Plenty 2011 is our fourth annual roundup of the best work local and regional artists have to offer. Opening Thursday, November 17 with a reception from 7-9 pm, our salon style holiday show features new work by over 50 local artists.

Plenty celebrates the many talented artists found around Boston and beyond. All types of media are represented including painting, drawing, printmaking, photography, sculpture, wood construction, and a few odd pieces that defy categorization.

Works in the show are modest in size and budget and make great holiday gifts. Our collection of handmade ceramics, jewelry, woodwork and even stuffed animals will also be in abundance. And if you can’t make our opening reception, please join us for some holiday cheer at our Annual Holiday Party on Thursday, December 15 from 7-9 pm.

More info at 13forest.com

Saturday, October 29th Decorate goody bags at Artbeat Halloween art projects at Kidcasso

Trick or Treat Monday Oct 31, 3:00 – 5:00 PM

Come in costume to the Capitol Theater, Quebrada,, Maxima, Artbeat, Marbella, and other open businesses

From 13Forest Gallery:

This is the season of shapeshifting, when humans transform themselves physically and celebrate traits ordinarily buried deep within the psyche. To help decipher these often murky manifestations, 13FOREST Gallery presents Keingberger & Luiggi: Field Guides, an illustrative exhibition of new and recent work by Boston artists Joe Keinberger and Mark Luiggi.

Running from October 18 to November 12, the show offers a two-man catalogue of myths, personifications and wordplay that express both the dark and lighthearted sides of being a citizen of the modern world.

Joe Keinberger has always been drawn to strange and imaginative creatures as an extension of his love of folklore and nature. Through his pencil drawings, he portrays contemporary human alienation and our often futile efforts to attain perfection. Keinberger does this, however, with a goal of imbuing his subjects with a purity that makes their mysterious appearances compelling and their actions innocent rather than sinister or calculating. In his drawing Such Beautiful Stars…, a thin woman rides on the back of a figure that is half human and half tree-animal. Far from an abduction scene, it is one of mindfulness, of living with vision and primitive intuition. On the wedding of human figures with natural forms, Keinberger states: “There is an appreciation and an awe of Nature that influences my work. Tree branches become antlers, root vegetables walk and talk, and the animal world is king.”

Mark Luiggi strikes an uneasy balance between innocence and sophistication. Combining pen and ink with watercolor and cut paper, Luiggi creates worlds that are well ordered and believable but also implausible. With a playful eye, he catches viewers off guard as he lays bare human foibles and delusions and makes references to bygone eras when, in retrospect, everything seemed manageable if not shatterproof. In A Fine Education Luiggi presents an elaborate mating ritual of elegant men and women sauntering across a park, pulling metaphorical wagons jammed with books that represent our vain attempts to reveal only what we believe will attract potential suitors. Further exposing the quirks of the human condition, the characters in Luiggi’s Birdwatchers series are humorous on one level but they also beg the question, are animals half as interested in studying us as we are them?

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On August 18 artist Wade Aaron will return to Boston from New York to assemble a light sculpture that will mark a turning point in his career when it debuts at the Museum of Fine Arts this September.

An artist working in multiple disciplines, Aaron earned a Master’s degree from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, and is currently featured in 13FOREST Gallery’s exhibition Space/Light/City, which will run through early October.  His sculpture, Untitled (INTENT), will be a centerpiece of Sparking Dialogue, a two-year, international exhibition of light installations in the MFA’s new Linde Family Wing for Contemporary Art when it opens next month.

According to the MFA, “Sparking Dialogue introduces electric-lit text-based works to offer open-ended statements and prompt discussion about contemporary culture.” Inspired by the work of Jenny Holzer, the show will include more than a dozen works by acclaimed artists such as Joseph Kosuth, Kader Attia and Tracey Emin.

Once assembled, the 333 incandescent light bulbs in Aaron’s work will spell the word “INTENT” but will lose its message over time as the bulbs randomly burn out one by one.

When asked about being included in his first high-profile exhibition, Aaron stated, “At an institution like the MFA, my voice gets shouted into a cultural space where voices like Kosuth’s have been echoing for forty-plus years. I mean, this is a guy whose practice I’ve referenced very specifically in some of my past work. I think I can feel proud to be included.”

With construction of the new wing, Aaron’s experience is one that is expected to be shared by an increasing number of local artists. As the MFA states, a section of the new wing will be dedicated to furthering its commitment to the community of Boston artists of all ages.

This week, Aaron and a small group of assistants will assemble Untitled (INTENT) at the Museum School.  After approval from the MFA’s electricians, they will walk the final 4′ x 15′ 650-pound sculpture across the street to the museum, where it will stand unlit until opening night.  During that time, Aaron will be reachable for interviews and to expand on his participation in Sparking Dialogue.  Arrangements can be made through Marc Gurton or Yarden Abukasis at 13FOREST Gallery at 781-641-3333 (gallery) or 617-233-3699 (cell).

Aaron’s prints and drawings will be on display at 13FOREST Gallery as part of Space/Light/City through Friday, October 7.  He will be the featured speaker at a special event at the gallery on Friday, September 23 from 7-9 pm.  It will be free and open to the public.

Space/Light/City, a new exhibit exploring fictional and scientific space, as well as the visceral use of light and color, opens Friday, June 24 at 13FOREST Gallery in Arlington with a reception from 7-9 pm. The show features new and recent work by four innovative artists from Boston and New York: Wade Aaron, Kenji Nakayama, Lynda Schlosberg and Dana Woulfe.

Having recently earned exhibitions at the Museum of Fine Arts, New York’s Woodward Gallery, Lot F Gallery and Montserrat College of Art, the artists’ paintings, prints and installations are noted for their meticulous detail, quiet stability and charged atmosphere.

The show will run through Friday, September 9. An artists’ reception will also be held on Thursday, July 21 from 7-9 pm.

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ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Wade Aaron earned his MFA at the Museum School in Boston. Now living in New York, Wade will be included in a major exhibition exploring light- and text-based work at the opening of the Museum of Fine Arts’ new Linde Family Wing for Contemporary Art later this year. Space/Light/City presents a range of drawings and prints that display Wade’s abilities as a drafter and sculptor. In two of his constructions, dozens of intersecting lines and sail-shaped metal leafing form geometric architectural plans, but with movement and billowing life that liberate them from the drawing board. In another work, he repeatedly uses an image from a light installation to form a perfectly symmetrical crystal of black snow against a multicolored background. It is the intersection of a world that never had solid form and a world with form too small for us to see.

Kenji Nakayama, born in Tomokomai, Japan, was educated as a mechanical engineer before moving to Boston to study traditional sign painting and dedicate himself to life as a solo and collaborative artist. With successes in Boston, New York, Australia and Japan, Kenji creates large- and small-scale work ranging from carefully rendered pinstriping and gilded lettering to hand-cut, multi-layered stencil paintings that document and respond to the urban environment around him. In Space/Light/City his solo paintings present a multi-colored script of words that are as loosely or closely associated with each other as those on faded billboards or diner menus. With collaborator Dana Woulfe (see below), Kenji’s paintings capture the dichotomous whir and stillness of the urban soul.

Lynda Schlosberg received her MFA in painting at the Art Institute of Boston and now lives in Lexington. Her work, widely seen across New England, gives form to the physical theory that space is never empty or still. In Space/Light/City Lynda meditates on the array of electrical currents, digital impulses and magnetic forces that invisibly mingle and flicker in the space around us. Each painting depicts a nearly imperceptible geometry constructed of thousands of tiny brushstrokes and minute forms that assert themselves immediately before they are reabsorbed into a constantly evolving background.

Dana Woulfe became interested in Boston’s graffiti scene while attending the Massachusetts College of Art. After joining Project SF, a Boston-based international collective of urban artists, designers and musicians, he embarked on a successful career as a solo and collaborative painter, muralist and installation artist in Boston and New York. In Space/Light/City Dana presents a series of “splash” paintings in which loose, glossy color can suggest high-speed motion, oil on water or the blinding arc of a welder’s torch. His collaborative work with Kenji Nakayama (above) highlights their opposing fondness for chaos and order. That they resolve their differences to seamless effect is a tribute to their talent as artists and closeness as friends.

Defrost will run from April 8 through May 13, 2011.  An artist reception and talk will also be held on Thursday, April 21 from 7-9 pm.

Learn more at http://13forest.com/