Co-Producers Tony Fusco and Robert Four are pleased to announce the Eighteenth Annual Boston International Fine Art Show (BIFAS), to take place Thursday - Sunday, November 13-16, 2014 at The Cyclorama at the Boston Center for The Arts, 539 Tremont Street in Boston's hip and historic South End.  More than 3,000 original works of art will be on offer. The show opens with a Gala Preview on Thursday, November 13 from 5:30 to 8:30pm to benefit Friends of the Boston Park Rangers Mounted Unit (www.SaveBostonsHorses.org). Weekend hours are Friday 1pm-8pm, Saturday 11am-8pm and Sunday 11am-5pm.  Tickets are $15, under 12 free. Tickets include complimentary special guest speakers and panels, re-admission, show catalog, and coat check.  A bistro café, and discount and valet parking are also available.  For information, visit www.FineArtBoston.com or call 617-363-0405.

All eyes in the art world will be on Boston the weekend of the show, as the long-anticipated public re-opening of the Harvard Art Museums in their new Renzo Piano-designed facility takes place on Sunday November 16, 2014.   The renovation and expansion of the museums’ landmark building in Cambridge will bring three museums - the Fogg Museum, the Busch-Reisinger Museum, and Arthur M. Sackler Museum - and their collections together under one roof for the first time.  It is the perfect weekend for art lovers to visit Boston this fall.

Diversity is the key word for BIFAS this year, the only show of its kind in New England.  With no restrictions on the type of work that may be shown, works on offer range from fine original prints priced at a few hundred dollars to museum-quality masterpiece paintings priced in the millions.  The show enjoys a stunning mix of blue chip traditional works, 20th Century modernist genres and today's outstanding contemporary artists. Last year, close to 3,500 people attended the show, which saw very strong sales.

Just a sampling of the galleries and specializations that will offer a stunning international array of artists includes, among others: 

• Traditional and contemporary American art in a wide variety of mediums and price ranges will be offered by Argosy Gallery (ME), Bowersock Gallery (MA & FL), Center Street Studio (MA), Emerge Fine Art (NC), The Gallery at Four India (MA), Marine Arts Gallery (MA), McGowan Fine Art (NH), Newbury Fine Arts (MA), Principle Gallery (VA & SC), Quidley & Company (MA), Renjeau Gallery (MA), Martha Richardson Fine Art (MA), Nicki Solomon Fine Art (MA), and William Vareika Fine Arts (RI).  

•  Notable special focus presentations include: Adelson Galleries Boston (MA), presenting a one-man show of works by Jamie Wyeth, concurrent with the groundbreaking show at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; and Lawrence Fine Art (NY) presenting the work of arguably the most notable female American Pop artist Marjorie Virginia Strider, (1931-2014) who just passed away in August.  Perhaps best known for her work inspired by images of pin-up girls, Strider was a major player in the 1960s avant-garde scene.

• International artists will be offered by Quantum Contemporary Art (UK); Century Guild Chicago (IL), which specializes in artists of the Vienna Secession; Susanna J. Fichera Fine Art (ME), with modernist Italian and Italian-American artists; Post Impressionist Gallery (CA), with an outstanding collection of French paintings; From Russia with Art (MA) featuring contemporary Russian artists; and Asian Art Gallery (MA), with groundbreaking work primarily from contemporary Indian artists.

• BIFAS SOLO! New this year, BIFAS presents three outstanding and very different solo artists: David Brega of Massachusetts, Mona Ciciovan of Quebec, and photographer Onne van der Wal of Rhode Island.

The Gala Preview will benefit Friends of the Boston Park Rangers Mounted Unit. Established in 2008 to preserve the Mounted Unit while Boston was under fiscal pressure, the six horses that patrol the nine parks of The Emerald Necklace were going to be cut.  Thanks to generous donations Mystic, Otis, Frederick, Liberty, Baron and Winston continue to provide a safety net in our parks. Each year, the funds raised by the Friends ensure the continuation of the Mounted Unit. Gala tickets are $250 for the VIP Reception at 5:30pm and $125 for the Gala at 6:30pm. Tickets may be purchased online at www.SaveBostonsHorses.org

The Gala Preview, bolstered by the show’s Honorary Committee, has blossomed in to one of Boston’s premier social and cultural events. In addition to Governor Deval L. Patrick and Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh, the Honorary Committee has attracted the participation of numerous museum directors including Judith Dolkart, Director, Addison Gallery of American Art; Jennifer Gross, Director, DeCordova Museum; Nick Capasso, Director, Fitchburg Art Museum; Malcolm Rogers, Director, MFA Boston; and a number of well-known Boston area museum curators.

In 2011 at The Cyclorama, Fusco & Four also re-launched The Ellis Boston Antiques Show, and the company's spring show: "AD20/21:Art & Design of the 20th & 21st Centuries" recently celebrated its 7th anniversary.  The Cyclorama provides the ideal venue for all three shows.  A large circular rotunda and adjacent salons encourage visitors to both linger and wander.  The historic structure is located in the heart of the BCA complex, which boasts four theatres, a gallery, the Boston Ballet School, 50 artist studios and other facilities.  There are more than a dozen "hot" restaurants and nightspots within a five-minute walk, making it a focal point for cultural life in the city.

It is fitting that the shows take place at The Cyclorama, which was built in 1884 for the express purpose of housing a huge circular painting - The Battle of Gettysburg - 400 feet in circumference and 50 feet high, executed by French artist Paul Philippoteaux.  Cyclorama

paintings were enormously popular in the 19th-century.  It is estimated that from 1884 until it was withdrawn in 1892, more than 200,000 people viewed Philippoteaux' s huge canvas.  Following a  $12 million restoration started in 2005 by Olin Conservation of Great Falls, Virginia, the painting was installed in the Gettysburg Museum and Visitor Center in Gettysburg, where it reopened in September 2008.

“We are thrilled with the range and diversity for our 18th annual show, which speaks to an increasingly global art market and to the constantly growing diversity of Boston’s population,” comments Co-Producer Tony Fusco.  “With just 40 galleries, show goers can see a whole world of art, renew their love of their favorite artists and periods, as well as make new discoveries.”

For information on all of Fusco & Four’s Boston art and design shows and events, visit www.BostonArtFairs.com or call 617-363-0405.