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GREG COOK

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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

Sign painter: Los Angeles painter Ed Ruscha

There's no denying that Los Angeles painter Ed Ruscha is one of the preeminent artists of the past half-century. But do I have to like him?

By: GREG COOK | March 19, 2013

Strip show: Lisa Nilsson's Tissue Series

A few years back, Lisa Nilsson was rummaging though a junk shop when she found a quilled crucifix.

By: GREG COOK | March 19, 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

Free hand: Frank Casazza's murals and graphics

Everything is happy in Frank Casazza's murals and graphics.

By: GREG COOK | March 13, 2013

Great art from the other Nick Cave

The Soundsuits by Chicagoan Nick Cave (not the rock star) are the dazzling mutant offspring of disco, Bigfoot, Teletubbies, African and Caribbean carnival costumes, troll dolls, flea markets, Wookiees, and cheerleader pompons.

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