Charles Bonenti

Nov 5, 2024 | artnewengland.com | Charles Bonenti

This seemingly disparate, yet smartly edited exhibition is the fourth at what Cristina Barbedo calls her “emerging gallery” founded last April in North Berkshire’s historic Norad Mill. A Brazilian-born ceramist turned jewelry designer, Barbedo seeks out (by networking and trolling social media) visual artists who catch her eye, then links them with others who share stylistic or narrative traits to curate an exhibition.

Jul 8, 2024 | artnewengland.com | Charles Bonenti

In a fraught election season, this retrospective on the art of pioneering counter-cultural MAD magazine illustrates how laughter can be a tool for social and political change. Co-curated by the Rockwell’s chief curator Stephanie Haboush Plunkett and illustrator/art journalist Steve Brodner, it showcases over 250 images by more than thirty artists in a dense, yet comic, multilayered exhibition that says as much about artistic collaboration as it does about lampooning American culture.