Boston, MA
At the ICA, a vital view into the Boston art scene – The Boston Globe
The three 2023 winners — Cicely Carew, Venetia Dale, and Yu-Wen Wu, chosen by assistant curator Anni Pullagura, are currently featured in the ICA’s Foster Prize exhibition, on view through the end of the year. Shown in mini solo shows, the trio shares an affection for creative re-use: Carew, with the detritus of her studio; Dale, who works with remnants in the disparate materials of fabric and pewter; and Wu, with castoffs collected and reassembled as emblematic of the complex construction of immigrant identity.
All three are makers of intimate, tactile things; Carew’s ebullient clusters of thin, colorful sheets of plastic mesh and spray paint all but cry out to be hugged. For a prize predicated purely on geography, the happenstance harmonies are to be savored. They suggest a coherent moment, an art scene in broad conversation with itself, typically a sign of a healthy creative ecosystem.
Another positive sign is the presence of all three outside the cozy confines of the Foster show. Dale’s work is currently appearing in the Museum of Fine Arts exhibition “Tender Loving Care,” while work by Carew and Wu has been installed in the urban landscape with public art projects through the nonprofit Now + There (Carew at the Prudential Center in 2021, Wu in East Boston and at Boston City Hall in 2022 and 2023).
So is the Foster Prize meant to discover artists mostly unknown, or to recognize artists already in the swing? The answer, from what I can tell, is yes. Awards are always some degree of arbitrary; best not to overthink it and embrace the opportunity. In this case, it’s an experience of delicate wonder. Carew’s sculptural pieces either dangle from the ceiling or are pinned to the sky-blue walls. They’re inviting knots of ebullient chaos, as good a metaphor of a productive studio as I can imagine.
They feel like three-dimensional expressions of the vibrantly gestural abstract paintings that hang between and beneath them. In the exhibition text, Carew speaks of the hoary legacies of Abstract Expressionism turgid and overwrought, filtered through the effusive soundscapes of jazz, a mash-up that claims space in American art history for Black culture. The sculptural works in particular feel almost like a literal translation: Exuberant and inviting, they’re material tufts of free-spirited expression that you negotiate with your body in physical space. They are, quite literally, bundles of joy.
Dale and Wu offer less-elated experience. Dale’s work is underpinned by the weighty practice of domestic life. She gathers the detritus of inner worlds — orange peels and fabric scraps, meals finished and tasks left incomplete — to cobble intimate snapshots of lives in progress. The material counterpoints can be jarring. On one wall, “Piecing Together: bless our home go,” 2023, is composed of dozens of fragments of embroidery she acquired online, dangling together like a loose web of unfinished thoughts; on the floor in front of it, “the gradual gathering of something,” an ongoing project begun in 2021, is a cluster of three misshapen pewter orbs on a tufted wool rug. Their rough forms feel forlorn; they’re pieced together from pewter castings of orange peels left over from feeding her own children. Dale then assembles them into a make-do, semi-coherent whole — an experience to which any parent can relate.
Wu’s practice includes drawing, painting, sculpture, and video; a large projection of cascading dried tea leaves occupies a whole wall of her space. Called “The Accumulation of Dreams,” 2015/2023, it brings to life Wu’s ideas around belonging and transformation expressed in the work that otherwise fills the room. Wu, who emigrated from Taiwan, uses tea leaves as a symbol both of her Asian heritage and of the transformation into her hybrid American self. “Acculturation,” 2023, a tidy grid of gilded leaves, tea included, signifies the collective American dream of prosperity that so many immigrants come here to pursue.
But for me, her most poetic piece is from her “States of Being” series, a broad, experimental project of composing semi-finished objects from disparate parts. Made this year, “Object 5,” fuses the halves of a split rock back together with a warbly vein of molten gold, a lovely but tenuous seal between parts. A symbol of the uneasy fusion of identity in the immigrant experience, it has more to say. Think about it and wonder what, if anything, is holding any of us together.
2023 JAMES AND AUDREY FOSTER PRIZE EXHIBITION
Through Jan. 2. Institute of Contemporary Art Boston, 25 Harbor Shore Drive. 617-478-3100, www.icaboston.org
Murray Whyte can be reached at murray.whyte@globe.com. Follow him @TheMurrayWhyte.
Boston, MA
Frigid wind chill temperatures today
The wind is back. And no one is happy.
Well, at least it won’t be 10 days of it. Instead, you’ll have to settle for two, with occasional gusts to 35-40 mph. Not nearly as intense as the last go-round, but still enough to produce wind chills in the single digits and teens through Wednesday. Thursday the winds are much lighter, but even with a slight breeze, we may see wind chills near zero in the morning.
The pattern remains active, but we’ll have to wait a few days until our next batch of precipitation. And with temperatures warming, it looks like rain by Saturday afternoon. We’ll rise into the 40s through Sunday, then feel the full weight of the polar vortex early next week.
Yes, you read that right. The spin, the hype, and definitely the cold, are back. Much of the country will plunge into the deep freeze. The question remains whether we’ll spin up a storm early next week. Jury is still out on that, but we’re certain this will be the coldest airmass of the season.
Boston, MA
Boston College falls to Notre Dame, 78 – 60
Coming off back to back conference losses, the Eagles traveled to South Bend to try to earn their second conference win. Notre Dame has had a lack luster start to the year, as they also sit at 1-4 in conference play entering tonight’s matchup. Boston College defended much better in the first half tonight than they have in the past few games. More specifically, they guarded the 3 point line, holding Notre Dame to just 2 of 9 from beyond the arc. Boston College, in turn, shot 50% (5 of 10) from behind the 3 point line, which really kept them in the game. Donald Hand, Jr., in particular, had a nice first half with 11 points on 4 of 6 from the field. The one-two punch of Tae Davis and Markus Burton combined for 20 of Notre Dame’s 36 points in the first half. Notre Dame led at the break 36 to 33.
The second half was a different story for the Eagles. The Fighting Irish dominated the last 10 minutes of the game outscoring Boston College 22 to 10. Burton and Davis combined for 46 of the Irish’s 78 points. Davis had his way with BC scoring 26 points on 9 of 14 shooting. The Eagles just had no answer for him or his counterpart in the back court Markus Burton. Burton had 20 of his own on just 5 of 15 from the field. The Eagles did a great job of defending the 3 point line against the Irish as they shot 3 of 15 from beyond the arc, but they did a poor job defending everything else. The Eagles once again had trouble with consistency on the offensive side of the ball. The top performer was Hand, he finished with 17 points on 6 of 11 shooting. He seems to be one of the only Eagles’ who can create his own shot when the offense breaks down. Boston College fell to the Irish 78 to 60.
Overall, Boston College showed some glimpses tonight on the defensive end, especially in the first half. They did a great job of defending the three point line all night, but didn’t continue to defend after running the Irish off the line. The offense struggled again tonight despite shooting over 50% from the 3 point line.
Boston College has had a rough last two weeks, but it will only get tougher as Duke comes to town on Saturday. Cooper Flagg has seemingly hit his stride after dropping 42 on Notre Dame this weekend. After the performance from Tae Davis, BC and Earl Grant will need to scheme up some different defenses to try to slow down the Duke freshman. Duke and Boston College will tip off at 8 PM EST at Conte Forum.
Boston, MA
Boston’s Southern French Restaurant Marseille Calls It Quits
Marseille, an 18-month-old French restaurant located at 560 Harrison Avenue in the South End, has closed down. The restaurant posted a message on Instagram last week alerting diners that it would be shutting down the social media account (which is now gone), and its OpenTable page now reads that Marseille has permanently closed as of Monday, January 13. No specific reason was given for the shutter. Owned by French restaurateur Loic Le Garric, the restaurant was his ode to sunny Southern French cuisine in various forms, including grilled octopus, a rich seafood stew, trout almondine, and more. Le Garric did not immediately respond to questions about the restaurant’s closure. The restaurateur’s other French spots, including Batifol (in Kendall Square) and Petit Robert Bistro (also in the South End), plus bakery and cafe PRB Boulangerie, remain open.
Boston is getting a new Detroit-style pizzeria
Descendant Detroit Style Pizza, a Toronto-based company with two locations there, is opening up a third shop inside the Prudential Center, Boston Restaurant Talk reports. It’ll be the first U.S. location for the pizza shop, which bills itself as Canada’s first Detroit-style pizzeria, and is yet another addition to Boston’s burgeoning Detroit-style pizza scene, which includes stalwarts like the five-year-old Avenue Kitchen & Bar in Somerville and newer additions like Detroit Pizza Co. in Brighton.
A tiny Cape Cod restaurant steps into the spotlight at Raffles
Luxurious Portuguese restaurant Amar, located inside high-end Boston hotel Raffles, is hosting a one-night-only collaboration dinner with Cape Cod tasting menu spot Clean Slate Eatery this month. Amar chef George Mendes and Clean Slate Eatery chef Jason Montigel are putting together a six-course dinner with dishes such as local oysters with a lemon-horseradish granita, bay scallops with Eastham turnips, winter squash, country ham croquettes, and Satsuma citrus, and a quail roulade with quince-vanilla puree, Périgord black truffles, and maitake mushrooms. The event takes place on Wednesday, January 22. Tickets are $175 per person; reservations can be made here.
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