Boston's Newbury Street Seen

   There was a lively selection of new exhibitions during a recent tour of openings along Gallery Row of Newbury Street. Actually some shows we visited were nearing the end of their run such as Tabitha Vevers at Audrey Pepper Gallery and Gerry Bergstein at Gallery Naga. But it was a good chance to view these important exhibitions by established artists. Although there were no "openings" as such at these galleries there were events in sync with the first Friday night festivities along the street. Pepper featured a book signing by the collaborators Nicholas Kahn and Richard Selesnick. And Arthur Dion of Gallery Naga was staying open until seven cracking open a couple of fine bottles to share with thirsty visitors.

    Working the street in sequence we started with Howard Yezerski Gallery and a brief look at the new exhibition by John Beech and his "Dumpster Drawings." The artist photographs dumpsters which are then oblitered other than generic outline under layers of drippy monochromatic paint. It is least sincere and edgy work but difficult to relate to.

    At Pepper the artists Kahn and Selesnick were setting up for the reception and book signing of the limited edition of 250 numbered copies with an original photograph and CD as well as the "book" in a nice slip cased box proved to be irresistable. I always buy something from their shows and hope eventually to own one of their gorgeous big prints of ersatz scientific expeditions to the moon, There was a cheaper "trade" version of their book at a quite affordable price. This is their third book.

    At Naga the latest Bergstein show is just terrific as usual although some visitors are commenting that it may be his best work for some time. The paintings of ersatz moon shots, planets and space ships evoked recent work but there were new elements including his first efforts in digital photography, plain and painted over, as well as a large "sculpture" or collaged elements representing the artist's "brain" which is clogged with art historical and contemporary imagery from Guston to deKooning and lots of other stuff. In the early work he often meditated on smoking and junk food but he seems to have evolved from those earlier hang-ups although his brain seems no less cluttered with chaos but now appropriately deconstructed and stuff.

       Later in the evening we came back and hung out with Dion who was most cordial to two students from the Art Institute of Boston one of whom had a terrific eye and a great interest in the work of Reese Inman which Arthur explained meticulously. It was a quite wonderful experience to see a gallerist take such care and interest in communicating with a student. As well as offering them free beer. When they left we chatted about the about to open ICA about which Arthur is Hugely enthusiastic. So far during construction he has visited on three occasions and finds the space quite magnificent. It opens in December.

     The opening at Rotenberg had been the night before but we dropped in to see the work of Donna Rosenthal, who makes dolls and dresses with ironic text, and the drawings or works on paper by Jenkins. The dolls are really nothing new but very well done and impressive.

     Kidder Smith reveals more of its commitment to California Pop. But Tom Smith retorted that this month the Pop paintings of Karen Ganz are from Seattle. Hey you could have fooled me. The work looked too cartooned and corny to hold my attention. By now Pop is just a look that sells and has drifted too far from its original take on America's consumer culture. Smith promises that the next few shows are going to be real tough. We'll see.