2018

Traveling CVPA Gorey Exhibition Chosen Top 20 in US for 2017

Hyperallergic Magazine Recognizes Illustration Faculty James Edwards's Show on List

Event photos courtesy of, Luke Wunsch-Edwards & Massachusetts College of Art and Design

CVPA is proud to announce that curator, James Edwards, Full-Time Lecturer in Illustration, Department of Art + Design, has received national attention from Hyperallergic Magazine for his exhibition, "E" is for Elephants, The Etchings of Edward Gorey at the President's Gallery, Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Boston - as one of the top 20 US exhibitions for the year 2017. Best of 2017: Our Top 20 Exhibitions Across the United States

Gorey Illustration courtesy of © The Edward Gorey Charitable Trust

James had originally curated this show for UMass Dartmouth's University Art Gallery with the contributions of CVPA Gallery Director Viera Levitt, Professor Emerita Dr. Memory Holloway, Professors Jan Fairbairn and Spencer Ladd, and undergraduate and graduate assistants. Due to its original popularity in New Bedford, the exhibition had traveled beyond its origins; first to UMass Lowell; then to St. Lawrence University, Canton, NY; and finally to MassArt in the Winter of 17. Edward Gorey at MassArt shares this 'Top 20' spotlight with exhibitions of the work of other such historical figures as; Walker Evans, Johannes Vermeer and distinguished performance artist/sculptor Nick Cave and with locations from the National Gallery in DC to Mass MoCA to Art Inst. Chicago.

Event photos courtesy of, Luke Wunsch-Edwards & Massachusetts College of Art and Design

In the Hyperallergic article critic Heather Kapplow writes of James's exhibition, "Some of the best shows in 2017 came from the marvelous archives institutions have access to, especially when they are willing to dig into the spider web corners of those archives. One of these shows was "E" Is For Elephants: The Etchings of Edward Gorey, a quirky look at Gorey’s late-in-life obsession with elephants at Massachusetts College of Art. A celebration of Gorey’s enigmatic (and decidedly queer) way of being (in) the world, it’s also nice to see a master artist, actively (“gleefully,” says curator James A. Edwards), choosing to be a community college novice at a point in his career when, as an international cult hero, he could have been easily resting on his laurels". Here Kapplow refers to Gorey's last decade explorations with a new medium - namely printmaking.

James Edwards with Edward Gorey Illustration

Photograph of James Edwards courtesy of Viera Levitt

A note on the magazine: Hyperallergic describes itself as "...a forum for serious, playful and radical thinking". The Brooklyn-based online arts magazine, founded by the art critic Hrag Vartanian, is cited by the TED blog as one of the "Top 100 Websites You Should Use". According to Wikipedia, critic Holland Cotter, of The New York Times, praised the magazine for "...its revival in popular art criticism".