Thank you

Providence Art Windows lost many sites due to development and new owners of buildings in 2015. This is progress, not sadness, as the beginning of the project was to fill gaps in downtown Providence that were empty storefronts or spaces of darkness at night. The project lit up areas so passers by, by foot or car, could look at an upcoming artist or learn something new from a non-profit invited to participate in an artistic way. It helped to fund artists during the recession. During and after the project, I and former Director/founder Elizabeth Keithline have been contacted about the success of the project, how to run similar projects. What I learned is that this was a project for this particular time and space, and that the needs of any business area are unique. We could give advice, but it is thinking about what your community needs that is most important. It was a great decade filled with wonderful relationships with downtown business owners, over 200 artists creating installations, and interacting with the public on a more intimate scale - on the street, not in some gallery or a museum. 

Thank you for visiting, and please take a look at all of the wonderful past installations on this site. 

Rebecca Siemering, Director, Providence Art Windows

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.

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.

Welcome!

Providence Art Windows is pleased to announce that its latest exhibit will be on view from September 18- November 21, 2008. The art and art installations are by Rhode Island artists Paul Almeida, Emmet Estrada, Alice BenvieGebhart and Brenda Wilkinson, as well as Lisa Marie Barber (Wisconsin), Gary Duehr (Massachusetts), Lisa Kellner (New York), Donna Dodson ( Massachusetts), Adele Mattern (Ohio), Randall Nelson (Connecticut) and Mel Smothers (New York). The art installed in ten windows in Downtown Providence creates a six-block loop that viewers can walk day or night.

Please join us for the opening reception at Design Within Reach(210 Westminster Street, Providence, RI 02903) on September 18, from 5:30-7:30PM. Come and meet the artists, go on a walking tour and visit beautiful Downtown Providence during Gallery Night. A performance of poetry by Charlanne Kalley, in collaboration with Donna Dodson's sculptures, will take place from 6:30-7 PM outside her window.

Click on the image above for a printable map of this exhibition.

1. 191 Westminster Street

EARLY BIRD FARMS; FUTURE IN DOUBT, by Randall R. Nelson

sculpture- mixed media (milk cartons, plastic delivery
cases, Homosote and wood display walls, paper ephemera), 12'x8'x2', 2008.

In the 1970's and early 80's there were several "Missing Children" programs involving milk carton advertising and later, shopping bags. The longest running program was sponsored by Advo Systems of Hartford, CT, which featured information and a picture of the missing child and the heading "Have You Seen Me?" Six years ago Randall started doing Graduate Research on two subjects, Bird Species Depletion and Missing and Exploited Children. He found many disturbing parallels in the stories he was reading while doing the research on these disparate subjects. This piece is an attempt to resolve these issues.

About the Artist
Randall Nelson is originally from Jackson, Mississippi. He attended Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY from 1970-74 and graduated with a BFA in Sculpture, then served a five year apprenticeship with Toshio Odate, noted sculptor and woodworker from 1974-1978. He has a masters of fine art from Vermont College, Montpeliar, VT and presently lives in Willington, CT. He teaches woodworking and carving at Manchester Community College, Manchester, CT. He has a major retrospective exhibition, "Connecticut Wilderness," coming in March of 2009 at the Homer Babbidge Library at the University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT.

9. Trinity Rep, 201 Washington Street

Rhode Island Illuminated, by Alice Benvie Gebhart

Overlook/Rhode Island Illuminated
"As an artist I specialize in fusing glass to create images of color and light. As with any artistic process one must start with an idea. My ideas and inspirations come from nature. I mentally record, take photographs and sketch the scenery around me emphasizing color and light in my compositions. Working off these sketches, I cut and layer colored glass in a kind of collage. These are fired in a glass kiln, often 4-5 times to obtain the desired effect. I often include specialty glasses such as dichroic glass and iridescent glass to give my work a luminescent quality. Iron oxide, mica, copper and 24 karat gold are added to the glass to create detail and special effects within each piece."

About the Process
Glass fusing is the process of using a kiln to join together pieces of glass. If you apply heat to glass, it will soften, become fluid and flow together. At appoximately1500º, two or more pieces of glass will stick (or "fuse") to each other. When the right kind of glass is heated and then cooled properly, the resulting fused glass piece will be solid and unbroken.

About the Artist
"It has been a lifelong ambition to merge the making of art and the teaching of art. My goal as an artist is to bring about a visual appreciation of our surroundings in my work. Finding beauty in the ordinary is my inspiration. My goal as an artist and a teacher is to foster an appreciation for the visual arts and incorporate the arts in our lives."

Born, bred and educated in Rhode Island, Alice has worked as an art educator at Cranston High School East and Rhode Island College and as a fused glass artist in her East Greenwich studio for many years. Recent travel throughout Japan, Italy and Ireland has been inspiring. Her professional memberships include Providence Art Club, Art League of RI, South County Art Association, National Association for Art Education and the American Craft Council. Recent accolades include Best of Show win at Art League of R.I and participation in Open Exhibit, 2007, and Invitational Members’ Exhibition at South County Art Association. Alice has a two person show at the Providence Art Club in April 2009 with painter Marjorie Ball.

10. Johnson & Wales, Snowden Hall, 220 Weybosset Street

Dear Andy (Montauk)Series, Mel Smothers

"Last year I read in the New York Times that Andy Warhol’s oceanside estate at Montauk, Long Island was sold, so I made a point of driving out to get a feel for the place. Andy was a very busy guy in New York City; he was famous, he was mass producing contemporary art with images he found in the NY Times. Montauk wasn’t on Andy’s calendar much. His famous friends liked it out there. I’ve taken a look around and like it too. I’ve painted Andy a few postcards.

He would have liked that."


About the Artist
"This series is about a resolution of my West Coast art education with Wayne Thiebaud’s Pop Art, that had a zen-like naturalist feel to me, and the relocation of my studio to NYCand immersion into Warholian East Coast Pop Art. Andy Warhol’s model was indigenous to materialism and mass commercial culture. As a painter, I’m interested in aspects of both; that is, the painterly formalism of California and, the conceptualism of East Coast. My current approach to a synthesis is influenced by van Gogh’s letters to Bernard and Charlie Russell’s barroom communications from Montana."

Selected recent exhibitions include Higgenbotham Museum, Virginia; Brooklyn Museum, New York City; Museum of Community University of New York (CUNY);Whipple Art Museum;
Mid-America All Indian Center and the University of California at Davis. Mel will have a solo exhibition at the Judaica Museum, New York City, 2009, with Warhol’s from museum collection, Emily O’Leary, Curator.

Coming Soon!

Welcome to the new site for Providence Art Windows. Stay tuned as this site is updated with the next round of artists by September 1, 2008.

Here is the map of the current round of artists: