A Class Reunion: Fountain Street at Mass Arts Center
by Sawyer Smook-Pollitt
Patty deGrandpre, EFFLORESCE (Mosh Pit, Where’s the Exit), unique digital inkjet print, 14” x 19 3/4”
Installation day for “REMIX” was like a family reunion for the artists of Fountain Street Gallery.
“When we dropped off the work for the show, a couple of the artists [brought] a picnic lunch and [ate] outside to see each other for the first time in a long time,” said Fountain Street Gallery owner and director Rebecca Skinner.
“REMIX” marks the return of Fountain Street Gallery to a physical space 17 months after the April 2024 closure of its Thayer Street/Harrison Ave. location in Boston’s SoWa District. With a renewed focus on “dynamic pop-up exhibitions,” this show, held at Mass Arts Center’s Morini Gallery though November 23, is the first of many to come.
For Skinner, who also curated “REMIX,” Morini Gallery was a clear choice for Fountain Street’s return. “I’m very close with all the folks at the Mass Arts Center so I felt very at home and comfortable there,” she said. “And many of the Fountain Street Artists have shown there.”
Morini Gallery curator Heidi Cerullo echoed that sentiment.
“We all had a collaborative relationship with [Skinner], we all just jived really well together,” she said. “When they had to close [Fountain Street Gallery] and they were looking for spaces to show, we were an obvious choice … I think she knew even before she asked that we would be thrilled.”
Featuring 16 artists working in diverse mediums, “REMIX” is a cross-section of Fountain Street Gallery’s membership. The show itself is a lesson in why it’s so important to get out of the house and see artwork in person and in context. There’s only so much you can get from an image on a screen or even from a printed photo in a magazine.
For instance, take Monica DeSalvo’s collage “We’ll Know It When We See It.” When I opened a digital folder of images the night before my drive up to Mass Arts Center, this piece was an immediate favorite. With bright red and yellow paper, bold lines and dramatic shapes the piece reminded me of a mid-century propaganda poster. An abstract collage, its message was unknown, but it was practically shouting at me through the computer screen.
Monica DeSalvo, We’ll Know It When We See It, collage with fragments from acrylic monotypes, a vintage textbook, metallic paper, and tempera paint, 12” x 18”
Seeing “We’ll Know It When We See It” in person, it was still a favorite, but for all new reasons. Standing there, I saw that despite it being paper glued to more paper, it had vitality. I could almost feel the rough and frayed edges of the materials; I could hear the subtle sound of DeSalvo sliding paper against paper while trying to get everything “just so.”
I’m no philosopher, but to borrow — and probably mangle — an idea from literary critic and all-around smart guy Roland Barthes, DeSalvo’s work has “grain” — a nearly imperceptible human element that a viewer can detect beyond the actual material qualities of the work. In modern parlance, I would say DeSalvo’s work has “sauce.” No matter what it’s called, it’s a special human element that you can only see by really looking at something up close.
Turning to another artwork dripping with sauce, Alexandra Rozenman’s oil painting “Stardust of Modern Art and my Cordless Vacuum Cleaner” has that same vitality. A domestic scene with a twist, it’s as if the wall of someone’s living room disintegrated to reveal a painterly Van Gogh landscape overtaking and absorbing the mundanity of an otherwise beige room. Only a cordless vacuum cleaner and throw rug survive, juxtaposing symbols of the banal with the fantastic. This piece too has a human element; thick daubs of paint remind you that an artist pulled her brush across the canvas to make each individual stroke.
The same goes for Marcia Wise’s oil painting “Leggere.” If I was a more patient man, I could count every vivid stroke of color making up this swirling blue, purple and orange landscape.
I’m ashamed to say that before I saw it in person, I wasn’t a fan of Anita Loomis’ oil painting “Pond’s Edge.” But again, there’s nothing like seeing something with your own two eyes. The playful and wiggly lines, a variety of verdant greens and shapes suggesting the forms of bugs and boats all worked to change my mind. I’m an avid hiker and I spend a lot of time walking through the marshlands of South Coast Massachusetts. To me, this painting looks like how those hikes through swampy coastal wetlands feel.
Similarly, Catherine Picard-Gibbs’ “Burning Season,” oil on panel, showing two figures by a large bonfire in the woods in a rough and expressionistic style, transported me into a New England fall or winter. According to an artist statement, Picard-Gibbs will use a gloved hand “to build up and scratch into the surface, creating a richly textural effect.” I don’t know if she did that with “Burning Season,” but I could almost feel the paint under my fingernails just looking at this painting.
Every piece in “REMIX” played off every other to create a vibrant exhibition that is full of life, spontaneity and vision.
According to Skinner, the name “REMIX” was suggested by Fountain Street Gallery founder Cheryl Clinton because the show represents “the new version of Fountain Street — of us together.”
If “REMIX” is the “new version” of Fountain Street Gallery, then I think they’re on the right track.
But even though Fountain Street Gallery is looking ahead to new horizons, there’s still a little bit of Boston in “REMIX.” Christopher Plunkett’s two pieces “Albany Street Overpass” and “East Berkeley and Harrison Ave.” hang opposite the door to the Morini Gallery. Grayscale oil paintings of Boston-based street scenes accented with a vivid red sky call back to Fountain Street’s former home.
Fountain Street Gallery is also showing “VIBES: An Online Exclusive from the Artist Members of Fountain Street,” which runs through December 31. “VIBES” represents another part of the gallery’s remixed vision — its “robust online presence” at fsfaboston.com.
Although Fountain Street artists haven’t had a physical space to show their work, they’ve still been active online. Since 2016, before she took over as owner and director, Skinner was managing Fountain Street’s online presence on 1stDibs, a high-end online marketplace.
“I put years of work into putting these artists on an online platform,” said Skinner. “So why not keep it going?”
Mass Arts Center’s next exhibition will be its 2025 “Small Works” show, running December 10 through February 28, 2026. According to Cerullo, “Small Works” is Mass Arts Center’s “biggest show of the year.”
“It’s nice to have small treasures and it’s a good way for local artists to move their art and show it to the community,” said Cerullo.
Finally, if anyone needs another reason to see “REMIX,” Mass Arts Center — which also regularly stages plays and musicals in its small-but-mighty theater — is running John Kander and Fred Ebb’s “Cabaret” concurrently with “REMIX,” beginning on Friday, November 7 through Sunday, the 23rd.
“Artists get more eyes on their work here because of all the [theatrical] shows that we have,” said Cerullo. “That separates us from a lot of other galleries out in the sticks — that’s what makes us special, we have so many people coming in and out for the theater.”