Visual Arts Most of us know a pack rat or two. The souvenirs of yesteryear that we leave behind for others to disperse and dispose of are the subject of Paul Middendorf and Brandy Cochrane’s affecting colla ...   More

Visual Arts Despite the recession, poor art sales, and the continued dearth of first-rate collectors, this was an astounding year for the Portland art scene. It was astounding because in the absence of any tangib ...   More

Visual Arts I’ll never forget a photograph by artist Liz Obert of a man and woman lying on the sands of South Beach yakking away on their respective cell phones. No matter where we are, it would seem, it wo ...   More

Visual Arts There is extraordinary design work being done in China, but it gets lost in the claustrophobic mess that is Portland Art Museum’s China Design Now. This show—which originated at the Victor ...   More

Visual Arts It’s hard to believe that in 2009, the sight of a naked body can still provoke such a spectacular gamut of feelings, from arousal to repulsion. But it can, especially when the bodies in question ...   More

Visual Arts Sinuous tangles of vines, flowers, and lichen—dots of gold that gleam in the light, then suddenly congeal into stars and teem with insectlike forms...if Tom Cramer’s latest paintings seem ...   More

Visual Arts Every summer the Boston Symphony Orchestra plays a series of concerts, some of them in an outdoor band shell, under the moniker “The Boston Pops.” In lieu of heavy fare like Wagner and Mah ...   More

Visual Arts Gavin Shettler knows a thing or two about luring scenesters into the hinterlands to look at art. Back in 2003, he was one of the driving forces behind the Modern Zoo, a sprawling if polarizing mega-sh ...   More

Visual Arts That tattooing has moved into the mainstream is hardly news, nor is the fact that tattoo artists can enjoy concurrent careers as fine artists (local inkers Dan Gilsdorf and Peter Archer spring to mind ...   More

Visual Arts With scores of local art spaces closing (Quality Pictures), cutting back (Pulliam) and going freelance (Woolley), it’s rare to see a gallery welcome new artists into its stable. But with New Dis ...   More