OFFICE AT NIGHT: Edward Hopper is the subject of a retrospective at the MFA. |
A gaggle of big solo shows share the art waves with that powerful influx of computer-reliant art known as the BOSTON CYBERARTS FESTIVAL (April 20–May 7; www.bostoncyberarts.org) this season.William Wegman is widely known and loved for his photos and video of dignified Weimaraner Man Ray acting out absurd tasks. He’s also held in high critical esteem by the art world as an early exponent of conceptual and video art. “WILLIAM WEGMAN: FUNNY/STRANGE” at the Addison Gallery of American Art (180 Main St, Andover; April 7–July 31) looks at Wegman’s work from the early 1970s to the present.
American painter Edward Hopper, whose iconic images are infused with an uncanny light and a mesmerizing simplicity, is the subject of a grand retrospective, “EDWARD HOPPER”, at the Museum of Fine Arts (465 Huntington Ave, Boston; May 6–August 19). Also at the MFA, “WAR AND DISCONTENT” (April 10–August 5) highlights important historical and contemporary work that responds to world events.
Cameron Jamie is fascinated with close-to-home, modern-day rituals, like backyard teenage wrestling and Halloween spook houses; the artist’s drawings, sculptural objects, and films of the past 20 years make up “CAMERON JAMIE” at MIT’s List Visual Arts Center (20 Ames St, Cambridge; May 3–July 8).
“JOHN ARMLEDER: TOO MUCH IS NOT ENOUGH” at the Rose Art Museum (415 South St, Waltham; April 26–July 29) turns the Bauhaus directive “less is more” on its head as the influential Swiss artist is given the run of the museum to create a group of large-scale installations involving scaffolding, disco balls, pour-and-puddle paintings, and more. Joseph Cornell was also drawn to a wide mix of materials, but on a much tinier scale; “JOSEPH CORNELL: NAVIGATING THE IMAGINATION” at the Peabody Essex Museum (East India Square, Salem; April 28–August 19) is a major retrospective of this assemblage artist’s poetic box sculptures, collages, and experimental films.
Louise Bourgeois has been breaking artistic ground for more than 60 years, always with a keen sense of the sexual and the symbolic. “BOURGEOIS IN BOSTON” at the Institute of Contemporary Art (100 Northern Ave, Boston; March 28–March 2) presents works from public and private Boston area collections. Also at the ICA, “MOMENTUM 7: MISAKI KAWAI” (March 28–July 8) presents new work by an artist known for her quirky, whimsical installations created from papier-mâché, fabric, and other low-tech, “crafty” materials.
Twenty-first-century artists whose work evokes early optical and cinematic devices are the subject of “PICTURE SHOW” at the Photographic Resource Center (832 Comm Ave, Boston; March 30–May 6). Issues from global warming to humorous sculpture enliven “THE DECORDOVA ANNUAL EXHIBITION” at the DeCordova Museum (51 Sandy Pond Road, Lincoln; May 5–August 12), this year’s installment of a perennial favorite.
A rare exhibition of works by pioneering French Cubist “FERNAND LÉGER: CONTRASTS OF FORMS” at the Fogg Art Museum (32 Quincy St, Cambridge; April 14–June 10) zeroes in on two landmark paintings, as well as drawings, from 1912–1914. And in a collaborative vein, “ED RUSCHA/RAYMOND PETTIBON: THE HOLY BIBLE AND THE END” at the Worcester Art Museum (55 Salisbury St; April 7–May 27) brings together two major contemporary artists, each with a history of exploring the associations of images and words.
