An incredible array of artistic methods is on display at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts' (SMFA) exhibit "SMFA Traveling Scholars." The exhibition, which runs from April 10 through May 31, showcases the work of five artists: Lizi Brown, Michael Bühler-Rose, Liz Cohen, Christopher Lamberg-Karlovskyand Wendy Jean Hyde. Brown and Hyde are part of the school's Fifth Year Certificate program, and the other artists are SMFA alumni.
"SMFA Traveling Scholars" incorporates photography, painting, film and mixed media to glorify the plethora of ways to approach the world through art. A nod to the SMFA's tradition of encouraging individual innovation, the artists' varied concerns are testaments to the incredible innovation of the current artistic community, and are a call to new artists to generate discussion about the many uncharted corners of our society.
The artists explore large societal currents and the more intimate moments of the lives of the people within them. An artist who is concerned with the larger questions of today is Lamberg-Karlovsky, whose "Archival" series is set up in a small room off of the main gallery space. Within his space are a number of tiny mixed media paintings, framed in the top half of black protective cases, which are then mounted on the walls. The pieces have names like "Not the Oxbox" and "Where the Wild Things Aren't," referencing the Romantic landscape tradition and the environmental concerns of the artist.
One piece titled "Thaw" (2008) features a rectangular, beautifully painted miniature of an abstracted landscape. A warm light emerges from the left corner, progressing into darker shades of blue and rose. The juxtaposition of this calm, peaceful scene with the protective case — which suggests it is threatened and in need of protection — places the title "Thaw" in an eerie context. Lamberg-Karlovsky has transformed the pleasant style of Romantic landscape painting and presented it as something ephemeral and in danger, suggesting that such scenes of pure nature may not be around forever without protection.
Brown explores a more personal side of our society in her pieces in the exhibition. She painted a series of images entitled "Slant Six: Woody, Peg and Val" (2008-2010), which document three women working on a ‘66 Valiant station wagon. Brown's paintings range in size from large oil paintings to tiny watercolors.
The paintings are set up in a row, and their varied sizes and styles present the viewer with an active and dynamic narrative of Brown's observations. The pieces themselves are not titled, suggesting that they are part of a whole. The series is a narrative that fits together as moments in succession, forming an observation of the camaraderie between the women as they all work together on the car.
Brown successfully conveys this dynamic between single moments and their representation of a broader relationship through her juxtaposition of tiny, intimate images featuring specific moments and the broader canvases. Through this juxtaposition, she draws a connection between small moments and larger realities. Her lively examination of the relationship between these women ina huge series of varied paintings attests to the importance of small personal relationships and moments.
From yet another perspective, Bühler-Rose presents a series of photographs entitled "Constructing the Exotic" (2006). The series features Western women who were either raised on the Indian Subcontinent or who were brought up in that tradition in the United States. Bühler-Rose then places these women in a thoroughly Western context, exploring, as he puts it, "the exotic other."
"The Chess Match, Alachua, FL" (2009) shows three women wearing elaborate traditional Hindu dresses in an obviously American landscape. Two of the women are propped up on their sides, while one moves a chess piece on the board in front of her and the third sits on a bench. The image construction is that of a classic Renaissance piece, but the unexpected placement of women in non-Western garb gives it a different twist.
Bühler-Rose purposefully turns our expectations of the types of women who should be in this classical, Western setting on its head. He forces viewers to examine what they find to be different about these women, and why that is. Are they different or exotic at all? Or is their dress the only thing that marks them as the "other?"
All five of the artists of the "SMFA Traveling Scholars" exhibit challenge and explore the world with unique perspectives and media. The way the artists each choose to tackle the world around them is representative of the various environments modern individuals grow up in, and their works are a celebration and examination of a diverse modern culture.
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At the Foster Gallery, through May 31
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
465 Huntington Avenue
617-267-9300
