Best of the Day: “Crafted: Objects in Flux” Opens – August 25, 2015

Welcome to Best of the Day, our daily recommendation for what to check out around town. If you do one thing in Boston today, consider this.

Drag (2013) by Susie Ganch / Courtesy photo

Whether your concept of “arts and crafts” doesn’t go much further than that glazed pencil cup you made for your mom in second grade or you’re a card-carrying, MIG-welder-wielding member of the Artisan’s Asylum, the Museum of Fine Arts’ “Crafted: Objects in Flux” exhibit will drop your jaw with its survey of contemporary craft-based art.

“It really is going to expand everyone’s perception of what craft can look like,” says Edward Saywell, chair of the Linde Family Wing for Contemporary Art. “It’s really blurring all of the boundaries between art, craft, and design.”

Bringing together over 30 unconventional artists from all over the world, “Crafted” is about as close to anarchy as you’re likely to get at the MFA for a while, a dizzying array of 3-D printed works, hair braiding—and even pyrography, which translates to “writing with fire,” from artist Etsuko Ichikawa. “She’s using the molten glass to create these calligraphic drawings on paper, literally burning it into the surface,” says Saywell.

The exhibit—on display at the museum through January 10—will feature digitally wrought jewelry like Doug Bucci’s dyed nylon necklace right alongside more conventional pieces by Ian Stell and Canadian potter Greg Payce. According to curator Emily Zilber, these objects “have a foot in the world of craft, and a foot in the world of contemporary art.”

Among the most anticipated works is a laser-enhanced replica of the Boston skyline, rendered in glass by Michigan’s Norwood Viviano. He used everything from aerial photography to U.S. geological survey data to make this thing, so there’s a pretty good chance you’ll be able to point out your house somewhere in it.

If this stuff doesn’t inspire you to load up on supplies over at Blick Art and start making your own handcrafted creative works, we honestly don’t know what will.

Exhibit runs August 25-January 10, Museum of Fine Arts, 465 Huntington Ave., Boston, 617-267-9300, mfa.org.