William-Scott Gallery (439 Commercial St.)
Daniel Schwarz says Michael Costello’s paintings at the William-Scott Gallery might be a reference to American poet and critic Marianne Moore’s definition of art: “imaginary gardens with real toads in them.”
Schwarz is an English professor at Cornell University. He is an expert on Marcel Proust, for whom Costello’s painting Marcel is named.
Marcel is the final piece in a series of still lifes Costello painted of typewriters, one reminiscent of the kind Proust likely used at the turn of the century, Schwarz says. Schwarz explains that the madeleines next to the typewriter evoke Proust’s best-known book, Swann’s Way. The flower, Schwarz says, stands for hope.
He says Costello’s work has been affected by the artist’s wife’s ongoing battle with cancer. Marcel reflects a time when Costello might have received hopeful news. The painting next to it, Tropic of Cancer, “seems to be less hopeful,” says Schwarz. In it, the same typewriter is next to a cigarette tray, a bottle of Ricard, and a shot glass.
Schwarz says Costello’s still lifes are noticeably modern, including objects like macarons and raspberries and a coffee mug. But they contain what Schwarz calls a disruptive element — cigarettes, a toad, a mouse, or hornets.
“And maybe this one has the least disruption,” he says of Marcel. “Maybe this is a kind of hope for the future.”
Gallery 444 (444 Commercial St.)
Nancy Salwen was immediately drawn to the faces of children in a set of small square paintings by Mayumi Nakao.
“There are these magical looking backgrounds,” Salwen says. “I think they caught my eye because the kids are Black and I’m not seeing a lot of pictures of people who aren’t white in Provincetown.”
The paintings, for the most part, depict Black children sitting in ornate and brightly colored rooms — emerald green and purple dominate the plane. Salwen says she was especially drawn to the painting Purple Dress, in which a young girl sits on a sofa licking a lollipop with a second in her other hand. Outside the window in the painting is a lawn and a lake.
Salwen is a music teacher from Keene, N.H. who is staying at a campground in Truro. She says she is not usually drawn to realist paintings. “But I think these are just really beautiful and fanciful and interesting,” she says.
“There’s something really specific about them,” she adds. “It’s like magical realism.”
On Center Gallery (352 Commercial St.)
James Keating of course loves all the paintings in his husband Ryan McMenamy’s collection called “The Seated Figure,” but Seated Figure 30 carries a special meaning.
Painted on a wood panel, it shows a man seated on a table next to a small piece of cream-colored fabric. Keating says the doily is real and once belonged to a friend of the couple, an elderly neighbor who died before the painting was created. When McMenamy and Keating were helping to clean the woman’s house, they found the doily. “As a memento, we took that piece,” Keating says. “I love that it’s in Ryan’s artwork.”
Keating is a fashion designer who splits his time with McMenamy in Provincetown and New York City. He says the textile adds complexity in its contrast with the rest of the scene.
“It’s a really good mix,” Keating says. “There’s a real masculine element to it just because it’s a man in the picture. Not that the textile is particularly feminine, but it brings a different element to the masculinity.”
Alden Gallery (423 Commercial St.)
Richard Anderson and William Ritzi were immediately drawn to Spring Posy by Anne Salas when they entered Alden Gallery. The flowery bouquet is not usually the kind of painting they gravitate to, but it’s the shiniest work in the gallery.
“It just looks so alive and happy and welcoming and fresh,” Anderson says. “It looks a little three-dimensional to me. It’s very different.”
The painting is bright enough, with the pink flowers set against lime green, but Anderson said it was the gold leaf background that initially caught his eye. “We really noticed it tonight,” Anderson says.
Anderson and Ritzi live part-time in Provincetown and Miami Beach. Anderson pointed to several other paintings of Provincetown in the gallery he could locate instantly. “We’ve parked our bikes right here many times,” he said pointing to one. Another, Some Small Repairs by Chris Firger, is on Commercial Street in the West End, Anderson says.
“I know where that is exactly because usually there is a big American flag there,” Anderson says, pointing to the building in the center of the painting. He remembers it well from his first trips to Provincetown, he says, when he met Ritzi.
