Date: Fri 02-Jul-1999

Publication: Ant

Author: MELISS

Quick Words:

Pucker-Dufy

Full Text:

Pucker Gallery Summer Show, "Fine Choices III," Opens July 25

(with 2 cuts)

BOSTON, MASS. -- Pucker Gallery will present its annual summer show "Fine

Choices III," including a special exhibition of paintings and drawings of

Raoul Dufy, the fine Twentieth Century French artist. The exhibition runs July

25 to September 1.

Samuel Baks' powerful oil paintings deal with the history and legacy of the

Holocaust through monumental figure and landscape studies. His paintings use a

personal symbology that has developed over his many years as a painter and

express his formative childhood experiences as a victim of the Holocaust.

His formal frame of reference is the Northern European tradition of realist

painting. A new book on Bak's work, The Game Continues , further explores the

use of chess themes in Bak's paintings, and will be released this summer.

Brother Thomas, a former Benedictine Monk, creates porcelains reminiscent of

the ceramic traditions of China. An expert in glazing techniques, Thomas' work

is represented in public and private collections all over the world, including

the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the Chicago Art Institute, the Metropolitan

Museum of Art, and the Victoria and Albert Museum.

A comprehensive publication of his newest works and memoirs, Creation Out of

Clay , will be released this August, and the Gallery will host a major

exhibition opening October 9 of these works, which are currently available for

viewing on the 2nd floor.

Mark Davis will open his second solo exhibition at the Gallery on September 4.

Originally a successful jewelry designer whose creations have been featured in

Vogue magazine, Davis has branched into mobiles, from his "baby" stabiles, to

larger commissioned indoor and outdoor works.

The works shown at the gallery range from small, standing and hanging mobiles

to recent wall-mounted relief pieces that explore nature's shapes and designs

in a variety of media, with a lightness and playfulness that is rare in

today's art world.

Maria Muller was featured this past April in the gallery's Five Fine

Photographers exhibition. Her hand colored photographs have been exhibited

extensively around New England, including the DeCordova Museum, the Fitchburg

Museum, and the Fogg Art Museum. She uses infrared film to capture her images

and luminous colors to detail each piece, generating unique and surreal

compositions.

Onta-yaki is the newest addition to the gallery's expanding pottery

collection. Yaki, Japanese folk pottery, comes from a long tradition of

ceramic communities throughout Japan, such as Onta, in the Kyushu region.

Simple, functional, yet colorfully elegant and eclectic forms range from tea

bowls, bowls, and plates, to pitchers, pickling jars, and large lidded

vessels.

Other featured artists will include Joe Ablow, Roz Ablow, Naftali Bezem,

Jeffrey Hessing, B.A. King, Mallory Lake, Gunnar Norrman, and Phil Rogers.

Gallery hours are Monday through Saturday, 10 am to 5:30 pm; Sunday 1 to 5 pm.

Pucker Gallery is at 171 Newbury Street. Telephone, 617/267-9473.