Providence Art Windows is pleased to announce that its winter installation series will be on view through March 2011. The current art and art installations in the downtown windows are produced by Jon Creamer, Jennifer French, Abby Saunders, Serena JV Elston and the International Gallery of Heritage & Culture.
12/13/10
12/8/10
203 Westminster Street
Abby Saunders
Autobiography.
mixed media
About the Work
This piece was first shown at Bannister Gallery in Providence, RI in May 2005. The Remington Noiseless was a gift from metalsmith Sondra Sherman, and the space bar was hand engraved by George Beattie. Images are set and photo-etched in brass, and certain keys have been cast in brass. The keys have been ground away to create unintelligable type when struck.
About the Artist
To learn more about the artist, please go to http://abbysaunders.com/
12/6/10
URI Library
International Gallery of Heritage and Culture
About the Work
The window display includes a series of mini-murals created by former members of the International Gallery AmeriCorps Program for space beautification: African American Musicians by Natalie Markward and a mural depicting Rhode Island African American historical figures for the Rhode Island Black Heritage Society, painted by Munir Mohammed.
About the Artists and the International Gallery
The Mission of the International Gallery of Heritage and Culture is to create and support a community of Rhode Islanders who celebrate the convergence of their diverse artistic and cultural heritage.
The International Gallery for Heritage and Culture was founded in 1996 by Linda A’Vant-Deishinni and her husband Munir D. Mohammed, a museum without walls that utilizes art and history to promote cultural understanding. Together they designed many community outreach programs that include exhibitions, art education, lectures, performances and space beautification projects. They have partnered with museums, education institutions and organizations to provide enrichment programs for the state of Rhode Island.
191 Westminster Street Space 1 and 2)
Serena JV Elston
About the Works
More Absurdity. (left window)
These works were made in response to a friend's suicide and being hit by a car. They are a physical manifestation of coping mechanism developed to battle depression.
Banquet (right window)
These Commemorative tapestries are the relics of 3 Banquets held to honor the attending guests.
During the winter of 2008 a Banquet Hall was erected from two suspended Scissor Trusses and a 13ft long 20 person dinner table sat inside the ship like structure. The exterior was shielded entirely with welded plastic bags and the inside was plated with silver heat reflective mylar sheets.
About the Artist
Serena JV Elston received a BFA from Massachusetts College of Art and Design with a focus in both Sculpture and Architecture. She served in the artist group The Tinderbox in Brattleboro, VT for three years till it’s closing in December 2008. Her creations demonstrate possibilities through an intimate understanding of material. Colliding Ridiculous with Craft she animates wingnuttey wherever her humongous projects sit themselves. Past works include a Portable Suspended Banquet Hall, Twenty-person Dinner Table, Two-Story Yurt, and a constructing her own burial chamber. She has future plans to cover the world in cozy hammocks and to one day build a castle on US soil with a velladrom full of skateboarders as its motte.
To learn more about the artist, please go to http://flickr.com/photos/serenajve/
About the Works
More Absurdity. (left window)
These works were made in response to a friend's suicide and being hit by a car. They are a physical manifestation of coping mechanism developed to battle depression.
Banquet (right window)
These Commemorative tapestries are the relics of 3 Banquets held to honor the attending guests.
During the winter of 2008 a Banquet Hall was erected from two suspended Scissor Trusses and a 13ft long 20 person dinner table sat inside the ship like structure. The exterior was shielded entirely with welded plastic bags and the inside was plated with silver heat reflective mylar sheets.
About the Artist
Serena JV Elston received a BFA from Massachusetts College of Art and Design with a focus in both Sculpture and Architecture. She served in the artist group The Tinderbox in Brattleboro, VT for three years till it’s closing in December 2008. Her creations demonstrate possibilities through an intimate understanding of material. Colliding Ridiculous with Craft she animates wingnuttey wherever her humongous projects sit themselves. Past works include a Portable Suspended Banquet Hall, Twenty-person Dinner Table, Two-Story Yurt, and a constructing her own burial chamber. She has future plans to cover the world in cozy hammocks and to one day build a castle on US soil with a velladrom full of skateboarders as its motte.
To learn more about the artist, please go to http://flickr.com/photos/serenajve/
Fulton Street
John Creamer
The Sky Above; 1998 - 2011 (Years of Indiscretion III)
About the Work
Most of the photographs I take come about with a particular project in mind and add up fairly quickly. The thousands of Polaroids I have taken over the years were done so without
any particular purpose in mind, quickly put away in boxes or sent off in letters to friends in far away places. This is a portion of the third piece to come about in my finally trying to make some
sense of all that I have collected. My only hope is that this mostly summer made sky, put together from its clabbered and clear, dusky and dawning and midday pieces, found on a city street, as winter makes its way, might hold your attention for a few moments.
About the Artist
I was born in Providence, currently live and work at a boarding school in Groton, MA. I have a B.Sc. in mathematics from Brown University and an MFA in photography from Bard College.
More of my work can be seen here: http://jonanoj.blogspot.com/
9/6/10
Coming Soon! Applications for 2011 Providence Art Windows
Do you want to apply to make an Art Window? New guidelines will be up mid december for the 2011 season. In the meantime, enjoy the new installations will popping up throughout the city in November and early December.
6/14/10
Summer Installations on View June 18
Providence Art Windows is pleased to announce that its next installation series will be on view from June 18- November 5, 2010. The art and art installations presented in nine downtown windows are produced by Constance Allen, Jenine Bressner, Jennifer Daltry, Heather Freedman and Greg Kozatek, Holly Gaboriault, Michael Guadagni, Delia Kovac, Adam R. Thime and Leigh Waldron-Taylor.
Please join us for a walk with the artists on Gallery Night, Thursday, July 15th, at 6 PM. Starting point and reception is at Heir on Westminster Street. If you are unable to attend, please download the map above and take a tour of the art and downtown Providence.
6/13/10
1. 191 Westminster Street, right
Delia Kovac
DOMESTICATED
mixed media
About the Work
Born from detritus, DOMESTICATED, is part elegy and part western cultural mashup.
DOMESTICATED pairs reimagined ancient Greek drama masks and mediæval helmets (Armets, Barbutes, Bascinet, Great Helms, Hounskulls, etc.) with images of the internet age. The protection, artifice, and individual dislocation of the ancient artifacts are distant cousins to our relationship with our contemporary selves. Created with humble materials, second hand cloth and overstock paper, DOMESTICATED accentuates the seams and genealogy of contemporary culture.
About the Artist
Delia Kovac was born in Milwaukee, WI. She received a BFA in Printmaking from the RISD and an MFA from Rutgers University. She is a former member of the underground Providence feminist art collective the Hive Archive. She worked in printshops on three continents including The Brodsky Center and the Singapore Tyler Print institute. She was a member of the video/music collaboration The Triple M Threat, which toured the Eastern seaboard. Her work has been show internationally including P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, The Hunterdon Art Museum, The Wunderground Show at the RISD Museum, Alexander Gray Associates, James Yarosh Associates, Gallery Angiel and 5 Traverse Gallery. Her work is currently on view in the Boston Drawing Project at Joseph Carroll and Sons Art Gallery. Delia Kovac lives and works in South Providence, RI.
To learn more about the artist, please go to deliakovac.blogspot.com
2. 191 Westminster Street
Michael Guadagni
I love things of a fantastical nature; based in reality but pushed beyond the limits of what we conventionally know. A lot of my work is influenced by play: toys, fantasy-based narratives, role-playing games (and associated with the nerd culture). As a professional band photographer, I'm also heavily influence by music and the aesthetics of band culture in Providence.
These seeds of inspiration grow in my mind to become tangible playthings unlike any others that I know. I re-purpose existing fabrics by creating new surfaces and using them to construct my characters. I hand-draw detailed patterns that I then screen print in layers, and I draw stitches and applique to create new textiles.
3. 203 Westminster Street
Jenine BressnerWhy are we fighting when we’re on the same team?
hand-cut and laser-cut textiles, glass
About the Work
I'm frustrated by the inescapable theme of "Humans vs. Nature." To tolerate it, I have to find humor in the inanity of this idea, and its failure to recognize humans as nature. Though it might be possible for people or other animals to survive in mostly- synthesized environs, such a state of existence would be an artificial life.
The most inspiring works I've witnessed have all been naturally- occurring ones. I aim to make things that reflect my respect and awe for the natural world, my quiet sadness for its/ our uncertain future, and the irony of humans trying to control and recreate nature itself in artwork that can only strive to be as beautiful as authentic life.
About the Artist
Jenine Bressner wants to see things she has never seen before. She aims to satisfy this wish by drawing with glass rods in a torch flame, laser cutting textiles, and by working in other various media. She studied glass at RISD and Digital Fabrication at AS220, through MIT.
Jenine was awarded RISCA's Fellowship of Craft in 2009 and is currently preparing for a show next year at the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft. To learn more about Jenine, please go to jenine.net.
4. Two Brothers Beauty Supply, at Eddy
Heather Freedman & Greg Kozatek
Habitat Becomes You
Mixed media installation.
About the Work
Shelter is a common theme, as well as necessity, shared by all lifeforms. Architecture peppers our planet, taking the form of nests, cocoons, hives, apartment complexes and high-rises. As humans, we find comfort in the idea of home. It is a place to retreat to, and a place to start out from. We rest, we reload. Sometimes, after we've done all the growing we can do in one place, we get pushed out of the nest. We must move forward towards new opportunities for growth. All aspects of ourselves, as well as our habitats, experience the unavoidable change found in moving through the stages of life. Opened cocoons speak of a stage of life completed. They are left behind as time moves on, and serve as beautiful sculptural reminders of time past. A sense of history, as well as future, is created.
About the Artists
Growing up in the midwest, Heather Freedman relocated to Providence to attend Rhode Island School of Design. Graduating in June with a BFA in Illustration, Heather's work explores themes in nature and movement. She enjoys experimenting with a variety of 2D and 3D media. A background and continued interest in classical dance adds an aspect of performance to her work. Heather is currently serving a summer term at CityArts with AmeriCorps, where she is teaching a creative movement class and is enjoying sharing art with young people. Heather loves trees, dancing, and a leisurely coffee break.
Greg Kozatek was born and raised in Apple Valley Rhode Island, where he consequently spent most of his childhood picking apples. Greg attended Smithfield High School and now a graduate of the Illustration Department from the Rhode Island School of Design, Greg hopes to work as a part of a creative design/production team to create work for film, television and theater.
5. Two Brothers Beauty Supply, Eddy Street
Adam R. Thime
Untitled, 2009
Latex on poplar plywood
About the Work
Finding inspiration in street art and murals, I set out to create a work that drew from these interests while utilizing my personal style and techniques. The cross-hatched patterning employed in this painting is something I have explored and developed over the last few years. I create a jumble of seemingly random lines that come together to produce an overall unified image. Capturing a sense of randomness, when there is nothing random about it, while maintaining the flowing movement of the design through the entire work, has always been my ultimate goal. The large scale and bright colors of the painting were essential: I want the viewer to be absorbed by this painting, maybe even overwhelmed by it. I feel as though this piece has found a good home for the summer here on the streets of downtown Providence.
About the Artist
Adam R. Thime is a 2009 graduate of Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts. He graduated with a degree in studio art and a second degree in biology. Since finishing at Wheaton a year ago, he spent eight months working for the Cape Cod National Seashore in North Truro, Massachusetts. He is currently living in Marlborough, Connecticut and working for the Department of Environmental Protection Inland Fisheries Division.
6. Fulton Street
Leigh Waldron Taylor
An army assembles.
Mixed media installation.
About the Work
This work continues themes begun in I dream of boots and an army of women installed at mobius/Boston in 2009. Here I explore a child's fantasy of the feminine, it's imagined power to enthrall, and as means of escape. I dedicate the piece to Louise Bourgeois.
About the Artist
The artist lives and works at AS220. More work can be seen at leighwaldrontaylor.com.
7. RI Housing
Holly Gaboriault
Paintings from the Africa Series
About the Work
My work is about telling stories, creating new folktales and new worlds. Much archeology and research goes into my work and is essential in order to find inspiration in the traditions and folklore from different cultures. I find their different perspectives, concerns and rituals have transformed my work over the past several years. Crossing the bridge between words and images, as I do with mask and puppet making, one thing always affects another and triggers something new.
The work in this window is an exploration of an African folk art series exploring pattern, color and its iconic shapes to evoke new stories. The primary themes in African art are based upon nature, humanity and roles people play which greatly influence my work.
The Silhouettes of Sudan were a series of four paintings inspired by the strong African silhouette and the cultural identity of hairstyles both past and present.
Tree of Forgiveness tells a story of the central figure dressed in royal robes leaning on a tree bearing weeping masks. As in many cultures, it is a belief that everything in this life has a spirit inhabiting it. So it is hard to tell if the man has transferred his grief to the tree or is comforting the tree with his own hand placed upon it.
Jungelaro Rising began as a study of the expressive, sometimes playful, and evocative art of African masks. The power of masks can carry spirits and possess the people wearing them in both community and private ceremony where rituals and rites of passage are performed. This painting illustrates where these enlarged masks as hot air balloons used for leisure, not ceremony, rising above a landscape to some unknown destination.
Pachebel’s Canon in D Major is a piece about the connection of people, one holding and one being held inspired by the music of Pachebel.
About the Artist
I have always believed that storytelling feeds the imagination and gives people power. When I was very young, I filled my days writing and drawing pictures for my stories, long before I knew that was what an illustrator did. I am an author, painter, illustrator, designer and sculptor who finds the unimaginative rather dull and a certain elegance in what may exist.
Graduating from Rhode Island School of Design with a BFA in Illustration, my first love was always archeology. I became fascinated with Egypt as a child and mummified meat for every science fair. It was inevitable that I would find inspiration in the other histories and cultures, African folktales and stories from places such as Japan, Indonesia, and Mexico. Ceremonies, rituals, costumes and music create new characters and worlds as I cross the bridge between words and images. Making Javanese rod puppets and both African and Balinese masks became a new direction to explore these ideas. Working in theater and ballet allowed me to work on larger scales and apply my interest for set and costume design.
Color, pattern and play are central themes in my work. I write and illustrate children’s books and have created a series of Etiquette Collage books satirizing Victorian social codes and timely tips. As a graphic designer, I create window displays and graphics for a variety of clients, including small businesses, restaurants, non-profits and artists. My work is exhibited in galleries throughout New England.
Currently I am working on two children’s books and a series of collage books and creating paintings for future exhibitions. My studio in Providence is shared with two felines, Mexican music in the air and steaming cups of mango tea.
8. URI Library
Constance Allen
Peace Mobiles
Paper, mixed media
This installation will grow and change through the summer season.
Constance Allen is a woman of a certain age who lives here in Providence in elderly housing. When Bush began talking War, it triggered a passion for peace and the peace symbol and a need to share it that has ruled her life since. First came huge painted cardboard peace symbols wired to chain link on highway overpasses. Then smaller painted peace symbols on skewers for the front yard and garden. Next, a professionally applied vinyl peace symbol for the roof of the car, visible to satellite cameras and drivers in tall vehicles on the road. Fast forward to red white and blue paper plates with peace symbols painted on them, wired to the back of stop signs. Somewhere in there came thousands of little plastic "talking soldiers" with a heart on the bottom of their boots reading "Bring Me Home" which were left randomly to be found all over Providence. And now, the spinning 3D peace symbol which, working like a prayer wheel, spins and sends love and peace wherever it is needed. A "Flying Peace Tree in Bloom" mobile spun in the URI summer show last year. Now you can see the peace mobiles in PAW windows on Washington Street in the URI library windows. Peace Rules. Pass it on.
9. Trinity Rep
Jennifer Daltry
About the Artist and the Work
As an artist that draws much inspiration from nature, I have become very sensitive to the impact that human beings have on the earth and its inhabitants. Even in my own, fairly rural area, there is constant development, and I see how this effects everything around it. It is encouraging to see how well nature adapts and continues to persevere in the midst of these changes. By studying and then drawing my surroundings, I feel more in touch with the earth on a very basic level, and better able to strive toward improvement. Education: BFA, Rhode Island School of Design
3/16/10
Spring Installation Series Opens March 18
Join Us!
Providence Art Windows is pleased to announce that its next installation series will be on view from March 18 - June 11, 2010. The art and art installations presented in nine downtown windows are produced by Jean Cozzens, Susan Freda, Katy Foley & Anastasia Laurenzi, Jason Chakravarty, Ricky Gagnon, Kathy Hodge, Valerie Kim, Madolin Maxey and Howie Sneider. The spring installation series contains artists selected by the jury that reflect light, transition and transformation.
Please join us for the opening reception, Thursday, March 18th, from 5-8 PM at The Gallery at Providence City Hall, 25 Dorrance Street, 2nd Floor., to meet the artists and go on a tour of the windows. Providence Art Windows is sharing an opening with She Works Hard for the Money curated by Rebecca Siemering, Director of Providence Art Windows and The Hive Archive in honor of Women’s History Month. The exhibition showcases work by 25 women who run Rhode Island nonprofit organizations and who also make art as a part or full-time practice beyond the working day. The exhibition will serve as an inspiring reminder that the vision to propel these organizations forward comes from the strong and creative presence within. The Gallery at City Hall is open during regular business hours, 8:30 am to 4:00 pm.
If you are unable to join the reception, please download the map above, and take a tour of downtown Providence.
1. 191 Westminster Street, Right
Jason Chakravarty
Rudimentary Channels
U.S. Postal crates, lights
About the Work
U.S. postal crates possess a simple yet complex shape. The angles allow them to be configured in many ways while maintaining the simple presence of a building block. The corrugated plastic has a quality that lends itself to illumination. This installation represents a familiar tool- a tool that is becoming less vital. With quicker and cheaper alternatives to bill paying and evasive substitutions to hand written letters (email, instant and text messaging), postal services are becoming obsolete as our relationships become automated.
About the Artist
Based in Illinois and California, Jason Chakravarty creates mixed-media objects that explore questions of identity. Illumination is a key component of his work, most commonly in the form of neon, which for Chakravarty is the epitome of Americana. Materials such as glass, wood, metal, and found objects layer his work with narratives tracing the overlap between social, political, cultural, and personal identity. Straightforward imagery is collaged to create a recognizable vocabulary for investigating the search for individual identity among the perpetually proliferating brand-functions in the contemporary cultural landscape.
To learn more about the artist, please go to jasonchakravarty.com.
2. 191 Westminster Street, Left
Valerie Kim
Untitled (sometimes baby it’s uh pretty good company)
Mixed media
About the Work
Have you ever seen the inside of your television?
Do you even care?
I do. I’ve been collecting discarded TVs since last summer, gleaned from the sidewalks of Providence.
This is what I found.
About the Artist
She loves trash and nature.
Not together.
Which is why she makes art.
3. 203 Westminster Street
Susan Freda
Rhode Island Heavy Metals Climbing Vine
Mixed media
About the Work
My artwork has a parasitic relationship to its environment, it grows from what humankind has accumulated and overlooked. The provisions of these resources depend on the industrial, medical, and architectural environments and on the electronic, insulated, and plumbed conditions that society has built
By combining industrial and natural materials with forms based from the world of nature, including those of the body, I am building hybrid organisms. These organisms are alive and flourishing, often invasively, as they grow salt crystals or channel water or electricity from their host. At times they become the record of a natural process, leaving behind delicate and ephemeral marks as a trace or memory of a life. My organism’s exhibit the duplicity of impermanence and resilience found in all biological life, from the great expanses of solar and ecological systems to the most minute and personal, the self.
About the Artist
Susan Freda is a sculptor and jeweler working in RI. She received her BFA from The Rhode Island School of Design in 1996 and her MFA from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design in 2009. Inspired by the detritus of RI’s textile and jewelry industries, her work is informed by the intricacy, shine, and the handmade qualities of the products made here. Susan's work often incorporates industrial materials that have been utilized to approximate natural and organic systems. Her work references nests, wings, vines, arteries, scales, and neurons, assuming a range of forms from dresses and shoes to hybrid incarnations of plant, mineral, and animal structures. Susan has been awarded a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant and an artist residency at the de Young Museum of San Francisco. Her work can be found in the collections of Fidelity Investments, Meditech, and Neiman Marcus, among others. Susan's shoe sculptures can be seen traveling with the Fuller Museum as well as with Craft Alliance of St. Louis, MO. Her wearable fashion pieces have recently been included on the runway in NY's Fashion Week 2010.
To learn more about the artist, please go to: www.susanfreda.com
4. Eddy and Westminster Streets
Katy Foley & Anastasia Laurenzi
...like a Shadow of Time.
cast light, store-front window, glass bulbs, and wire
About the Work
The movement of time is observed through the seasonal shifting of light and shadow. Light bulbs are the material vessel, stationed to register the order of the sun’s daily geometric path as light travels inside of, or projects through them. The field of bulbs within the window becomes a spatial registration of light and light’s memory of time. As the changes of time move through the field, new intervals of light and dark are revealed.
About the Artists
Katy Foley is a recent 2009 graduate of the Landscape Architecture Master’s program at the Rhode Island School of Design. Her latest installation, Intervals of Perception, 2009 RISD, demonstrated the passing of the ephemeral qualities of light and weather as a spatial experience of continual present moments and the perceived ‘thickness’ of space. She also holds a Bachelor’s degree in Fine Art from the Maryland Institute College of Art where she made mixed media investigations of the movement of water over intervals of time. This work with time began with photographic explorations of Galway Bay while attending the Burren College of Art in Co. Clare Ireland.
Anastasia Laurenzi is a recent 2009 graduate of the Architecture Master’s program at the Rhode Island School of Design as well as a graduate of the University of Memphis with a Bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts. Before attending RISD, her constructions were large-scale installations that dealt with the understanding of place using light (or the absence thereof). This led to a pursuit of understanding architecture and the way one moves through a space. Her most recent installation, at the Medicine Factory, explored the meaning of reflection and perception through the extension of light and anamorphic projection. Together, Anastasia and Katy are working toward progressing shared ideas of light and time in spatial construction, as well as a developing proposal for the Seekonk River draw bridge as an urban renewal site for Providence, RI.
5. Eddy Street
Howie Sneider
RLCS002-010
Mixed Media
About the Work
Howie Sneider’s work illustrates manufactured landscapes and historic sites. Throughout his time in Rhode Island he has explored and documented many of the state's parks and formerly used defenses of the Narragansett Bay. The sculptures represent that personal journey through their combination of body forms, vintage photographic equipment and military surplus fabrics. The interlocking shapes serve as a metaphor for the mechanization of our culture and an ever growing set of accessories with which to enhance our understanding of the world around us. In these pieces the camera literally has a body to process and internalize that which it sees, raising questions about the recording of memory and the sharing of experience.
The photos were all taken in public parks maintained and preserved as historic sites. The images show the evolving state of our natural environment and some enduring monuments to the greatest mobilization of the 20th century.
About the Artist
Howie Sneider was born in Syracuse, NY. His childhood exploration of the forests and abandoned quarries of central New York encouraged his sense of wonderment and discovery. He moved to Providence in 1998 and attended RISD where he studied sculpture and photography. He currently runs the Public Projects for the Steel Yard, a local non-profit organization specializing in the industrial arts. He has taught welding, fabricating, sculpture and drawing and has collaborated with over 100 other local artists to create functional and decorative public art throughout Southern New England.
Prints and sculptures are available for purchase and more of his work can be seen at www.howiesneider.com
Special thanks to the RIDEM for their continued commitment ensuring access to and conserving our coastal resources and environment.
6. Fulton Street
Kathy Hodge
Church Series
Oil on canvas; mixed media
About the Work
It seems not until approaching the 19th century that artists have focused on individual churches as subject matter. Previously artists had achieved some of their finest work in the creation of the structure itself, attempting in their building to evoke the unknowable. To us their work sometimes exhibits a surreal quality, but to those living in that time, it had a profound emotional impact. Abbot Suger, the builder of the first Gothic church (St. Denis, 1144), stated his goal as striving to evoke “some strange region of the universe which neither exists entirely in the slime of the earth nor entirely in the purity of Heaven.” By the turn of last century, images such as Van Gogh’s Church at Auvers (1890), Robert Delaunay’s series of St. Severin (1909), and Canadian artist Emily Carr’s Indian Church (1929) show painters with a strong attraction to the image of the church.
This series of churches depicts real churches but are not realistic renderings. The placement and the repetition of shapes interweaves a tight structure into the picture. In order to add a visual weight and a sense of the past I have surrounded these images with ornate but worn antique frames which lend to the paintings the preciousness of icons. I have hung these paintings on raw canvas to give an impression of quiet, shelter and protection. Below are the detritus of our existence, a by-product of the life force that ties us to this earth while also compelling us to look beyond our physical world.
About the Artist
Kathy Hodge has been a painter working in the Providence area for the last 30 years. This series of paintings was completed in 1999 and can be seen on her website, along with other series, at www.kathyhodge.com.
7. RI Housing
Jean Cozzens
About the Work
Reconstructing Providence -- 2004
six-layer silkscreen print, color stages.
The "Reconstructing Providence" poster was created in 2004 for a radio documentary made by Robin Amer. [http://robinamer.com/]. In silkscreen printing, each flat color is laid down in a separate layer, so an image with depth and complexity can be built up from what are really just simple stencils. While I was printing this poster, I set aside one sheet of paper after each color was printed, preserving a record of the six layers of ink that were necessary to create the image -- including one gradient roll for the sky, to allow it to go from light to darker blue.
Industrial Trust Building, Providence -- 2009
two-layer silkscreen print, five different colorway versions.
I first drew this building in the summer of 2002 (sitting on the steps of the downtown post office and, over a couple of weeks, becoming pals with the security guard there). In 2009, I re-adapted that drawing into a simple portrait of everyone's favorite "Superman" skyscraper, which was originally named the "Industrial Trust Building" (built, of course, by the Industrial Trust Company!). I wanted to try out different relationships between colors as well as creating prints that would evoke different atmospheres, lights, or times of day. Over the course of printing, I changed the colors of ink in the screen to create five different "colorways": versions of the same image made with different colors.
About the Artist
Jean Cozzens is an artist, designer, screenprinter, carpenter, and teacher. He has lived in Providence since 1999 (spending time also in Italy, Worcester MA, Philadelphia, and New Orleans). He received a bachelors' degree in architecture from RISD in 2005. Since then, he has collaborated on participatory cardboard city-building projects, mentored high school students in screenprinting and artmaking, organized the renovation of a kitchen in a collective house, and made tons and tons of drawings, prints, and posters. He will be teaching advanced screenprinting classes this spring & summer, at community print shops in New Orleans and in Providence. He thinks constantly about cities, buildings, and spaces, as well as graphics, light, and patterns. On his own, he works meticulously by hand on drawing, building, and printing; in collaboration, he strives to work in ways that allow knowledge to be shared and to grow.
To learn more about the artist, please go to:
http://www.secretdoorprojects.org/updates/
8. URI Library
8. Ricky Gagnon
Smile
Acrylic paint on wood and canvas with assemblage
About the Work
As a 50-something person I have had my fair share of life's ups and downs just like most people, however I always try to remain grateful for the good things I have in my life on a daily basis. That is why I create my art every day because it transports me to a place of total happiness which I express using my very active imagination, my sense of humor, my love of color and my eclectic mix of bric-a-brac.
Have you smiled today? I hope you have now.
About the Artist
Ricky Gagnon is a self-taught artist who is a Rhode Island native. He studied mechanical drawing and architecture at Tollgate High School and Community College of Rhode Island. While creating art since childhood he began to focus on his painting when he bought an old beach house in Riverside Rhode Island in 1998 and started a ten year rehab project to restore the house to a 50's / 60's era decor. He created amusement park themed art pieces for every room. His house is also his studio which looks like a fun house gift shop crossed with Ripley's “believe it or not museum” and a Christmas light display. He spends all of his free time painting there with his two dogs Wanda and Lenny. To check out his art and house go to www.RickyGagnon.com
9. Trinity Rep
Madolin Maxey
Treasured Objects
Oil Paintings
About the Work
This body of work has evolved over the last two years and consists of paintings and charcoal drawings of treasured objects from my home. Predominantly they are black iron teapots juxtapositioned with a clay horse whistle, shells, and other small objects. I went back to basic charcoal drawing for most of 2008, exploring only the black teapots. These drawings are on corrugated cardboard and are, for the most part, 4’ x 4’. I explored every angle, shine, and texture of these teapots, and by 2009 I was ready to render them in paint. My desire is to not reveal their size or location but place them in ambiguous spaces and relationships. Often as the paintings evolved, the objects seem to tell their own stories of winter nights, gossip, sea scenes, or summer gatherings. Or maybe that is all in my mind and now it is time for others to come and interpret these paintings.
About the Artist
Colors and shapes lead the eye in a vigorous dance around her canvases. At first glance, her paintings seem to depict familiar landscapes and actual locations, yet they are only loosely based on reality. Madolin paints from memory, challenging the conventions of the medium with poetic grace and playful energy, Her emotional reactions to a place or an experience become a story told through color and line.
Madolin Maxey is a graduate of the Maryland Institute College of Art and the Rhode Island School of Design. A Providence resident since 1982, she has been a member of the Providence Art Club since 1996. Although primarily a painter, she has built teahouses, designed extensively for theatre, and initiated public art projects in Providence. She maintains a studio in Providence, and can also be contacted through the Providence Art Club.
3/5/10
Spring Installation Series Opens March 18
Join Us!
Providence Art Windows is pleased to announce that its next installation series will be on view from March 18 - June 11, 2010. The art and art installations presented in nine downtown windows are produced by Jean Cozzens, Susan Freda, Katy Foley & Anastasia Laurenzi, Jason Chakravarty, Ricky Gagnon, Kathy Hodge, Valerie Kim, Madolin Maxey and Howie Sneider. The spring installation series contains artists selected by the jury that reflect light, transition and transformation.
Please join us for the opening reception, Thursday, March 18th, from 5-8 PM at The Gallery at Providence City Hall, 25 Dorrance Street, 2nd Floor., to meet the artists and go on a tour of the windows. Providence Art Windows is sharing an opening with She Works Hard for the Money curated by Rebecca Siemering, Director of Providence Art Windows and The Hive Archive in honor of Women’s History Month. The exhibition showcases work by 25 women who run Rhode Island nonprofit organizations and who also make art as a part or full-time practice beyond the working day. The exhibition will serve as an inspiring reminder that the vision to propel these organizations forward comes from the strong and creative presence within. The Gallery at City Hall is open during regular business hours, 8:30 am to 4:00 pm.
If you are unable to join the reception, please download the map above, and take a tour of downtown Providence.
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