Gallery Talk with Lorri Berenberg and Stephen De Fronzo

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 9TH, 2016 AT 6:30PM

Curators, Lorri Berenberg and Stephen De Fronzo, will lead a discussion centered on the work of exhibiting artists in “Magnificent Obsessions.”

“Magnificent Obsessions”  in the Main Galleries reflects obsessive preoccupations with words, numbers, patterns, color systems, details that on closer inspection reveal more details hidden within; these are the fascinations explored by the so-called “outsider artists.” The label “outsider” generally refers to those artists working in isolation from and uninfluenced by the mainstream art world, either by choice or by circumstance.  Magnificent Obsessions presents the work of both emerging and established artists, some of whom are represented in museum collections and galleries, nationally and internationally.

For the past 17 years Stephen De Fronzo and Lorri Berenberg have at times collaborated in an effort to present the work of so-called “outsider artists” to the general public. They have worked together on exhibitions for the Gateway Gallery, the Berenberg Gallery in Boston, the Outsider Art Fair in New York, NY, VSA Arts in Boston, the Arsenal Center for the Arts in Watertown, MA, and the fall 2016 exhibition at Concord Art in Concord, MA.

Lorri Berenberg was the owner and director of the Berenberg Gallery, from 1999 – 2009. The Berenberg Gallery was the first and only gallery in the Boston area exclusively dedicated to showcasing the work of contemporary folk and self-taught artists, specializing in the work of artists with disabilities. She collaborated with studio art centers for artists with disabilities throughout New England, California, and the Midwest, obtaining the finest work by established and emerging artists. The gallery regularly participated in the International Outsider Art Fair in NYC.

Curator Biographies:

Stephen De Fronzo is currently the Artistic Director of Gateway Arts in Brookline, MA, a studio art center for artists with disabilities. For the past 30 years, he has been a key member of a team that has created this model center comprised of art studios, a gallery and store, which serves more than 100 artists through the non-profit human service corporation, Vinfen.  Mr. De Fronzo is an artist and teacher and was a founding member of the Jamaica Plain Arts Council. He received an MFA from Pratt Institute in New York and a BFA from Massachusetts College of Art in Boston.  Mr. De Fronzo has curated over 100 exhibitions for the Gateway Gallery in Brookline. He has worked with museum curators and gallerists across the country and around the world promoting and placing the work of Gateway artists in exhibitions and collections.

Lorri Berenberg is currently the Vice President of the Board of Trustees of the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum in Lincoln, MA where she chairs the Strategic Planning Committee and serves on the Learning and Engagement Committee (which she chaired for six years), Curatorial Programs Committee, Development Committee, and Trustee Executive Committee. She also served on the Fund for the Future Committee and the Search Committee for the deCordova’s new director.  Ms. Berenberg is also the Chairperson of the Advisory Committee for Gateway Arts in Brookline, MA, where she has been involved for over a decade. She is a member of the Lesley University Friends Group. She is a member of the Arlington Public Art Committee (a volunteer Town Committee) and serves on their steering committee for a major public art initiative to be launched in the Fall of 2016. She is a former member of the Board of Trustees at VSA Arts, Massachusetts where she currently serves on their Gallery and Exhibitions Committee. She has guest curated exhibitions at The Arsenal Center for the Arts in Watertown, MA; The Groton School in Groton, MA; VSA Arts in Boston, MA, Gateway Arts in Brookline, MA; Art Rocks Spy Pond in Arlington, MA and will be co-curating an exhibition at Concord Art in the Fall of 2016.

Prior to opening the gallery, Ms. Berenberg worked at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston where she served as the Associate Director for Outreach in Division of Education and Public Programs. During her twenty-two year tenure at the MFA, she developed some of the museum’s most popular and innovative programs, designed with the mission of making the museum more accessible to children, families, members of Boston’s inner city communities and visitors with disabilities. She helped to raise several significant endowments for these programs. Ms. Berenberg is an experienced educator as well as arts administrator.  Lorri Berenberg earned her M.Ed. from Lesley College and her B.A. from Tufts University. She lives in Arlington, MA with her husband, Rob Wilstein who is a visual artist and writer.