Consumer Culture at Montserrat, Mini Golf at Mass Art, and ‘Seek Alternate Routes’ at 119 Gallery
By RANDI HOPKINS | November 20, 2007
JeongMee Yoon, Seohyun and Her Pink Things |
| “A Contemporary Cocktail: Brian Ulrich and Leonie Bradbury” in conversation at Montserrat College of Art Gallery, 23 Essex St, Beverly | November 29: 8-10 pm | Tickets $10 | Presented in conjunction with exhibition “Cornucopia: Documenting the Land of Plenty” | On view through February 2 | 978.921.4242 x 1319 | “Whale Island” at Mass College of Art’s Godine Gallery, 621 Huntington Ave, Boston | November 26-30 | Opening reception November 26: 6-8 pm | 781.588.2747 | “Seek Alternate Routes” at 119 Gallery, 119 Chelmsford St, Lowell | November 27–December 20 | Opening reception December 15: 3-6 pm | 978.452.8138 |
In late September 2001, President George W. Bush urged Americans to go shopping in support of the slumping US economy, equating purchasing with patriotism in the aftermath of 9/11. Intrigued by this sentiment, Chicago-based artist Brian Ulrich took to the malls with his camera, beginning what would become a long-term photographic examination of the peculiarities and complexities of our consumer-dominated culture. Ulrich’s large-scale photographs of shoppers shopping are displayed in “CORNUCOPIA: DOCUMENTING THE LAND OF PLENTY,” at the Montserrat College of Art Gallery through February 2, along with work by Xing Danwen, Chris Jordan, Portia Munson, and JeongMee Yoon, whose approaches to the subject range from depictions of mountains of American E-trash in China to portraits of small girls and boys in their, respectively, pink and blue bedrooms, nearly lost in a sea of gender-toned plastic. On November 29, at 8 pm, Ulrich joins Montserrat Gallery director/curator Leonie Bradbury for a discussion of consumer culture, documentary photography as protest, and more, in the second installment of Montserrat’s new “Contemporary Cocktail” series, in which art is discussed in a lounge-style atmosphere. DJ Diamond provides the music, and admission is $10; RSVP to gallery@montserrat.edu.Massachusetts’s miniature-golf scene (who knew there was one!) is the guiding spirit behind “WHALE ISLAND: MINIATURE-GOLF-INSPIRED WORKS BY BRIAN BUTLER,” which opens at Mass College of Art’s Godine Gallery on November 26. The exhibition is an outgrowth of Butler’s recent US ProMinigolf Association–sanctioned project “Mini-Golf Across Massachusetts,” which involved exploring every miniature-golf course in Massachusetts last June in order to analyze the state of the small green across the commonwealth. The show includes photographs, mixed-media drawings, and a large-scale, interactive mini-golf installation by this Mass Art senior.
Since opening in Lowell in July 2005, Gallery 119 has maintained a tradition of annual juried shows on open-ended themes that draw in diverse artists. Its Third Annual Juried Show, “SEEK ALTERNATE ROUTES,” juried by Jed Speare (current director of Boston’s Studio Soto and former director of Mobius Artists Group) and opening November 27, explores any and all aspects of the topic of finding different paths. Although the show’s logo is the familiar, yellow diamond-shaped highway sign indicating a detour, the work is bound to head out in unexpected directions.
On the Web
Montserrat College of Art Gallery: www.montserrat.edu/galleries
Mass College of Art’s Godine Gallery: //theupperhandart.com
119 Gallery: www.119gallery.org
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