Barbara and Steven Grossman Gallery + Mrs. E. Ross Anderson Auditorium

Opening to Boston audiences this winter during the one year anniversary of the first mass protests in Tahrir Square, "Histories of Now: Six Artists from Cairo" brings together work by some of the most inspiring and influential video and new media artists working in Egypt today, including a multi-channel video installation by the late Ahmed Basiony featured in the Egyptian Pavilion of the 54th Venice Biennale.

SMFA Atrium + Project Space

Work from current drawing students.

In this second installment of the Library Sounds series, Shawn Greenlee joins us for a performance and artist's talk. Shawn has been working through performances and sound installations that transform visual images into sound and is performing in town this month with Cut Hands (William Bennett/Whitehouse). He's got an extensive recording/performing/teaching history that you can check out at www.shawngreenlee.com . 

SMFA Room B311

Author Steve Almond joins us for an evening of art and politics. A widely acclaimed short story writer and essayist, Almond's recent books include the collection of stories God Bless America and non-fiction titles Rock and Roll Will Save Your Life and Candyfreak: A Journey through the Chocolate Underbelly of America. Almond writes for the Boston Globe and the Los Angeles Times, and he taught creative writing at Boston College until 2006 when his open letter of resignation was published in the Globe as a response to the college's selection of Condoleeza Rice as commencement speaker.

SMFA, Room B311

"Divola's series is titled 'Dark Star,' a point of light in the universe too faint for direct observation. His domestic ruins suggest social collapse, but these quietly alarming photographs also resonate within our cold cosmos of hidden black sites and secret renditions. They suggest something sinister as well as sad, brilliantly illuminating our conflicted recent history." – Christopher Knight, Los Angeles Times, January 22, 2009