Harvard Allston Education Portal
175 North Harvard St., Allston, MA 02134 (Barry’s Corner)
September 18 – October 31, 2014
Opening reception – Thursday Oct. 2nd
Carmela Cattuti, a member of Unbound Visual Arts, began painting in 1980 and has exhibited in numerous solo, group, and jury exhibitions. She designed her own art study program which included five years in Carmella Yager’s Painting and Drawing intensive at The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Carmela was commissioned by Boston’s Palmer and Dodge Law Firm to create a painting for their collection. She has also created paintings for set design and has painted murals for schools and private homes. She is an established yoga instructor and credits her creative process with the benefits of yoga. Carmela earned her B.A. European History from City College, NY and her M.A. from Boston College in English Literature. She is also a tour guide at the Institute of contemporary Art, Boston and recently completed her first novel: Between the Cracks.
Unbound Visual Arts, is a non-profit corporation based in Allston-Brighton and serving the Boston area. It was incorporated in late 2012 to enliven the creative economy in contemporary fine art for artists and art supporters through curated exhibitions, education and sharing. To date, Unbound has organized over 45 solo and group theme-based curated exhibitions at nine different venues in the area.
The Harvard Allston Education Portal (Ed Portal) is a vibrant space that fosters learning and exploration for Allston-Brighton residents of all ages. The Ed Portal was created to bring Harvard’s greatest strengths, world class teaching and research, to the Allston-Brighton community. The Ed Portal is the Allston-Brighton community’s front door to Harvard’s educational, cultural, arts, and recreational resources. More than a physical space, the Ed Portal is a strong link between the Harvard community and Allston-Brighton community.
Unbound Visual Arts, Inc., and the Harvard Allston Education Portal are very pleased to announce the opening of Carmela Cattuti: Fashionably Urban. This exhibition, at the Harvard Allston Education Portal Art Galleries, features oil paintings that present the serene side of animal life through their mindful eyes. The exhibition, curated by John Quatrale, runs from September 18 – October 31, 2014.
This exhibition of oil paintings presents the relationships and vitality between fashion and urban places. These paintings explore Carmela’s love for historic urban spaces and landscapes as well as the fashions that are oftentimes a part of those spaces. Her paintings of shoes and dresses as well as the outdoor settings all call upon the use of geometric lines that highlight the grandeur and formality as well as the playfulness of the 19th and early 20th century and whose many remnants are still among us. She brings “curiosity and movement” through the use of color and shadows to the urban environment and her fashions. In addition to showcasing structures and cityscapes, including Isabella Stewart Gardner’s first house on Beacon St., she presents the urban side of fashion that is all around Boston even today and well as her other favorite cities – Paris, Florence and Venice. The fashions she portrays are eloquent examples of 19th and 20th century clothing that is just as eloquent and beautiful as the historic buildings that surround the fashion. For Carmela, her “paintings are about what is underneath the cityscape landscapes…” and she does just that in this exhibition.