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or a small state, Rhode Island packs a mighty artistic punch. The state’s fine arts scene is thriving. According to the Rhode Island State Council of the Arts, Rhode Island has the highest per-capita share of arts workers in New England (the nation’s sixth largest). It’s also a great place to buy art: A few years ago, Rhode Island became the first state in the nation to create a statewide sales tax exemption for purchasing original and limitededition art works. Home to world-renowned art and design schools, the state also boasts its fair share of famous artists: from painter Gilbert Stuart, who created the image of George Washington found on the dollar bill to contemporary glass artist Howard Ben Tré, a pioneer in the technique of hot glass casting to Rosa Peckham, a Paris-trained painter who helped establish the Providence Art Club in 1880. Your art tour begins in the Blackstone River Valley, an area bordering the Blackstone River and extending north from Pawtucket to Worcester, MA. Thanks to efforts by the Blackstone Valley Tourism Council, this area is an internationally recognized arts destination, with more than a dozen art galleries, music and theater venues. Its towns include Pawtucket, among the first communities in the state to establish an arts district and home to the Rhode
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Island Watercolor Society; and Woonsocket, home to the St. Ann Arts and Cultural Center, a former Roman Catholic Church featuring the largest collection of fresco paintings in North America. Just across the city line from Pawtucket is Providence, the state’s largest city and a vibrant arts, education and cultural center, home to Brown University and the Rhode Island School of Design. It also happens to be a mecca for art lovers, with numerous galleries, art museums and even an illuminated art installation on the city’s three rivers downtown. Located at Veterans Memorial Auditorium (the VETS) in downtown Providence is the Art League of Rhode Island (ALRI). A membership organization representing more than 120 artist members from across Rhode Island, ALRI hosts exhibitions around the state. Opening March 14 is Twisting Fibers: An Art for All Reasons at the Blackstone Valley Tourism Council in Pawtucket. Juried by fiber artist Anastasia Azure, the show features textiles and fiber work including mixed media, fabric design and more. The League hosts its 2019 Spring Members Exhibition beginning March 18 at the VETS Gallery. “There’s no jurying so all of our members can participate,” says Ellen Matesanz, executive director. “It has a variety
of works and mediums from artists of all skill levels. We’ll see some very interesting pieces.” A short drive away, across the Moshassuck River and on College Hill is the Providence Art Club, one of the country’s oldest arts organizations and the oldest in Rhode Island, founded in 1880. Spread across four architecturally unique historic buildings, comprising 14 artists’ studios, studio classrooms, and a café, the organization “has a lot going on,” says gallery manager Michael Rose. From March 10 to 29, three artists exhibit in the Maxwell Mays Gallery: Suzanne Dickson Albert whose landscape paintings and pastels appear alongside oil landscapes by Lindsay Mac; and Pawtucket-based sculptor Ruth Emers’ stone sculptures. Simultaneously, in the Mary Castelnovo Gallery, is a small show of pastel landscapes and paper collages by Wendy Ingram as well as landscapes of New England and New York by painters Nick Paciorick and Anthony Tomaselli in the Dodge House Gallery. Cross back over the river to downtown Providence for a crafts shopping break by ducking into Craftland, featuring handmade arts and crafts by local and New England artists. “We’re a very unique store,” says owner Margaret Carleton. “Everything we
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Previous spread: Jamestown Bridge. Courtesy of Rhode Island Commerce Corporation. Left: Giraffes and Robots pop art studio counteracts negativity by creating “art that makes you smile”. Courtesy of Blackstone Valley Tourism Council.
sell, as well as the tables and fixtures, is handmade.” The store sells works by 100 different artists, including jewelry, art prints, ceramics, hand silk-screened T-shirts, handmade journals, letterpress cards and more. For a citywide cultural experience, visit Providence the third Thursday of the month between March and November for Gallery Night Providence, which opens for its 23rd season on March 21. “We have 25 participating galleries all open for free from 5 to 9 pm,” says Shari Weinberger, owner of the Sprout Art Galleries and president of Gallery Night. “There’s always new art and galleries to see.” Explore the galleries by foot or hop on a free trolley at the Regency Plaza, behind the public library, for a two-hour tour (there’s a tour by bicycle, too). “It’s a fun way to explore Providence,” says Weinberger. Highlighting the diversity of the Rhode Island art scene, participants in Gallery Night Providence range from non-profit art spaces, to academic institutions, to coffee shop and yoga studio gallery hybrids. With five different gallery spaces around Providence, AS220 aspires to provide an uncensored, unjuried forum for artists of all
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ages. From March 2 to 30, the Project Space Gallery and Reading Room features Rebuild, with paintings and sculpture by husband/wife team Graham and Jill Ann Heffernan, examining structure, landscape and how buildings are taken down and rebuilt. From April 6 to 27, also in the Project Space Gallery and Reading Room, is Botanic, an exhibit of prints and landscape paintings (some made with painted, handmade
John James Audubon:
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Galleries open Monday through Friday 12 - 4, on Weekends 2 - 4 or by appointment. Always free admission and open to the public.
Providence Art club
March 30 – November 3 An Exhibition at Rosecliff • Newport, RI Founded in 1880
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paper pulp) by printmaker Kate Aitchison. BJ Murray describes her Providence gallery, Brooklyn Coffee Tea & Guest House as “a labor of love.” Art hangs throughout the four floors of the tea room and guest house. An exhibit of paintings and macramé hangings by the late Carol Fulmer will be on display during March and April. In honor of Women’s History Month, there will also be paintings and colored pencil works by artist/illustrator Sarina Mitchel and large-format, painted portraits of women by Jennifer Gillooly Cahoon. On Federal Hill, near the Woonsocket River, Berge Zobian’s Gallery Z is a neighborhood institution. Representing more than 400 artists, the gallery features, through March 31, Abstract, Conceptual & Multimedia Art, abstract and conceptual paintings, collages and assemblages by artists including Herbert C. Illium, Bob Dilworth, Judith Ferrara and others. In April, the gallery exhibit is Armenian Artists from Around the World, including intricate figurative works on paper by Harout Aghajanian, abstract paintings and prints by Anoush Bargamian, Harutune Hovhanesian, photography by George V Kaprielian, paintings by Kevork Mourad and abstract paintings by Marsha Nouritza Odabashian. At Jala Studio, you can move through downward dog and other yoga poses surrounded by fine art. “It’s a nice opportunity for people to connect with art in a different way,” says owner Bristol Maryott. “The studio builds on the idea that yoga and art are practices that increase awareness and consciousness.” Through April,
Maryott is showcasing the oil paintings of Marisa Adesman. “They’re realistic but have a surreal aspect to them as well,” says Maryott. “They explore a similar concept to yoga—using the body to transcend the body.” One of the oldest participants in Gallery Night is The Peaceable Kingdom. “We’ve been part of Gallery Night for more than 20 years,” says owner Joan Ritchie. The store sells folk art from around the world as well as textiles, African masks and statuary, handwoven rugs, and other fair-trade items such as clothing and jewelry from Kenya, India and beyond. In the back of the shop is a small gallery, which, through late April, features thangkas (scroll paintings from Buddhist temples), as
well as Tibetan prayer boxes (ghau) and singing bowls from Nepal and India. In celebration of Women’s History Month, the Rhode Island Center for Photographic Arts (RICPA) features the work of nine women photographers in the exhibit Outspoken: Expanded, Nine Women Photographers. Curated by photographer (and exhibitor) Marky Kauffmann, the exhibit expands on last year’s show Outspoken: Seven Women Photographers, and “deals with what it means to be female,” says RICPA director David Demelin. The exhibit runs from March 21 through April 12. Opening April 18 is Orchis by photographer A. Cemal Ekin and as well as a selection of photography by Ralph Mercer.
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Our member artists’ works range from contemporary to traditional in subject and from emerging to nationally recognized in experience. You don’t have to be an artist to be a member. Visit our site for current exhibitions and more information.
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Sprout Coworking Community Gallery showcases local artists in a vibrant community space. “The idea behind Sprout is to promote and give back to the community by bringing them into a community sharing space,” says gallery manager Shari Weinberger. During March, the Providence gallery features Rara Avis (Rare Birds), an exhibit featuring birds in two different mediums: paintings by Robin Hogg and fiber art by Diane Hoffman. In April, the gallery celebrates Earth Day with Black & Blue, landscapes by Jessie Jewels and photography by David Lee Black. The University of Rhode Island Providence Campus Gallery exhibits works by international, national and local artists from different ethnic
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communities, exploring local issues such as social justice and diversity. During March, for Women’s History Month, more than 30 female artists representing a broad diversity of age, ethnicity and mediums are included in Telling Our Story—Speaking Our Truth. Open March 4 to 28, the exhibit “dispels the myth that women work only in areas like needlework and craft and reinforces their presence as established professional artists,” says Steven Pennell, coordinator of URI Providence’s arts and culture program. Works include paintings by Madolin Maxey, fused glass by Alice Benvie Gebhart, prints by Barbara Pagh and three-dimensional paper sculpture by Joy Williams. During April, the gallery presents United Cerebral Palsy Adaptive Arts Exhibit,
Celebrating 40 Years!
featuring paintings and fabric art by artists from the United Cerebral Palsy program. After sampling the offerings downtown at Gallery Night Providence, head west to Rhode Island College’s Bannister Gallery, featuring works by artists from around the world. Through March 22, the gallery features Sophie Kahn: Machines for Suffering, featuring digital media and three-dimensional printed sculpture by New York artist Sophie Kahn. “Kahn is examining how we express emotion and psychological thought,” says gallery director Victoria Gao. Kelli Rae Adams: work / study, running April 4 to 26, highlights Providence artist Kelli Rae Adams’ installation of handcrafted vessels representing the amount of debt carried by American college students. Adams will conduct a one-week residency in the gallery, making ceramic bowls on site. Head south from Providence, over the Jamestown Verrazano Bridge, to Jamestown, originally incorporated in 1687 as part of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The Jamestown Arts Center is a vibrant multi-disciplinary art center, featuring fine art shows and education, film, theater, dance and community discussions. In the center’s gallery, opening March 14 and running through April 20, is Cut and Paste: Collage Today, a juried show featuring a variety of collage in different types of materials by artists from across the country. “Collage enables artists to expand the boundaries of materials and question cultural norms and concepts of aesthetics,” says Tessa Freas, the
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center’s marketing manager. Hop back on the road and travel east to the elegant seaside community of Newport, once a summer playground for American millionaires during the Gilded Age. Their magnificent mansions dot Bellevue Avenue. The town is brimming with shops, historic sites, museums— and, of course, art. Just off Bellevue Avenue is the Redwood Library & Athenæum, established in 1747 by Abraham Redwood and 45 colonists with the goal of making written knowledge more widely available to the Newport community. The collection includes more than 200,000 holdings including fine art and literature, donated by some of the country’s earliest philanthropists. A National Historic Landmark, the original library—it’s been expanded several times—was designed in 1748 by American architect Peter Harrison. Collections include portraits by some of America’s earliest portraitists including Gilbert Stuart, Charles Bird King and Robert Feke as well as sculpture and decorative arts. Through March 28, the library features Ingenuity and Invention: Women Illustrators of the Golden Age, celebrating female illustrators and graphic artists during the Golden Age of Illustration (1880–1920) and drawn from the Redwood’s special collections. Through April 21, the library also features The Claggetts of Newport: Master Clockmakers in Colonial America, an exhibition of clocks by 18th century Newport clockmakers. A short walk away from the Redwood Library & Athenæum is the period mansion
chartered 1747
THE CLAGGETTS OF NEWPORT
Master Clockmakers in Colonial America December 8, 2018 – April 21, 2019 The Redwood Library & Athenæum 50 Bellevue Avenue Newport, Rhode Island 02840 www.redwoodlibrary.org
Jamestown Arts Center Pouran Jinchi, Victor (detail), 2016, Graphite markings on Colourfix paper, 19 1/2 x 20 1/4 inches, From the collection of the Newport Art Museum.
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YOUR HUB FOR THE CREATIVE ARTS!
Exhibitions • Classes • Camps • Films Concerts • Dance • Theatre • Talks Gallery Hours: Wed. - Sat. 10am - 2pm jamestownartcenter.org 18 Valley St., Jamestown, RI | 401.560.0979
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Established and emerging artists from around Southern New England showcase their works at Gallery 175. Paintings by Tracey J. Maroni. Courtesy of Backstone Valley Tourism Council.
housing the Newport Art Museum. Founded in 1912 as the Art Association of Newport, the museum was created on the belief that arts and culture have the power to bring diverse groups of individuals together. Through March 10, the museum features William Kentridge: Stereoscope, by South African artist William Kentridge. The eighth in a series of films about a white South African businessman, the video was created by erasing and modifying a single drawing and recording the changes with a stop-motion camera. “This is part of our effort to expand into new media and video,” says museum curator Francine Weiss. Opening April 19 is Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney: Sculpture, a look at the works of sculptor and art patron Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (she is best known as founder of New York City’s Whitney Museum of American Art). Whitney had a significant career as a sculptor; this is the first exhibition of her work since she died in 1942. A second show, Avant Gardens, opens April 27 and brings together works by contemporary artists including mixed media by Caleb Cole and Bob Dilworth, as well as photography by Mary Kocol, Steven J. Duede, and Lucas Foglia, examining themes related to the garden and cultivated nature. A few minutes’ drive from the Newport Art Museum is elegant Rosecliff, designed by American architect Stanford White for silver heiress Theresa Fair Oelrichs in 1899 and modeled after the Grand Trianon at Versailles.
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Now owned and operated by The Preservation Society of Newport County, the grand home features a second-floor exhibition gallery. Opening in the gallery March 30 is John James Audubon: Obsession Untamed, a colorful exploration of the naturalist’s efforts to paint the birds of America. The exhibition includes 30 large-scale pieces of his work. “The works are stunning,” says Ashley Householder, curator of exhibitions. “Each is very large, painted on 2-x-3-foot pieces of paper. Audubon wanted to make the birds life-size and in their natural habitat.” The beautifully-rendered, hand-colored paintings include pieces from the Preservation Society’s collections as well as loans from private collections and institutions. Head back over the bridge and journey south to the coastal community of Wakefield. The Hera Gallery, founded 45 years ago, is among the oldest galleries established by women in the United States. “The space gives many artists a transformative place to be with one another,” says gallery director Tzu-Ju Chen. Concurrent shows running March 2 to 30 are: In Conversation: Uli Brahmst with Judy Spier, a visual exchange between the artists via their cell phones (Brahmst also shows pieces she created by manipulating her work using her cell phone camera and its apps); and Animation and Photographs from A Decadent World, Night by Mara Trachtenberg, a series of images, created in sugar and revealed through photography, documenting fictional winged creatures at night.
Celebrating 40 Years!
In April, the gallery presents SHAME, a show juried by Anna Dempsey, professor and chair of art education, art history and media studies at the University of Massachusetts/Dartmouth; the exhibit examines the many dimensions of shame and its cultural connotations. If you’re interested in further artistic exploration of Rhode Island, check out RICreative, a digital resource for art happenings around the state. A nonprofit developed by visual arts advocate and BMX product designer Mike Rodrigues, the organization’s goal is to “bring awareness one artist and one event at a time,” Rodrigues says. He’s trying to accomplish that by publicizing as many art events as possible on the site. A community board member of Gallery Night Providence (and a former participating artist in the event), Rodrigues is pulling together a team of college and high school journalists to help him cover arts events around the state. He hopes to pair the young writers with mentoring journalists. For film buffs and art lovers alike, take in the Providence Art and Design Film Festival, presented by the Providence Center for Media Culture and Cable Car Cinema. Four locations over two April weekends offer ample opportunity to catch a film focused on the diverse disciplines within art and design. The festival showcases artists, designers, craftspeople, collectors, curators and makers from around the world while entertaining, educating and reflecting on the impact art and design have on community, history, politics, personal expression and the contemporary landscape. For early access, catch the preview night screening of Carmine Street Guitars at the Columbus Theater in Providence on March 8, followed by a panel including guitar makers and musicians. The festival officially kicks off April 5–7 at the Columbus Theater, and continues April 11–14 at the Jane Pickens Theater and the Newport Art Museum in Newport, and in Jamestown at the Jamestown Art Center. With so many opportunities to view and buy art, Rhode Island offers something for every art-lover. After touring so many scenic areas of the Ocean State, you just may discover your new favorite artist, gallery or museum. And perhaps bring home a piece of art for your own collection. —Debbie Kane
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