12 art exhibits to explore this fall

Many of Greater Boston’s fall art exhibitions ruminate on current injustices and future triumphs. Jean Shin creates cityscapes of jean cuffs to illuminate issues of textile consumption and Asian stereotypes in “Fabricated Imaginaries: Crafting Art” at the Rose Art Museum. Andrew Gn designs stunning, luxurious garments, finding the beauty in combining Eastern and Western aesthetics at the Peabody Essex Museum. Jimena Sarno unites artists and makers to imagine a world of solidarity through artistic traditions at MASS MoCA. And a note: Fitchburg Art Museum is closed through Oct. 31 as it prepares for its centennial celebrations, which we look forward to seeing next year.

The Rose Art Museum’s exhibit “Fabricated Imaginaries: Crafting Art” showcases works, primarily from its permanent collection, that question what qualifies as “fine art.” The 40 works by over 30 international artists are rooted in craft traditions from diverse viewpoints. The pieces often cross disciplines, intertwining visual art with craft and experimental design. Korean American artist Jean Shin explores labor, Asian stereotypes and textile consumption in “Alterations.” The work features a vast cityscape of the cuffs of shortened pants and jeans. This exhibition marks the first time “Alterations” has been displayed at the Rose Art Museum.

Harvard Art Museums’ upcoming exhibition explores the beauty of black, white and the in-between. “Sketch, Shade, Smudge: Drawing from Gray to Black” showcases works created with charcoal, chalk, crayon and graphite. In the absence of color, the textures of the materials and the ways they interact with paper convey the artists’ visions. The exhibition will display around 120 works from the 19th through the 21st centuries. Some of the artists include Edgar Degas, Georges Seurat, John Singer Sargent, as well as Lyonel Feininger, Diego Rivera and Isabel Quintanilla.

Singaporean designer Andrew Gn moved to Paris in the mid-1990s and made a name for himself designing garments for royals and celebrities, from Catherine, Princess of Wales, to Beyoncé. He is known for designs that blend Eastern and Western aesthetics and luxurious and ornamental fabrics and embellishments. Exhibit “Andrew Gn: Fashioning the World” makes its North American debut at the Peabody Essex Museum. The exhibition explores the designer’s life and impact on the fashion world with nearly 100 works, from clothing and accessories to design illustrations and digital media.

Every Ocean Hughes is a transdisciplinary artist and writer based in Stockholm and New York. Along with her solo work, she has written lyrics for bands including The Knife and Colin Self, and she has designed costumes. Hughes was also the editor and cofounder of the feminist genderqueer artist collective LTTR. “List Projects 33: Every Ocean Hughes” explores a trilogy of her works that illuminate the “intimate process of dying.” Her video installation “One Big Bag” features a monologue by a millennial death doula performed by Lindsay Rico. The doula explains the tools in her “corpse kit,” which dangle down from the ceiling. Some of the items include tampons for absorbing fluid and ceremonial bells. The monologue balances the equal importance of practical matters of the end of life with the care of the person dying and their loved ones. “‘One Big Bag’ insists on alternative forms of kinship and communion made in and around death when it is confronted as a brute and beautiful fact,” according to the exhibition description.

Fuller Craft Museum describes this collaboration between glass artists Nancy Callan and Katherine Gray as “a sculpted fusion of kitsch and catharsis.” “The Clown in Me Loves You” brings together works by Los Angeles-based Gray and Seattle-based Callan. This exhibition focuses on their pieces inspired by reactions and memories of clowns, from those in the circus to figurative clowns in political spheres. Gray and Callan utilize traditional Venetian glassblowing techniques to bring layers of meaning to their work.

The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston will display the first substantial survey of American sculptor Martin Puryear’s work in nearly 20 years. Featuring around 45 pieces, the exhibition explores Puryear’s stunning craftsmanship and depth of global inspiration. Puryear utilizes a wide array of materials for his sculptures, from wood and leather to glass and metal. The exhibition will also showcase some of his drawings and prints. Puryear’s “Big Phrygian” is a masterful work that seems to expand the limits of what is possible in manipulating wood. The painted red cedar seems to curve and bend like a wool hat. Art critic Sebastian Smee wrote in The Washington Post that the sculpture evokes Phrygian caps, which were worn in ancient Greece and Rome by liberated enslaved people — a reference to their freedom. “Martin Puryear: Nexus” was organized in collaboration with the Cleveland Museum of Art.

The Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston will showcase work from 100 years of contemporary Indigenous artistic practices. “An Indigenous Present” will exhibit new commissions and significant works by 15 Indigenous artists who convey personal and collective stories through abstraction. The exhibition is co-organized by artist Jeffrey Gibson, whose immersive installation on two-spirit and Indigenous identities was on view at MASS MoCA through May, independent curator Jenelle Porter, and the ICA’s Eriak Umali and Max Gruber. “An Indigenous Present” brings together works by emerging artists and elders, including the late George Morrison, a painter and sculptor with colorful abstract works seizing the unconventional beauty of surrealism, and Dakota Mace, an interdisciplinary artist with a focus on Diné culture and traditions. After the ICA, “An Indigenous Present” will travel to the Frist Art Museum in Nashville and the Frye Art Museum in Seattle.

Opening the same day, “Here We Stay” showcases the Native people who live in Greater Boston. The North American Indian Center of Boston (NAICOB) partnered with the museum to amplify the stories of some of the 11,000 Indigenous residents.  Also in conjunction with “An Indigenous Present,” “Caroline Monnet: Manmade Land” is on view starting Sept. 27. The Algonquin-Anishinaabe and French artist’s site-specific work responds to the fact that the ICA sits on a man-made environment. She utilizes commercial building materials like Tyvek and plastic to create “blooms” in geometric patterns that symbolize the city’s 400-year history of land reclamation.

“Hammers on Stone” will illuminate the history and impact of the granite industry on Cape Ann. Visitors will learn about methods of harvesting, cutting, finishing and transporting granite. The exhibition will also examine who was a part of quarrying and how the granite industry inspired and developed Cape Ann’s artist community. One of the works is a portrait by Samuel Lewis Pullman of a quarryman named Joe Boston. The portrait seems to illuminate Boston’s worn-out state after a hard day of work through his far-off gaze.

Jimena Sarno is an Argentinian-born, Los Angeles-based interdisciplinary artist and educator. She creates immersive works that revolve around politics and works to conceptualize a future where people work together to repair existing and future damage. For this exhibit at MASS MoCA, Sarno collaborated with other artists, teachers and makers primarily from the global south. The artists utilize filmmaking, sound and sculpture “to deepen solidarity through making, repairing, and the collective production of alternative forms of knowledge.” The central installation features objects created by practices passed down through generations, like weaving and pottery. The objects evoke a hopeful future where people aid and support one another. These works will be displayed on portable tables and cast shadows across a 100-foot-long film projection of Sarno’s experience learning Andean weaving traditions.

“Allan Rohan Crite: Urban Glory” marks the first time the Gardner Museum is exhibiting a career-spanning show of the late Bostonian’s work. The exhibition will explore whose stories are told and Crite’s legacy of documenting Boston’s Black community. Crite, who passed away in 2007, was a community elder, writer, civic leader and griot (also known as storyteller). He painted scenes of regular life that honored the Black community, from life in Lower Roxbury and the South End to works centering Christian worship. Crite documented the gentrification and changing demographics of the city during the 20th century as he experienced them. The exhibit also shows how his artistic style changed, from documentary naturalism to works inspired by African art and graphic storytelling.

The Boston Athenaeum will display a partner exhibition titled “Allan Rohan Crite: Griot of Boston,” Oct. 23-Jan. 24. The exhibition explores Crite’s career and legacy “as a storyteller and knowledge keeper.”

The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston holds the largest collection of Winslow Homer watercolors in the world. The pieces are fragile and highly light sensitive, so this exhibition marks the first time the works will be shown together in almost 50 years. The Boston-born artist was known for masterfully capturing natural scenes through watercolor. The MFA was one of the first museums to acquire a painting by the artist in 1894 when it purchased “Fog Warning.” Now, the museum’s collection includes nearly 50 watercolors and 11 oil paintings. Homer expressed the feeling of a moment in time through his work. In “The Blue Boat,” the viewer can almost feel the calm beauty of the water and surrounding natural landscape.

Italian-born and Paris-based artist Rafaella della Olga didn’t start her career as a visual artist — she was first a criminal defense attorney. Olga utilizes prepared typewriters and ink ribbons to develop artist’s books and prints. She creates her work on a range of materials, including carbon paper, photo paper and sandpaper. Olga’s works avoid written words in an effort to stray from her former career and the anxiety of moving between languages in her life. Instead, her pieces convey an abstract language of colors, shapes and designs. “Rafaella della Olga: Typescripts” marks the artist’s first solo show at an arts institution. The exhibition will feature her books, typed paintings and textile pieces. The Clark will also display rare artists’ books from the late 19th century to present day that explore employing the typewriter to create art.