interacting in ways that are sometimes lewd, sometimes violent, and usually quite ambiguous. Despite their detail, the silhouetted figures remain essentially mute, compelling viewers to project into them, and that makes Walker’s issues of shame and eroticism, race and sex, master and slave uncomfortably immediate. Walker recently installed a large work at the Museum of Fine Arts (it’ll be up indefinitely) called "The Rich Soil Down There," in which a line up of black and white figures evokes America’s ante-bellum South, with twists that are both impish and discomforting. You can get some insight into Walker and her ways on December 1 when Barbara O’Brien, editor-in-chief of Art New England, gives a gallery talk (free with museum admission) on the new installation. (Walker herself will lecture on the work March 22 in the MFA’s Remis Auditorium.) And while you’re at the MFA, don’t miss the exhibition of Pop works in the Foster Gallery, with rarely seen examples of Richard Pettibone’s tiny appropriation paintings from the early 1960s, and a great Robert Rauschenberg cardboard-box construction from the early 1970s. Every year, Tufts University presents a series of MFA-thesis exhibitions by artists in the joint graduate degree program of Tufts and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts. The first in this year’s series is called "Overlap," and it opens December 1 with work by Stacey Boughrum, Ria Brodell, Amanda Fiedler, Kelly Anona Kerrigan, Brad Nelson, Courtney Nimura, and Daniela Rivera. Home and security, travel and adventure, clothing and identity all play roles here; the artists will be on hand to talk about their work December 8. Holiday shoppers can benefit future students of the Museum School with a visit to the 25th annual December Sale, which this year takes place December 1–5. The deservedly popular event is your chance to buy cool paintings, drawings, ceramics, jewelry, photos, and more by talented Museum School alumni, faculty, students, and staff. Likewise promising on the holiday gift/acquisition front is Brickbottom Gallery’s "The December Store," which has work by 40 artists with studios in Somerville. You’ll find paintings, jewelry, glass, and ceramics all priced under $300. Support the unique this winter! Barbara O’Brien’s gallery talk on Kara Walker’s "The Rich Soil Down There" @ Museum of Fine Arts, 465 Huntington Avenue, Boston | Dec 1 @ 11 am | 617.267.6300 or http://www.mfa.org/| "Overlap" @ Tufts University Art Gallery, 40R Talbot Avenue, Medford | Dec 1-18; artists’ talk Dec 8 @ 6 pm | 617.627.3518 or http://www.ase.tufts.edu/gallery| "December Sale" @ School of the Museum of Fine Arts, 230 the Fenway, Boston | Dec 1-5 | 617.369.3204 or http://www.smfa.edu/| "The December Store" @ Brickbottom Gallery, 1 Fitchburg Street, Somerville | Dec 1-Dec 23 | 617.776.3410 or http://www.brickbottomartists.com/
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