Welcome!

Providence Art Windows is pleased to announce that its next exhibit will be on view from December 4, 2008 – March 13, 2009. The art and art installations are by Rhode Island artists Deb Hickey, Saberah Malik, John Riedel, Ann Marie Scartabello, Ida Schmulowitz and Alison Collins (New York), Lynne Harlow (Rhode Island and New York) Sharon St. Hilaire (Massachusetts) and Caroline Woolard (New York). Please join us for the opening reception at Design Within Reach (210 Westminster Street, Providence, RI 02903) on December 6, from 4:00-6:00PM. Come and meet the artists, go on a walking tour with a map and visit beautiful Downtown Providence during the Providence Preservation Society’s Holiday Festival and Downtown Stroll.

Please download the map above to take the walking tour. Printed versions are available in Downtown Providence restaurants, stores and hotels.

1. 191 Westminster Street

Ida Schmulowitz

Park View/Trees and Forsythia
oil on canvas; 6’ x 8’

About the artist and the work
I have painted outside since about 1978. When I moved to Fox Point from the Benefit Street area in 1981, I looked around for a place to paint and was struck by the panoramic view from the pedestrian bridge over Rte 195 leading to India Point Park. Some people looked at the bridge as just a cage, but many appreciated the uniqueness of the spot. Standing over the highway looking east or west at sunrise and sunset was inspiring. The bridge became my outdoor studio for 23 years. Over the years I would change my particular vantage point on the bridge, which would lead to the beginning of a new series concentrating on a particular view. Each painting evolved over a series of time- sometimes put aside and taken out months or years later to be completed. I work with layering of color to create a certain depth in the work. I also work with color to create an overall color light in each piece. Painting from the same spot for so many years gave me a familiarity with the place so that the landscape also became a jumping off point for my experimentation with creating space and using color.

This painting is one of the last paintings of a series I completed looking at a particular group of pine trees and a bank of forsythia. The trees and forsythia were chopped down as part of the construction of the new pedestrian bridge.

2. 191 Westminster Street

John Riedel


Selected Collage-Constructions,1974-1980

In 1974, I first worked in collage, with a series of small pieces as an offshoot of the abstract painting I was doing at the time. In 1975, after a trip to Italy, I began to paint from reality, and also memory, landscapes and cityscapes of Pawtucket.

After a few years I reached an impasse and constructed a collage of the same name to express my sense of frustration with my painting at his time. This came about largely because of interesting things being thrown out by the neighbor next door on garbage night. A few of the objects included in this work were a broken road block sign, a picture of myself painting, and one of my old palettes.

However it wasn't until the winter of 1978 in Providence, that I began to work on a series of collages, to the exclusion of other art work.

The sizes of these pieces ranged from 4 ft x5 ft to 1 1/2 ft square. Toward the end, these collage constructions also grew to be three dimensional, having a depth of 3 to 5 inches. I restricted myself to working only with found objects, whether it was paper, (including old book end papers), cloth, metal, plastic, wood, etc. In the early stages of the work, it was important not to fasten anything down. This could be done later in the process, to keep the work in a state of flux.

From 1982 to the present I have continued to paint from reality; however, the arrangement or composition of the paintings has in many cases, increasingly resembled the later collage-constructions.

This is a result of an increasing feeling that separate objects are only bridges to the things around them. In painting, as in collage, separate objects can become areas of color working to mutually strengthen each other.

3. 203 Westminster Street

Caroline Woolard

Our Goods

This installation is in motion and cannot be experienced from
one vantage point. Look for a peephole, hidden images, a website, and change.

About the Work
Caroline Woolard relocated the research desk of her experimental
barter network, OurGoods, to 203 Westminister Street. She will be
working at the desk, feet feeling sand, at surprise moments throughout the installation. Keep stopping by to see her work in progress. Hanging on her ladder chair is the launch project for OurGoods, a Utility Dress for barter only. Between an apron and a tool belt, this wrap dress was designed by Caroline Woolard over the past year and sewn by a talented male seamstress in NY. If you would like a Utility Dress, go to www.OurGoods.org and make me an offer!*

* Please barter your unique creations and skills. I am interested in
many things: your suffrage movement research, your glass shattering
voice, your serious drawings, your functional ceramics, your weird
glass objects, your (kevlar!?) textiles, your handmade furniture, your
web help, photo/video documentation help, conversational Spanish
tutoring, accounting help, yoga instruction, liability law services, help
growing hydroponic vegetables, vintage patterns, secret recipes, your
apartment in Manhattan to let my (good) guests stay in, or anything
else you value and/or make and think we should exchange. If you
absolutely cannot barter, you can donate $200 and take a dress.
www.OurGoods.org


About the Artist
Born Providence and based in NY, Caroline Woolard received her
BFA from Cooper Union in 2006. As a Research Scholar at NYU and a Research Assistant at Mildred's Lane, Woolard investigates the construction of subjectivity in architecture, art, and design. Woolard's interventions are presented publicly in the urban
environment and have been affiliated with psychogeographic events like Conflux in NY, Cryptic Providence in RI, and Unoccupied Spaces in Montreal. Caroline Woolard is the recipient of a MacDowell Fellowship, the Leon Levy Foundation Grant, and the Elliot Lash Award for Excellence in Sculpture. She has shown her work at the Newport Art Museum in RI, Jackson Gallery in GA, Oxbow Gallery in MI, and The Bruce High Quality Foundation in NY. Next, Woolard will show her newest collaboration with dancer Linda Austin after a residency at Robert Wilson's Watermill Center on March 28 at 2pm.

4. Two Brothers Beauty Supply, at Eddy and Westminster Street

Saberah Malik

Beauty Supply
gilding, oil on wood, and shibori silk

About the Work
As the Narragansett tribal genealogist Ella Sekatau narrated, “stones are the bones of the earth.”

I also see stones as evolutionary witnesses of our changing earth; as historical markers of territorial boundaries, whether in the form of stone walls or natural outcroppings; as silent witnesses of all that has gone on before us, or as it is happening in our lifetime – rocks re-arranged during natural upheavals like the Pakistan earthquake of 2005, China’s more recent Sichuan earthquake, or man-made destruction like what the administration referred to as “re-arranging the rocks” in aerial bombardment in Afghanistan.

Stones, rocks, boulders, and pebbles are my everyday companions as I walk or drive through my Cowesett hills neighborhood or any other part of Rhode Island and New England. Stones are an integral and oft-repeating motif of our landscape, and I witness their changing shapes and colors, which transform in shifting weather and the progression of seasons. I see wet stones glisten as silver and gold, softly contoured under overcast skies, sharply delineated in directional light, or seemingly flat in scorching heat.

The evolutionary and ecological, geographic and socio-economic, historical and personal relevance of flowing water resonates in how a shoreline shifts the apex of its curve, broken boulders morph into amorphous shapes, component minerals sparkle with happy hues. Stones, as they define the New England landscape, equally define those of Pakistan, China, or Afghanistan. Stones, indeed are the bones of the earth: global, common, useful, useless, precious, semi-precious, and water is earth’s rhythmic pulse, patiently serving, patiently shaping with resonating relevance.

About the Artist
Saberah Malik grew up in Pakistan and present day Bangladesh.

She studied art and design at the prestigious Panjab University in the ancient and cultural city of Lahore, graduating with a BFA and MFA in Graphic Design. As the best graduate and Gold Medalist, she was awarded the National Merit scholarship for higher education.She chose to study in New York and graduated from Pratt Institute with a Masters degree in Industrial Design.

Saberah settled in Connecticut after her marriage. In order to dedicate time to raising a family she started painting as a creative alternative to professional design. With her two sons away at college, she has been able to devote full time to painting over the past few years. Saberah has participated in invitational as well as many juried shows in Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York and Pakistan, and her work is in several private collections.

She lives and works in Warwick, Rhode Island, which has been her home now for almost three decades.

5. Two Brothers Beauty Supply, at Eddy and Westminster

Alison Collins

in statu nascendi
steel, dimensions variable

About the Work
The installation in statu nascendi, is comprised of 100 woven steel nests created in response to Ovid’s Metamorphoses. The title in Latin translates to “the magic moment of creation” or “in status of birth.” The nests explore conflicting themes of the natural and the decorative while evoking ideas of dwelling, shelter, origins, nurturing, and abandonment.

About the Artist
Alison Collins is a sculptor who lives and works in New York City. Her work explores the cultural constructs of masculinity and femininity through relationships to decorative forms and architecture. Collins creates delicate, yet menacing installations primarily with steel. She earned a BFA in Painting from Tulane University, an MFA in Sculpture from Louisiana State University, and an MA in Art History from Louisiana State University. Collins is a professor of art at City University of New York .

6. Fulton Street, next to Providence City Hall

Lynne Harlow

Tropic
fabric, Plexiglas, tape Site-specific installation

About the Work
How little is enough? How much can be taken away before a piece crumbles? My sculptural installations are lean, elegant arrangements of color, light and space; they are presentations of physical facts. I want to isolate and exaggerate particular aspects of the ways we encounter and negotiate our physical world, and bring some awareness and joy to the process. And I feel that the most effective way for me to achieve this is by presenting installations, these restrained arrangements of facts. With restricted use of very particular materials, sheer and lightweight, the installations suggest the presence of light and the absence of weight.

About the Artist
Lynne Harlow is a reductive artist based in Providence, RI and New York, NY. She makes large-scale site-specific work and small drawings and prints in a language of sensual minimalism. Lynne holds an M.F.A. from Hunter College in New York, and exhibits her work in the U.S. and internationally, including recent shows at P.S. 1 and EFA Project Space, both in New York. In 2002 she was a visiting artist at the Chinati Foundation in Marfa, TX.

7. RI Housing, 44 Washington Street

Deb Hickey

CONNECTING TO PROVIDENCE

Photo sculptures 4'x6', inkjet and photo-transfer prints on foam core, metal rings, wood

About the Work and the Artist
These images are a mix of photographs and paintings made from photographs, taken in Providence from 2006-2008.

Reading much literature on Providence's 'Renaissance' I decided to move from Boston to Providence in 2003. I was as interested in affordable housing, as I was in pursuing a career as an artist. Convinced that there was going to be a renaissance I knew I wanted to be a part of it. I bought a home on the West Side in 2005 and began to create a new style of painting from architectural photographs. It is through the camera that I began to connect with my new city by exploring Providence's landscape and architecture. The geometry of architecture in Providence attracts my eye and the city has plenty to choose from. Many of the images are from the West Side of the city, where I regularly go for walks in search of new images.

More about the Artist

Deb Hickey graduated in 1996 from The Art Institute of Boston with a BFA in Photography. She has shown her work in galleries in Medford, Arlington and Chelsea, MA. She also belongs to the 297 Gallery in Bristol RI and the Congress Street Gallery in Portsmouth NH. Deb's work can also be found in many collections throughout New England. In March 2009, her work will be at AS220 in a show entitled, Ready or Not, Here I Come which focuses on her coming to the Providence 'Renaissance' and on what she found when she got here.

8. URI Library, 80 Washington Street

Sharon St. Hilaire


About the artist and the work
I paint with yarn, creating minimalist works with bold color and texture. Each painting is composed of thousands of crochet stitches. Crocheting allows me to create texture and - my tactile designs are compelling statements of simplicity and complexity at the same time. Each strand is then precisely fixed onto a substrate. I call my technique, “Repeté” with the creation of each single stitch becoming a mantra for the mind and hand. The color field is broken by textured patterns created by the manipulation of that one stitch. So, like the single blade of grass in nature, the single crocheted stitch is insignificant, but in mass makes a powerful statement.

My art represents my quest for control, for quiet and for solemnity. What would seen like minimalism at first glance, is upon close scrutiny actually complexity created by near compulsiveness. The meditation on the single stitch is randomly broken by multiples of the stitch. It is just as when the random thought interrupts the mantra. It is an imperfect process so that some pieces are more the failure of quiet. My goal is to express what lies beneath, to transcend. I try that and fail in most of my life but with my art I am able to appear to be in control.

My original inspiration came from seeing a yarn painting by a Huichol Indian from Mexico. My first works copied their technique of embedding yarn into hot wax to create abstract works. Eventually I moved from wax to glue and from single strands of yarn to crocheted strips. All of the works start as a drawing translated into a crocheting pattern.

9. Trinity Rep, 201 Washington Street

Ann Marie Scartabello


Collage and Mixed-Media Paintings

About the Work
Ann Marie Scartabello’s collage and mixed-media paintings use several layers of acrylic textures along with some floral stampings in a simple design. The textures and images lead the viewer through a unique pictorial world.

About the Artist Ann Marie Scartabello is originally from Providence and moved to South Kingstown 25 years ago. In 2006, she began to pursue art in the form of collage and mixed media. She has received several awards at the Wickford Art Association where she is currently an artist member, as well as on the board of directors. Her work has also been exhibited at Kent County Hospital, North Kingstown Library, South County Hospital, South County Art Association, True Brew Cafe, Edgewood Gallery, Java Madness and she is currently a resident artist at Hope Gallery in Bristol, RI. Ann Marie is also a member of South County Art Association as well as Newport Art Association.

Coming Up-Next Exhibit Opens December 6, 2008

Providence Art Windows is pleased to announce that its next exhibit will be on view from December 4, 2008 – March 13, 2009. The art and art installations are by Rhode Island artists Deb Hickey, Saberah Malik, John Riedel, Ann Marie Scartabello, Ida Schmulowitz and Alison Collins (New York), Lynne Harlow (New York) Sharon St. Hilare (Massachusetts) and Caroline Woolard (New York). Please join us for the opening reception at Design Within Reach (210 Westminster Street, Providence, RI 02903) on December 6, from 4:00-6:00PM. Come and meet the artists, go on a walking tour with a map and visit beautiful Downtown Providence during the Providence Preservation Society’s Holiday Festival and Downtown Stroll.

A downloadable map will be available on this site December 1, and printed version in Downtown Providence restaurants, stores and hotels.