Visionary Boston Exhibit To Open At Framingham State Danforth Mueseum

FRAMINGHAM, MA — A new exhibition opening this weekend at Framingham State University’s Danforth Art Museum offers a closer look at the work of three artists who played an important role in defining the Boston art world during the mid-20th Century.

Visionary Boston is about "artistic relationships, shared visions, and the fluid boundaries between artistic mediums." It will go on display starting on Saturday and continue through June 4.

The exhibit features the work of John Brook, Steven Trefonides, and Kahlil Gibran, as well as their contemporaries.

"The artistic experimentation among these artists fed into the mystical, imaginative, and otherworldly subject matter that permeates much of the work in this exhibition," according to a news release.

Brook was one of the artists at the center of this period of connectivity among artists in Boston. He brought them together, photographed them, and encouraged experimentation with the medium.

Brook introduced Steven Trefonides to photography, a medium Trefonides mastered along with painting, leading to a prolific career in both. He also built his own lenses and taught painter and sculptor Kahlil Gibran to do the same.

Gibran’s otherworldly figures in bronze, on canvas, and on paper reflect his own attempts to expand and alter vision, and his ability to master multiple mediums in order to do it.

In addition to the opening of Visionary Boston, the Danforth will also be opening an exhibition featuring recent acquisitions in the Permanent Collection.

“The Danforth’s collection is organic, constantly growing to reflect contemporary, regional artists and the historical works that helped shape and inform artwork in the New England region,” says Museum Director and Curator Jessica Roscio.

“Over the last three years, almost 200 works have been accessioned into the permanent collection. A selection of these recent acquisitions will be on view this spring, spanning across different mediums and eras to showcase some of the amazing works that have been added.”

Danforth Museum is closed through Feb. 17 while the new exhibitions are installed, but is regularly open to the public Tuesday through Sunday from noon to 5 p.m. Advanced registration isn't required.