July

June

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Last Thursday I went out to North Adams, MA for Down Street Arts and the opening reception for Be Your Own Placebo (B.Y.O.P.). This is the first installment of a four part summer show curated by Jaime Lee Mohr. The artists in the show are Jessica Ciocci, Sophia Cara Dixon, Celested Dupuy Spencer, Toto Feldman, Megha Gupta, Natalie Purkey, Rose Marcus, Frankie Martin, Lauren Pakradooni, Erika Somogyi, and Jennifer Sullivan. Images from the show can be found here. I am biased towards these artists especially Lauren Pakradooni so I am just going to say go see it if you can.

Be Your Own Placebo 28 Holden Street, North Adams, MA
Gallery Hours: Wednesdays-Fridays 12-6pm, Saturdays 10am-6pm, Sundays 10am-2pm

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Also up in North Adams at Gallery 51 is Sean Riley's Everything is OK. The show is a mixture of paintings and quilts. I find his paintings and collages to be really exciting. His quilt tops are nice as images (found on his website), but for some reason when I was looking at them at the show I was having trouble with them as objects. I think that within the context of the show and with the show's title they are interesting but as objects outside of that context I was having strange feelings about them............................................
(Maybe it is because I have been looking at tons of different quilts lately? Am I getting
hung up on craft? They are well sewn. Maybe I was feeling a bit or resentment to the
painting/quilting dichotomy and it was conjuring up thoughts about traditional women's
work/men's work and the history of sexism in the creative realm? Last summer two
women had quilts in a show I co-curated at the same gallery, just to call myself out.)
But I have since learned that he is making the quilt tops out of his father's clothes and I will admit that has made me appreciate them so much more.

Everything is OK is up until July 25, 2010 at MCLA Gallery 51, 51 Main St., North Adams, MA
Open Daily 10-6pm

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If you happen to be in the Western Mass area on July 10th I recommend going to Burns Maxey's opening reception for Water, the second installment of her multimedia show Project Elements Easthampton. Her installation is located at 1 Cottage Street in room 1-06. The reception will be held from 5-8pm. Additional work my Maxey can be found at the Easthampton City Arts Gallery.