The Society of Arts and Crafts (175 Newbury Street, Boston, 617.266.1810), the country’s oldest nonprofit crafts organization, does not conform to what many associate with the American Arts and Crafts movement. And its upcoming exhibit actually yanks the rug out from any rose-scented, granny-in-a-rocking-chair connotations of craftwork. “POP Craft,” which runs from August 8 through October 22, features the work of 17 American artisans, each of whom takes old-school Pop Art techniques, like placing iconic images in an unexpected context or fiddling with the proportions of common objects, and applies them using materials that don’t necessarily fit into old-school conceptions of the fine arts. The only requirement was that the artists work in at least one of the media that the Society regularly exhibits: ceramics, glass, fiber, metal, or wood. That leaves more than enough room for unfettered creativity. Joseph Cavalieri, for instance, makes stained-glass windows with designs involving Simpsons characters, borrowing from the imagery of crucifixion, saints, martyrs common to church windows. North Carolinian Rick Beck creates oversized glass representations of utilitarian objects such as screws and nuts. Karen Shapiro from California also blows things out of proportion with a larger-than-life porcelain sculpture of a Viagra pill.
“About a year and a half ago, I started thinking about more commonly studied movements, like Pop Art,” said exhibitions director Fabio J. Fernández. “I was interested in getting a sense of how Pop Art translates into the different media that we exhibit. We selected artists from around the country working in some Pop Art–inspired way in these other media, whose statements are valid and strong. A sense of color is something I always thought of when thinking and talking about Pop Art — and a sense of humor. What are the contemporary objects that resonate and that become important? The Simpsons and Viagra are right up there.”
