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The Chazan Gallery at Wheeler
228 Angell Street
November 20 - December 10, 2008
"Paint and Steel"
New work by Irene Lawrence and Jerold Ehrlich
Opening : Gallery Night Thursday, November 20 from 5 to 7 pm

Irene Lawrence, an accomplished abstract painter, will be exhibiting new paintings that are a development of her exploration focused on color. Building texture with varying thicknesses of application, her paintings display a bold use of richly pigmented paints. The rhythm of her paintings vary - lively brushstrokes that dance across the canvas gives rise to carefully considered poetic marks. Lawrence's new works present a language in abstraction that is approachable and engaging.

Irene Lawrence is a painter who was born in California and grew up on Long Island, New York. She attended the Rhode Island School of Design and now lives and works in Providence. She has exhibited widely in Rhode Island, Massachusetts and New York, most notably in three solo exhibitions at Steven Harris Architects in New York City. Lawrence is honored as an American Abstract Painter and has work in several public collections including the Addison Gallery of American Art in Massachusetts, the David Winton Bell Gallery at Brown University and at the Rhode Island School of Design Museum of Art.

Using construction site detritus as his sculptural material of choice, Jerold Ehrlich bends, hammers, re-forms and re-appropriates these otherwise disregarded materials into new and interesting forms. Ehrlich reminds us that "a pipe is a container and conduit" when we see that he has spread and shaped a pipe into a sleek wide-mouth vessel. The resulting form remains a container, but through Ehrlich's manipulation has transgressed into a new form with a new function. Similarly, Ehrlich has seen the function of the structural building material know as rebar, but has stretched its form and function into something new. Assisted by the golden mean, Ehrlich draws with the rebar creating sculptures that twist and turn as three-dimensional lines spiraling in space.
 
Jerold Ehrlich is a sculptor who lives in Rhode Island. His work has been exhibited throughout Rhode Island, Massachusetts and New York. He has worked in collaboration with local arts non-profit, The Steel yard. His work can be seen at the Dorchester Hotel in London, England.

The Chazan Gallery at Wheeler, a nonprofit artists' space, presents a wide range of contemporary work in exhibitions by artists living or working in the greater Providence area. Artists are selected through an open juried process. Located on the East Side of Providence near Brown University and RISD, the gallery is on the campus of Wheeler School.

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David Winton Bell Gallery
at Brown University List Art Center
64 College Street
November 8 – December 21
Elizabeth King: The Sizes of Things in the Mind's Eye
Opening reception on Friday, November 7 will begin with an artist’s lecture at 5:30 pm in the List Art Center Auditorium; refreshments will follow in List Lobby.

THE SIZES OF THINGS IN THE MIND’S EYE is a mid-career survey of Richmond-based sculptor Elizabeth King. King’s work combines sculpture, film, and installation. Her uncanny self-portraits are meticulously crafted in porcelain, wood, and bronze, and are often exhibited with stop-frame film animation in installations that blur the boundary between actual and virtual space. Intimate in scale and distinguished by a level of craft that solicits close viewing, this work reflects her interests in early clockwork automata, the history of the mannequin and the puppet, and a host of literature in which inanimate or artificial figures comes to life.
The exhibition will present approximately 65 sculptures, film animations, installation pieces, drawings and photographs produced since the late 1970s, on loan from private and several public collections and from the artist herself. It will feature such seminal works as Pupil, lent by the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C., as well as her latest pieces, including Bartlett’s Hand, a carved wooden sculpture with movable joints that hypnotically comes to life in an accompanying animated film. Supplementing these works will be other objects from King’s studio – her glass-eye collection, wax studies of facial expressions, plaster life casts and optical devices, for example – that illuminate process and intent.
Born in 1950 in Ann Arbor, Mich., Elizabeth King received BFA and MFA degrees in sculpture from the San Francisco Art Institute. In 1985, she joined the faculty of Virginia Commonwealth University, where she currently serves as School of the Arts Research Professor in the Department of Sculpture + Extended Media.
Awards recognizing King’s accomplishments include a 2006 Academy Award in Art from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a 2002-03 Guggenheim Fellowship and a 1996-97 Fellowship in the Visual Arts at the Mary Ingraham Bunting Institute, now called the Radcliffe Institute of Advanced Study, at Harvard University. Her work is in the permanent collections of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.
Last year, King’s work was the subject of a solo show at New York’s Kent Gallery. She has also recently participated in the group exhibitions Brides of Frankenstein at the San Jose Museum of Art, Beyond Real: Surrealist Photography and Sculpture from Bay Area Collections at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Faster Than the Eye at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, and Endless Love at DC Moore Gallery in New York. Her film animation, What Happened, made with Richard Kizu-Blair, was screened last November at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, as part of the program Black Maria Film Festival: The Legacy of the Short Film. Later this year, she will be represented in the exhibition All the More Real, curated by painter Eric Fischl for the Parrish Art Museum in Southampton, N.Y.

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John Brown House Museum
of the Rhode Island Historical Society
52 Power Street
January-March: Fri & Sat 10 am-4 pm
April-December: Tues-Fri 1-4 pm, Sat 10 am-4 pm
Call for tour times 401-273-7507 x 60
www.rihs.org | dsantos@rihs.org

If These Walls Could Talk…. From Roots to Branches: Today’s Family Connections with the Francises, Herreshoffs, and the Mason-Eatons
The history of the John Brown House Museum remains vital and dynamic today! Join us for this month’s Gallery Night lecture to welcome Nathanael G. Herreshoff III and Henry A.L. Brown, descendants of the historic Herreshoff and Brown Francis families. They will speak about their experiences growing up in and researching their respective families. Mr. Herreshoff and his guest, genealogy researcher Marianne Healey-Wild, will divulge the latest information discovered about Karl Friedrich Herreshoff. Brown will discuss how he worked to clear the bad reputations of Karl Herreshoff and John Francis. Attention will also be given to the Mason-Eaton family line. This exciting night promises to be full of unique facts, anecdotes, memories, and perspectives. The presentation will last about an hour and both speakers will be available for questions afterwards.

Visit the John Brown House Museum to see and hear the stories of Rhode
Island's history as told through the lives of the inhabitants of this “most magnificent mansion”, built in 1788. View artwork from the eighteenth century and follow the Voyage of the Slave Ship Sally in our gallery. The first floor is open for free tours.

Founded in 1822, the Rhode Island Historical Society is the nation's fourth oldest state historical society and is today the steward of some 30,000 artifacts and 500,000 library items. The Society maintains its research library and John Brown House Museum in Providence and operates the Museum of Work & Culture in Woonsocket. The Society's ongoing public and educational programming includes publication of the historical journal Rhode Island History and the presentation of exhibitions, lectures, workshops, and tours.

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The Krause Gallery at Moses Brown
250 Lloyd Avenue
October 28 - November 21 : Expressive Painting
Gallery Night reception Thursday November 20th  5-9pm
Krause Gallery will present work by New England artists Marion Christy and Nancy Chapman.  Each artist uses the medium of paint, watercolor for Christy and oils for Chapman, to render an emotion or capture a moment and place in time. The landscape, whether under close observation or atmospheric illusion, is a consistent source of inspiration for these two artists.

Marion Christy
“I believe we have two hearts.  One heart pumps the blood.  Our other heart, hidden, pumps our spirit.  It is the second, unscientific heart that inspires me.  It is the unseen place where our emotions vibrate, where our most secret memories are stored, where we draw our spiritual strengths and hopes.  It’s also where anger and despair hide.

What explodes in our second heart, that mysterious interior life, guides me to paint the world around me expressively, with controlled abandon.  I strive to capture the strange force that connects the exterior landscape to our inner landscape.  I do this only by the power of suggestion.  I am an artist of these many moods, linking the visible to the invisible.

Nancy Chapman
"Stone walls are my focus.  I live in a small village on the coast of Narragansett Bay, RI.  'Old Boston Post Road', a main artery in colonial times, runs along the back edge of 300-year-old Casey Farm, once a plantation. Freestanding stone walls line this now overgrown 'highway'.  I am in awe of the mass and beauty of these rock walls, most certainly built by African slaves who left us a gift and a legacy.

For me, the process of painting is visceral, one of active dialogue with the marvels of nature while walking daily with our dog. In my eyes, stone, a seemingly inert and humble material, holds a visual energy. In my spirit, I am reminded of the Biblical reference to the living stone. The title, 'The Pardon' is a term used in colonial times, referring to the steps built into the side of the walls for easy crossing from one side to the other. With oils, I use a glazing technique, giving a translucent surface. I frequently use the diptych and triptych format to extend the image. The breaks are also like the musical reference, indicating the measure."

Located in Moses Brown School on Providence's East Side, The Krause Gallery is dedicated to exhibiting a broad spectrum of contemporary artists' work.

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Providence Art Club
11 Thomas Street
Providence Art Club Galleries will be closed through October due to renovations.
However, the Deacon Taylor Studios will be open for Gallery Night visitors.

Deacon Taylor Studio Artists
9 Thomas Street
September 18, 2008 Gallery Night
The Deacon Taylor Studios of the Providence Art Club will be open for Gallery Night on Thursday, September 18, 2008 and many artists will be present with their studio doors open. This is a wonderful opportunity to see a variety of work, talk with the artists, and visit the actual studios see where some of the work is created. The artists at the studio are: Gail Armstrong, Paulette Carr, Vera Gierke, Richard Harrington, Brooke Lee, Craig Masten, Joan McConaghy, Alice Miles, Sandra Pezzullo, Suzanne Reeves, Jeanne Sturim, and Anthony Tomaselli. The Studios are at 9 Thomas Street, and the Trolley will stop there. Don’t miss that stop!

Artist Statements:
Paulette H. Carr
Being an artist is not something that you do but rather something that you live. I am a painter and sculptor whose work incorporates my love of ancient history and nature with my training in fashion merchandising and interior design. I paint in oils, acrylics, inks and watercolors. My sculptures are created in bronze or plaster, mixed media or large installations.

Currently I am working on the Marshland Series. These paintings celebrate the incredible and complex beauty of the sky over a minimal landscape. My sculpture work also continues with commissions and installations.

I am a member of the Providence Art Club, the Mystic Art Association and the International Sculpture Society. My work has been shown in museums and galleries in the United States as well as overseas.

Anthony Tomaselli
Specializing in Providence Cityscapes and the New England Land and Seascapes, I have been painting for 35 years. Currently I am represented in 10 galleries in the USA. I am a member and painting instructor at the Providence Art Club. My Providence studio is the yellow colonial located at 9 Thomas St. It is one of four buildings owned by the Providence Art Club.
I encourage dialogue. Contact me about viewing my paintings, future workshops, or any other info that you want to share. Whether you are a collector, patron, student or just curious.
See You at Gallery Nights.

Sandra DeSano Pezzullo is a landscape and still life painter working in oils. Her love for the outdoors and appreciation for private quiet places are evident in her landscapes. She is also known for her sunflower paintings which have been described as an explosion of saturated color. "I love everything having to do with painting from mixing my colors, applying the paint to different surfaces and even cleaning my palette." Sandra's paintings can be viewed in her studio located in the Deacon Taylor House, 9 Thomas Street on Gallery Night or by appointment. desanostudio@cox.net, www.desanostudio.com.

Vera Gierke
Art for me is trying to see things in a different way, it’s seeing more in what’s around you, being observant, seeing the everyday from a different angle and reinterpreting it. My art represents a variety from simple to fun and funky to realistic, from sketches to watercolor to acrylic to collage. In my short time of creating art, I have embraced the concept of play, of experimentation, of openness, of variety. Most of all, I embrace the idea that art should awaken – a new idea, a new thought, a new perspective, a new interest.

Founded in 1880 to stimulate the appreciation of art in the community, the Providence Art Club has long been a place for artists and art patrons to congregate, create, display and circulate works of art. Through its public programs, its art instruction classes for members and its active exhibition schedule, the Club continues a tradition of sponsoring and supporting the visual arts in Providence and throughout Rhode Island.

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The RISD Museum of Art
224 Benefit Street

NOVEMBER Gallery Night Programs
6-8 pm - For Adults Only: a free art lesson! Receive one-on-one instruction from a professional artist/educator. Materials are provided; no experience is necessary.
6 to 8:30 pm - Enjoy a drink at our Cash Wine Bar.
6:30 pm - Listen to a conversation between Anna Von Mertens, a visual artist whose work is currently featured in the Multi- Part Art exhibition, and writer/scholar Dr. Jessica Hemmings (RISD BFA Textile 1999). Hand-stitched works by Von Mertens comment on themes from American history and current politics. The conversation will consider Von Mertens’s process which is informed by science, historical events, and traditional quilt-making. This event will take place at the Chace Center’s Metcalf Auditorium.
7 pm - Visita Guiada en Español and Guided Museum Tour in English.
Meet in the Chace Center Lobby for either choice.

Exhibitions

Chihuly at RISD
Studio Glass in Rhode Island: The Chihuly Years
Through Sunday, January 4
Renowned artist and RISD alumnus Dale Chihuly (MFA Ceramics 1968; former RISD Faculty) has created a site-specific installation to inaugurate the special exhibition gallery in The Chace Center. A massive work composed of many of his signature hand-blown glass components, the riot of sculptural forms is of a scale and energy unlike anything seen before in New England. This unique work fills the Museum’s newest and largest gallery (nearly 6,000 square feet). This exhibition is complemented by Studio Glass in Rhode Island: The Chihuly Years, a showing of works by glass artists who were students of Chihuly.

Chihuly at RISD is presented by Bank of America. Additional support is provided by the Bafflin Foundation, Corning Foundation, and the Chihuly Leadership Committee.

Building Books: The Art of David Macaulay
Through Sunday, February 1
This is the first in-depth museum exhibition devoted to prolific author/artist David Macaulay (RISD BArch 1969; former RISD Faculty), who has demystified the workings and origins of everything from simple gadgets to elaborate architectural structures. Macaulay brings togeth, history, science, and fantasy. This installation takes a look at his process through original artwork for his many books, including The New Way Things Work, Cathedral, Ship, Rome Antics, and Mosque. The RISD Museum presentation also includes drawings from his newest book, The Way We Work (release date: October 7, 2008). The exhibition has been organized by the Norman Rockwell Museum, Stockbridge (Massachusetts).

Alternating Beats
Through Sunday, February 15
Alternating Beats juxtaposes seminal video works from the late 1960s and 70s with more recent international productions. It traces the social and political preoccupations of earlier generations of video artists and shows how their concerns, although altered and modified by living in different times, are still relevant and vital to contemporary artistic practice. The exhibition also includes a selection of works from The RISD Museum’s growing video collection. Videos from different decades are paired according to their subject matter to reveal certain similarities, but also many differences, in the artists’ approaches. These groupings are shown at separate viewing stations in the Spalter New Media Gallery.

A Life in Pictures: Harry Callahan’s Eleanor
Through Sunday, February 15
Approximately 125 acclaimed and influential images by former RISD faculty member and photography department founder Harry Callahan are on view. Harry Callahan: Eleanor offers an in-depth study of one of his primary subjects: his wife of 63 years. The exhibition focuses on portraits from the 1940s through the 1960s and includes many images not shown in more than 20 years. Eighteen other works are from Callahan’s estate and have never before been exhibited publicly.

After You’re Gone, an Installation by Beth Lipman
Through Sunday, January 18
Beth Lipman, an artist known for her hand-sculpted and blown-glass reworking of historical still-life painting, was commissioned to create a new installation for The RISD Museum. Inspired by the treasury of objects in the period rooms of Pendleton House, Lipman addresses issues of aging and decay as well as material consumption and excess. She worked with students in RISD’s Glass Department to create some of the components for this installation, including glass topiaries and a full-size glass settee.

Designing Traditions: Student Explorations in the Asian Textile Collection
Through Sunday, December 7
The Asian textiles collection was conceived from the outset as a design resource for RISD students. Coinciding with the opening of The Chace Center and a new era in the Museum’s history, Documenting Tradition showcases contemporary student textile designs alongside Asian textiles and clothing that were among the earliest gifts to the Museum. Such objects as Japanese stencils for printing onto textiles, a Kashmir coat, and a Korean scholar’s horsehair hat were selected to inspire the newest generation of RISD designers. Innovative knitted, printed, and woven textiles, as well as hand-drawn and computer-generated designs, indicate the breadth of creativity sparked by even the smallest details of traditional craftsmanship.

Ongoing Exhibitions

Subject to Change: Art and Design from the Twentieth Century [Ongoing] In the early decades of the 20th century, the Museum's distinguished collection of American art was presented to visitors in three elegantly proportioned galleries made possible by a gift from Jesse Metcalf in memory of his wife, Helen. Inaugurated in 1897, the Beaux Arts-style Waterman Galleries now link visitors to the Daphne Farago Wing, to Pendleton House by way of the Porcelain Gallery, and to the 1926 Radeke Building. The rooms also offer a direct sightline through the Museum's new 20th-century galleries to The Chace Center. Beginning May23, the reinstalled Waterman Galleries will present highlights of American art from the permanent collection. On view are landscapes acquired in the Museum's early years of collecting, including Thomas Cole's sublime Landscape (1828), Winslow Homer's magnificent On a Lee Shore (1900), and George Bellows's Rain on the River (1908).

Multi-Part Art: Contemporary Works from the Collection
[Ongoing] The history of art has a rich tradition of multi-part works. Renaissance altarpieces and other narrative cycles, for example, come to mind. Contemporary artists working in a variety of materials, styles, and formats are extending the tradition in radically new directions, often eliminating any obvious narrative content. A number of recent acquisitions are on view for the first time, including works by Tacita Dean, Anna von Mertens, Martin Boyce, Louise Hopkins, Roy McMakin, and Andrew Lord, and others.

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