Spring brings new beginnings at galleries
Spring is here at Western Avenue Studios this weekend with the opening of a new show at Loading
Dock Gallery and the return of its popular Saturday Outdoor
Art Market.
Representational and abstract art meet to create the dramatic show “Invocation of Place,” on view April 2-25 at LDG at WAS, 122 Western Ave., Lowell.
It features the atmospheric paintings of Priscilla Levesque, a Lowell artist who works at WAS, and Noel Soucy, an artist from York, Maine, whose studio is at Lane House Art Center in Hampton, N.H.
Levesque paints landscapes in the pointillist style pioneered by 19thcentury artist Georges Seurat. Her meticulous technique involves building shapes from small dots of colors, which blend to create new colors and forms.
Soucy, an abstract artist, works in acrylics and alcohol inks, creating organic, energetic works. Swirling forms fill her canvases, inspired by the ebb and flow of nature.
The gallery is open Friday and Sunday, from noon to 4 p.m., and Saturday, from noon to 6 p.m. Visit www.TheLoadingDockGallery.com for info.
From noon to 4 p.m., the popular First Saturday event moves away from the virtual and back to in-person for the first time this year, bringing with it more than 40 artists, the largest contingent since the monthly event started last July.
WAS marketing manager Henry Marte has worked hard to accommodate the artists participating outdoors.
“Our Outdoor Art Markets are a great experience for our artists,” he said. “They have missed seeing people in person and sharing their work over the winter.”
WAS is using its socialmedia feed to highlight participating artists so people can get to know them ahead of the event.
Empanada Dada food truck will be on site for the market. Navigation Brewing will open right
after the market at 4 p.m., with a new closing hour of 10 p.m. And fingers are crossed that the new Tiny Arms Coffee café, located in the Studios building, will be open to the public and serving coffee and tea. Visit http:// www.westernavenuestudios.com for details.
Gallery notes
: COMING SOON TO WAM: Worcester Art Museum opens a new show next week that showcases a family’s determination, perseverance and commitment to art. “What the Nazis Stole from Richard Neumann (and the search to get it back)” is on view April 10-Jan. 16. It features 14 paintings and sculptures from the onceextensive art collection of Dr. Richard Neumann (1879-1959) that he and his family spent over 75 years working to repossess. Neumann, the president of a successful textile company with mills in Austria and Bohemia, was also an art lover and avid collector. Recognized with landmark status in Austria, 28 of the 200plus works were acknowledged as being very important. Neumann’s collection was inventoried in accordance with anti-Jewish laws put in
place by the Nazis, after they annexed Austria in 1938. Neumann and his family fled from Vienna, and later from Paris to Cuba, and the collection was seized and sold. The exhibition presents the extraordinary story of Neumann, his family’s persecution during World War II and the long struggle to reassemble the collection. The small fraction of his collection that his heirs now own is on loan to WAM in recognition of Neumann’s commitment to making his collection accessible to the public. Visit www.worcesterart.org/exhibitions/neumann/ for details.
: SAVE THE DATE: Looking ahead to warm weather, the Lowell Cultural Council announces the first of five Arts Markets at Lucy Larcom Park on Saturday, May 15, noon-5 p.m. Bringing patrons the arts in a safe, fun outdoor setting is the goal, with many artists signed up to participate, and more to come. Masks and social distancing are required. Artists and makers interested in vending at one of the markets are invited to apply at form.jotform.com/ LikeLowell/arts-marketapplication. Those who don’t live or work in Lowell will pay a $25 fee.
: A VIRTUAL ‘BLOOM’: It wouldn’t be spring for many without Art in Bloom at Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. This year’s 45th annual Bloom, a virtual edition, runs Friday, April 30, to Monday, May 3, and pairs art with floral interpretations created by 27 New England-area garden clubs. This year’s festival is themed around artworks that tell the stories of women across the MFA collection, from images of mothers and motherhood throughout the ages to works by great female artists like Mary Cassatt and Helen Frankenthaler. Two tour options are available. Recorded guided tours, led by a team of MFA associate art and floral guides, let online visitors experience Art in Bloom on their schedule during that weekend. Free for members and $10 each for nonmembers. Tickets will be released on April 15 at 10 a.m. Livestreamed private interactive tours, conducted via Zoom for up to 97 participants, provide patrons a chance to convene a group for a one-hour presentation. Private tours are $400, and tickets are on sale at www.mfa.org. An expand
ed Art in Bloom web page on www.mfa.org will feature two free how-to videos by Jimmy Guzman, a local floral and event designer, sharing insight on making floral arrangements at home using material from your local gro
cery store. A three-day digital marketplace will feature curated items from various vendors. For info, visit www.mfa.org.