Pamela Polston

Burlington

Founder, Writer and Editor at Seven Days

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Articles

Photographer Rania Matar Captures Womanhood Across Cultures

2 months ago | sevendaysvt.com | Pamela Polston

click to enlarge Female beauty is on display in "SHE," a touring exhibition at the Middlebury College Museum of Art. But in Rania Matar's large-scale color photographs, beauty is not just skin-deep. The subjects are lovely, luminous young women depicted alone or in pairs. Their hair is long and loose; feet are bare. And where faces are visible, none is smiling.
Designer Bethany Andrews-Nichols' Midcentury Burlington Home

Jan 21, 2025 | sevendaysvt.com | Pamela Polston

click to enlarge Fringy squares in red, orange and blue. Pink trapezoids encasing red circles stacked like snowmen. A melée of florals in primary hues. If you enjoy extravagant color and wildly imaginative patterns printed on paper, walls or fabric, head to Bethany Andrews-Nichols' Burlington studio, or to her website. The Beenanza Design owner, 41, "loves finding innovative ways to interpret a 'print,'" she states on the site.
Home Tour: Inside Paul Hance's Rebuilt St. Albans Camp

Oct 1, 2024 | sevendaysvt.com | Pamela Polston

click to enlarge The perimeter of St. Albans Bay is ringed with camps, summer-only and year-round homes that have been there for ages. One of them — a handsome, charcoal-colored house with a distinctive red door — is brand-new yet holds a lifetime of memories. Make that several lifetimes. When Paul Hance and his seven siblings were growing up in Burlington, they and more than a dozen cousins would play at their grandparents' camp on the east shore of the bay.
Gallerist Margaret Thatcher Juries the Art Hop Group Show

Sep 3, 2024 | sevendaysvt.com | Pamela Polston

click to enlarge Over a decades-long career, Margaret Thatcher (no, not that one) has worked with hundreds of artists and curated countless exhibitions. Since 1998 she's operated her gallery, Margaret Thatcher Projects, in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood; she was an administrator at New York's Dia Art Foundation for years before that. It's safe to say she's had a lot of practice saying both yes and no to artists.
Saks Afridi Brings 'Sci-Fi Sufism' to Brattleboro

Aug 28, 2024 | sevendaysvt.com | Pamela Polston

click to enlarge Visitors should prepare to suspend disbelief, take a leap of faith and dive into time travel in "Saks Afridi: SpaceMosque" at the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center. They will find these mental gyrations worth the effort. The exhibition's photographs, mysterious objects, diagrams and text collectively document what might be considered a close encounter of a spiritual kind.
Four Printmakers Explore Black, White and Gray in a Highland Center Show

Jul 17, 2024 | sevendaysvt.com | Pamela Polston

click to enlarge In a world rife with printed material, why make more? Printmaking may be the least understood art medium, even as it's arguably the most straightforward. The gulf is wide between what rolls rapidly off an automated printing press — such as this newspaper — and what emerges from designing and inking one sheet at a time. A close observer will see that no two handmade prints using the same plate are exactly alike. Call it slow art with a side of serendipity.
Tony winner wins local arts prize

Jul 3, 2024 | vtcng.com | Pamela Polston

On his website, this year’s Herb Lockwood Prize winner notes a string of past occupations, including but not limited to assembly line worker, librarian, janitor, carpenter and house painter. However, most Vermonters have likely known him in more celebrated roles: musician — on saxophone and guitar — composer, dance program collaborator at Middlebury College, arranger and producer and teacher. And many probably know he’s the recipient of a Tony Award.
Paul Scott's Provocative Ceramics Reinvent Transferware Traditions

Jun 19, 2024 | sevendaysvt.com | Pamela Polston

click to enlarge You don't expect your dishware to remind you of the climate crisis, disappearing species, race riots or, really, anything disturbing. Paul Scott aims to do just that. Except his ceramic works aren't for serving up dinner. A recently opened exhibition at Shelburne Museum, titled "Confected, Borrowed & Blue," presents a selection of the internationally known British artist's transferware updated for modern times.
In 'The Quarry Project Echoes,' Artists Reflect on Hannah Dennison's Singular Dance Production

Jun 5, 2024 | sevendaysvt.com | Pamela Polston

click to enlarge Outside the Kents' Corner State Historic Site in Calais, passersby can only guess at the 19th-century brick building's many lives. Inside its warren of rooms, exposed lath and patchy wallpaper hold memories like treasure.
At the Phoenix Gallery, the Group Show “Flora” Is Like a Field of Wildflowers

May 15, 2024 | sevendaysvt.com | Pamela Polston

click to enlarge The rhyming dyad "flower power" is a throwback to 1960s hippie culture and anti-war demonstrations. But the expression could just as easily refer to the awesomeness of nature's florescence every single year. Another time-worn phrase — "hope springs eternal" — suggests that blossoms symbolize optimism against all odds. And who couldn't use that right now? At the Phoenix gallery in Waterbury, an exhibition titled simply "Flora" delivers more than a seasonal punch in the psyche.