Editor’s note: These listings, which focus on local galleries and artists, are free. Email them to features@recorder.com. The deadline is the Thursday before publication, by 8 a.m. Photographs of the art being exhibited are always welcome and will be happily run, space permitting.
LOOT, 62 Avenue A, Turners Falls. “Zuihitsu,” paintings by Greta Svalberg. Opening reception Friday, March 18, 5 to 8 p.m. through May 8.
BAYSTATE FRANKLIN MEDICAL CENTER, 164 High St., Greenfield: photography exhibit “Summertide Revery.” In the hall outside Oncology on the main floor. A collection of photographs by 20 members of the MeetUp group Base Camp Photo Adventures in the Pioneer Valley and Beyond. Reception/open house for the photographers will be Thursday, Feb. 25, 5:30 p.m. Through April.
ARTSPACE GALLERY, 15 Mill St., Greenfield. “M Heinze — Collage, Color and Composition.” Artwork of M Heinze in the Artspace gallery. Through March 25. Hours: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, noon to 2:30 p.m. and 4-6 p.m., Thursday, noon to 1:30 p.m. and 3:30 to 6 p.m. and by appointment. 772-6811.
AUGUSTA SAVAGE GALLERY, UMass, Amherst. “I Breathe With You.” The exhibition will be featured in two parts. The first part finished March 11. The exhibition features artwork from the U.S. and more than a dozen other countries. Through paintings, prints, drawings, photos, digital projections and videos, artists have expressed passionate concerns for equity and justice. Free. 545-5177.
BURNETT GALLERY, Jones Library, 43 Amity St., Amherst: “Animals Within,” prints and paintings by Hilary Wilbur Ferro, visual art teacher at Pioneer Valley Regional School in Northfield. Through March 30.
DEERFIELD VALLEY ART ASSOCIATION’S WINTER SHOW at Wilson’s Department store’s third floor Abbott Gallery, Main Street, Greenfield. The gallery will be open Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays during store hours. Through March 12.
GREENFIELD COMMUNITY COLLEGE, “Groundless Wayfinding” work by Fafnir Adamites. Greenfield Community College, South Gallery, Main Campus, 1 College Drive. Through Feb. 23. Adamites is an artist living in Turners Falls. This show is all new work including paper sculpture, feltmaking and found objects that function as tools, insinuations and malfunctions.
HALL GALLERY, Jewish Community of Amherst, 742 Main St., Amherst. “Works on Paper: aqueous media and gouache.” By Diane Schlappi. Hours: Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Sunday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Through April 29.
ERIC CARLE MUSEUM OF PICTURE BOOK ART, 125 West Bay Road, Amherst. ■ “The Art of Eric Carle: From A to Z.” The exhibition highlights art from Carle’s 50-year career, examining his many themes, interests, and artistic techniques. Through March 20. Free with museum admission. www.carlemuseum.org
THE GREENFIELD GALLERY AND FINE ART PRINTING, 231 Main St., Greenfield. Varied local artists with work across media, including smaller work for a variety of gift-giving options. Large sculptural works in wood, as well as ceramics, prints and jewelry. Fine art printing services include archival, gallery-quality prints up to 44 inches wide, photography, reproduction and editing. Professional photographic services are also available. Tuesday & Wednesday: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Thursday & Friday, noon to 8 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
HISTORIC DEERFIELD is a nationally recognized museum offering tours of period houses and the Flynt Center of Early New England Life, 80 Old Main St., Deerfield. Open Saturdays and Sundays through April 10 from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Visitors can enjoy current exhibition and “The Museum’s Attic” gallery. ■ The Henry N. Flynt Library will be open Tuesday through Friday, 9 a.m. to noon, and 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. ■ The Museum Gift Shop and Bookstore is open every day except Tuesday, 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The museum will reopen for the 2016 season on Saturday, April 16. Seasonal winter admission: $7 adults, $5 youth (6 to 17), under 6, Deerfield residents and members free. Historic Deerfield’s museum houses are closed to the public during the winter months (January through mid-April), however pre-arranged tours by appointment, school tours and group tours are scheduled. For more information, call 775-7214 or email: tours@historic-deerfield.org
MASS MOCA, off Marshall Street, North Adams. Fall/winter/spring hours: 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Closed Tuesdays. www.MASSMoCA.org ■ Liz Deschenes: Gallery 4.1.1 Deschenes takes the medium of photography itself and its conditions as the subject of her work. Described as “self-reflexive” or “concrete photography,” Deschenes’ practice makes visible the materials, properties, and chemical processes of photography rather than represent the external world. The complexity of the resulting images is evident in the range of descriptions assigned them, which includes meditative, elegiac, playful, captivating, somber, surprising and mind-altering. ■ “Artists’ Choice: An Expanded Field of Photography.” In conjunction with a solo exhibition of work specifically made for MASS MoCA, Liz Deschenes has curated a group exhibition featuring six artists whose work expands the field of photography. Dana Hoey, Miranda Lichtenstein, Craig Kalpakjian, Josh Tonsfeldt, Sara VanDerBeek, and Randy West will be represented with a combination of new and existing work (chosen by the artists themselves). Several of the featured artists make work that is considered photographic but is camera-less, while, for others, photography has laid the groundwork for the moving image or functions as a jumping-off point. In this major mid-career museum survey, “Landscape Seen & Imagined” documents Ross’ long-standing project to reconcile realism and abstraction. The exhibition takes place throughout two buildings, six galleries, and an exterior performing arts courtyard. Among other works, the exhibition includes a 24-foot-high-by-114-foot-long photograph on raw wood that spans the length of MASS MoCA’s tallest gallery and an immersive installation of animated video on 12 separate 24-foot-high screens. Ross’ hyper-detailed photographs of hurricane waves and mountains are included along with a new “invisible art” project featuring animated virtual elements only accessible by means of the viewer’s smartphone. ■ “Jim Shaw: Entertaining Doubts.” Since the 1970s, Shaw has created a vast body of work spanning diverse media and reference points. Shaw’s work mines the essentials of American cultural detritus, from comic books, pulp novels and album covers, to vintage advertisements, movie posters and noise rock. Originating from these sources, the work often features recurring characters including himself, his friends, fictional superheroes, politicians and film stars. ■ Bibliothecaphilia. For centuries, libraries have exerted a quiet sort of gravity, pulling us in with the promise that for a while, in the hushed, book-filled corridors, we can exceed ourselves. But, in this age of eBooks and library apps, does the physical and philosophical space of the library remain relevant? And what qualities define a library? Participating artists include Clayton Cubitt, Jonathan Gitelson, Susan Hefuna, Meg Hitchcock, Dan Peterman and Jena Priebe. Perhaps no work in Bibliothecaphilia likes the library more than Cubitt’s Hysterical Literature. In each “session” of Hysterical Literature, the camera captures a woman from across a table as she reads aloud from a book that she has selected for her “session.” Slowly we become aware of an unseen force — is it the book or the unseen assistant, pleasuring her with a vibrator below the table, which sends her into titular hysterics? One woman writes of her session, “This is my revolutionary act of selfishness … my virtual picket sign … my one-woman rally … my rebel yell … my sedentary march … a call for dialogue and understanding.” Through March.
SAWMILL RIVER ARTS GALLERY, next to the Book Mill, Montague Center. “From Darkness Into Light” Members spring show through May 1. Art works include fiber, ceramics, photography, muti-media, paintngs, drawings, gouards and paper constructions. Reception on Saturday, April 2, 1-4 p.m., with Sawmill River Arts Gallery member artists Jaye Pope, Sharon Loehr-Lapan, Lana Fiala, Chris Pellerin and Patricia Czepiel Hayes.Hours: Mondays and Wednesdays, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.; Thursday through Sunday, noon to 6 p.m. 367-2885, sawmillriverarts.com
SHELBURNE ARTS COOPERATIVE, Bridge Street, Shelburne Falls: “Earthly Delights,” a group show featuring paintings, fiber, jewelry, photography, wood and pottery by artists in the Shelburne Arts Cooperative. Hours: Sunday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Friday and Saturday, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. 625-9324, www.shelburneartscoop.com. Through March 28.
YIDDISH BOOK CENTER, 1021 West St., Amherst: “A Town Known as Auschwitz: the Life and Death of a Jewish Community.” Though best known by the infamous name it shared with the camps the Nazis built there — Auschwitz — the Polish town of Oswiecim was for centuries home to both Jews and non-Jews, who lived together peacefully. “A Town Known as Auschwitz” presents the rich history of the community, which goes much deeper than the notorious camps, through historical photographs that tell the stories of Jewish families who lived there before the war. Hours: Sunday to Friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Through March 27, 2016. Yiddishbookcenter.org