Milliken's Monumental Installation in Boston's Christian Science Plaza

Nancy Winship Milliken has created this monumental ephemeral sculpture Lighthouse on the Christian Science Plaza in Boston. This huge public art installation will be on display through the Fall.  This is a must see if you're visiting Boston this season. Nancy's blog <http://nancymilliken.com/studio-blog/>

Andrea Dezso Installation at the Tides Museum, Review of Award Winning Book

Andrea Dezso has probably one of the hottest art careers in the Pioneer Valley. She has designed two NYC subway stations as well as creating a mosaic for the Bucharest American Embassy in Romania. She will be having her first Chelsea area NYC exhibit this year. Stay tuned.


http://andreadezso.com/
http://pyrajane.wordpress.com/2013/05/02/lies-knives-girls-in-red-dresses/

http://www.tidesinstitute.org/

http://www.uarts.edu/events/alumni/2013/05/arthur-p-williams-lecture-andrea-dezs%C3%B6

William Brayton - Spring collaboration with Poet in NYC Gallery

William Brayton's sculpture from Biennial

http://williambrayton.com/home.html

http://www.hampshire.edu/faculty/wbrayton.htm

Biennial Artist Covers Boston with Wool!

Nancy Winship Milliken & Terry Rooney

Nancy Winship  Milliken, created one of the most impressive installation of ephemeral art during the first Amherst Biennial (Fall 2010). It was a set of seven woolen sails, 20 feet high which "sailed" from the Thistlebloom Farm in South Amherst to the Swartz Family Farm in North Amherst. During it's final installation for the Biennial at the Swartz Family Farm, we (Amherst Public Arts Commission) relit the tobacco barn   Erika Zekos's  Shedding Light project (Public Arts Commission's -  special event for Amherst's 250th Anniversary) http://sheddinglightamherst.blogspot.com/ with Milliken's sails. This iconic image of the first Biennial was documented by yet another talented local artist, Anita Licis Ribak. This photograph has been our banner for this blog from the beginning. Anita did this time lapse photography, which captured these two special public art installation as well as, a visitor to the site carrying a flashlight which became the "Blue Line" in this iconic photograph. http://blog.anitalicis.com/ (Check out Anita's site for her installation at the "pop-up"  Boltwood Gallery during this latest Biennial)

Milliken's Pleiades at Swartz Family Farm photo: Jeff Derose

Nancy's reasoning in creating "Pleiades" - her sail installation for the first Amherst Biennial, was to honor the agricultural and nautical history of New England. She spent two years, gathering the wool from local Pioneer Valley farmers to create Pleiades. Milliken then proceed the laborious task of constructing these sails on a wooden frame that moved with the wind. After the first Biennial, these sails lived on be part of the scenery at the Double-Edge Theater production of the Odyssey the following summer. http://www.doubleedgetheatre.org/


This past Biennial, Nancy created cobb sculpture's using natural material from the land to create sculptures of farmers doing chores that are for the most part mechanized in today's farming. Here's a link to a video of her creating this work. http://nancymilliken.com/ill-arise-and-go-now/

Milliken is blazing new frontiers for her site-specific work The Lighthouse Project, taking it from the pastoral settings in Western MA to the urban center of Boston this Spring/Summer '13. She will be creating a wall of wool, cascading through  Christian Science Plaza, Boston contrasting this natural, soft, cozy of sheep's wool with the concrete facades of the neighboring buildings.

This artist has raised over $4,000 towards her $6,500 goal to rent scaffolding to act as an armature for this installation. How about joining me in helping make this special public art installation a reality? Here's her site to learn more about this project and support it.

http://www.usaprojects.org/project/the_lighthouse

Hot off the presses, a write up in a trade publication on Milliken's upcoming instatallation: http://sheepindustrynews.org/?page=site%2Ftext&nav_id=0458c6b5db2f57731dece320e475d0a8&archive_id

Biennial Artist's prints added to Mead Museum Collection

Mead Art Museum has purchased four prints from Lynn Peterfreund (Amherst Biennial '10 & '12) which will be on display at the museum during: Art for All: Additions to the Collection from Antiquity to Today, until July 7, 2013.

Peterfreund has been a member and instructor of the non-toxic print studio Zea Mays for years.

http://www.lynnpeterfreund.com/

D. Shapleigh in Wheaton Biennial, Several Biennial Artists in Reach Video Event

David Shapleigh

David Shapleigh whose wonderful drawings were installed at Freedom Trails Gallery during the Biennial was also selected for the inaugural exhibit Out of Bounds drawing Biennail at Wheaton College which opened Feb. 27 - April 13, 2013. The juror was Judith Tannebaum, curator of contemporary art at RISD Museum of Art.

http://wheatoncollege.edu/gallery/2012/2013-wheaton-biennial-drawing-bounds/

Also it seems several Amherst Biennial artists were invited the the REACH exhibit this Spring. REACH is an invitational exhibition of non-traditional artists, performers and sound artists from a spectrum of locatons including the Pioneer Valley, Boston, NYC and beyond. Exhibitions will begin in April 2013 in nine venues located in Easthampton and Holyoke, MA. All are invited to participate in the REACH One Minute Videofest that will be on view during REACH Fest.

Biennial artists that are participating are: Rosalyn Driscoll, Chris Nelson, Maggie Nowinski, Alicia Renadette and David Shapleigh.

http://www.reachfest.com/

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Pope Joan at APE, Northampton, MA

Susan Montgomery's Pope Joan was one of the highlights of the last Amherst Biennial and her solo exhibition on this subject could not have been timed better with the resignation of the Pope.How would the Catholic Church be different - if the church had a woman pope? Montgomery's explores the myth of a 9th century woman pope in her exhibit at APE Gallery< http://www.apearts.org/>

Montgomery presents her new body of work, Pope Joan: Omission from March 8 to March 29, 2012, Artist reception on March 8th from 5 - 8 PM.

Susan's work has always focused on the presentation of women in history, culture and our communal memory. Her past topics include Marie Curie, The Radium Girls and various women from literature and fairy tales .Pope Joan first appeared in Pioneer Women at Paper City Studios, Holyoke 2010.

http://papercitystudios.wordpress.com/pioneer-women/

http://www.susanmontgomeryart.com/home/