brass tea: MFA

InsideOut is the School of the Museum of Fine Arts' annual sale. It is the largest fundraising event for the school (at least 50% of all sales go to the student scholarship fund) and with thousands of works, it is possibly the largest art sale in New England. The artwork comes from students, faculty, alumni and associated artists; ranging from smfa freshman to contemporary greats such as alumni Nan Goldin and the Starn twins and associated artists Chuck Close and Kiki Smith. There are paintings, drawings, photographs, video installations, jewelry, sculpture, ceramics... the list goes on. Work is reasonably priced, and is a great opportunity to add to or even start your art collection. People have come back and stated that they purchased student work at a low price, and the student has now become well known and pricey.
Not only is it a great opportunity to buy art, but as I mentioned it does help out the school, which is especially important right now. It is also a fun and casual atmosphere, and you may even get a chance to speak to many of the artists. Tonight is the opening, so if you can make it you ought to! It is also open through Sunday the 22nd, I have posted the hours below. (The two show pictures I've posted are from the set-up week! It looks much nicer now!)

Weds, Nov 18, 12–8 pm (opening celebration – 5–8 PM)
Thurs, Nov 19, 12–8 pm
Fri, Nov 20, 12–6 pm
Sat, Nov 21, 12–6 pm
Sun, Nov 22, 12–6 pm

More details at the SMFA website
Online gallery of some of the student and faculty work
On facebook

And I have a line of jewelry in the show so hey, if you're looking for some cool original and wearable work for a nice price... here's a preview of all 12 of my pieces...!

images: daylynn richards & facebook.com/insideoutsmfa

i went to the Antonio López García exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston last week, with the expectation of being extremely impressed, but probably not particularly interested. boy, was i wrong. i had seen one of his paintings before (Sink and Mirror, 1967, oil on wood) in a photo history lecture, and had done a little background research on him, so i knew about his style of borderline obsessive realism (he is considered a “master realist” and sometimes takes years to finish a single piece), a skill which impresses me to no end, but does not generally capture my enthusiasm.
before i get to how terribly wrong i was about García; some quick background information. García is a 72 year old working and revered Spanish artist, who has rarely been shown in the US, this exhibit is in fact, his first solo museum show in the US. he is proficient in drawing, oil painting, carved wood sculpture and plaster bas-relief.

the first piece that really grabbed me was a 3D piece, Percha con Ropa (1963-64, Polychromed wood). it’s an actual door along with some of García’s own clothes, that creates a beautiful dusty bronze composition that also serves as a self portrait. i was then drawn to another 3D piece, which really struck me- it was a drastic change from the panoramic paintings of Madrid and hyper-realistic life-sized refrigerator that had been in the last room- it was a wood sculpture painting of a woman peering down the hall at a levitating child. as it turns out, García had a stranger side, and some of his work (particularly from 1957-64) could fit into the category of “magic realism”.
this happened again and again throughout the exhibit, amongst the realistic paintings (with a fantastic understanding of depth i might add) there would be pieces that were slightly off, or odd, in some way.
probably my favorite piece in the exhibit, La Cena (1971-80, oil on board) i wrote off as uninteresting at first, but quickly noted that it had multiple quirky things going on. the woman on the right’s face seems to be painted over, moved lower, but leaving traces of the old face behind, creating a disturbing and surreal image. a piece of meat on the table, under closer inspection, is actually a magazine cutout, which leads to further inspection of the other food items, such as the apple, which is also a magazine cutout, but mostly painted over.
my close second favorite piece in the exhibit is a beautiful painting, again falling into the magic realism category, Niña Muerta (1957) which depicts a small dead girl in a box that looks, to me, like a cigar box.
needless to say, he piqued my interest. the exhibit is definitely worth checking out. it closes July 27th, and contains over 60 paintings, drawings and sculptures, so everyone should hurry to go see it!

website with photos of 113 of Garcia’s works
MFA’s information on the exhibit
really informative Audio Slideshow from Boston.com