The Montserrat College of ArtSmall Works Sale was this weekend. A friend and I drove up to Beverly to check it out yesterday, and I loved what I saw. I went home with a few pieces, which is no surprise given my inability to resist small artworks.
The money helps fund this small local college, where many of the students receive financial assistance. I was also happy to support Paul Kotakis, who used to run the SMFA Art Sale, and is now Director of Development at Montserrat College of Art. The works were really appealing, and given everything was under $500, it was fun to shop too.
Here’s a sampling of small works from the Montserrat Art Sale 2017. The sale is over, but if you see something you’re interested in, I’m happy to inquire about availability for you.
The SMFA at Tufts Art Sale is this Thu., Nov. 16 to Sun., Nov. 19; to School of the Museum of Fine Arts, 230 Fenway in Boston, on the side street right next to the MFA and its parking lot.
The SMFA Art Sale is my favorite art event of the year. There are nearly 4,000 works from established, emerging, and student artists, from top names including Jim Dine and James Turrell to student and faculty pieces. Prices vary too, with much of it reasonably affordable. There are the occasional pieces for tens of thousands of dollars, many in the thousand or several thousand range, and tons under $1,000 and some even under $100. (Once I found a piece for $8!)
Much of the artwork in our home is from the SMFA Art Sale. (I currently spot seven in my living room.) We have photographs, paintings, and mixed media works we have purchased at the Sale throughout the years, and I still think about a couple of video art pieces I wish we had snapped up.
I hope you check it out, it is well worth it. New artworks are constantly displayed as pieces are sold, and there are tons of shrinkwrapped pieces in bins that are fun to browse. I stopped by the SFMA yesterday morning to get a jump start, and I’ll head back there tomorrow for Medici Night. (To become a Medici supporter click here.)
If you’d like help choosing art for your home or office, let me know. I’ll be scouting the sale for clients and interior designers as well as myself. Here are 20 works that caught my eye so far.
Since then I’ve had the pleasure of working with her on the Webster Art Project at Boston Design Center. There are currently three of her paintings in the Webster & Company showroom (one sold!)
Hilary Tait Norod’s solos show “Are You Crazy With Me?” opens this weekend, Saturday, April 16th, 5pm – 9pm at Jerome Street Studios in Medford, Mass. Hilary’s new body of work is inspired by studies of the human mind. The series focuses specifically on the theories behind the correlation between insanity and creativity.
Norod presents a series of mixed media paintings that evolved from portraiture studies of brilliant minds who have walked the line of insanity into more abstract pieces of her own theories, experiences, and explorations.
Here is a preview of her new paintings:
Come and Rest Your Bones with Me
Oil, Charcoal, Graphite, Pastel, Mica and Gold Leaf on Panel • 48″ x 72″
Something Beautiful
Bowie
Poe
Men have called me mad; but the question is not yet settled, whether madness is or is not the loftiest intelligence– whether much that is glorious– whether all that is profound– does not spring from disease of thought– from moods of mind exalted at the expense of the general intellect. —Edgar Allen Poe
I am totally smitten with the work of Boston-based artist Alicia Savage, who specializes in self-portraits. A graduate of Northeastern University, Savage returned to school at Boston University Center for Digital Imaging Arts for training in photography. Savage describes her self-portraits, which are atmospheric, imaginative, and at times surreal, as “an organic exploration and evolving documentation of her present and past.”
Gabrielle Schaffner, who organizes Fort Point Open Studios (the next one is May 15-17) here in Boston, first pointed out Alicia Savage’s work to me, correctly guessing I’d love it. I love it so much that I’ve reached out to her and I am excited to say that I will be hanging one of Alicia Savage’s self-portraits in the model apartment I am decorating at the new Troy Boston building in the South End.
I am deciding between the first and the second one below for the space. I’d also love to purchase one. For all the images of women in fields and levitating women in post here, I only own one similar photograph. That must change. If you happen to be in Bogota next month, Alicia Savage’s self-portraits will be exhibited in the International Bienniel Photo Bogota 2015. From the looks of it, I am about to discover a whole bunch of new artists to showcase here. You can find other, similar images on my Female Figures in Art board on Pinterest too.
