From Cate McQuaid’s review of “Under A Dismal Boston Sky” for The Boston Globe:
“Under a Dismal Boston Skyline” sounds bleak, but the exhibition, at Boston University’s Faye G., Jo, and James Stone Gallery, celebrates art that grew like a flower from under a rock.
The show takes its name from a photograph by Mark Morrisroe, who died in 1989, at 30, from AIDS-related complications. He was a leading light of a group in the 1970s and ’80s, now known as the Boston School, which rejected two things: institutional parameters about art, and the city’s cultural conservatism.
They chronicled their lives in intimate, frank photos and videos, setting a searingly personal tone for an era shaped by AIDS. Many (Nan Goldin, Doug and Mike Starn) went on to art-world success.