Galleries Exhibit New Art in Beantown’s Old Heart

Newbury Street is Boston’s Fifth Avenue: luxury and tradition seem to ooze from the walls of its elegant brick mansions. As I strolled down the wide and tree-lined avenue one recent Saturday, even the names of the cross-streets evoked a rich and patrician heritage: Berkeley, Dartmouth, Exeter. Newbury Street is also the epicenter of Boston’s numerous art galleries, many of which are, unsurprisingly, devoted to the established names and traditional styles that complement Boston’s Yankee conservatism.

And yet, among the myriad galleries full of minor impressionists and themed shows on “the Seasons of New England” are hidden some gems filled with cutting-edge art. These are innovative galleries devoted to contemporary art, featuring a new show almost every month: well worth a stop for anyone with an interest in changing trends in the art world.

As if to symbolize Boston’s split artistic personality, Gallery NAGA (67 Newbury St) is located in the same building as a granite Victorian-era church. The work of Boston native Gerry Bergstein, who has exhibited here for the past 30 years, is currently on display.

His paintings are intricate and dreamlike, capturing imaginary worlds simultaneously being constructed and destroyed. Often, there stands a small, balding man painted in a corner, a self-referential portrait of the artist trying to figure out what he has made and thereby saving Bergstein’s paintings from pure abstraction and lending them an unnerving physicality.

On the next block over, between Burberry on one corner and Brooks Brothers on the other, is Barbara Krakow Gallery (10 Newbury). Saturday afternoon is home to peak business; true to form, the gallery was buzzing when I went. On the top floor, two large skylights allowed light into the modestly sized gallery. In addition to the works lining the walls, the floor was covered with prints, drawings, and photographs.

Jeremy McDonnell, associate director of the gallery, said, “We always have work out, from our inventory, in addition to any exhibit, which we are showing to clients.” Though the gallery specializes in minimalist and conceptual art—there are two superb Sol LeWitt wall drawings—there is a wonderful air of vitality and community as the staff greets the old friends and clients who swirl in and out.

Gallery Judi Rotenberg (130 Newbury) has shown young, emerging artists for the past three decades. According to gallery manager Ariel Pittman, the majority of the artists whose work is on display either hail from the Boston area or attended school locally. This small atelier is currently exhibiting the woodblock prints of Jason Berger, whose style echoes the tradition of Cezanne, Picasso, and Matisse more rather than contemporary art.

The most innovative work, by far, was by Wilson Parry, and is on display in Galerie Swantröm (129 Newbury). Perry’s work is bright, candied, and full of three-dimensional elements such as a field of pink foam cones jutting from the canvas. An odd combination of Richard Hamilton—the early Pop artist—and Chris Ofili, whose million dollar installation in the Tate London has been creating a stir, Perry is one of the most adventurous artists on display.

Unfortunately for Beth Swanström, the owner of the gallery, it is often difficult to find an audience for such art in Boston; thus, she is relocating to New York. Other gallery managers also commented on the difficulties of presenting cutting edge work in Boston. Arthur N. Dion ’68—of Gallery NAGA—said, “The community here is very aware of international currents in contemporary art, but this is still a provincial capitol, a provincial town.”

However, given the upcoming opening of the Institute for Contemporary Art (ICA), curators and aficionados alike seem very optimistic about the future of the contemporary scene. As Gallery Rotenberg’s Ariel Pittman said: “The ICA will bring international dealers and collectors, as well as putting contemporary art in Boston more firmly on the map.” In a town where tradition is always in fashion, contemporary seems ready to burst into the mainstream.

—Staff writer Alexander B. Fabry can be reached at fabry@fas.harvard.edu.