Visual Arts - The Boston Globe

"THE MAW OF," single channel video installation with sound, detail by Rachel Rossin (2022-ongoing). "THE MAW OF" is co-commissioned by the Whitney Museum of American Art and KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin.

Technology opens wide in Rachel Rossin’s immersive ‘MAW’

Show at Emerson Contemporary Media Art Gallery looks at our relationship with the digital world.

Manet, Degas, and the nude that changed everything
A major new show at the Met brings “Olympia” to the US for the first time and with it a story of two artists’ catalytic friendship.

Get a jump on your holiday shopping with these open studio events
Artists in the South End and Jamaica Plain are setting up for sales this weekend.

At this Harvard exhibition, the maps are real but the places on them aren’t

When Marge Simpson looks at a map of Springfield, what does she see? The Harvard Map Collection has the answer.

Harvard museum director stepping down
Martha Tedeschi, who’s headed the university’s art museums since 2016, will retire in June.

ART REVIEW
At Abakus Projects, a show that asks: How compatible are efficiency and humanity?
Conceptual artist and photographer Mike Mandel considers the question in "Making Good Time 1989."

Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum closed Thursday night to thwart climate protest
Extinction Rebellion had planned a biodiversity protest inside the museum's storied galleries, where empty frames remind visitors of the infamous 1990 art heist. The Gardener will reopen on Friday.

Fall Arts Preview
10 visual feasts at New England museums this fall
The Boston Globe's art critic singles out must-see shows in Boston and beyond.

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Latest Headlines in Visual Arts

ART REVIEW

An installation view of Alison Croney Moses's "The Habits of Reframing."

When wood speaks: Alison Croney Moses masters her craft in first solo show

Her sculptures say volumes about the push and pull of pregnancy and motherhood. 11:07 a.m.

PHOTOGRAPHY REVIEW

Irene Shwachman, "Washington Street, Adams Square," May 23, 1962.

Two very different Bostons, two less different photographers

"Developing Boston: Berenice Abbott and Irene Shwachman Photograph a Changing City," at the Athenaeum, shows what a difference three decades can make. 6:00 a.m.

Arts

The exterior of the Worcester Art Museum in 2012.

How could smuggled Roman art have ended up at the Worcester Art Museum?

Seizure of $5 million bronze bust is part of broader criminal investigation by Manhattan DA’s office into looted works at multiple museums. 3:59 p.m.

Alexis Rockman, "Oceanus," 2022. Oil and cold wax on Dibond on aluminum substrate.

At Mystic Seaport Museum, Alexis Rockman’s massive ‘Oceanus’ is a monument to the sea

Commissioned by the museum for its permanent collection, the painter’s epic mural is now on view — along with 10 large watercolors that plumb the depths of humanity’s relationship with the ocean. 6:00 a.m.

GALLERIES

"It looks like a marvelous party — let's drop in and complain about the noise!" Illustration by Barbara Shermund, 1940s, watercolor, ink, graphite. From "Feminine Wiles: The Art of Barbara Shermund," The United, Westerly, R.I. On loan from the Collection of Charles and Deborah Royce.

Cartoonist Barbara Shermund makes a comeback

She knew her lines — and now her posthumous show ‘Feminine Wiles’ is on view at United Theatre in Westerly, R.I. 8:00 a.m.

“New Growth 2” by Gio Swaby, 2021. Collection of Rasheed Newson.

At Peabody Essex Museum, Gio Swaby’s virtuosic portraits of Black women in thread and fabric

Displaying stunning fluency in an original medium, the 31-year-old Bahamian artist draws freehand on canvas — with a sewing machine. 4:06 p.m.

ART REVIEW

Ruth K. Henry, “Free to Learn,” mixed-media sculpture.

Jewish Arts Collaborative’s ‘Be the Change’ offers mixed-media public art with mixed results

Installed in the Fenway, the exhibit features seven artworks by local artists based on the Jewish tzedakah box. 12:50 p.m.

Virgil Ortiz, "The Translator," from the artist’s "Revolt 1680/2180" project, 2015.

Three ways of looking at Pueblo art

In a trio of shows in the Northeast, museums seek better models for engaging with Native American art. 5:43 p.m.