| It’s
a Saturday night in February and
group of hip, twenty-somethings
have already found their way into
a subterranean studio in Maverick
Square. Improvisational music
from an meandering eight-man
ensemble called the Sunburned
Hand of the Man greets them
before they can even say
"Hello." Exciting as
the sounds may be this is hardly
the best way to greet one’s
guests. But this is an opening
night for something to see rather
than hear. The night moves on.
The consensus on the band appears
to be divided: some ride the
groove of the outer aural fringe.
Others just wish the band
–led by a scary fellow with
horns in his head –would
just tone it down; others wish
that the band could at least play
a soothing tune in the key of C,
which would go nicely with all
those objects d'art on the walls
and floor.
Before long
a fiery poet, clearly unconfused
about his sexuality, takes to the
starlight. Clad in black with a
Mohawk, this passionate flame of
does to words what Sunburned Hand
of the Man did to musical notes
-- amusing the audience with
poetic bombast and a good chuckle
here and there. He speaks of
committing acts with Joe Camel
which would definitely be illegal
in Georgia and, were he to
declare them loudly in Maverick
Square, he would find himself
facing a long walk home.
As the
audience adjusts to this
nocturnal atonality of voice and
sound, the host of this grand
opening weaves in and out of the
social circles. Smiling like a
resurrected Andy Warhol, the
shoeless host with daffy
black-rimmed glasses captures his
guests and their social graces on
a Hi8 video recorder, a tool far
better than the great Pop
Artist’s Polaroid. No one
seems to mind since they’ll
probably never see the tape.
For the
intrepid who’ve decided to
explore the outer periphery of
Boston’s art scene, Maverick
Square is the light at the end of
the tunnel. For longtime
residents introduced to this flip
side of Eastie, Maverick Square
will never be the same. The
fabled square -- once the
stomping ground of aging Mafiosi
and mysterious storefronts --
games has evolved into a campy
salon that features the
occasional cross-dresser.
That’s because Jim Manning
and his year-old gallery,
ArtVigor, is opening the door for
artist and audience as the
city’s artistic community
grows outward.
Born in
South Boston, Manning isn’t
as well known as another recent
Southie emigre, Ray Flynn, who
moved to Eastie to add
credibility to his run for
Congress. But at 23 years of age,
Manning, New England School of
Art and Design (NESAD) student,
painter, and security guard at
the Museum of Fine Arts is trying
to add some credibility and spunk
to an arts community that needs
to look beyond its Newbury Street
and Ft. Point Channel borders.
For Manning and his compatriots,
the tony, comfortable downtown
establishment is hard to crack.
To open those doors, that first
crack of public displays so
crucial to the young artist,
Manning has set aside nearly 1200
square feet of gallery space at
63 Maverick Square.
"The
biggest challenge is that people
don’t show young
artists," says the
soft-spoken Manning as he sits at
his kitchen table trying to
repair the damage done to his
gallery by June’s heavy
rainfall. "There are not
many of venues for artists to
show except for the schools. But
that’s a different
context."
Besides,
says Manning, openings should be
fun and that isn’t always
the case with academic
exhibitions or Newbury Street
galleries -- no matter how many
people with tattoos or pierced
noses turn out. "I like the
idea of having fun rather than
just having wine, cheese and
crackers," he says.And when
was the last time an overwrought
gallery owner on Newbury Street
with Mother Nature? As Newbury
Street Gallery owners wrestled
with the latest rent increase,
Manning was busy pumping water
out of his basement gallery. The
unusually heavy June storms
flooded his gallery. Fortunately
the rain only slightly damaged
some of Manning’s own work
but not that of his clients. But
out of adversity comes the kind
of character and hard-work that
makes ArtVigor both exciting and
urgent.
Since it
opened last year, ArtVigor has
presented five exhibitions -- all
of them group shows. And if the
five shows share anything,
it’s Manning’s method
for pulling together shows. A
meticulous keeper of notebooks,
Manning goes out to interview
artists he knows rather that
relying on advertising.
"There’s a lot of
frustration," notes Manning
who emphasizes personal contact.
"People are tired of sending
their slides and resumes to
Newbury Street. " In
addition, the commission charged
by dealers and owners downtown
approaches 50 percent; too much
of a compromise and a burden for
the new artist, he notes.
"There’s
really no commercial pressure (at
ArtVigor) but it’s a
professional setting," he
remarks. Beyond the economics of
buying and selling, Manning also
considers his audience whom he
likes to entertain. Group shows
bring in a sampling of the
artists' friends and families.
And a group show is likely to
sustain an aficionado who’s
less bound to walk out if the
solo artist's exhibit fails to
make it to first base. Even the
most discriminating lover of art
is bound to find something.
One would expect a
certain degree of flamboyance to
go with a younger generation of
painters, sculptors and
multimedia artists. But Manning,
who derives his influences from
Van Gogh, Max Beckmann, early
Henri Matisse as well as Jackson
Pollock and Warhol, aims for
sophistication over shock value.
"There’s not much you
can do to shock people visually
every body part has been shown.
I’ve seen that people today
are turned off by that. The
things that drive people are more
and more subtle, " he
explains.
"I
like playing with the diversity
of the artists. It’s always
a group show," he says.
"There’s something for
everyone." And that’s
important to young artists.
Manning often likes to work
across generations mostly because
he speaks from experience.
"When
I first started out at NESAD I
started interning with gallery
director Addison Parks,"
recalls Manning. "He did all
these group shows with different
artists and he liked to sneak in
a student now and then just to
give someone like me a
chance."
In the same
vein, Manning has built upon that
experience. For example an
emerging multimedia artist such
as Meryl Hamilton can show side
by side by with award-winning
photographer Bonnie Porter, whose
work has been shown at the
Institute of Contemporary Art and
the DeCordova Museum.
"I
kept hearing Jim’s name but
I wasn’t putting his name to
his face," says Hamilton,
who recently participated in the Torn
Apart show which concluded in
June. "I went to one of his
openings and I thought it was a
great idea. Here was this young
person who has the gusto and
genius to turn his apartment into
a gallery and I thought how
important that was to
artists."
For
Hamilton, ArtVigor offers an
intimacy, a bridge between patron
and artist. Hamilton pieced
together 980 wishbones to
resemble a wedding gown for an
untitled work that’s part of
her Wishful Thinking
series. As an installation, her
work speaks to the traditional
fairy tales handed down by her
family.
"It’s
nice to have people come up to me
and talk to me about my work and
what it was about," says an
illustrative Hamilton, a soon to
be graduate of Rochester
Institute of Technology.
One of
those clearly impressed with
Hamilton’s work is East
Boston’s Charles Giuliano,
the artist, teacher and critic
who also lent three photo
collages drawn upon his visits to
Spain and Germany to the recent
ArtVigor show. Giuliano, who
taught Manning art history at
NESAD, believes the
painter/curator’s dedication
to networking is essential to the
city’s arts community.
"He’s
made a real contribution in terms
of opening up his own living
space to give opportunities to an
interesting mix of established
artists as well as very young
experimental artists,"
explains Giuliano.
"It’s a great tribute
to him that veterans have been
willing to show with him with
little prospect of sales or media
attention."
ArtVigor is
merely the latest edition of the
unfurling of East Boston’s
arts community. ZuMix, a
multidimensional arts group, got
its start almost a decade ago in
the same building that now houses
ArtVigor. In 1995, a group of
roaming Reclamation Artists
turned the decrepit Boston East
site into an outdoor gallery of
open art. Two years ago, the
Kougeas Gallery opened in
historic Eagle Hill and is renown
drawing an art-buying public from
across the harbor and a stable of
artists from across the country.
The Reclamation project and other
connections drew Manning to East
Boston.
"Its a
good thing that any time that
youthful energy is applied to
further the borders, to push the
institutional limits," says
Mauricio Cordero, educational
coordinator for the Institute of
Contemporary Art who visited
ArtVigor recently. "We never
know where the artists who take
us to the next level will be
found."
Manning
says he would like to interact
more with East Boston arts
organizations like ZuMix. But for
now he’s offering some
inspiration for those young
artists who face limited choices.
"I
haven’t shown my stuff in a
show that I haven’t
curated," he remarks.
--Frank
Conte
Editor's
note: In early 1999, Jim Manning
moved ArtVigor to South Boston.
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