TWOSOMES

Mark Chester's Twosomes touring exhibit and companion book from Un-Gyve Press represents images culled from his forty years of traveling with a camera, presented in pairings related by subject matter, graphic interest or, as the photographer puts it, “a stretch of the imagination.” — a wide-reaching body-of-work that connects architectural icons with sidewalk signage; Japan with Iowa; 1979 with 2002; celebrity with passerby in a manner that reveals, as novelist Paul Theroux describes, “tremendous humanity and humor....In this juxtaposition of matching moods and paraphernalia, Mark Chester shows us in an ingenious way how the world is related and how we matter to each other.”

Published in 2011 by Un-Gyve Press the 218 page hardcover book Twosomes features 202 plates, 101 image pairs representing forty years of photography by Mark Chester. The 11" x 13" hardcover book with dustjacket retails for $75. ISBN: 9780982919804. Designed by  Un-Gyve Limited. Introduction by Julia Courtney, Curator of Art for the Springfield Museums, Springfield, Massachusetts. Twosomes is a 2012 PDN Photo Annual winner in the Book Category.

Reykjavík Museum of Photography, Twosomes, Reykjavík, Iceland

The Gauvin Gallery, Twosomes, Mt. Auburn Hospital, Cambridge, MA

Springfield Museums, Twosomes, Springfield, MA

MARK CHESTER has been a professional photographer since nineteen & seventy two.

He was Director of Photography and staff photographer at ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers), in New York City. His photographs are in the permanent collections of Baltimore, Brooklyn, American University Corcoran Legacy Collection Washington DC, Denver, Portland (Maine), and San Francisco museums, among others.

National museum and gallery exhibitions of his work, solo and group, include OK Harris and SoHo Photo (NYC); Camera Obscura (CO); the San Francisco Airport, and other venues. Chester is a Copley Artist of the Copley Society of Art in Boston.

His photographs also accompany his own travel articles as published by the L.A. Times, Boston Globe, St. Louis Post Dispatch, Chicago Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle, Washington Post, and Christian Science Monitor among other newspapers and special interest magazines.

His 1987 traveling exhibition and catalogue "Shanghai in Black and White" commemorated San Francisco's Sister City as part of a cultural exchange program displayed at the Fort Lauderdale, FL, Museum of Art; The Sidwell Friends School, Washington, DC; and the San Francisco Main Library.

2023

Springfield Museums, Twosomes, Springfield, MA

2016

The Gauvin Gallery, Twosomes, Mt. Auburn Hospital, Cambridge, MA

2015

The Gauvin Gallery, Twosomes, Mt. Auburn Hospital, Cambridge, MA
The Wellesley Free Library, Twosomes, Wellesley, MA

2014

Harbor Gallery, Twosomes, Boston, MA
Reykjavík Museum of Photography, Twosomes, Reykjavík, Iceland
Parish Center for the Arts, Twosomes, Westford, MA
TJCC Gallery, Twosomes | Chiaroscuros, with Ben Golden, Tucson, AZ

2013

Scandinavian Cultural Center, Twosomes, Newton, MA
Busboys & Poets, Twosomes, Washington, DC

2012

Mashpee Public Library, Twosomes, Mashpee, MA
FJC, Twosomes, Falmouth, MA
Panopticon Gallery, Twosomes, Boston, MA
URI Feinstein Gallery, Twosomes | Urban Extensions, with Ofill Echevarria, Providence, RI
O.K. Harris Gallery, Twosomes, New York, NY
Balance, Twosomes, Baltimore, MD

2011

Alliance Française, Twosomes: Reportage, Washington, D.C.
Highfield Hall, Clark Gallery, Twosomes, Falmouth, MA
The Cape Cod Museum of Art, Twosomes, Dennis, MA

2009 

French Library Alliance Française, Reportage, Boston, MA

2007 

Isole Gallery, The NO Show, Boston, MA

MARIAN PARRY + THE ATELIER

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Erin Becker, Norma Jean Calderwood Director

Phone: 617.876.0246

Email: ebecker@cambridgeart.org

www.cambridgeart.org

March 22, 2016: The Cambridge Art Association is pleased to announce the upcoming exhibition Marian Parry + The Atelier, a group show featuring work by Parry and six longtime members of her Atelier. The exhibit will be on view at the Kathryn Schultz Gallery from April 7-28, 2016, with an opening reception to be held on Sunday, April 10th, 2-4 pm.  Selected works of Parry’s will be on display alongside work by: Susan Carter, Shirley Goldstein, JB Greenway, Diana Morse, Pat Rodgers, and Barbara Stubenhaus.

Parry, watercolorist, author and illustrator, and accomplished poet, is one of the Cambridge’s most inspirational artists.  A long-time senior instructor at the Radcliffe Seminars, she founded its watercolor program that yielded hundreds of talented and devoted students.  Multiple exhibits resulted showcasing her students’ work at Radcliffe’s Schlesinger Library and Cronkhite Graduate Center as well as Harvard’s Hilles Library, from 1980 until the program was disbanded in 2002.  She led multiple trips to the Yale Center for British Art, the Winslow Homer studio at Prouts Neck in Maine, as well as many study sessions in the Museum of Fine Arts’ and the Fogg Art Museum’s print and drawing rooms. Parry also conducted painting expeditions to locations in Maine, the Tuscan countryside and the magical city of Venice.  Her classes have resulted in tight groups of artists who have formed strong and long-lasting relationships with both Parry and each other, including the Ash Street Painters and Marian Parry’s Atelier.

Parry’s work is held in the collections of Harvard University’s Houghton Library, the Museum of Fine Arts Library, the Wellesley College and Smith College Rare Book libraries, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Boston Public Library Print Department which holds the main archive of her work.   Her numerous exhibits include shows at the Wendell Street and Van Buren/Brazelton/Cutting galleries in Cambridge, the Matrix and East End galleries in Provincetown, the Rare Book Room at Smith College, and the Boston Public Library.

Parry’s books have been published by Knopf, Macmillan, Heritage Press, Greenwillow, Avon Books, Simon & Schuster among others.  Her book, The Paris Book, recently published by the Un-Gyve Press, is based on her childhood memories of Paris – with the character of “an odd bird” discovering the intricacies of the city.

About the Cambridge Art Association: CAA was founded in 1944 by a group of local artists and art supporters. At the time, there was no other local association like it. The CAA was a space for exhibiting work, learning new techniques, and socializing. It was - and is - above all, a community of artists.

Fast-forward 71 years ... the CAA currently maintains two gallery spaces for exhibits, as well as 5 less traditional satellite spaces. Until earlier this year, we were a juried members association. As the result of a strategic plan and long-term vision for the CAA, we are now open to all. You can read more about our 3-year goals here.

What do we do? We present roughly 25 gallery exhibits, and an additional 20 exhibits in our satellite spaces. We create opportunities for local and regional contemporary artists to engage with gallery owners, curators, collectors, and each other through networking events, portfolios reviews, and other professional development programs.

EL MUNDO DE LOS VIVOS | THE REAL WORLD

OFILL ECHEVARRIA

EL MUNDO DE LOS VIVOS

THE REAL WORLD

DU: DISEGNO UNIVERSALE (AEC)

DU: Disegno Universale is an un-profit member of The Un-Gyve Limited Group with the mission to support art, culture, and tradition.

Our international DU: exhibit represents our commitment to the architectural and design community, and our intent to protect and promote artistic integrity in commerce; to educate as to the value, to culture and society, of this community’s efforts; and to ensure accessibility and appreciation of design by the elimination of cultural, physical, and social barriers. With this event, and through our design projects, we promote the market changes to match our mission — merging trade with education, enlightened commercialism and enhanced design professionalism.

Launched as a touring museum exhibit, with sponsorship by Bis Bis and presented by Un-Gyve, DU: has exhibited at the Isole Gallery of Art + Industrial Design Boston, as well as museums and galleries such as The Chicago Athenaeum and the AEC Gallery (Australian Exhibition Centre) in association with the John David Mooney Foundation.

DU: VETRO

MOMENTUM

OFILL ECHEVARRIA

Galería Alfredo Ginocchio

MOMENTUM

EL MUNDO DE LOS VIVOS

THE REAL WORLD

Unveiled in Mexico City with the support of Galeria Alfredo Ginocchio and the exhibit "Momentum," the work has now launched in the United States with the coinciding solo exhibition "The Real World," new large scale oil paintings from Ofill and a selection of his moving pictures, at the Carriage House Center for the Arts, sponsored by the Cuban Cultural Center and the Gabarron Foundation, New York City.

SOLSTICE

2007 | Oil on canvas | Óleo sobre lienzo

48" x 68" | 122 x 172 cm.

Ofill Echevarría

DU: DISEGNO UNIVERSALE

DU: Disegno Universale is an un-profit member of The Un-Gyve Limited Group with the mission to support art, culture, and tradition.

BIS BIS in CHI-TOWN with Holabird Root & Un-Gyve at The Chicago Athenaeum DU 1997

Our international DU: exhibit represents our commitment to the architectural and design community, and our intent to protect and promote artistic integrity in commerce; to educate as to the value, to culture and society, of this community’s efforts; and to ensure accessibility and appreciation of design by the elimination of cultural, physical, and social barriers. With this event, and through our design projects, we promote the market changes to match our mission — merging trade with education, enlightened commercialism and enhanced design professionalism.

Launched as a touring museum exhibit, with sponsorship by Bis Bis and presented by Un-Gyve, DU: has exhibited at the Isole Gallery of Art + Industrial Design Boston, as well as museums and galleries such as The Chicago Athenaeum and the AEC Gallery (Australian Exhibition Centre) in association with the John David Mooney Foundation.

Tamarkin Techler’s winding bench for the Un-Gyve Group’s original gallery, pre-BIS BIS, DU origins at Dry Dock Avenue, Boston. 

Un-Gyve Group introduces Marco Zanuso’s Zagara (now in MoMA + Philadelphia Museum of Art) Drydock, Boston ca. 1986.

Un-Gyve Group introduces Luigi Molini’s Ebla, Drydock, Boston ca. 1986.

DU: VETRO

SHOOT THE ARROW AT CLAMP ART

Shoot the Arrow  is a collection of Amy Touchette's intimate black-and-white photographs of the onstage and offstage life of celebrated New York City burlesque dancer The World Famous *BOB*. A central figure in today's "neo-burlesque" movement, the self-described "female-female impersonator" is known for her over-the-top blonde bombshell image. Touchette used 24-hour photo sessions and exclusive access to The World Famous *BOB*'s private life to produce a deep, unique, and moving photographic biography of a woman pursuing dreams of glamour and fame. Photographed strictly on 35mm film, Touchette's pictures of The World Famous *BOB* on stage, backstage, in her daily life, and during private moments at home, are rich and beautifully real. Also containing the words of The World Famous *BOB* -- plain-spoken words that appear on the page as purely extracted un-distracted and un-distracting prose -- giving account of her evolution from an isolated farm girl in the California Valley to a performer in New York City's burlesque revival, Shoot the Arrow  is an unusually penetrating and authentic portrait of contemporary life.

SHOOT THE ARROW: A PORTRAIT OF THE WORLD FAMOUS *BOB*

AMY TOUCHETTE

Shoot the Arrow: A Portrait of The World Famous *BOB* (Un-Gyve Press, Boston, 2013) photographs by Amy Touchette with words by The World Famous *BOB*. Shoot the Arrow is a 137 page cloth bound hardback book with 112 plates. ISBN: 978-0-9829198-4-2.

PRESS COVERAGE

Amy Touchette | “Interview with Amy Touchette,” The Creative Independent

Amy Touchette | “Shoot the Arrow,” GUP Magazine

Amy Touchette | “Embracing the Spontaneity of Instagram,” The New York Times

Amy Touchette | “Jennifer McClure and Amy Touchette,” The LPV Show

Amy Touchette | “Eight-Day Week,” New York Observer

Amy Touchette | “*BOB* and Amy Touchette,” Time Out New York

Amy Touchette | “A life story you won’t be able to take your eyes off,” Bant Magazine

Amy Touchette | “Burlesque: The World Famous *BOB* and life beyond the stage,” Huffington Post/Italy

Amy Touchette | “Bust’s Best Bets,” Bust Magazine

Amy Touchette | “How One World-Famous Burlesque Dancer Defied Definitions,” Huffington Post

Amy Touchette | “The life of a New York burlesque dancer laid bare,” Daily Mail

Amy Touchette | “The Life of a New York City Burlesque Dancer,” PDN

Amy Touchette | “On Being Photographed,” Hairpin

Amy Touchette | “Marilyn Wannabee,” The New York Photo Review

Amy Touchette | “Making an Honest Woman of Herself: The Story of The World Famous *BOB*,” The Literate Lens

Amy Touchette | “Shoot The Arrow: A Portrait of The World Famous *BOB* by Amy Touchette,” Musée Magazine

Amy Touchette | “Book Launch and Exhibition,” The Sacramento Bee

Amy Touchette | “Getting Intimate With a Captivating Burlesque Performer,” Slate

Amy Touchette | “Borrowed,” Paper Journal

Amy Touchette | “Shoot the Arrow,” Transgressor Magazine

BLOG POSTS

Amy Touchette’s work is featured in Warsaw

Amy Touchette and The World Famous *BOB* in conversation at the Strand Book Store

Amy Touchette is taking over Transgressor Magazine‘s Instagram account through July 2nd

The NO Show

The NO Show presented by The Un-Gyve Limited Group, sponsored by Bis Bis at the Isole Gallery of Art + Industrial Design, Boston.

MARK CHESTER has been a professional photographer since 1972. He was Director of Photography and staff photographer at ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers), in New York City. His photographs are in the permanent collection of museums, including Baltimore, Brooklyn, Corcoran, Denver, Portland (Maine), San Francisco and other institutions. His work has also been exhibited as one-person and group shows in galleries nationwide, including O.K. Harris and Soho Photo (NYC), Camera Obscura (CO), San Francisco Airport, and other venues. Chester is a member of the Copley Society of Art in Boston. His work also appears with his own travel articles published by the New York Times, L.A. Times, Boston Globe, St. Louis Post Dispatch, Chicago Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle, Washington Post, and Christian Science Monitor among other newspapers and special interest magazines. His 1987 traveling exhibition and catalogue Shanghai in Black and White commemorated San Francisco's Sister City as part of a cultural exchange program displayed at the Fort Lauderdale, FL, Museum of Art; The Sidwell Friends School, Washington, DC; and the San Francisco Main Library.

Chester's first book Charles Kuralt's Dateline America was described by Norman Ornstein of the Washington Post: "This is a book of essays with photographs, not a picture book with text, but Mark Chester's photographs deserve a showcase of their own. Beautifully textured in shades of black and white, they remind one of those that Walker Evans did for the Farm Security Administration during the Depression. And they are as varied as Kuralt's essays. They make a good book even better."

Charles Kuralt himself described Mark as "...one of our finest...a wonderful eye and consummate skill...nothing murky or artificial."

And yet The Village Voice noted the subtle craftiness in his craft "...a street photographer whose images are humorous, imaginative and quite deceptive."

And while the Voice refers to his ability to catch us out with his images, the San Francisco Examiner praises Mark for knowing how to "catch the moment of truth."

From the book No In America. Copyright © Mark Chester. Image size 6 x 9 inches; finished size 11 x 14 –matted and framed. Photograph includes a signed limited edition copy of the book.

TACTILE | MERCANTILE

Chiesa ARCOS

ARCOS No. 100

ARCOS 2001: Chiesa's first solo exhibit in three years, and the premiere of No. 100 in his Arcos series, shades of white on white.

…more than a line…a circle, the arcs of a parabola, or a hyperbola, or a figure…it is a longer but safer stretch, it allows us not to leap back from one point to another, but to go on.

A native of Old San Juan, Puerto Rico, painter Wilfredo Chiesa has lived in Cambridge Massachusetts since 1980. He teaches and maintains his primary studio in Boston, though he has at times set up studio in Spain, Germany, and Italy.

Since completing his formal training he has held over twenty five solo exhibitions in galleries and museums in the United States, Spain, Mexico, Colombia, Panama and Puerto Rico. He has also participated in the Sao Paulo Biennial, as well as the biennials of Ljubljana, Fredrickstad, Medellin, and Cuenca.

His many group exhibitions include shows in New York, Miami, Boston, Washington, San Juan, Santo Domingo, Seville, Ibiza, Catania and Venice. Chiesa has been a visiting artist at several academic institutions including the Fine Arts Academy of Guangzhou, China, and Ochanomizu University in Tokyo, Japan.

His works are included in public collections in the Americas and Europe. Chiesa is Professor of Art at the University of Massachusetts Boston. He lives in Cambridge with his wife and two children.

The artist uses mixed media, mainly oils and acrylics on canvas; the Gothic arch and the square are the two unifying elements of his work:

"It is for a formal pursuit that I came to the idea of the arch and the square.... The square is the most neutral of formats, it does not predispose any kind of image....The arch [marks]...the encounter of two circular shapes and moves upwards....An important issue in my paintings is gravity and how the painting...defines a space which liberates itself from the constraint of gravity.... The arch is also a form with a metaphorical nature. "

—Wilfredo Chiesa