Image in header: Summer in the North End courtesy of Mary Hanlon featured in Love That Dirty Water
Love That Dirty Water
April 7 – May 29, 2022
Presented at The Speedway Gallery & Online
Juried by Edward Boches
Reception: Wednesday, May 11, 5-7pm at The Speedway Gallery | Save your spot!
VIEW THE EXHIBIT AND ADD TO YOUR COLLECTION
Inspired by the Standells classic, Dirty Water, this exhibit is an ode to the grit and glamour of this city, and a reflection of the ways in which Boston has evolved – for better or worse – over the last two decades.
From our Juror, Edward Boches
How does an artist represent the City of Boston? There are always the usual suspects. Water colors of the Public Gardens. Night photos of the Zakim Bridge. Proverbial sketches of Chinatown or the North End. So it was exciting to see so many unexpected approaches to celebrating the grit and glamour of Boston in the Cambridge Art Association’s call, “Love that Dirty Water.”
Some images discovered emotion and power in the small details that define Boston’s character. Ty Muto’s ceramic space saver – a chair adorned with a Bruin’s logo sitting next to the Virgin Mary – manages to touch on everything from the challenges of street parking to sports and religion. Ricky Vasan’s painting “Aftermath,” revealed the serenity of a typical, tiny Boston backyard sandwiched between the abutting houses, a space that probably doesn’t get much attention until an artist picks up his brush.
Other works showed us some of the old Boston. Steve Jacobson’s perfectly framed and multi-layered image of a smokestack, for example, harkens back to a time before tech and the life sciences took over the city.
Numerous paintings, photographs and digital works evoked feelings of nostalgia as they showed us long lost corner coffee shops, wooden-platformed MBTA stations, or abstract views of Olmstead’s parks.
I was pleased to see that other artists sought to provoke us with thoughtful work about development. And finally, what would a show about Boston’s grit be if it neglected to include a perspective on graffiti?
We live in a city that offers us endless subjects and scenes around which to create art. And we’re obviously surrounded by artists who make the most of it.
It was an honor to jury “Love that Dirty Water.” Thank you to the Cambridge Art Association and to the many artists who entered. Your work inspires me to look even deeper at the city I love.
About the Juror, Edward Boches | Edward Boches is a Boston-based based photographer interested in documenting how people live, work, play, struggle and take action. He regularly donates his photography to causes and organizations he believes in.His work has shown in museums and galleries that include the Griffin Museum of Photography in Winchester; the Bronx Documentary Center; the Cambridge Association for the Arts; the Plymouth Center for the Arts; the PhotoPlace Gallery in Middlebury, Vermont; the Providence Center for the Photographic Arts; and in Boston at both the Bromfield Gallery and Panopticon Gallery. Boches’s work has also appeared in the New York Times, the Boston Globe, Zeke Magazine and the Provincetown Independent, where he is a regular contributor. In 2021 and 2022 he received multiple public and private grants for public art installations.
| Artist | Title | Media | Size | Price | |
| Susan | Alport | Franklin Street, Allston | digital photography | 5 x 7 inches | $185.00 |
| Julie Fei-Fan | Balzer | 9698 | mixed media: acrylic paint, oil pastel, watercolor | 36 x 36 inches | $1,500.00 |
| Kelly | Bishop | A Game of Manhunt in Back Bay (2/3): The City Will Shape-shift Every Time You Turn Around and Count to Ten | oil on canvas | 20 inches in diameter | $300.00 |
| Sally | Bousquet | West Street | archival pigment print – photography | 13 x 17 inches | $300.00 |
| Michael | Compton | Salem Street | oil on canvas | 20 x 24 inches | $3,800.00 |
| Steve | Edson | The beer is flowing | archival pigment print – photography | 17 x 22 inches | $625.00 |
| Peter | Fougere | Oak Grove Train with Elevated Line | silver gelatin print – photography | 16 x 20 inches | $500.00 |
| Adam | Gooder | Angel | inkjet print – photography | 18 x 14 | $700.00 |
| Sandy | Gregg | City Graffiti | mixed media | 17 x 20.5 inches | $250.00 |
| Mary | Hanlon | Summer in the North End | acrylic on canvas | 16 x 20 inches | $650.00 |
| Elizabeth | Hopkins | Chelsea, Afternoon | archival inkjet print – photography | 17 x 23 inches | $400.00 |
| Steve | Jacobson | Puff | photography | 8 x 10 inches | $150.00 |
| Jesse | Kieffer | The Morning After the Party — Causeway Street | archival pigment print – photography | 16 x 20 inches | $450.00 |
| Liz Linder & | Rich Griswold | We Talk in Pictures: Gray Days | archival pigment print – photography | 16 x 20 inches | $1,250.00 |
| Patrick | Maloney | The Emerald Necklace | acrylic on canvas | 24 x 18 inches | $500.00 |
| Kimberly | Maroon | Untitled #1 | digital photography | 11 x 14 inches | $200.00 |
| Ravneet | Marwaha | Home of the Chowder King | photography | 14 x 10 inches | $399.00 |
| Keara | McHaffie | My City | oil on canvas | 48 x 60 inches | $700.00 |
| John | McMahon | Boston University Bridge and Railroad Bridge Spanning the Charles River | digital photography | 16 x 24 inches | $500.00 |
| Joseph | McManus | Escape | digital painting – giclée on canvas | 12 x 24 inches | $400.00 |
| Ty | Muto | Space Saver | mixed media: acrylic, ceramic | 7.5 x 12 x 8 inches | $300.00 |
| Iris | Osterman | Tunnel Entrance | oil on canvas | 18 x 20 inches | $1,500.00 |
| Ruth | Rieffenaugh | Boston Skyline | mixed media: parking tickets | 15 x 19 inches | $550.00 |
| Iman | Sakkaf | Once Upon a Night | mixed media on panel | 10 x 8 inches | $225.00 |
| Patrick | Steele | Boston Warehouse 1a | acrylic on board | 18 x 26 inches | $725.00 |
| Tom | Stocker | City Scape with Canada Geese and Encroaching Cranes | acrylic on canvas | 24 x 30 inches | $1,500.00 |
| Stephanie | Todhunter | Lara loves that dirty water! (All summer long, Lara smells like chlorine, Hawaiian Tropic and cigarette smoke.) | mixed media collage on cradled pine board | 16 x 12 inches | $350.00 |
| Ricky | Vasan | Aftermath | oil on canvas | 24 x 32 inches | $600.00 |
| Jeffrey | Weinstein | Haymarket | black and white photography | 16 x 20 inches | $450.00 |
DATES & DEADLINES
- Notification of Acceptance | Tuesday, March 29, 2022, after 5:00pm. All applicants will be emailed with acceptance notification and delivery instructions
- Drop-off | Friday, April 1 (12-6pm) & Saturday, April 2 (12-5pm) at The Speedway Gallery
- Pick-up | Thursday, June 2 (12-7pm), Friday June 3 (12-5pm), Saturday, June 4 (12-5pm)
Have questions? Please email Erin Becker at ebecker@cambridgeart.org, or call us at 617.876.0246