Highlights from the Boston Art Book Fair

November 17, 2022 Abigail Ogilvy

Earlier this month we participated in the 2022 Boston Art Book Fair put on by the Boston Center for the Arts. It was an exciting opportunity to explore the galleries, artists, collectives, and creatives in our city. Check out some of our favorite booths we saw:

Boston Art Review

The Boston Art Review brought an assortment of issues to purchase. It was wonderful to see AOG artist Pelle Cass’ work featured at another booth at the Book Fair. Cass’ photograph is featured on the cover of Issue 03: Tracing Movement.

bostonartreview.com
Instagram: @bostonartreview

View of the booth for the Boston Art Review in the Cyclorama at the Boston Center of the Arts.

Praise Shadows Art Gallery

Praise Shadows had a mix of books, posters, and other art objects to check out. We were excited to see one of our new favorite books, Designing Motherhood, out on the booth’s spread. It was a great opportunity of visitors to get a taste for what this growing gallery has to share with the Boston art community.

praiseshadows.com
Instagram: @praiseshadowsart

View of the booth for Praise Shadows Art Gallery in the Cyclorama at the Boston Center of the Arts.

Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston

The ICA Boston had a selection of prints, books, and merchandise to choose from. We loved checking out the current exhibition book, To Begin Again: Artists and Childhood. The work of Barbara Kruger and Dr. Woo were showcased on apparel, as well as prints of Jordan Nassar’s work that is currently on view in the exhibition Jordan Nassar: Fantasy and Truth.

icaboston.org
Instagram: @icaboston

View of the booth for the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston in the Cyclorama at the Boston Center of the Arts.

Adri Tan

It was great getting to chat with Tan about their process and learn more about their work. Tan uses portrait photography to explore identity and authority of self. Digital textile patterns are created by restating the body into repeating patterns in the zine, I Objectify Myself to Subvert Your Gaze. The textile becomes an object, allowing for the portraits of the artist’s East Asian models to reject the stereotypes and to yield autonomy of themselves. In another zine, Fashioning a Sense of Self, Tan's photographs reclaims and explores the identities of women and non-binary people of color by allowing the models to wear what they felt most themselves in. We can’t wait to see what else they will be working on next!

adriannatanphotography.com
Instagram: @atangerinee

View of Adri Tan’s booth in the Cyclorama at the Boston Center of the Arts.

Paige Mehrer at Plum Press

We are delighted by the work of Paige Mehrer of Plum Press. Her whimsical images are enchanting and there mystical blues and purples of her palette drew us in!

paigemehrer.com
Instagram: @paigemehrer

View of Paige Mehrer’s section of the Plum Press booth in the Cyclorama at the Boston Center of the Arts.

Kareem Worrell

We got to have an engaging conversation with photographer Kareem Worrell about his photograph and practice. At his booth he presented the zine, Passenger, which features Polaroids from the passenger seat of a pivotal road trip he took at the beginning of his career. He told me that he had lost the photographs from the trip for over 15 years, but thought of them often. This body of work inspired a new series call Lonely Highway that documents views from the passensger seat once again. His book, Mile Marker, is a part of the ongoing he was selling at the fair. The book showcases seventeen years worth of images that capture the ever-changing landscapes and unique atmosphere that only occurs on the open road.

kareemworrell.com
Instagram: @kareemworrellphoto

View of Kareem Worrell’s booth in the Cyclorama at the Boston Center of the Arts.

We were thrilled to exhibit three of our represented artists: Pelle Cass, Cassandra Jones, and Kristina McComb, alongside these talented creatives in Boston. It was a great opportunity for us to connect with our Boston community in a way we had not done before, and the whole team felt excited and energized by the fair - we are so grateful for all of the amazing visitors we had. Through a collection of prints, books, and small sculptural work, we showcased new and returning work by each artist: prints by all three artists gained excitement while Cass’ and McComb’s newly released books were a hit. The remaining inventory is still available for purchase on the buy now page for the fair.

Gallery intern Lauren Hill and Assistant Director Kaylee Hennessey at the booth

Announcement: Boston Art Book Fair

October 19, 2022 Abigail Ogilvy

Abigail Ogilvy Gallery is pleased to announce our first year of participation in the Boston Art Book Fair. The event is located in the historic Cyclorama of Boston’s South End neighborhood. The fair will showcase local Boston artists, creators, and businesses to connect Boston with the national art community, and facilitate connections between Boston creatives and prospective publishing partners.

Dates: November 4-6, 2022
Friday Eve Ticketed* Preview Party (preview offerings, dance party, film screening, food & drinks): 6pm-9pm
*Tickets are $30 and can be purchased here.
Saturday: 12pm-7pm: Free and open to the public
Sunday: 12pm-5pm: Free and open to the public
More details: https://bostonartbookfair.com/

Pelle Cass, “Thalia Beach Friday No. 2,” 2019, Ink print on heavy matte, 13 x 19 in. (Ed. of 15) 24 x 36 in. (Ed. of 10) 40 x 60 in. (Ed. of 3)

Abigail Ogilvy Gallery is pleased to present three of our represented artists at the Boston Art Book Fair: Pelle Cass (Brookline, MA), Cassandra Jones (Ojai, CA), and Kristina McComb (Gill, MA). We look forward to sharing an array of books, prints, and art objects by each artists. These artists share a special interest in the message produced by the relationships in their images. Along with this common curiosity, Cass, McComb and Jones each bring new life to their medium by combining traditional photography with a contemporary lens.

Pelle Cass constructs his compositions using a large collection of photographs taken from the same angle. He does not manipulate the original photography other than deciding which objects to omit and keep, and each component of the photograph remains in its same location in the overall composition. These choices produce an image conveying a sense of chaos and the passing of time. At the Boston Book Art Fair, Abigail Ogilvy Gallery will be presenting his new book “Pelle Cass” alongside prints from his series, Crowded Fields.

Cassandra Jones, “Lemon Ball,” 2019, Archival Ink Jet on 100% Cellulose, 24 x 20 in

Kristina McComb, “Boston Atheneum 2040,” 2021, Photograph - framed, 9 x 6 in, 36 x 24 in, 42 x 28 in

Cassandra Jones takes a different approach to the idea of repetition by collecting and collaging mostly found photographs into a work that comments directly on contemporary society. Their digital photography tells stories of a prismatic reflection of our self-involved, technology-based, snap-happy contemporary lifestyle. Their work will be available as prints at the Boston Art Book Fair.

Kristina McComb’s work explores the passing of time, similar to Pelle Cass’s images, as well as the relationships created from light, line, and texture. Differing from the work of Jones and Cass, McComb does not alter the objects in her images, simply capturing the existing in a striking composition. Her practice focuses on the intersection of photography and sculpture. At the show, we will be exhibiting her photographs from her ongoing series featuring the Boston Athenæum in addition to her most recent publication “An Archive of Time: A Life Lived in the Boston Athenæum” .

For more information about the Boston Art Book Fair, please click here.

Team Update: Mariana Rey, Gallery Associate

October 9, 2022 Abigail Ogilvy

From Abigail Ogilvy, Owner and Director; and Kaylee Hennessey, Assistant Director:

Mariana Rey, Gallery Associate, Abigail Ogilvy Gallery

The Abigail Ogilvy Gallery team is thrilled to announce the appointment of our newest gallery associate, Mariana Rey. Mariana joined us in early September this year and has proven to be an immediate force in the Boston art scene, and a wonderful addition to our team.

Mariana earned her BFA in Visual Arts from the Pontifical Xavierian University of Colombia in 2022. As a visual artist, she is also interested in curatorial studies that focus on uplifting underrepresented individuals while providing new ways for viewers to interact with art.

In addition to her work at Abigail Ogilvy Gallery, Mariana currently works at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston as a Visitor Assistant, engaging with visitors about the artworks as a member of the Education Department.

In her personal artistic practice, she uses media such as illustration, photography, and animation to explore and address her interests towards the body, gender, and territory, understanding the intimate as a political power.

Having been with us for just over a month now, Mariana has brought an incredible curatorial expertise and consideration to the position, and we are honored to be working together.

Press Release: Clint Baclawski “Departure”

August 20, 2022 Abigail Ogilvy

Clint Baclawski: Departure

September 2 - October 16, 2022
Opening Reception: Friday, September 2 from 6:00 - 8:30 PM

Three years after the presentation of Fringe, Clint Baclawski returns to Abigail Ogilvy Gallery with his second solo exhibition of work - influenced by his travels during the pandemic. In the summer of 2021, Baclawski and his family set off on a cross country road trip, equipped with a large format camera. The resulting imagery works its way into this exhibition in a format that is entirely new for the artist.

Entering the exhibition, you are immediately confronted with awe inspiring imagery of Grand Teton National Park displayed on an impressive scale: divided into 5 sections, the image itself measures 8 feet tall by 25 feet long. This was the feeling Baclawski had when he came upon the staggering landscape in real time. “We were driving in - you round a bend and the image is right there, an iconic viewpoint.” The stunning mountains proved a natural transition from his past bodies of work, all revolving around mirrored imagery. Growing up as an identical twin, Baclawski has always had this concept of mirroring at the forefront of his mind, and it has always found itself central to his work.

Clint Baclawski, *Departure*, 2022. Scrolling lightbox kits, electronic ballasts, Latex prints, 2’ LED bulbs, speaker wires, power cords, Stinger cable power supply, matte black wall. 270" w x 108" h x 4.5” d

This new body of work leans heavily into this concept of likeness, as his chosen image depicts a mountain and its reflection in the clear stillness of a river. But unlike anything Baclawski has presented before, this time, instead of a single static image portrayed through lightbulbs, the image itself moves. The five sections, comprising one image, are divided and presented on a scrolling mechanism that the artist has mounted directly onto the gallery wall. As the image scrolls, it morphs from a seemingly idyllic landscape picture to the negative in an almost apocalyptic red at the end. The scroll waves slightly, mimicking the bend and movement of Snake River, which winds through the National Park for 50 miles.

Baclawski reflects, “what struck me about the rotating image is the reflection and how uniquely, perfectly symmetrical the water reflected the mountains. This has been a thread in my work for 14 years: the mirroring of an image.”

Baclawski’s sublime scene is reminiscent of the art historical greats who have long grappled with the awe and sanctity of the natural world. Just as Thomas Cole imbued his landscapes with moral, spiritual and political meaning, so too does Baclawski’s work explore nature as a conduit for meaning-making and symbolism. Similar to Cole’s resistance to the capitalization of land, Baclawski spins his own connection to advertising photography, which he studied at Rochester Institute of Technology. His ability to capture and disseminate without disrupting the earth, means that he is able to transverse a very specific site and experience across state lines and into our Boston gallery. Baclawski’s work has always explored these elements of advertising, inspired by his days in school when everything was shot on film and critiques took place on lightboxes. It was there that Baclawski fell in love with the backlit image and the sharpness of the large format camera. In this way, Baclawski has become well-known for capturing awe inspiring landscapes.

Clint Baclawski (b. 1981, Lewisburg, Pennsylvania) is a contemporary artist working with photography, technology, light, and space. His solo exhibition locations include San Luis Obispo, California; St. Louis, Missouri; Boston, Massachusetts; Edinburgh, Scotland; and group shows at the Chelsea Art Museum, Danforth Museum, Fort Wayne Museum of Art, San Diego Art Institute, The Jen Bekman Gallery, and the University College Falmouth in England. His work is included in private and institutional collections. Baclawski has been featured in FRAME magazine, The Boston Globe, The Creator’s Project, Boston Home magazine, Designboom, and The Collector’s Guide to New Art Photography Volume II. Clint’s studio is located in Boston’s South End.