Deb Mell’s uncanny artwork often leaves one wondering. Her paintings are populated with recurring characters — half animal, half human — rendered in meticulous black-and-white marks. They float through spaces […]
Art
ARTISTS
Experiments in Form and Speculation
Sichong Xie makes art ‘almost exploring something that’s impossible to reach’
In 1975, after driving east from Los Angeles, the Dutch conceptual artist Bas Jan Ader set sail across the Atlantic Ocean in a small boat. The performance piece was never […]
ARTISTS
Diane Messinger’s Operatic Narratives
The artist mines history — and her own experience — in a series of powerful figurative paintings
Over the past several months, Diane Messinger has been attending live broadcasts of performances from the Metropolitan Opera at Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater (WHAT). This month, her fellow opera fans […]
ARTISTS
Capturing Winter’s Turbulence on Canvas
Elizabeth Flood experiments with perspective in her second FAWC fellowship
Elizabeth Flood’s tempestuous paintings and ink drawings capture the striations of history, violence, extraction, and sublimity that accumulate in a landscape over time. So, it makes sense that after bearing […]
ART HISTORY
The Artistic Legacies of Mary Hackett
The self-taught Provincetown painter continues to hold an important place in local artists’ memories
When artist Susan Baker showed her work at the Fine Arts Work Center in 1974, Mary Hackett, then in her late 60s, attended the opening. The next day, Baker visited […]
ARTISTS
An Elegantly Colorful World of ‘Slightly Bad Taste’
Mark Joshua Epstein finds ‘arguments and romance’ in his unconventional paintings
Mark Joshua Epstein is not afraid of excess. In his paintings, saturated hues and whimsical patterns bump up against asymmetrical frames. Some pieces jut out from the wall in precisely […]
ARTISTS
Art as Social Organism
Siennie Lee’s work is guided by a fascination with the pulse of society
An imposing triptych — greenish on the left, then bluish, then purple — hangs on one wall of Siennie Lee’s studio at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown. Its […]
WOMEN’S HISTORY
An Artistic Dialogue Across the Decades
Megan Hinton on two influential Provincetown artists
Although Truro-based artist, curator, and teacher Megan Hinton never met Florence Brillinger or Janice Biala, their work has strongly informed her own art practice. We met recently at the Provincetown […]
WOMEN’S HISTORY
Discovering an Early Generation of Provincetown Artists
Important women from Provincetown’s art and civic histories
In 2014, Breon Dunigan and Mike Wright curated the Women Pioneers exhibition at the Provincetown Art Association and Museum to highlight the important roles that women played in the history […]
WOMEN’S HISTORY
An Artistic Sisterhood With No Apology
Artist Anna Poor reflects on community and the women who inspired her
While Anna Poor’s connections to the Outer Cape are deep and varied, a group of women artists, writers, and activists she has known and worked with over the years have […]
LOCALS
Jim Zimmerman Connects Provincetown’s Past With Its Present
PAAM’s resident jack-of-all-trades is a fountain of institutional and community knowledge
Jim Zimmerman — camera around his neck — greeted me in the lobby of the Provincetown Art Association and Museum and led us through the museum’s expansive galleries with the […]
IN THE STUDIO
Sculptures That Demand to Be Seen
Kristy Hughes packs her works with meaning, both found and made
Kristy Hughes thinks in planes. A printmaker by training who says she “avoided sculpture” throughout her studies, Hughes now makes towering, vibrant, multi-part sculptures, many of which started out as […]
IN THE STUDIO
Creating Worlds With Fiber and Glue
Carol Fitzsimons weaves together influences from painting and craft in her richly textured pictures
Carol Fitzsimons’s richly colored and textured works are painstakingly created by adhering small strips of string to canvas board with a toothpick and Elmer’s glue. “It’s like painting with fiber,” […]
ARTISTS
Creating a System for the Nonsensical
Two FAWC fellows forge a partnership born of frustration with the status quo
Georgia Dickie, who is from Toronto, and Tinja Ruusuvuori, who lives and works in Tampere, Finland, had never met before arriving in Provincetown for their Fine Arts Work Center fellowships […]
ART HISTORIES
Provincetown’s Gallery Structure Is Challenged
Recent closings are a reminder of the art scene’s storied past and uncertain future
After 35 years in business, Albert Merola and Jim Balla announced last month that their gallery at 424 Commercial St. in Provincetown’s East End will not reopen for the 2023 […]
