6. Fulton Street

Babette Allina

 

Things That Can’t Be Said

paint, glass, paper

 

 About the Work

This installation uses abstracted, reductive mark making as a kind of visual short hand to communicate something verbally obscure. It is intended to engage pedestrians in an exercise of semiotics – asking them to ‘read the sign(s).’ 

 It builds on an ongoing effort to create a lexicon of marks derived from objects natural or otherwise.  Some marks are accidents, duplicated repetitively, until they become part of the vocabulary. Recently, the work has taken the form of paint incased in resin to create visual “stains”, or in collaboration with the Rowley lab at URI, light emissions using bioluminescent bacteria and chemical inhibitors. The processes that are being explored are dictated by the ideas of containment, and public vs. private communication. 

 

About the Artist

Babette Allina is a painter living and working in Rhode Island.

Recent exhibitions include Myopic Books: http://vieralevitt.org/myopic/allina.htm, the Wheeler Gallery, and the University of Rhode Island Galleries.  Her work has appeared in various publications including ArtNews, Urban Design and New York Magazine.  She earned her BA in politics and painting from Bennington College, and an MA in political science from the University of Rhode Island. She is employed by the Rhode Island School of Design.

7. RI Housing, Washington Street

Marjory Garrison

Call and Call Again.

Paint on Canvas

 

 About the Work

An interactive piece that will keep you coming back for more. It's a story that starts in September and goes till winter. Daily recorded messages will be curated over the next three months, so call, and call again!

Call 401.626.4414 to hear a new sound or story every day.

About the Artist

Marjory Garrison spends far too much time on the phone these days, helping nonprofits around the country design and run grassroots campaigns. A writer and campaigner by trade, she likes drawing her friends into curious encounters and curated group experiences, whether through her mail art shop or thebiggestlittle.org. She is inspired by mileage and story-telling, and would like to make a career of sitting and listening to the stories you tell on long road trips.  

8. URI Library, 80 Washington Street

AS220 Print Shop Key Members

AS220 Community Print Shop Staff and Key Members

Jennifer Almeida

Morgan Calderini

Kat Cummings

Michael Kachanis

Victoria Lockard

Stephanie McGuinness

Derek Schusterbauer

Carol Sweeney

Meg Turner

Meredith Younger

About the Work

* Please note the installation with the AS220 PrintShop is in transition. It lives online at the Flickr page, and the collective web site below.

The AS220 Community Print Shop Key Members, in collaboration with the general public and the Providence Public Library, have screen-printed and installed new work in the window of the University of Rhode Island’s downtown library.

Interested pedestrians who passed by a sidewalk-based screen-printing station received a simple prompt; “What would you like to see more of downtown?” In front of them lay a small assortment of illustrations – including trees, tunnels, bridges, and bicycles- that had been culled by Key Members from the Special Collections at the Central Branch of the Providence Public Library and prepared as silkscreen stencils. The images selected by the participating public were then screen-printed onto translucent window film. Once dry, these visual records of the public’s wishes were composed by the Key Members in the URI Libraries’ windows facing Washington Street.

About the Artists

For more about the artists and the AS220 Print Shop, please go to

as220.org/printshop.

9. Trinity Rep, 201 Washington Street

CW Roelle

 

wire drawings

About the Work

The artwork that CW has chosen to show with the Providence Art Windows are examples of his wire drawings that he feels contain movement. Lines are fluid things that easily put into motion static figures simply by running around and through them. Like veins.

About the Artist

CW Roelle's first job was picking corn. He quit after two days. The next job was at an ice cream parlor called Bud's Polar Bear. That one lasted long enough for him to pay for a school trip to Europe and then he quit one day so that he would have the night off and could then attend a small party at a friend’s house. After the trip and a number of babysitting and lawn mowing jobs he gave in to his own reluctance and took a job at the grocery store where his father was the night manager (he became a daytime stock clerk and had to get a hair cut). Moving to Baltimore to attend The Maryland Institute College Of Art freed him from that job (except, that is for his first Christmas break and the summer between his freshmen and sophomore years when he went back for a bit). His first job in college was an 8-hour a week work-study shift at the school bookstore. There were some pretty cushy work-study jobs, that wasn't one of them. Working only 8 hours a week made it difficult to buy things like art supplies and food so he took a job at the security desk at the dorms. The security shifts were overnight (11-7) and he was able to get a lot of his class work done. Then during his sophomore year the opportunity to work at a nearby video store arose and he lept at the chance. To get the job he had to write an essay about what movies meant to him. Now he worked three jobs and was going to school full time. This continued until he graduated, except for the work-study, which turned into working as the bookstore late night janitor. After graduation he continued on at the video store and working security shifts for a little while and then he was hired as a shuttle driver for the school. The shuttle job was great until things started change in the management of the security office and he quit working for the school all together. The video store wasn't enough to live on so in his last months in Baltimore he took a job as a doorman at a local rock club, he was paid five dollars an hour and whatever he wanted to drink (always diet coke). The day came in early 2000 when the time was no longer live-withable in Baltimore and Mr. Roelle moved to Providence RI, the only other city where he had friends (his family lived around Rochester NY, but that town was as enticing as New England). Upon moving he quickly got a job as a parking lot attendant via a friend from college who was doing the same thing. Now it is nine years later and though he works for a different company, he is still working parking lots. It is a job that allows a lot of down time in which he can work on his artwork, at the moment he is holding shifts in that first garage and another one, having 11 other lots under his belt.

To learn more about the artist, please go to www.flickr.com/photos/cwroelle/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

AS220 Print Shop Making Art Windows on the Street

Stop by outside the URI Library today, or tomorrow or Wednesday (beginning at 10 AM every day). The AS220 Print Shop, for their Art Windows piece, will be making prints on site to put in the windows, asking the question, "What do you want for Providence?" The resulting tally of printed images will show what passers by, who work or live in the city, what they think Providence needs most in Downtown. Images so far include more green space, more room for bikes, courteous behavior, affordable living, etc. New images will be made every day from a poll of passers by. Come down and participate if you can.

Go to the URI Library Windows on Washington Street to participate!

Please Join Us!

Fall Exhibition of Providence Art Windows Opens September 17
Providence Art Windows is pleased to announce that its next exhibit will be on view from September 17 –December 1, 2009. The art and art installations presented in nine downtown windows are by the AS220 Print Shop, Babette Allina, Ted James Butler, David J. Delay, Walt Chaney, Marjory Garrison, Peter Lutz, C.W. Roelle, and Rebecca Siemering, with a special presentation of Picturing America images.  This Fall installation series contains artists invited by the Director that reflect intensive labor, obsession for materials or passion for subject matter. Materials range from adhesive vinyl, sound, lottery tickets and wire, to the City of Providence as a subject. Please join us for the opening reception at Design Within Reach (210 Westminster Street, Providence, RI 02903) on September 17, from 5:30-7:30 PM. Come and meet the artists, go on a walking tour with a map and visit beautiful Downtown Providence. To take the tour on your own, a downloadable map will be available September 17th on the blog, providenceartwindows.blogspot.com.

Best of Rhode Island

Rhode Island Monthly has bestowed Providence Art Windows "Best of" for Public Art in its annual August issue. The editors write, "If there's one upside to downtown Providence's vacant shop windows, it's that Providence Art Windows has filled many of them with paintings, installations and sculpture." A photo is included of the recent installation "Marshmallow Life" by Eric Rice and Jillian Clark. Check out the rest of the issue on stands soon or go to RI Monthly's website.

Join Us!

Providence Art Windows is pleased to announce that its next exhibit will be on view from June 18-September 11, 2009. The art and art installations presented in nine downtown windows are by Rachel Cohn, Jennifer Daltry, Ani Ghajanian, Not About the Buildings, The Hive Archive with New Urban Arts students, Roger Lemelin, Benton Moss and Alyssa Spry, Alison Owen and Lisa Perez, and Amy Wynne-Derry. Please join us for the opening reception at Design Within Reach (210 Westminster Street, Providence, RI 02903) on June 18, from 5:30-7:30 PM. Come and meet the artists, go on a walking tour with a map and visit beautiful Downtown Providence.
A downloadable map is available above, and a paper one at the reception.

Most artwork and installations are for sale. Please contact PAW Director Rebecca Siemering at 401.566.8260 if you are interested in any of the artists.

1. 191 Westminster Street

Amy Wynne-Derry
Infinite Menagerie
Materials: mirrors, wood, paint


About the Work
The silhouetted animals reference animal identification books and museum display boards. I have been inspired by the Victorian Age of collection and Natural History museums for years. The effect of the painted image is meant to be altar-like and the infinite repetition of the image speaks to the illusion of plenty when in fact the species are in danger of depletion/extinction. Perhaps a remembrance. This installation gives me a chance to interact with the motion of the pedestrian and give the viewer the chance to experience visual impermanence.

About the Artist
Amy Wynne-Derry is a painter with a studio in an old lace mill Pawtucket, RI. She has been a Full-time Visiting Artist in Painting and Drawing of The School of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston since 2001. She also teaches in RISD’s certificate and summer programs. Locally she has shown at 5 Traverse Gallery and The Chazan Gallery. She has also been a “Celebrity Tour Guide” for Gallery Nite Providence. She received her BA from Smith College in Art History and Cultural Anthropology. Her MFA is in Classical Painting Techniques and Anatomy from The New York Academy of Art in NYC. Her work can be found in both private and corporate collections.

Amy Wynne-Derry does site-specific custom wall paintings for both private and corporate interiors. Infinite Menagerie is available for purchase and installation. Any inquiries please contact Providence Art Windows.

2. 191 Westminster Street

Rachel Cohn

The Museum of Supernatural History: The Legend of Mercy Brown
Acrylic on tyvec, assorted fabric, plywood

About the Work
This display from the Museum of Supernatural History intends to present a supplemental history of the state of Rhode Island. The display aims to recreate a naturalistic local habitat of a two distinct groups of supernatural beings native to Rhode Island: ghosts and vampires. To visit the ghosts in their own environment, take a walk down Benefit Street on College Hill, the most haunted street in America.

The Legend of Mercy Brown
In 1892, a young girl named Mercy Brown died from "consumption" in Exeter, Rhode Island. Over the course of several years, other members of her family had also succumbed to “consumption” and when her brother Edwin became sick, the villagers suspected a vampire. They exhumed the corpses in the family crypt and found nothing but mummies and skeletons, except for Mercy; her body remained unchanged and the blood in her heart was still red. She appeared to have moved inside her coffin. Mercy had been buried in January and the coldness of the winter would have preserved her body, but for the villagers of Exeter these signs were a confirmation of the undead. They removed her heart and burned it, mixing the ashes into water as a potion for her brother to drink. Unfortunately the cure didn’t work and Edwin died later in the same year.

Mercy Brown was the last vampire exhumed in the state of Rhode Island. In 1882, scientists had discovered that the disease, tuberculosis, was caused by bacteria, but unfortunately for Mercy that information had reached rural Exeter too late.


About the Artist
Rachel graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2005 with a B.F.A in Painting. She has worked in commercial art and design in New York City, painting murals, working on movie sets and most recently working on the design team for Window Display at Bloomingdale’s flagship store in Manhattan. Currently Rachel divides her time between Brattleboro, Vermont and Copenhagen, Denmark.

3. 203 Westminster Street

Ani Ghajanian

Consumed
nickel silver-forged & soldered, maple tree seed pods,
paperclay, thread, mixed media installation

About the Work
The resemblance of maple tree seed pods to wings was the inspiration for the development of this sculpture.Working intuitively, my emotions and experiences at the time informed the creation of the moths and their home inside a ribcage heart. The installation grew from there. In my art I explore themes of where we come from, where we are going, and our relationships with love and loss, fear and dreams. Abstracted forms of the human figure and parts of the body play a frequent role in my work for the presentation of these topics. I find great joy in sculpting clay and wax, casting, metalsmithing and crafting from nature.

About the Artist
Ani Ghajanian is a sculptor living and working in RI. She earned a BFA in sculpture from Rhode Island School of Design in 1996. As a freelance artist, she has 10 years experience sculpting products for the toy industry.Her career since graduating also includes work as a jewelry designer in RI, a handbag designer in NY, and an art teacher for children at Manhattan’s 92nd St. Y Art Center and Providence City Arts. In November 2008, Ani completed a one-month artist residency at the Vermont Studio Center. Recently, she received a scholarship to study glass at the Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina. In August she will be part of a 4-person show at Tugboat gallery in Omaha, Nebraska.

4. Two Brothers Beauty Supply, Eddy and Westminster Sts.

The Hive Archive with New Urban Arts Students

Hexacomb
Mixed Media

About the Work
Six women artists from The Hive Archive partnered with six young women artists from New Urban Arts to design and fabricate
a sculptural installation that celebrates the creative voices of women and girls in Rhode Island. The Hive artists began by exploring inner narratives of empowerment and inspiration with their partners. Together each pair created a collaborative piece for a series of
six collaborative pieces that define a story, a physical space, or
an artistic process that provokes each artist to make art. Each individual piece utilizes the hexagon of a honeycomb and this repetition ties the individual pieces together in order to form a central narrative. The Hive Archive believes that the sum of a whole is greater than the individual parts and that people sharing ideas, skills and resources will always lead to actions greater than those of any individual. This theme is central to Hexacomb, in which twelve individual voices come together to inspire a greater movement of women in the arts in Rhode Island.

The Hive Archive was founded in 2001 as a non-profit,
women-run feminist arts organization, focused not just on art
making and empowerment through creative expression, but also
on civic involvement and social change. We are a multi-faceted organization that strives to dismantle obstacles that limit women in reaching their full creative potential. The Hive Archive seeks to provide programming to support creative women and girls — including access to art studios, career learning opportunities, and skills expansion — to advance an accessible and safe environment for collaboration, learning, and activism.
Visit us at www.hivearchive.org

New Urban Arts is a nationally recognized interdisciplinary arts studio for high school students and emerging artists. Our mission is
to build a vital community that empowers young people to develop a creative practice they can sustain throughout their lives. We provide studio, exhibition space, and mentoring for young artists who explore the visual, performing, and literary arts through yearlong free out-of-school programs.

Visit us at www.newurbanarts.org
Hive Artists New Urban Arts Artists
Deb DeMarco Amanda Abreu
Heather Guidero Ginger Avila
Jori Ketten Alyce Brown
Kirsten Lamb Ava Ginsburg
Monica Shinn Kelsea Ricard
Alyssa Holland Short Sara Tolbert