FALL ARTS

Get cozy with culture

By SHAULA CLARK, CHRISTINE LIU + JULIA REISCHEL

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FACING SCULPTURE | DECORDOVA MUSEUM AND SCULPTURE PARK | 9.1-1.13

Sometimes the DeCordova feels like the Island of Misfit Toys: a serene little iceberg of insanity floating just outside Boston, where desecrated Furbys, solar-powered steampunk jellyfish and giant fiberglass babies head to roost. But what about the faces behind this sculptural freak show? Photographer Ricardo Barros has taken it upon himself to round up a handful of sculptors (including Henri Matisse's grandson Paul), snapping provocative portraits of these wax-casting, bronze-melting, stone-scraping mad scientists. [decordova.org]

DIDIER MASSARD | ROBERT KLEIN GALLERY | 9.7-11.23

You know how Pixar spent thousands of hours and millions of dollars perfecting the way light reflected off coral in Finding Nemo? That's the gist of what Didier Massard does, using his considerable talent for lighting imaginary objects that inhabit the fanciful landscapes he conjures up on his computer. The result is somewhere between Fantasia and The Incredibles -- and wholly out of the Mouse's clutches. [robertkleingallery.com]

THAT '80S PRINT SHOW | HARTJE GALLERY | 9.14-11.3

That shapely divot in your couch didn't get there by itself, and the local arts community knows this. So the title for this latest Hartje exhibit would appear to be a desperate appeal to the part of your lizard brain that wants to watch endless Rock of Love marathons. But that's where the sugarcoating ends -- this artist lineup (including Jennifer Bartlett, Aaron Fink and Mimmo Paladino) likes to keep things scratchy, raw and scrawly. [hartjegallery.com]

JEFF DEGOLIER: FRINGE BENEFITS | PROOF GALLERY | 9.22-11.3 (OPENING RECEPTION 9.22)

A duct-taped crumpled Styrofoam cup offsets a neon green knob, a motor spins in the proximity of a shaggy orange paper grass skirt, and there's an awfully disturbing amount of tinsel. Brooklyn-based sculptor DeGolier compiles junk parts and discarded bits into fantastical kinetic constructions that colorfully "evoke the hum of post-industrial urban life." The delicate balance of ungainly objects hanging from lengths of cord and yarn makes for a lyrical, futuristic post-apocalyptic landfill -- yum. [proof-gallery.com]

IPSWICH DAYS: ARTHUR WESLEY DOW AND HIS HOMETOWN | ADDISON GALLERY OF AMERICAN ART | 9.22-1.6

There's more to Phillips Academy than just trust funds and wacky moon grades -- there's also a gallery tucked in there, amid all that ivy. Their latest exhibit fetes the work of highly revolutionary (and highly dead) arts educator Arthur Wesley Dow, displaying a newly discovered album of his cyanotypes (blue-tinted daguerreotypes). And if your ass is too lazy to hop on the commuter rail, just wait until October, when more of Dow's work hits the MFA. [andover.edu/addison]

WALK THIS WAY | MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS | 9.27-3.23 (COLLEGE NIGHT 9.27)

Look down, twinkle toes. The MFA is juxtaposing footwear from its collection -- from a tottering neoclassical 1790s pump to Dice-K's cleats -- throughout its galleries, constructing a fine sort of scavenger hunt between the exhibited artwork and its corresponding shoes. Remember Don't Eat the Pictures, where all the Muppets got to run around the Met all night, and Big Bird ended up helping an Egyptian ghost prince go to heaven? Well, this is nothing like that. Concentrate on the shoes, betches. [mfa.org]

ALEXANDER APÓSTOL | SPACE OTHER GALLERY | 10.4-10.27 (OPENING RECEPTION 10.5)

The fragmented modernization of Venezuela compels Madrid-based artist Alexander Apóstol to take large, luscious photographs of modern architectural icons for his famed work, Residente Pulido ("Polished Flats"). This exhibition, curated by José Luis Falconi of the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at Harvard University, includes both photography and video pieces from the artist that prod and poke the political and cultural conflicts of Venezuelan gender identity, urbanity and modernity. Spoiler: There are palm trees. [spaceother.org]

WITNESSES | AXIOM GALLERY | 10.12-12.1 (OPENING RECEPTION 10.12)

Axiom once again brings together art-minded techies in its two-group show about immigration policy and war. S.A. Bachman and David John Attyah -- the artists who make up the artsy-activist group THINK AGAIN -- will literally project their outrage about the xenophobia of the immigration debate upon unsuspecting buildings around town, so be ready for a field trip. Meanwhile, artist Denise Marika will respond to the conflict in the world by subjecting her body to violence and her viewers to texts in Braille. [axiomart.org]

GABRIEL & GILBERTO COLAÇO + NICK RODRIGUES | RHYS GALLERY | 10.18-11.8

Into twins? Do ironic artistic takes on mobile electronic gadgets and the isolation of the self get you hot? The Rhys has exactly what you need with yet another satisfying lineup of avant-garde young bucks intent on warping your sense of reality. Twin brothers Gabriel & Gilberto Colaço compete for space on jointly painted canvases, producing segmented, rainbow-colored figures. They'll be showing alongside Nick Rodrigues, who makes the iPod his muse for a variety of sculptures. [rhysgallery.com]

DAWOUD BEY: PICTURES 1975-2007 | HOWARD YEZERSKI GALLERY | 11.2-12.18 (OPENING RECEPTION 11.3)

Working from the assumption that large-format, highly saturated, intensely luscious photographs are the best way to capture a generation, Dawoud Bey has been making portraits of every young whelp he can get to sit for his camera since 1975. His latest project, Class Pictures, is a set of studied portraits of high school students from across the country, which he hopes will be a "rich and complex description" of today's youth. [howardyezerskigallery.com]

ALSO COMING THIS FALL:

FABRICATIONS: A SHOW OF ARTISTS WORKING IN FABRIC | BRICKBOTTOM GALLERY | 9.14-10.3

AMERICA'S PARADISE AND ISLA DEL ENCANTO: CONTEMPORARY ART FROM THE AMERICAN CARIBBEAN | GROSSMAN GALLERY @ SCHOOL OF THE MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS | 9.18-10.13

GLOBAL FEMINISMS | DAVIS MUSEUM @ WELLESLEY COLLEGE | 9.19-12.9 (OPENING RECEPTION 9.19)

BABY BOOM: POSTER CLASSICS FROM THE FIFTIES & EARLY SIXTIES | INTERNATIONAL POSTER GALLERY | 9.19-11.18

SENSACIONAL! MEXICAN STREET GRAPHICS | STEPHEN D. PAINE GALLERY @ MASSART | 9.24-12.1 (OPENING RECEPTION 9.26)

DESIGN LIFE NOW | INSTITUTE OF CONTEMPORARY ART | 9.28-1.6

NEW/NOW: 10 MAKERS FOR THE NEW MILLENNIUM PATHWAYS AND PROCESS | FULLER CRAFT MUSEUM | 9.29-1.6 (OPENING RECEPTION 9.30) [CL]

ANNE BERESFORD | JUDI ROTENBERG GALLERY | 10.1-11.10 (OPENING RECEPTION 10.11)

BILL FISHER | ARDEN GALLERY | 10.2-10.29 (OPENING RECEPTION 10.5)

STEPHEN COYLE: NEW PAINTINGS | CHASE GALLERY | 10.3-10.27 (OPENING RECEPTION 10.5)

ELIZABETH HATHAWAY & BO PETRAN: OFF THE WALL | ATLANTIC WORKS GALLERY | 10.4-10.29 (OPENING RECEPTION 10.4)

KARA WALKER: HARPER'S PICTORIAL HISTORY OF THE CIVIL WAR (ANNOTATED) | FOGG ART MUSEUM @ HARVARD | 10.6-11.11

ANDREW TAVARELLI: FLOATING WORLDS; KATHERINE D. CRONE: BOXED MEMORY | GALLERY ANTHONY CURTIS | 10.10-11.3 (OPENING RECEPTION 10.12)

ANNE PERETZ: NEW PAINTINGS | PEPPER GALLERY | 10.12-11.17 (OPENING RECEPTION 10.12)

SOUNDING THE SUBJECT: SELECTIONS FROM THE PAMELA AND RICHARD KRAMLICH COLLECTION AND THE NEW ART TRUST | LIST VISUAL ARTS CENTER @ MIT | 10.12-12.30 (OPENING RECEPTION 10.20)