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Museum And Gallery

Calming and exciting

Bartlett Wright catches the wave; Washington's gothic romance
“This is the largest height outdoor mural that I’ve painted, and I’ve been painting murals for 25 years." Amy Bartlett Wright i s talking about the four-story-tall crashing waves she’s painting on the wall above Coastway Community Bank’s parking lot at 180 Washington St. in Providence.

By: GREG COOK | June 18, 2013

The buzz of creativity

RHD-RI's 'Artless'; Gilheeney and Hastings at Candita Clayton
Joe Pastore is a “Juggalo,” according to his brief artist biography for the exhibit “Artless: Rhode Island Outsider Art with RHD-RI” 186 Carpenter St. Gallery in Providence. His bio supports this by including a photo of him in a hoodie professing his allegiance to the horror-hip-hop rap duo Insane Clown Posse.

By: GREG COOK | June 11, 2013

Buildings people love to hate

Viera Levitt looks at Brutalism
Viera Levitt looks at Brutalism

By: GREG COOK | June 04, 2013

A few flights of fancy

'New Mythologies II' at Candita Clayton; 'Peaked' at Craftland
The ladies have it under control in Xander Marro's puppet dioramas exhibited in the group show "New Mythologies II" at Candita Clayton Gallery.

By: GREG COOK | May 29, 2013

A really big show!

The 'RISD Graduate Thesis Exhibition 2013'
This showcase of tomorrow's-art-stars-today is both invigorating and overwhelming, with work by 194 students.

By: GREG COOK | May 21, 2013

Clothes make the man

'Artist/Rebel/Dandy: Men of Fashion' at the RISD Museum
What does it mean to be a man? That's the question at the heart of this smart, sumptuous exhibit — one of the best shows in the region this year.

By: GREG COOK | May 13, 2013

Merry pranksters

The Bruce High Quality Foundation at Brown
Parked out front of Brown University's gray modernist Granoff Center on a recent sunny morning were one of those 15-foot-tall inflatable rats that unions install in front of businesses they're protesting and a limousine sloppily painted to resemble a yellow and black school bus.

By: GREG COOK | May 07, 2013

Altered images

Jacqueline Frole's 'Family Room' at AS220; J.A. Segal at Craftland
Among the handsome Washington Street storefronts of AS220's renovated Mercantile Block building, with their neo-old-timey signs, is the residents' entrance to the building. It is against AS220's religion to leave any space empty that can be filled with art. So the lobby is the AS220 Resident Gallery, which occupants of the building take turns filling with their stuff.

By: GREG COOK | April 30, 2013

In the city

Neal Walsh and Scott Lapham at 186 Carpenter
One of the distinguishing characteristics of the Providence art scene is how the city itself has been such a rich subject. A decade ago, the city became a galvanizing topic as artists fought to protect the old mills that served as their homes and studios from demolition — with mixed success. But lately, the community's industrial architecture itself has attracted artists' attention.

By: GREG COOK | April 23, 2013

The aftermath of atrocity

Wafaa Bilal and Daniel Heyman at Brown's Bell Gallery
From the ruins of the Iraq war emerges Wafaa Bilal's "The Ashes Series" and Daniel Heyman's "I Am Sorry It Is So Difficult To Start," on view at Brown University's Bell Gallery.

By: GREG COOK | April 16, 2013

The art of lust and life

'Reverse Cowgirl' at Yellow Peril Gallery
If Batman's dark latex costume-armor actually indicated his dark sexual appetites, Curtis Aric's Fluffer might be the motorcycle he'd ride — or at least keep in the Batcave for quiet kinky nights in.

By: GREG COOK | April 09, 2013

Land of make believe

Corey Grayhorse's 'Artificial Memories' at Craftland
"It's like getting to run away into a photograph," Corey Grayhorse tells me of her photos. "If I built it I could go there."

By: GREG COOK | April 03, 2013

Private parts

Jessica Thurber, Sarah Beck, Thomas Morrissey at AS220
There are certain subjects like photos of gruesome death or cute puppies or disembodied vulvas where criticism struggles to keep up with the awesome force of the pictures.

By: GREG COOK | March 27, 2013

A Richard Goulis retrospective at RIC’s Bannister Gallery

Escape artist
Sometimes I think if Richard Goulis had lived in New York or Los Angeles he'd be in the art history books, instead of being a guy from Providence whom we cherish for making our town a bit more crazy and dangerous and wondrous.

By: GREG COOK | March 20, 2013

Two shows highlight the RISD Museum's new direction

A dandy list
It's been a year-and-a-half since John Smith took over as director of the RISD Museum. But it's only now that his vision for the place is becoming reality.

By: DAVID SCHARFENBERG | March 13, 2013

‘The Conditions Were Just Right’ at World’s Fair

The pleasure of patterns
At heart, "The Conditions Were Just Right" at World's Fair at Machines With Magnets (400 Main St, Pawtucket, through March 31) is about the subtle pleasures of geometry.

By: GREG COOK | March 13, 2013

The ‘2013 RISD Faculty Biennial’

A wondrous window
Giant moths hover over the beacon atop the art deco Superman Building (okay, the Bank of America Building) in Chris Buzelli's dreamy painting for a poster advertising the national ICON Illustration Conference that was held in Providence last June.

By: GREG COOK | March 06, 2013