CulturePeel has teamed up with the beautiful Back Bay Italian furniture showroom Il Decor to demonstrate how art can pair with design to bring spaces to life. Our “Spring Awakening” show of John Blee’s abstract expressionist paintings is now up at 10 St. James Street. John Blee’s work is in the collections of the Museum of…
“What am I going to make for dinner, but what do We do about the world?” Last spring, I didn’t find this question – uttered with raw despair by Girlfriend in Jackie Sibblies Drury’s play Really – particularly striking as I first read the script. Not overly concerned with the state of the world, I…
Boston-based artist, former Newbury Street gallery director, and founder of the Plein-Air Art Academy Diana Stelin is preparing to teach kids pop art in the spring. The Academy is also running a first-of-its-kind Pre-K/Kindergarten art contest with entries due March 31. In Mid-April, you can join the schools’ immensely popular plein-air painting event: Cherry Blossoms at Arnold Arboretum. And during ArtWeek Boston,…
I’ve discovered, over three decades of museum visits, that when it comes to time spent and works seen, less is often more. I used to feel guilty admitting it, but no longer. Because when I limit myself and absorb only as much as I feel I need to fuel or inspire or educate me in that moment, I find that the…
When I visited the ICA a few weeks ago, I saw a work that, as you approach it, resembles two smooth wooden cubes. It’s not particularly spectacular from afar: the wooden pieces are neatly, even artistically, placed together, but they could be anything: a bench, an empty display base. As you come closer, you see…
Reading Cynthia Freedland’s “But is it art?” with its insights into some of the most controversial pieces produced in recent years (Damien Hirst’s dead shark and Serrano’s Piss Christ among them) has made me wonder: who are today’s top-ranking contemporary artists, and is all their work equally…bizarre and unconventional? The answer I found surprised me:…
On Saturday, I visited the Fine Print & Drawing Fair at Lighthouse International (an organization that fights vision loss) to meet the charming and exceptionally friendly Jane Roberts, who recently hosted John Blee‘s show at her gallery in Paris. She’d traveled to New York with a diverse group of works, creating one of the most…
Who’d have thought that a mid-Saturday trip to the Brooklyn Museum’s Seductive Subversion: Women Pop Artists, 1958–1968 exhibit would feel like a private showing? It wasn’t just about the lack of crowds (we encountered no more than ten people throughout the exhibition). The show’s excellent layout plays a big role in creating an intimate atmosphere,…
Like most kids, I took my surroundings for granted. The weekly trips to my godmother’s home – a sprawling, sun-drenched apartment across the street from the American embassy in Moscow – were just part of the routine. I watched my godmother’s small daughter, Vera, as she ran among the gigantic canvases that lined the walls…
DC-based painter John Blee has lived an extraordinary life, with a richness of experience that radiates from his vibrant, abstract works. It’s difficult to imagine anyone with a more fascinating intellectual existence: speaking with John, it seems that he has read everything, tried everything – and remembers everything, which makes conversations endlessly engaging…
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