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Museum And Gallery

‘Traces: Persistent & Fleeting’; and Kathy Halper’s ‘POS’

All the small things
Jon Laustsen's new Lilliputian-scaled sculpture is a shack made of wooden shipping pallets precariously balanced atop a stack of more shipping pallets and a familiar real estate yard sale sign rejiggered to read "21st Century/For Sale."

By: GREG COOK | May 29, 2012

The ‘2012 RISD Graduate Thesis Exhibition’

Stars on parade
The star, literally, of the "2012 RISD Graduate Thesis Exhibition," the school's annual showcase of its graduating graduate student talent at the Rhode Island Convention Center is James Franco.

By: GREG COOK | May 23, 2012

‘Quigley’s Magic Show’; and Marguerite Keyes’s miniatures

Brain storms
"Quigley's Magic Show" at Buonaccorsi + Agniel (1 Sims Ave, unit 102, Providence, through June 9) is a psychedelic creature double feature by Providence wife and husband team Kyla and James (Gunsho) Quigley.

By: GREG COOK | May 15, 2012

The McMillans’ video installatons are open to interpretation

Some assembly required
Megan and Murray McMillan's videos unfold with dream logic.

By: GREG COOK | May 08, 2012

Making the RISD Museum sizzle

Can new director John W. Smith polish Providence's hidden gem?
The Rhode Island School of Design Museum is one of New England's — and America's — most underappreciated and underperforming cultural treasures.

By: DAVID SCHARFENBERG | May 02, 2012

Daria Tessler at Craftland; AS220’s ‘Delicate Shudder’

‘Realm’ of wonder
The realm of Daria Tessler's "In the Realm of the Seedkeepers," an exhibit of drawings at Craftland, seems to be an often hushed, mystical place.

By: GREG COOK | May 01, 2012

‘Distillation’ at RIC; Salvatore Mancini at Candita Clayton

The purity of paint
At first, the approaches of abstract painters Lisa Russell and Mary Bucci McCoy can appear opposite.

By: GREG COOK | April 17, 2012

Lucas Foglia’s ‘A Natural Order’ looks at self-sufficiency

Of humans and nature
In 2006, after finishing undergraduate studies at Brown University and photographing a series on community gardens managed by Providence's Southside Community Land Trust, Lucas Foglia bought a minivan, put a bed in the back, and drove south "to photograph people who had responded to current day events ..."

By: GREG COOK | April 10, 2012

Mirthful morbidity

“Penguins, Zombies, and Nudes” at Craftland
Greenville painter Greg Stones writes that he sketches a basic landscape or figure study, "then I try to think of what would make the painting especially awesome. Penguins, zombies, and nudes are invariably the answer."

By: GREG COOK | April 03, 2012

‘#Occupy’ at Yellow Peril; Roger Shimomura at RIC

Artist’s statements
The art world and the Occupy movement have a somewhat awkward relationship.

By: GREG COOK | March 27, 2012

Maxey’s sprawling landscapes; Blackburn’s altered spaces

Exteriors and interiors
After years of visiting her second home in her husband's native United Kingdom, Providence artist Madolin Maxey says it finally occurred to her to paint the hedgerows, rolling hills, giant boulders, and ancient stone crosses in Devon in southwestern England, where their house overlooks the River Dart as it winds northwest from the English Channel.

By: GREG COOK | March 21, 2012

Buck Hastings’s ‘Vibes & Stuff’ at AS220; ‘Acquire/Inquire’ at RIC

Accidentally on purpose
The first painting in Providence artist Buck Hastings's series Vibes & Stuff at AS220's main gallery features quick, flat brushstrokes that give a curious paint-by-number feel to what appears to be an abstracted shrub.

By: GREG COOK | March 14, 2012

Spencer Finch’s ‘Painting Air’ at the RISD Museum

Mission: Impossible
The question at the heart of Spencer Finch's art is: how to recreate fleeting impressions, like the green-blue-brown surface of the Hudson River or the sunlight filtering down from the Pantheon's dome in Rome.

By: GREG COOK | March 06, 2012

‘Hunters and Gatherers’ at Cade Tompkins Projects

Eye of the beholder
The subject of the 10-artist survey "Hunters and Gatherers" at Cade Tompkins Projects (198 Hope Street, Providence, through March 31) is building art from recycled scraps.

By: GREG COOK | February 28, 2012

Agata Michalowska’s ‘dom’; ‘Surfacing’ at the Chazan Gallery

No place like home
"Dom: means home," Providence artist Agata Michalowska says in a sign introducing her installation "dom" at AS220's Project Space (93 Mathewson Street, Providence, through February 25).

By: GREG COOK | February 22, 2012

The ‘2012 RISCA Fellowship Exhibition’

Bright spots
Last weekend The New York Times proclaimed Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning , the debut video game of former Red Sox pitcher and outspoken Republican millionaire Curt Schilling's 38 Studios, "one of the finest action role-playing games yet made."

By: GREG COOK | February 15, 2012

‘Valentined’ showcases geek love at Craftland

Heart-felt
These missives don't have the swooning, steamy, bodice-ripping passion of romance novel covers.

By: GREG COOK | February 08, 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

Myoda and Pender in ‘Illuminations’ at Chazan Gallery

Tricks of the light
Paul Myoda's kinetic sculptures are beautiful and unsettling.

By: GREG COOK | January 24, 2012

Ben Blanc’s intriguing ‘The Exchange’ at AS220

Selling an idea
Two hundred black wood sculptures, resembling abstracted chunks of coal from some old video game, are lined up on a shelf running around the room in Ben Blanc's installation "The Exchange" at AS220's Project Space (93 Mathewson Street, Providence, through January 28).

By: GREG COOK | January 17, 2012