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Five art experiences that resonated in 2023

The Globe’s art critic singles out the experiences that stick with him as the year ends.

‘She’s got it right’: Healey hangs two MFA paintings by Black artists in her State House office
The paintings, “Black Tie” by Robert T. Freeman and “At the Tremont Street Car Barns” by Allan Rohan Crite, depict Black Americans in society in earlier decades.

MFA opens its new Judaica gallery as Hanukkah begins
The gallery, a rarity among American art museums, has been years in the making but comes at a heavy moment.

‘Unearthing the Sky’ unearths big questions at Providence College Galleries

Cammie Staros’s show gallops through time and examines traditional museum display methods through a critical, contemporary lens.

ART REVIEW
In ‘Like Magic,’ 10 artists conjure shadowy refuge at MassMoCA
A new show explores arcane faith and ritual as a counter-curse against troubled times.

PHOTOGRAPHY REVIEW
The rooms where it happened: A new MFA show looks at photographers’ studios
“Creative Spaces: The Photographer’s Studio as Inspiration” runs at the Museum of Fine Arts through April 28.

ART REVIEW
At the National Gallery, a clear sign of contemporary Indigenous art on the rise
The landmark show ‘The Land Carries Our Ancestors,’ curated by Jaune Quick-To-See Smith, embodies the hope that museums are finally making space for Native American artists.

Art
’80s hip-hop culture, courtesy of Ice-T and DJ Afrika Islam, is on vivid display at Harvard
“Day One DNA: 50 Years in Hiphop Culture” at the Cooper Gallery includes sneakers, records, jewelry, clothes, even a replica studio apartment from hip-hop’s early days

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ART REVIEW

In ‘Fluid/Solid,’ Rosanne Somerson goes with the flow — of wood

The woodworker and former RISD president exhibits a stunning show at Gallery NAGA on Newbury Street.

In a stunningly honest exhibition, Harvard Art Museums put their links to China’s opium trade on display

Centuries before the US opioid crisis, foreign forces — the museums’ benefactors among them — drove China’s opium addiction.

ART REVIEW

Safety, surveillance, and being seen — Joanna Tam examines it all in ‘Visibility Studies’

The artist’s new show, ‘Visibility Studies,’ is on view at Regis College’s Carney Gallery in Weston.

PHOTOGRAPHY REVIEW

Some clean, well-lighted places at the Griffin

Artist’s studios and photographer’s darkrooms make for enticing visual subjects.

Art Review

At the Museum of Fine Arts, an abstract artist’s ‘painting in the round’

Working principally in ceramics, Toshiko Takaezu didn’t achieve the acclaim of her male abstract expressionist peers. A new show of her work makes a case for her place in the canon.

CRITIC'S NOTEBOOK

Have camera, will travel

The photographic road trip has a long and happy high-mileage tradition.

ART REVIEW

A fertile ground for artists in Fall River

‘HYPERBALLADS’ is the first show in GATHER’s Ignition Space featuring artists from the Portuguese diaspora.

In Collecting 101, UMass Amherst students learn inner workings of museum acquisition

The class recently took a field trip to Boston to visit Newbury Street art galleries and the ICA’s permanent collection.