This week, GBH Executive Arts Editor Jared Bowen discusses a new exhibit dedicated to Moby Dick, at-home chamber concerts and a new immersive exhibit detailing Frida Kahlo's work.
Loomings: Christopher Volpe
On view at the New Bedford Whaling Museum through May 8, 2022
"Loomings" is the name of the first chapter of Moby-Dick, and it's inspired an exhibtion, now on view, at the New Bedford Whaling Museum. It features the paintings of local artist Christopher Volpe, whose works illustrate the parallels between our current oil-driven society and author Herman Melville's vision of a doomed commercial whaling voyage.
"As dark as the tones and the themes may be, it is beautiful work," Bowen says. "You have these tones of brown and black that suggest these dark, ghostly images of ship storm and belching smoke. But he does this all with tar."
Sheffield Chamber Players
Performing both virtually and in person throughout February
The Sheffield Chamber Players were founded on the belief that chamber music should be experienced in the intimate setting that is was written for. Their longstanding mission affects the way audiences respond to the music and each other — and has brought many performances straight to people's living rooms.
"They told me, ... just having people inches away from you, it changes everything," Bowen says. "They were so close that sometimes if a musician drops a piece of music, a piece of their sheet music, an audience member will pick it up and put it back on their music stand. But just to have people collected there knowing that there is this exchange happening, it makes a world of difference."
Immersive Frida Kahlo
On view at Lighthouse ArtSpace Boston through May 8, 2022
Another immersive experience has landed in Boston, featuring works from artist Frida Kahlo, where visitors get enveloped in large-scale projections of her work.
While Bowen had reservations about being — once again — fully immersed after Imagine Van Gogh, he found himself delighted in the latest iteration.
"This is a very different experience here. ... It's a narrative that really takes us into the world of Frida Kahlo, and it starts kind of these daisy gauzy images suggesting what's to come," he says. "And then — boom — we're into Frida Kahlo and the surrealist nature of her work, bringing in the greens, the animals, and then, of course, the dark nature of her work."
