» SEPTEMBER Sept 2 - 26

 

Opening Reception: Friday, Sept. 11, 5:30 – 7:30 pm.
South End Open Studios: Sat and Sun, Sept 19-20, 11 am – 6 pm.

Gallery I and II
Gallery Artists and Guests: “Plus One”
A survey of contemporary artmaking in the Greater Boston area, featuring Bromfield Gallery artists and their invited guests, in a variety of media from sculpture to printmaking to drawing and painting.

Guest Artists
Chung Adams
Brian Bishop
Prilla Smith Bracket
James Coleman
Alicia Dwyer
Amy Furman
Francoise McAree
Kayla Mohammadi
Nick Ortolino
David Palmquist
Ellen Rich
Liz Shepherd
Jason Travers

Michelle Vitti
Julie Weiman
Sandy Weisman

 

Laurie Alpert (Gallery Artist): "Sandscape I," polyester plate lithograph, 30" x 40", 2008.

 

Julie Vinette (Gallery Artist): "Pandora," stickers on Somerset paper, 25.5" x 21", 2009.

 

Gallery III
Karen Davis: “The McCann Family”
Photographs of vintage plastic dolls, arranged in dioramas of family life that reflect the artist’s childhood.

Mother Dreams, C-print, 20" x 30" 2008.

 

The McCann Family

An exhibition of emphatically colored still lifes; vintage plastic dolls arranged in dioramas of family life. Includes 12 x 18" archival pigment prints and 20 x 30" chromogenic prints.

When we were small, my younger sister, Cheryl, played with a set of dolls she called the "McCann Family." They were a thinly disguised version of our family. Cheryl decided she was "Tom McCann," the spunky boy doll. I was, "MaryAnn," the girl doll. Cheryl often had Mother McCann say to Tom, "Mary Ann is wonderful."(If I wrote the script, Mother would say, "Tom is so gifted" and "Mary Ann is average.")  

At first Tom could stand alone. Later he always lost his balance.   Cheryl diagnosed him with Polio. She fitted him with crutches and braces like hers. (Cheryl was born with spina bifida.) Tom thought Mother disliked having a disabled child. He felt bad about that. One day, Father's leg fell off. Cheryl taped it back on as a prosthesis. After Father became an amputee, he was a lot more understanding about his son.

When Cheryl died in 2006, I inherited the McCann Family. Placing them on stage - directing their actions, brings me back to our childhood and to memories of my extraordinary sister.

Bio

Karen Davis is a photographer, book artist, and teacher.

Her work is featured at MASS MoCA, the Houghton Rare Books Library, Harvard University; the Boston Drawing Project at Carroll & Sons Gallery and corporate and private collections. She is represented by The Clark Gallery - Lincoln, MA.

Photographs from her on-going project, "Close to Home" will be exhibited at the Lichui International Photo Festival in China, November, 2009. Her series, "The McCann Family," was exhibited at the Griffin Museum of Photography, (Fall 2008.) Davis's "Visual Memoir" project appeared in the Jan/Feb 2006 issue of The Women's Review of Books . In 2006, she received the Director's Prize in the CAA National Prize Show and in 2005, three of her photographs were exhibited in "hrlm: pictures" at the Studio Museum in Harlem. Solo exhibitions include: Wadleigh Gallery, Chester College; the Dean's Gallery at MIT; the Carpenter Center, Harvard University; and Gallery 57 of the Cambridge Arts Council.

Much of her work can be viewed at www.YesThatKarenDavis.com