Previous Exhibitions

Urban Edge

January 10, 2024 - February 24, 2024

An exhibit of new work by Steve Kromer and Duane Lucia.

Urban Edge is a collection of paintings, mixed media sculptures, and photographs of graffiti through which the two artists conjure up thoughts and feelings about vandalism, superstition, street beat, death, surrealism, and neighborhood resistance to change. Kromer’s photographs portray the beauty, vulgarity, and rawness not concerned with the comfort zone of others, roadside attractions that don’t need to be intellectualized.

 Lucia’s paintings and totem sculptures tell of a 45-year journey: a degenerated photobooth selfie, an assemblage of discarded objects, furniture in the trash, cans, driftwood from the Fort Point Channel, and more.

 Steve Kromer is a member of the 249 A St. Cooperative. His work “Party of Three” was presented at the 40th anniversary group exhibition at Atlantic Wharf Gallery this past spring. He is a singer, songwriter, and harmonica player. “Music has to have an edginess and irreverence to move me. I think that explains the attraction to street or graffiti art,” says Kromer, “Call it self-expression or illegal eye floaters, graffiti and street art are part of the urban backdrop in cities and towns everywhere; it’s got a good beat.” Steve resides with fellow artist Caroline Muir at Fort Point.

 Duane Lucia is a Boston artist, curator, and documentary filmmaker working in Fort Point. He is the co-founder of Gallery East, which since 1979 has been a platform for Boston’s avant-garde. “I like to take found objects that speak to me and work them into my mixed media sculptures and paintings; sometimes the found objects themselves are combined as poetic ready-mades.” says Lucia, “I don’t like to talk about the narrative or meaning of my work, I’ll leave that for the viewer and critics; I do love talking about the process and materials because that’s how culture evolves!”

Paper Clips features more than fifty artworks from artists working at the 249 A Street Cooperative. The exhibit offers a diverse range of techniques and subject matter. Drawing, painting, printmaking & photography are some mediums explored in this exhibition. Artworks are original, unframed, and attached to the wall with paper clips (hence the name) and affordably priced under $200.00 to meet your budget. Plus Ornaments & Stocking Stuffers - $25.00 and under.

December 1 - January 6, 2024

Opening Reception: Thursday, December 6,   5-7 pm

Bebe Beard + Steven Muller

Video + Paint

October 19 - November 25, 2023

The Artists of 249 A Street Group Show

in Conjunction with the 2023 Fort Point Open Studios

Sept 18 - Oct 15 / Opening Reception: Thursday Oct 12  6-8

The Women of 249 A Street

Bonnie Mineo, Dorothea VanCamp, Ruth Fields, Lori Hamermesh, Gabrielle Schaffner, Laura Davidson, Caroline Muir, Bebe Beard, Susan Anderson, Anna Win-Leliwa, Mary McCarthy, Lisa Knox, Lenore Tenenblatt, Kristen Milano, Sylvia Stagg-Giuliano, Shirley Veenema, Jane Deutsch, Dorothy Hebden-Heath, Becky Dwyer

July 10 - August 26, 2023
Opening Reception: Thursday July 13, 5:30 - 7pm

Surface and Reflection

Eugene Tsvetov

Dates: May 22 - July 8
Opening Reception: Friday, June 23 from 5-7pm

In "Surface and Reflection," I invite you to embark on a visual journey that explores the interplay between surfaces, reflections, and the human spirit. Through the lens of my camera, I seek to uncover hidden narratives, capturing moments of profound connection between people, objects, and their surrounding environments.

Surfaces have always fascinated me with their inherent ability to convey both physical and metaphorical layers. They serve as gateways to deeper understanding, where textures, patterns, and imperfections tell stories of time, use, and the passage of life. In my photography, I strive to expose the poetry embedded in these surfaces, inviting viewers to contemplate the profound beauty that often goes unnoticed.

Reflections, too, play a pivotal role in my artistic exploration. They act as ethereal mirrors, presenting a distorted reality that both captivates and challenges our perceptions. Through reflections, I aim to capture elusive moments of truth, unveiling unexpected perspectives and evoking a sense of wonder. These glimpses into parallel worlds offer an opportunity to engage with the interconnectedness of our existence.

Flights of Symmetry

Experiments in Recombinant Imagery By Don Eyles

Dates: April 7 - May 20, 2023
Public Reception: Saturday, April 8,  6-8 pm

Clay and Clouds

A two person exhibit: ceramic vessels by Kenny Heyne, and cloud photographs by Jeffrey Heyne

Dates: Feb 23 - April 1
Public Reception: Saturday March 4  5:30-8pm
Other times open by appointment, call Jeffrey Heyne  (617) 216-2805

The Exhibition comes out of conversations around healing and technology between a nephew and his uncle, Kenny Heyne and Jeffrey Heyne. 

Photographic and ceramic sculptural works explore the theme of nature and its connection to the human experience as seen across time and media.

Metaphorically, the gallery space offers an object-based experience of the home's nervous system--the living room. Custom wood TV trays serve as sculpture pedestals while the photos are a stand-in for televisions.

Coming out of the recent Covid lockdown and the experience ten years ago of the Boston Marathon Bombing shelter-in-place orders, we have a greater awareness of our spaces as well as a greater sense of our own mortality. That sense of finitude has an echo in the artwork as it beams, cracks, and spurts. The works offer a way to explore how we mend and repair one's body, relationships with each other, and hopefully, society at large.

Paintings, Prints & Process:

An exhibition of work by J.S. Dykes

Including large paintings, a collection of prints & select examples of process, including preliminary drawings, color sketches, references, & inspiration.

Exhibition runs thru February 17, 2023
Gallery open by appointment
For more info please email: info@jsdykes.com 
or visit www.jsdykes.com/paintings
Instagram @JohnSDykes

Paper Clips

A Small Works Holiday Exhibit

Featuring (mostly) Works on Paper - All Priced Under $200.00
DATES: November 20th – December 31st, 2022
PAPERCLIPS OPENING: Sunday, December 11th from 3:00-5:00pm
249 COOP MINI HOLIDAY OPEN STUDIOS: Sunday, December 11th from 12:00-5:00pm
FREE Parking Sunday's on “City of Boston” street meters!

Paper Clips features more than fifty artworks from artists working at the 249 A Street Cooperative. The exhibit offers a diverse range of techniques and subject matter. Drawing, painting, printmaking & photography are some of the mediums explored in this exhibition. Artworks are original, unframed and attached to the wall with paper clips (hence the name) and affordably priced under $200.00 to meet your budget. Plus Ornaments & Stocking Stuffers - $25.00 and under

249 COOP MINI HOLIDAY OPEN STUDIOS:
Sunday, December 11th from 12:00-5:00pm

3rd Floor:  
Gabrielle Schaffner, pottery
Laura Davidson, mixed media
Martin Berinstein, photography 
Frank Berinstein, woodworking                       

4th Floor:    
Susan Anderson, paintings

5th Floor:       
Linda Huey, pottery 
John Dykes, paintings

(Linda Huey Pottery and the Paperclips show will also be open on Saturday)

The Artists of 249 A

A group show in conjunction with Fort Point Open Studios

September 16 - October 21
Reception: Thursday October 13, 5-7pm

Acute Angle 

Paintings by Kseniya Galper 

August 1 — September 4
Reception Friday August 12, 5-8pm

For me it's all about the hidden geometry, the kaleidoscope of shapes that make up human form. I'm infinitely fascinated by painting people, trying to capture subtle facial expressions, nuances of body language. When working on a new painting I carefully observe, I measure, I plan, I obsess over every line, I inevitably overthink and possibly give up... but sometimes... I return and the puzzle comes together.

This show is a compilation of works, primarily oil paintings, that came together in the last four years.
-Kseniya Galper 

Wavelength

Work by Nancy Grice & Lisa Knox

June 19 – July 22, 2022

Reception: Sunday, June 26, 3-6pm

One artist paints waves, the other explores geometric abstraction. Lisa Knox and Nancy Grice have inspired and supported each other’s art practice for over 50 years of friendship. Wavelength refers to the connection between two artists, as well as their subject matter. Despite stylistic and geographic differences, they have developed in parallel and shared understanding over the years. This show represents the latest chapter in their evolution as painters and friends.

RECENT/PAST

Martin Berinstein, Don Eyles, Bruce Rogovin

April 20 - June 3, 2022

Opening reception April 20th 6pm to 8pm

“Half a lifetime ago we found here an oasis from our wanderings — and a machine for our creativity. Here is work that brackets our years at 249. We don't know what it means either.”

Gallery at 249 A Street

249 A Street Cooperative, #14, Boston MA 02210

PAPER CLIPS

A Small Works Holiday Exhibit

Featuring (mostly) Works on Paper - All Priced Under $200.00

November 27th – December 31st, 2021

Opening Reception Thursday, December 2nd from 5:00-7:00pm

Paper Clips features more than fifty artworks from artists working at the 249 A Street Cooperative. The exhibit offers a diverse range of techniques and subject matter. Drawing, painting, printmaking & photography are some of the mediums explored in this exhibition. 

Artworks are original, unframed and attached to the wall with paper clips (hence the name) and affordably priced under $200.00 to meet your budget.

Plus Ornaments & Stocking Stuffers - $25.00 and under

Dorothy A. Hebden Heath: Trees

October 25 - November 20

Reception October 30, 6-8pm

View the show by appointment. To schedule a visit, contact dandmheath@mac.com or call 617-423-6450 or 617-930-2239

Free and open to the public. Masks are required in the public spaces at 249 A Street

The Artists of 249 A

A group show in conjunction with Fort Point Open Studios

September 20 - October 20, 2021

 Reception: Thursday September 30 at 5 to 7 pm

The reception is free and open to the public. Masks are required in the public spaces and gallery in 249 A Street.

The 249 A Street Cooperative's  annual group show features works by members of the cooperative in the spirit of Fort Point’s long standing Open Studios. The show includes painting, drawing, photography, prints, ceramics, mixed media, and sculpture. 

Please note that traditional Open Studios events at 249 A Street are currently on hold due to COVID. You can find information about FPAC’s online and alternative Open Studios events at www.fortpointos.org

Works by J. S. Dykes

September 9-14, 2021 (and by appointment - flexible)

Reception September 11, 2021, 5:00-8pm

Free and open to the public

This is a short-run exhibit of new paintings inspired by mid-century advertising - including an open studio Friday thru Monday (9/10-9/12) showing additional work.

Email info@jsdykes.com for PDF catalog or to schedule an appointment.

Rule of Thirds: An Experiment in Sequential Collaboration

Rocco Giuliano and Sylvia Stagg-Giuliano

August 3 - September 3, 2021

Opening Reception Saturday August 14, 5-7pm

The experiment: Visual artist and photographer Sylvia presents husband Rocco, a writer, with dozens of gritty urban street photos and asks him to write an haiku inspired by each one. This seems to Rocco like a bizarre idea, as an haiku is not usually associated with, say, a photo of Hoboken motorcycle cops. In fact, it seems downright perverse to force two radically different forms of expression to share a single sheet of photographic paper. 

But, having learned that resistance is futile, Rocco goes along with this experiment in sequential collaboration. It is our hope that the viewer, whom we presume to be a seeker of coherence if not truth, will, in conjuring meaning from the juxtaposition of image and verse, join our experiment as a third collaborator. 

 Private viewings may be arranged upon request. To visit the gallery by appointment: sylviastagg@gmail.com or 781-395-4036

Family Ties 

June 15 - July 25  

Vanessa Varjian, Dan Osterman, Bebe Beard

Opening reception: Saturday June 19 from 5 to 7pm

Living in an artists’ building in Fort Point brings opportunities to share our ideas and artwork easily. Dan and I have had that easy exchange with Vanessa Varjian, too, because she is our niece. It has been our delight to watch her work evolve so fruitfully. Especially, when she was a student at MassArt for her last year, she lived at #52 with Dan and Bebe. 

Vanessa Varjian and Dan Osterman are painters inspired by the observation of the outdoors. While keen observers, both enjoy pushing paint on board or paper into more poetic realms. Bebe Beard’s work takes on a fantasy of organic shapes that celebrate or seem held down by man’s refuse.

As we all move beyond the Covid-19 pandemic and venture out I hope visitors to Gallery 14 will be inspired by our natural world as we are. 

Please call or text me at 617-416-7827 to arrange a time to visit Gallery 14.

Bebe Beard

Lenore Tenenblatt

TABLE TOP SCULPTURE

April 27 – June 9, 2021

“Table Top Sculpture is a collection of “smalls” spread out on tables. “Smalls” are held in a hand or two and originally refer to objects bought from an auction. These sculptures are best seen close up perhaps seated on a convenient chair at table height. But milling around works. They are an ingenuity of assembled objects.

Before the pandemic of 2020, I gathered material-on-hand from visits to collectible markets a la Brimfield, yard sales, or an occasional dumpster dive.  Some came from the kindness of friends and other collectors of eccentric objects. During the isolation, I cleared out my studio shelves making unique takes from objects I had looked at for years. I often combined these with gemstones such as turquoise for beauty against oddness, deteriorated surface or interrupted meaning.  

 Wall sculpture in a 12”x12” format from this same period is also hung together with a few older pieces that resonate with the new work.”

-Lenore Tenenblatt

Lenore Tenenblatt Studio 249 A Street, Boston MA 02210 617-513-5718

POD

MARCH 2020 / MARCH 2021

on view March 6 through April 22,  2021 

STEVEN MULLER

ROBERT SIEGELMAN

MARK YOUNKLE

“In March 2020, the three of us had a conversation about staying safe during the foreseeable upcoming pandemic.

We left the city for New Hampshire at the end of June and spent over 100 days working in our adopted studios, with the materials at hand and the countryside impacting our work and our visions.

This is the culmination of our summer quarantine.”

Work Courtesy of the Artists. 

Prices upon request. 

For more information contact Steven 617.429.0041

Read the review on Boston Hassle: here

Jeffrey Heyne

on view Jan 14-Feb 27, 2021

Unnatural: FoPo, SoBo, SeaPo

Jeffrey Heyne was launched three years after Sputnik, bought his first camera when eight, practices architecture sometime, and imagines photographic stories all the time. His various bodies of work are a dialectic search for a narrative based on subtextual readings of disparate images and concepts. His subject matter has ranged from Barbie, to Muybridge, to Renaissance paintings, to industrial architecture, and to outer space.

With his Unnatural Series, he finds inspiration by the strange and accidental colors resulting from his failed attempts at processing Ektachrome slide film in his parent’s basement back during the Nixon-Ford administrations. His latest Boston waterfront photographs are saturated with these unnatural colors taking on an environmental implication. Colors can be seen as pretty and mood evoking, but often the chemical nature that makes them beautiful can be harmful, toxic, or even carcinogenic. Be aware out there...

The show can be viewed through the sidewalk level windows, best in the evening. Gallery visits may be arranged by contacting Jeffrey Heyne directly at unit35jph(at)gmail.com

PAPER CLIPS II

A Holiday Exhibit of (mostly) Works on Paper

Paper Clips will feature more than fifty artworks from members of the 249 A Street Artists Cooperative. All artworks are original, no larger than 11 x 14 and affordably priced under $200.

December 11 2020 – January 11, 2021



Pop-Culture and Advertising: 1960 Meets 2020

new work by J.S. Dykes

Featuring twenty new paintings inspired by mid-century products, packaging, design, fashion and culture

March 1 thru May 6, 2020

Reception: due to COVID-19 we have put the reception on hold. We will reschedule once it is possible.

Gallery hours: by appointment, email John at john@jsdykes.com to schedule a visit.

John S. Dykes is an artist and illustrator living and working at the 249 A Street Artist’s Cooperative since 2018. He creates assignment illustrations for a wide and diverse range of clients, earning recognition from The Society of Illustrators, Communication Arts, American Illustration, 3x3 Illustration Annual, Print Magazine, How Magazine, Step By Step Graphics, and The Society of Illustrators of Los Angeles (gold and silver medals), as well as the Luerzer's Archive 200 Best Illustrators Worldwide. 

John’s recent paintings are inspired by a long interest in a 1960s advertising mindset. Since moving to 249 A Street, he now has the space to work at a larger scale, while working multiple paintings concurrently.

John has taught illustration at Rhode Island School of Design and New Hampshire Institute of Art. His work is part of the permanent collection of The New Britain Museum of American Art, as well as in many private collections.

Read more about John S. Dykes at: www.jsdykes.com

Abstractions

Works by Paola Savarino, Duane Lucia and Tony Savarino

January 15 through February 21, 2020

Gallery hours by appointment at 617-416-0718.

Reception: Friday, January 17, from 6 to 8 p.m

Special musical performance by the Savtones: Saturday, February 1 from 5 to 7p.m.

Refreshments will be served. The exhibit, reception and performance are FREE. and open to the public

Abstractions is co-curated by Duane Lucia and Tony Savarino, and features 30 photographs and mixed media drawings. The photographs document a year-long collaboration between Lucia and Savarino which captures the convergence and divergence of planes of movement through multiple exposure imagery. Paola Savarino’s drawings, discovered two years after her death, trace a progression of what begin as still life drawings of sunflowers, into what she termed Sunflower Sutras.

“Duane and I had practiced martial arts together for a number of years and wanted to document it for a painting and sculpture project we were working on,” said Savarino, “Along the way, we discovered a multi exposure setting in the camera and just went with it!”

Lucia has practiced and taught traditional martial arts since 1972; he has changed the nuance enough to consider it a new style, and subsequently has passed the art-form on to future generations. With four albums and too many studio sessions to keep track of, Tony Savarino is an accomplished guitarist and teacher; mostly known as band leader of the Savtones. Both Lucia and Savarino see art as a continuum with license to change medium at will. Lucia is as comfortable working in mixed media or film as he is doing his martial arts, while Savarino can be found with his Leica camera often photographing his audience, students or bandmates.

“After Paola passed away, I took over her studio and started to catalog her work, which included her sketchbooks,” said Lucia, “I found a series of drawings which start out as recognizable sunflowers and progressively morph into her stylized abstract images. When we discovered the larger corresponding mixed media drawings rolled up in a box, our immediate thought was to exhibit them.”

Early in Savarino’s career, she illustrated Charles Bukowski’s poem, “The Genius of the Crowd.” In the 1980s, she became known for her large abstract canvases and more recently her encaustic mixed media Buddhas. She received numerous awards over the course of her career, including a Museum of Fine Arts Fifth Year Grant and an endowment from the WBZ-TV Fund for the Arts to create one of the first large arts projects—a billboard painting—in Fort Point. Her paintings are part of the permanent collection at The Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University.

The show is sponsored by 249 A Street Artists Cooperative, Gallery East and the South Boston Community Development Foundation,

PAPER CLIPS

A Holiday Exhibit of (mostly) Works on Paper

Paper Clips will feature more than fifty artworks from members of the 249 A Street Artists Cooperative. All artworks are original, no larger than 11 x 14 and affordably priced under $200.

December 4 – January 10
Opening: December 11 from 5:30 – 8:30 pm, during the Fort Point Holiday Stroll

and during the 249 A Holiday Sale Saturday December 14th: noon-5pm

LOCATION AND HOURS
The Gallery at 249 A, 249 A Street, Boston MA 02210
in the Fort Point neighborhood of South Boston
Gallery Hours: by appointment

also open: during the Fort Point Holiday Stroll Wednesday 12/11 5:30-8:30pm

during the 249 A Street Holiday Sale Saturday 12/14 noon-5pm


The Gallery at 249 A Street is supported by a grant from the
South Boston Community Development Foundation

DOMINGO BARRERES: CEREMONIAL GOLD

OCTOBER 23 - NOVEMBER 29, 2019

new: CLOSING RECEPTION NOVEMBER 29th 5 - 8PM

OPENING RECEPTION NOVEMBER 2ND 5 - 8PM

Artist’s statement:

 Gold, element atomic number79, is a heavy element forged in and spewed off by the immensely powerful explosion of a neutron star, a supernova.

Gold, element symbol Au, around the world and through the millennia, symbolizes privilege and power, divine light, truth, clarity – the omnibus of omnipotence. The opulence of its mere presence lends metaphysical sublimity to any image or event, no matter how fictional these may be. It is fascinating how the awe-prone people of the Earth have interpreted the unknown/unknowable with such resourceful and powerful imagination.

Metaphor, the great human invention thus emerged - and has become my chosen tool to energize conceptually the formal arrangements of my work

My early influences are the Spanish ecclesiastical baroque art, New York School painters Jackson Pollok and Willem DeKooning; later inspiration came from the installations of Judy Pfaff and Sarah Sze, and contemporary physics.

 A lot has been written about the uncanny complexity encroaching between metaphysics and objective reality, aware, as we must be, that it is impossible for us to escape all the cultural biases of our inherited believe systems.

In this group of paintings I playfully correlate both the theatrical bling of gold in ceremonial ritual dynamics and the interactive granular dust of cosmic waving fields with the apparent perceptual economy exemplified by self-organizing biological or geometrical structures.

I deliberately sidestep most traditional art materials and processes in favor of household materials and industrial glues, spray paints and epoxy resin that I work on a printed fist layer that I have developed in Photoshop.

Considering the unavoidable ‘artbitrary’ nature of pricing paintings, I decided to base my process on some appropriate symbolic math: I am taking 249, our street address, and multiplying it by 5 (that is by the four corners of a painting and its center field). That comes out to 1,245.00. So it is $1,245.00 for the larger paintings, half of that ($622.50) for the medium range, $124.45 for the smaller ones and $12.45 for the small works without corners.

Note: these prices valid through the duration of the show.

-DOMINGO BARRERES

The Artists of 249 A

A group show in conjunction with Fort Point Open Studios

September 18 - October 20, 2019

 Reception: Wednesday October 2nd, 5-7pm

The 249 A Street Cooperative's  annual group show features works by members of the cooperative and the artists who will exhibit with us during Fort Point Open Studios. 

The show includes painting, drawing, photography, prints, ceramics, mixed media, and sculpture. 

Martin Berinstein

Interstice

July 31 -  September 12 

Reception and artist’s talk: Thursday September 5

interstice noun

in·​ter·​stice | \ in-ˈtər-stəs

plural interstices\ in- ˈtər- stə- ˌsēz

Definition of interstice

a

: a space that intervenes between things

especially : one between closely spaced things

interstices of a wall

b

: a short space of time between events

Chasing The Light
paintings by Eva Matysek-Konieczna and Anna Leliwa

June 17 - July 26

Reception Thursday June 20, 5-7pm

About the artists:

Anna Leliwa - painter, illustrator,  since 2007 member of Fort Point Art Community.  Anna graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw with M.A. from the Department of Fine Art Restoration. Her classical training in drawing and painting based on coping the masters in the museums reflect old school tradition and personal journey to define  herself as an artist. Anna works with different media: from watercolor, to egg-tempera, oils or acrylics. Technical skills allow her to work in different styles and switch easily scale of paintings - from miniatures to big murals f.e. in Heartland Robotics in Fort Point or Our Lady of Czestochowa Church by Andrew Square in Boston. Anna shows her paintings in Europe (Poland, Switzerland) and United States. She also published several books with illustrations for children in Poland, United States, Great Britain and New Zealand.

Ewa Matysek Mazur, née Konieczna was born in Warsaw, Poland. She holds an M.A. degree with honors from the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw where she studied art conservation and painting. She permanently resides in Los Angeles where she has established a reputation as an accomplished artist and a leading conservator of fine art. Her studies and background in the conservation field have enabled her to acquire an intimate knowledge of the works of art of the world’s great masters. She has learned and perfected a wide variety of techniques and technologies of painting used by renowned artists of different epochs. This has given her a solid foundation for creating her own art. Ewa’s interest in painting was already apparent during her student days in which many of her canvases were shown at exhibits highlighting the work of outstanding students. As time passed, her artistic energy and continuing interest in painting studies brought her recognition as a gifted artist, evidenced by her numerous awards and exhibitions. Two years later, in 1998, a portrait and a landscape brought Ewa awards at the same Gold Medal Exhibition, a prestigious event for the artistic community of the United States, organized by the California Art Club and held in the Luckman Fine Arts Complex of the California State University at Los Angeles.

In the fall of 1999 Ewa’s paintings were featured in a one-man show in the Artemis Gallery in Kracow, Poland and received favorable reviews in the Polish press. Ewa’s oeuvre and talent have also been recognized by the American media. She has been interviewed by the press, radio and television and various commentaries have appeared describing her life and work. Current editions of the National Registry of Who’s Who and the Cambridge Who’s Who describe Ewa’s achievements as exceptional. Her paintings show artfully arranged ceramics, silverware, flowers, fruit, and light temperature. She revitalizes the renaissance period of art quality and fine art techniques that have been forgotten by contemporary artists. After a period of intensive work, in 2008 Ewa’s newest paintings were featured in an exhibition by the Mazowieckie Museum in Płock, Poland also known as Muzeum Secesji [Museum of Art Nouveau].

Domingo-Martin Barreres

Baroque Pop

March 27 - June 7

Reception March 29 6-8pm

Artist’s statement:

BAROQUE POP is a series of Popular Culture Icons, which, at some point in my life, had an impact in shaping my psyche and, on some level, how I view the world and my place in it.

Some of these pieces are meant to pay tribute to the particular artists depicted while others are more politically motivated in their composition. All imagery is drawn from the catalog of memories that is my past, which informs my present.

While I hesitate to classify my work as Idolatry, these figures have taken on larger than life personas within the sphere of mainstream influence, and, more specifically, my personal development.

My work is an attempt to amalgamate traditional manipulation with experimental innovation, fusing archival pigment and encaustic techniques with computer generated imagery and cutting edge laser technology.

-Domingo-Martin Barreres

The Gallery at 249 A presents two shows:

Lenore Tenenblatt

CURIOUS

Deteriorated wood and vintage objects

Raggedy oblongs of deteriorated, found wood are joined into sculpture.  Assemblage contains ageless, recognizable bits and pieces of past time-- maybe part of our own past, maybe not. The stories here are non-linear but surface and color keep a gaze moving back and forth throughout each piece. The mono prints are marked in rhythm to the three-dimensional sculptural work.  

and

Caroline Muir

FLIGHT OF FANCY

photographs of natural subjects

February 20 – March 22, 2019 

Reception Wednesday March 13, 2019, 6-8 pm

Bebe Beard

The Memory of Water

January 10- February 15, 2019

Reception Thursday February 14, 2019 6-8pm

The Memory of Water

In my generation, we grew up thinking the ocean was the ultimate. Water was limitless in its ability to absorb, infinite in its ability to support life. How childish this seems now. Through video projection, sculpture, installation, sound and now with these reliefs and collages began in 2017, I am trying to create art meant to help us feel and think twice.

The list of natural disasters affecting water is sobering. All the gallons of oil, all the heavy metals. Reconciling the feelings these events produce in me with my direct experience of the beautiful places I have been a struggle. This work expresses my sorrow for the water. It is the voice I would give the water if it could communicate the distress.

The choice of materials, colors, and shapes combine with energy that transforms. I hope the art helps us remember the facts and perhaps change our behaviors.

-Bebe Beard January 2019

The Year of the Bird

Celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act

November 20 – January 4, 2019

Opening Reception: Thursday, November 29, 5:30 – 7:30 pm

Special events: The gallery will be participating in the 249 A Street Holiday Arts Sale on December 8 from

11am to 5pm. The gallery is also open by appointment.

The Year of the Bird, a group show of painting, drawing, photography, book art, ceramics, and installation art, curated by Bonnie Mineo.

Four billion birds will fly over North America this fall.

This Act has been protecting migrating birds on their journey.

Participating Artists:

Laura Davidson , Michele Gutlove, Pat King, Lisa Knox,

Mary McCarthy, Bonnie Mineo, Gabrielle Schaffner, Anne Sargent Walker 

The show also includes Birds on a Wire, an installation of unframed birds created by artists of

the 249 A Street Cooperative, their children, and grandchildren.

The Artists of 249 A Street

our annual group show

October 6 - November 16, 2018

Reception on Thursday November 8th 2018, 5-7pm



Ephemeral Permanence Valda Zalkalns                    

Ephemeral Permanence Valda Zalkalns

A retrospective of her life and art

Opening receptions:  Saturday September 8th, 2-9pm and Sunday September 9th, 2-5pm

Valda Zalkalns (1940--2017)was a founding member of the 249 A street cooperative. In early life she and her family were Latvian refugees from the Soviet army, living in DP camps for eight years. She was an active artist for fifty years after her graduation from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, working in watercolors, commercial art, handmade ceramic tiles, earth art, photography, and mono prints. This retrospective includes work from each of phase of her artistic life.

Open by appointment. Please call Richard Sampson 617-332-9966 to schedule a visit.

Botanical Erotica

Featuring works by:

Susan Anderson                                                                                                                                                        Domingo Barrares
Domingo Martin Barrares
Tony Savarino
Becky Dwyer
Lisa Knox
Kirk McNeil
Ruth Fields
Bonnie Mineo

on view through August 18, 2018

George Vasquez

FORT POINT: Where art and history live

May 16 - June 22, 2018

Closing reception June 21,  5:30-7:30pm

After his exhibit, Transformation in the Seaport , George Vasquez follows with a new exhibit of photographs of the neighboring Fort Point, its buildings, artists and their studios.

Open by appointment. To schedule a visit, contact George at georgevqz(at)gmail.com

See more of George Vasquez' work on his website here

George Vasquez

Windows and Mirrors: Transformation in the Seaport

April 3 - May 15 2018

Opening Reception Thursday, April 12 5:30- 8 pm

Photographs of Boston’s Seaport as buildings of steel and glass emerge and merge with sky and water on the edge of Boston Harbor.

Difficult Women

Difficult Women presents the work of eight artists considering the question “What does it mean to be labeled “difficult?” -–a question particularly apt as contemporary women speak out about social, cultural, and political concerns. Through a variety of media, ranging from an animation based on the celebrity Cher, to a drawing of suffragists dedicated to gaining women the vote, the artists present work about women chafing at traditional roles or re-defining them, often taking risks or facing obstacles in the process. Artists included in the show: 

Laura Davidson, Joanne Kaliontzis, Lisa Knox, Amy MacDonald   

Mary McCarthy, Maria Molteni , Shirley Veenema, Denise Wallace-Spriggs

The Gallery at 249 A 
Exhibit: February 22 through March 30, 2018
Reception: Thursday, March 1, 5:30 – 8:00pm
Millinery Demo: Denise Wallace-Spriggs, March 10, 3:00- 4:00pm
Gallery Hours: Saturdays, 2:00-5:00pm and by appointment. 
Hours may vary. 
Contact fortpointstudio@gmail.com for additional info.

Bebe Beard: Code · From Under

January 15 - February 17, 2018

Reception: Thursday, February 1st, 5-7 pm

viewing hours: dusk to dawn

and by appointment with the artist. Call or text 617· 416 ·7827

Artist's statement:

In my generation, we grew up thinking the ocean was the ultimate. Water was limitless in its ability to absorb, infinite in its ability to support life. How childish this seems now. Through video projection and sound I am trying to give water a voice. In this exhibit, using point-of-view literally, I create art meant to help us feel and think twice.

For nearly twenty years I've been playing with projecting video on anything but a screen or flat surface. I love the surprises that happen when you do this. I love how ‘reality' can be bent. In Code Laboratory, I'll use three to five projectors and wireless speakers to experiment with video and sound sequences and various surfaces and shapes. A generous grant from the Berkshire Taconic makes access to this gear possible.

Artistic Influences:
My video art is rooted in the history of film montage and the early users of video as an art form. The most significant influence has been my exposure to Jed Speare and Walter Wright and the machines that were at Experimental Television Center in Binghamton, New York. The post-production layering of images and sound allows me to create a basis for the poetry I seek to make in my art. Along with video experiments of the late 60's and early 70's another huge influence on my work was collaborating with the composer and my friend the late Lou Cohen. A student of John Cage, Lou and I developed a shorthand way of creating music for my video that focused on structure. I am deeply indebted to his generosity.

Also, around the late 00's I volunteered to be a crew member on the last Gloucester fishing schooner to come down the Essex River. Being on deck began a fascination with the materials used in sailing. While researching, I came upon signal flag code and its meanings. Besides being carried on most international sailing vessels, signal flag code has been the basis for poetry by Hannah Weiner and Anne-Marie Oomen.

-Bebe Beard

Jean Cain: Boston and Beyond

November 15 - December 31, 2017

Opening Reception Wednesday November 15th 6-8p

" I endeavor to create paintings that transcend the boundaries of place.

For almost forty years I have been fascinated by the urban landscape--the ever changing scene: the tension between old and new, the elements of abstraction in the everyday scene. I walk into the city every day and a view I have repeatedly seen suddenly becomes compelling.

The process of painting is as important as the subject matter. I work with oil stick, oil paint, and dry pastel on rag paper. I have recently begun to work with oil on canvas."

-Jean S. Cain, 2017

The Gallery at 249 A presents:

The Artists of 249 A Street

a group show in conjunction with Fort Point Open Studios

October 6 - November 10, 2017

Reception: Thursday November 2, 5:30-7:30p

Bejeweled

a tribute to artist Paola Savarino

August 17--September 30, 2017

Gallery at 249 A Street  presents Bejeweled, a new exhibit of works by Paola Savarino, to honor her memory and legacy not only as a creative force, but also as an accomplished advocate for affordable live/work space for artists in the City of Boston. Sponsored by 249 A Street Artists Cooperative, Gallery East and the South Boston Community Development Foundation, the exhibit runs from Thursday, August 17 through Saturday, September 30. Gallery hours are by appointment at 617-416-0718. The show reception takes place on Friday, September 8, from 6 to 8 p.m. and is open to the public. Refreshments will be served. The exhibit and reception are FREE.

Bejeweled is co-curated by Duane Lucia and Tony Savarino, Paola’s son, and features 25 paintings never before shown. They are works in acrylic, oil and mixed media, including glass beads and coins. The pieces portray highly-textured, colorful and poetic images that dance on the canvas and energize the viewers’ senses.

“As a visual artist, much of Paola Savarino’s experience translates into visual expressions,” said Lucia. “Color, energy, symbols and surfaces are her means of exploring and understanding the world.”

Early in Savarino’s career, she illustrated Charles Bukowski’s poem, “The Genius of the Crowd.” In the 1980s, she became known for her large abstract canvases and, more recently, her encaustic mixed media Buddhas. She received numerous awards over the course of her career, including a Museum of Fine Arts Fifth Year Grant and an endowment from the WBZ-TV Fund for the Arts to create one of the first large arts projects—a billboard painting—in Fort Point. Her paintings are part of the permanent collection at The Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University.

Born in Cleveland, Savarino moved to Boston in 1970 to attend the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, where she would later go on to teach painting. As Boston’s Fort Point area—with its abandoned warehouses—became a destination for artists in the late 1970s, Savarino and others began working and living in the huge loft spaces despite the buildings being commercially zoned. They feared being caught, every knock on the door inducing panic and a scramble to hide signs of residence. That was no way to live.

In 1980, Savarino helped found Fort Point Arts Community (FPAC), which set on a course to find, re-zone, purchase and renovate buildings in which artists could afford to work and reside legally. The organization’s first success was the 249 A Street Artists Cooperative, where Savarino and her son took up residence along with 44 other artists. FPAC has since gone on to develop The Artist Building at 300 Summer Street and play an important role in establishing Midway Studios. Today, more than 300 artists live and work in Fort Point, and FPAC has become a model for artists’ organizations nationwide.

Paola Savarino passed away on March 8, 2017. Her son, Tony, said, “Paola treated everything and everyone she came in contact with like a rare and precious jewel.” It’s clear that her spirit, talent and kindness live on with her family, friends and the Boston artist community.

FLOW

The Work of Lisa Knox and Kirk McNeil

July 6 through August 15, 2017

Reception: Thursday, July 20, 5:30 – 8:00 pm

“Flow” is a meditation on the sea with its ceaseless tides, waves, wind and weather. It is also a tribute to the complex intermixing of ideas and experiences between two artists who have been married for many years. The open-ended question presents itself; how do ideas “flow” from one person to the other and how is the vision of one artist influenced by the observations and opinions of the other? Within this framework the exhibit becomes an opportunity to examine the changing nature of two elemental forces in perpetual flux: the ocean and love.

Kirk and Lisa have shared a studio in the 249 A Street Artists Cooperative in Boston for over 20 years. Their free time is spent wandering the shores of New England in a 1963 Ford Ranchero in search of inspiration and subject matter for their work.

Kirk McNeil

In his current work Kirk is searching for small, quiet events on and near the water.  Waiting for the moment when the effects of light, wind and tide coalesce, transforming the way we perceive the natural world. The images are created using old favorite lenses with a digital acquisition format.  The goal is to make a piece of digital art without heavy digital influence.   

Lisa’s Knox

Lisa’s paintings are inspired by the mesmeric quality of wave-forms. Each painting is like a window looking out to the sea where the viewer can channel their mind. Gestural line, grids and broad planes of color emerge and dissolve echoing the ever-changing nature of the sea. By layering seemingly disparate elements Knox suggests that the deeper mysteries lay submerged beneath the oceans surface, where the underlying forces and patterns aren’t immediately apparent.

About the artists

Lisa Knox lives and works in Boston’s Fort Point neighborhood. Her work has been exhibited throughout America and internationally. Knox has shown in numerous art fairs, with the ISE Cultural Center in New York and the Wills Gallery in London. Her work can be found in American and international private collections.

Kirk McNeil worked for many years as a television photojournalist and editor.  He has earned an Emmy Award along with awards from the National Press Photographers Association.  His video and still photography have been exhibited throughout the greater Boston area. 

Men, the invitational

group show curated by Steven Muller
featuring works by:
Domingo Barreres,  Steven Muller, Robert Siegelman, George Summers JR,  Mark Younkle
Opening reception Tuesday June 6th

The DNA: Visual Exercises

Martin Berinstein

Sofia Berinstein

April 2 - May 15, 2017

Opening Reception: Friday April 7, 6:15-8:00p 249 A Street Boston, Massachusetts

Winter Landscapes of Northern New England

Over the years, father and daughter have been traveling around Northern New England at the peak of winter, each time viewing the same new landscapes through their own, different perspectives.

This is the selection of images collected over those journeys, visual exercises in the connection between photographer and landscape. In virtue of a constant variable, they show the differences in related eyes.

Martin Berinstein (the father) is a professional photographer who has been practicing for 40 years. His work abstractly depicts the motion of water and color, involving the audience in awe, reflection, and play. He has exhibited widely in the Boston area, including the Boston Convention Center, Northeastern University, as well as internationally. Sofia Berinstein (the daughter) practices photography and philosophy. She has exhibited at Cooper Union, MIT, and in a variety of group exhibitions in New York and Boston. Her work concerns the nature of perspectives representation and the relationship of ideas to objects.

Eli Alperowicz: Politics Life and Death

February 17 - March 27, 2017

Opening Reception Friday March 3, 6:00-8:00p

"In response to the disturbing political campaign which culminated in the election of the current " president “ that remind me more than anything of  the political campaigns of dictators current and past, the images I created in the last two years seems to be all coming together pointing to the direction the Donald is taking the country.

Using paper as preferred surface or cardboard or unframed  canvases was my way of conveying a message not of  beauty, but of concern and alarm." -Eli Alperowicz

STONE and STEEL

photography by Don Eyles

January 5 - February 13

Opening Reception Thursday, January 19, 6:00-8:00p

all photographs above: Don Eyles

see more at doneyles.com

The Colors of Nature: Dorothy Hebden Heath & Caroline Muir

December 1-January 5

Opening reception: Thursday December 15, 6-8p

WE'RE BACK

Marilyn Tarlow & Bill Tarlow

Paintings and Drawings by Marilyn Tarlow and photographs by Bill Tarlow

May 4 - 28, 2016

Opening Reception: Saturday May 7th,  2-4pm

Elaine Buckholtz

The Ruin of Nostalgia ( a day into night light installation )

April 2-28, 2016
Opening Reception: Wednesday April 6, 5:30-7:30

 A visual exploration into the ruptured collisions of memory and the weathering of objects as they are sustained and changed through light, space, and time.
  
"All matter is spent light." Louis Kahn

About the artist
Elaine Buckholtz is an installation artist with a background in lighting design and music. Her work explores the medium of light as both an ephemeral phenomenon and as an intervention to unmask hidden aspects of architectural forms found in urban settings and landscapes. She has most recently shown works at The Lumiere Festival, London, England and Derry Ireland, Souzy Tros, Athens Greece, Back Yard Stories, Batumi, Georgia, Electric Works Gallery, The Luggage Store Gallery in S.F., and Sasha Wolf Gallery in New York. Elaine has also worked with Meredith Monk over the past fifteen years lighting Monk’s work internationally. She is currently a professor at Massachusetts College of Art and Design in the Studio For Interrelated Media.

more about Elaine on her website here

Domingo Barreres: Paintings, Drawings and Prints with Lingering Vibrations from Spain

February 22—March 28, 2016

Opening Reception: Saturday February 27, 6-8p

Artists Talk: Thursday March 10, 6p

“Some (many) say that painting is no longer relevant in the 21st century because it has exhausted all it could do during its long, long history. It is a convincing proposition and they may have a point. But the challenge is so good, so tempting. So at the dawn of the 21st century I thought I would like to try to make paintings that elicit the sense of awe that has been painting’s traditional pedigree.”

-Domingo Barreres

Domingo Barreres is one of the founding members of the 249 A Street Cooperative and one of the pioneering artists who first found studio space in Fort Point. Born in Spain, he came to the US in 1957 and arrived in Boston in 1960 to study at SMFA, where he later taught until his retirement in 2006. Barreres exhibits his work locally and internationally. In Boston, he is represented by Miller/Yezerski Gallery.

“During my youth in Spain in the 1940s and 1950s, I absorbed the culture’s unique mixture of the spiritual and profane. Once living permanently in the USA, my adult analytical disposition was able to appreciate the clashing cultural contrasts made even more poignant by the privilege of distance.

During my late 50s, a visit to southern Spain compelled me to explore certain issues for which I had no form – as yet. And from the early years of this millennium academic figuration would insert a parenthesis within my preferred approach to metaphor through abstraction.

The works in this exhibition fall somewhere in the middle of this exploration using a figurative format and are influenced by another visit to Spain, this time to El Prado Museum in Madrid, home to the enigmatic painting LAS MENINAS by Diego Velazquez, as well as other, innumerable, fascinating visual and intellectual treats.”

Dogs

January 7 - February 19, 2016

Reception: January 21, 5-7pm

That artists love dogs seems obvious. Their poses and behaviors inspire us to take up brush or pencil or camera. Their cheerful openness to new experience sets an example for us to follow, if we can, and behind their eyes we sense a different kind of logic that, as we try to understand it, enlarges our own awareness.

artists:

Dirk Ahlgrim
Jennifer Amadeo-Holl
Domingo Barreres
Bebe Beard
Stephanie Berlo
Nyx Breen
Brian Bresnahan
Leah Davies
Claire Eder
Don Eyles (organizer)
Yetti Frenkel
Kippy Goldfarb
Dorothy Hebden
Lisa Knox
Amy MacDonald
Karen McFeaters
Kirk McNeil
Carla Michel
Dan Osterman
Heather Parker
Bruce Rogovin
Jose Santos
Sylvia Stagg-Giuliano
Lenore Tenenblatt
Nick Thorkelson
Daniel van Ackere

shown above: photographic installation by Don Eyles