Rhode Island School of Design

Latest Articles

RISD’s hockey team turns the dick joke into high art — OK, low art

Go Nads!
The third period has just begun and the Nads, the Rhode Island School of Design's club hockey team, is losing 2-0 to a squad from Emerson College.
By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | February 15, 2012

‘Taoist Gods’ and ‘Immortals’ at Brown and RISD

The language of aesthetics
As China marked the beginning of the Year of the Dragon with lion and dragon dances and fireworks last week, Brown University's Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology was debuting "Taoist Gods from China: Ceremonial Paintings from the Mien".
By GREG COOK | January 31, 2012

‘Chicken Little’ and ‘Manchester Tracks’ at the RISD Museum

Discomfort and joy
The star of New York painter Nancy Chunn's epic installation "Chicken Little and the Culture of Fear" at the RISD Museum (224 Benefit Street, Providence, through April 15) is the fabled fowl — you know, the one who mistakenly thought the sky was falling.
By GREG COOK | January 10, 2012

Britannia rules at RISD’s “Made In the UK”

Top of the pops
"Made In the UK: Contemporary Art from the Richard Brown Baker Collection," a survey of post-World War II British art at the RISD Museum (224 Benefit Street, Providence, through January 8), arrives as British artists are the top of the pops.
By GREG COOK | October 04, 2011

A British invasion and the local hall of fame

Autumn offerings
The art season follows the school year.
By GREG COOK | September 14, 2011

Tips for young artists

Express your self; bus fumes; bands behind bars
This region of the country is, and always has been, a magnet for artists. If I spent some time thinking about why this is the case, I could probably conjure up a few convincing theories. But that's not my purpose today.
By RUDY CHEEKS | July 13, 2011

Review: ''Remember the Ladies'' at the Newport Art Museum

Women's work
Rhode Island is one of the preeminent places for art-making in America, thanks in great part to the Rhode Island School of Design, but what would it be without its pioneering women?
By GREG COOK | July 07, 2011

Review: ''Among the Breakage'' scratches the surface at Bell Gallery

An incomplete picture
Over the past dec-ade, Providence art has been known for its visionary printmaking and graphics, crafty constructions, and funhouse installations, but local painting has tended to operate out of the limelight.
By GREG COOK | June 28, 2011

The tale of the tape in Providence

Roots
A tree grows on the floor of Kennedy Plaza's skating rink, sketched in blue tape and cheap plywood.
By NICOLE FRIEDMAN | June 15, 2011

The challenge: redesign the coastline

Water Dept.
We relate to shorelines reactively — we structure ports around jagged edges, avoid dangerous cliffs and fret that climate change will result in Hawaiian islands going the way of Atlantis.
By NICOLE FRIEDMAN | June 08, 2011

StoryCorps lands in Rhode Island

Audio Dept.
Listen: Muriel Mackie patrolled Pawtucket in a white helmet and whistle during World War II.
By AMY LITTLEFIELD | June 01, 2011

The Big Think

Providence designer Seth Goldenberg convenes the best and brightest to tackle the "Epic Challenges" of our time. But who appointed them?
TED, PopTech, and other 21st-century innovation conferences — nerds giving speeches to rich guys — have done something rather remarkable: they've turned the public intellectual into popular entertainer.
By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | June 01, 2011

Review: ''The 2011 RISD Graduate Thesis Exhibition''

Hello, we must be going
Walking into the "2011 RISD Graduate Thesis Exhibition" at the Rhode Island Convention Center (1 Sabin Street, Providence, through June 4), you can't miss Laura Swanson's Homemade Bull .
By GREG COOK | May 24, 2011

Review: ''Tradition, Trauma, Transformation'' at Bell Gallery

Images of India
One of the medieval legends of India is the tale of the star-crossed lovers Sohni, the daughter of a potter, and Mahiwal, a traveling trader.
By GREG COOK | April 13, 2011

Review: RISD's '2011 Faculty Biennial' impresses and inspires

A visual buffet
The Rhode Island School of Design's "2011 Faculty Biennial" at the RISD Museum (20 North Main Street, Providence, through March 20) features more than 200 teachers for a varied buffet ranging from tangled noodley junk sculpture to sleek architecture designs to loose abstract paintings.
By GREG COOK | March 02, 2011

Review: The eye-popping vitality of 'Printed in Providence'

Lasting impressions
Providence printmaking continues to be the primary representative of the city's art in books from Street World (2007) to Paper Politics: Socially Engaged Printmaking Today (2009) to the Museum of Modern Art's Modern Women (2010). It's a printmaking of posters and zines, do-it-yourself art often operating underground, on the streets, outside the usual institutions.
By GREG COOK | February 23, 2011

At RISD: 2x4s, tape, and 'Co-Habitation'

Boxing Dept.
In photographs, it looks like a giant spider web. But up close, it's shiny and transparent under the golden light. It's big enough for a person to climb into and crawl through — or you can poke your head in from a hole underneath or on the sides.
By MARION DAVIS | February 09, 2011

Review: Louis Family Restaurant

Just like Mama tried to make
There are no Greek columns outside or marble steps, but make no mistake: Louis Family Restaurant is an institution in Providence.
By BILL RODRIGUEZ | January 25, 2011

At RISD: Art, science, and what's wrong with ATMs

Confabs
Among the most prominent solutions offered up for our present economic malaise and the broader decline of the republic: a robust investment in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education.
By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | January 19, 2011

At a downtown bar: Fluffernutters and pickle juice

Nightclubbing
For a city driven, in many ways, by its youthful artist-entrepreneurial class, there is surprisingly little in the way of hipster night spots.
By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | December 01, 2010

The uplifting Sweet Honey in the Rock

Sweet inspirations
FirstWorks has a rousing finale to wrap up the 2010 Festival: a performance by the internationally-renowned a cappella group Sweet Honey In the Rock..
By JOHNETTE RODRIGUEZ | November 11, 2010

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Building a better world, by design

Improvements
What if architects across America agreed to make every building they design 50 percent more energy-efficient — and keep improving until, by 2030, they're at carbon-neutral?
By MARION DAVIS | October 06, 2010

11 Big Ideas for Rhode Island

Great notions to make things better in tough times: internpreneurships, dance parties, and Netflix for underwear
Rhode Island has problems. We all know it. Unemployment, political corruption, the Providence College basketball team.
By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | October 05, 2010

Swords, cycles, skates — and Scrotie

Fun 'n' games
Sporting venues don't have to be limited to large corporate-sponsored stands full of foam fingers. Some of the more unique — and irreverent — sports teams can be found right in Lil' Rhody's backyard.
By ABIGAIL CROCKER | August 31, 2010

With plans for a downtown mural, Shepard Fairey returns to Providence

Obey
It is a rather unremarkable collection of bricks at the moment: an exterior wall at the back of Trinity Repertory Company’s Pell Chafee Performance Center in downtown Providence.
By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | June 16, 2010

In 'The Tradition'

Bannister’s ‘Five From Providence’ honors its namesake
In 1978, Rhode Island College presented “Four from Providence.” The exhibit was a call to revitalize the reputations of four Providence artists of color who had often been overlooked since their peaks in the late 19th and early 20th century.
By GREG COOK | June 10, 2010

Photos: RISD’s 2010 Annual Graduate Thesis Exhibition

Student's works of art at RISD's graduate thesis exhibit
Prominent installations in this year’s showcase at the Rhode Island Convention Center.
By PHOENIX STAFF | May 27, 2010

Celebration of sensation

RISD’s ‘2010 Annual Graduate Thesis Exhibition’
The Rhode Island School of Design’s “Annual Graduate Thesis Exhibition” typically has too many people doing too many different things for any common themes to emerge. But prominent installations in this year’s showcase at the Rhode Island Convention Center of more than 170 students receiving graduate degrees give the shindig a carnival vibe.
By GREG COOK | May 27, 2010

At the Cable Car: The wind-lashed and sea-worn

Surf’s Up
On a recent Sunday, the usual grad school crowd at the Cable Car Cinema in Providence gave way to something different — the wind-lashed faces and sea-worn hands of Rhode Island’s oft-ignored surfing community.
By ABIGAIL CROCKER | May 12, 2010