Art Rogue Island

I’m sitting at my day job that I really do like, counting down the minutes.  It has been a crazy two weeks for personal reasons, but I think the ghosts are finally gone and I can finally move forward.  I also finally broke down and adopted the sweetest kitten.  I feel so guilty leaving her at home all day, hence my readiness to go home.

Sonya (2 months)

Friday, pre kitten, I had a very interesting day that really started the moment I finally found a parking spot over by Westminster.  I had made an appointment to see Jyll Ethier-Mullen about a piece of art that is currently hanging in the INDEPENDENTS show.  I’ve been obsessing about a couple of pieces in the exhibit, but one paycheck at a time.  I will be taking home a Ryan McEntee canvas around the middle of November.  I am still thinking about the Sam Kashuk I mentioned when I reviewed the show.  In addition to the new piece, I also had the chance to talk to Joe Skorupa who curated the show.  He, Jyll, and I had a really great discussion about the state of the art scene in Providence and there is a definite discrepancy.  We asked questions that none of us have answers to, I think Joe being back in Providence will certainly be interesting.  He’s got the curators bug, he just needs the space.  Another pop up venture? 

Friday night I made my way over to Amigos for the launch of a new ‘zine and the work of Vinny Martin who works over at OKO in New Bedford.  It was a small collection of photographs, one of which I adored and bought.  When I asked Martin to sign the photo, he admitted he had never signed any of his work before, to which I replied, well you’re going to have to start.  The pictures definitely reminded me of what this Mission Hill MassArt apartment used to look like on a Saturday night after a small friendly drunken get together.  I chose an image that reminded me of skinny dipping with my high school boyfriend.. and mermaids =] 

I can’t speak highly enough about Amigos.  Nick and Kerry are always so open and kind.  I admit that I am constantly trying to find a way to let more people know about them while trying to pitch them ideas.  I can’t help it.  There is no other place in Providence, I think, that is doing what they are doing and things like that get me so excited.  Sadly, I think they are a bit more conservative.. but I keep waiting.  Until then, I’ll keep buying… I might have to finally hanging. 

It’s only 8:15 on a Friday night, and I’m spent.  I made three different stops this evening and all of them are worth noting and revisiting at a later day.  Perhaps you went to one of them and I’m sure if you did, you were not disappointed.  If not, let me fill you in.  

I started off my evening heading over to the Launch Gallery over in South Providence.  Peter Croteau, a second year RISD MFA photography student, hung his large scale photographs for this exhibit entitled, “Mountains.”  Croteau’s work features man-made mountains that one finds at construction sites or the places where construction workers and landscapers go to get materials.  There were photographs of mountains of rocks and sand.  Thinking about it now, there were a bit like Ed Rusha mountains without the text and they weren’t actually real mountains, but some of them were very interesting.  The works with skies included in the background were really something, a perfect blue.  I can see Croteau getting up early in the morning to go to these locations.  When we briefly spoke before I left,  he let me know that he had been working on this body of work for the past year.  The thing that disappointed me about the show was one of the same things that bothered me about Colin Prahl’s show, the prices.  Croteau had his photos beautifully framed, but most of the works were priced at $5000 and editions of 5.  It’s sad to know that I can’t afford anything that is sold at this emerging gallery.  I don’t think it should be that way, but clearly that must be just my opinion since I think every RISD student who will get the opportunity to have a solo show in the hallway will overprice their work.  I do think that Croteau has a nice future ahead of him.  I hope I get to see his work at the Gelman before he graduates. 

Next stop was West Side Arts for the Independents show.  I really love this space.  Every show I’ve been to in the past year has really been so amazing and interesting.  Tonight was no different.  I walked in and I felt a huge smile make shape on my face.  Jyll and Travis allowed a group of artists come in and really have their way with the gallery.  Ryan McEntee was the first artist I saw walking through the door.  He combined graffiti with canvas and let the paint overflow onto the wall.  It was so great.  There were other works in the show that spilled over the canvas.  Another highlight for the show was the fact that after leaving a show with such high prices to walk in and see wall tags for $40 and $75.  I knew I was going to have this problem tonight, I would want to take purchase several things.  I can’t find another word really to describe the vibe of the school other than “cool”  I ended up having another one of those “ahhhh” drool moments and have completely fallen in love with a Sam Kashuk photography piece.  I have every intention of finding a way of bringing it home.  I had the opportunity to meet Kashuk, I must say that I’m a sucker for a beard.  The show will be up for the month before WSA goes into hibernation for a little bit, so if you’re smart, you will follow them on facebook, http://www.facebook.com/groups/57459502515/ and make sure you see the show before it closes.  When I left, 8 boxes of pizzas had arrived.  It was a perfect opening.  

Yes, blurry… Ryan McEntee

My last stop of the evening was the highly anticipated opening of Buonaccorsi+Agniel Gallery.  Admittedly, I knew what might be waiting for me as I drove over in the rain… bodies, smells, heat.  I had no idea when I got there it would be all that times 10.  They had set up a tent outside which was full of people and the gallery was beyond packed.  It was a whos who of the Providence Art Scene.  There were old ladies with crazy blue makeup.  There were classic art girl stereotypes dressed in black.  There were older men carrying babies as their wives circulated the room.  The thing is there was no way to circulate.  It was 2000 square feet of pure madness and close quarters, too close for my own taste.  I just kept envisioning something happening to the work as I watch people get a little to close to the walls as they tried to get around the room.  Much too much anxiety for me.  I’m not claustrophic at all, but I fear for the life of the work in an opening like that, but I know I must have been the only one.  Everyone else was too busy rubbing shoulders with one another.  I saw Barnaby Evans and Umbreto Crenca.  Tabitha Piseno and Sam Keller of RK Projects were also in attendance, as well as designer Asher Dunn and artist Andrew Moon Bain in the crowded room.  Thankfully when I first walked in, Jon Buonaccorsi was easily accessible and he and I had a quick chat.  They had just finished lighting the show earlier that day and I could see how tired he was already, running off of pure adrenaline.  He let me know that the schedule for the rest of the fall would be posted on their website next week.  

From what I could see of the show, it was hung salon style and the works chosen I didn’t feel that work overwhelmed the space, just the people.  I tried to start to walk around the room, unsuccessfully.  I was able to take a few pictures, but feel I didn’t really look at anything, which means I’m just going to have to go back to really look at everything.  I did see William Schaff’s piece, along with Neal Walsh’s work.  Other than that, too many people were crowding wall tags for me to see anything.  I did see one red dot.  It was exactly the type of opening were people can’t really buy anything, but I’m sure between the gallery and the online gallery they have set up, some of the works will find good homes.  

An unrelated side note:  The Contemporary London sale at Sotheby’s didn’t do anything crazy but the one Cy Twombly work almost doubled and was the only work to sell grossly over the estimate.  I think Larry is playing the game very very well.  

I’ve been realizing that for the last couple of months many of my posts have been my reviews of shows.  Tonight, I’m doing something a little different.  

I’m at the last commercial break during the season 2 premier of Work of Art.  Last summer I showed the series opening during a grad class when I was in Italy, when we were all very far away from what was happening back in the States.  It ruffled everyone’s feathers.  I still stand by the overall idea of the show and don’t think there is any area of the world that is above reality tv.  It is the strangest for the art world because of its accepted opaqueness.  I think the biggest different between my feeling tonight and last summer is the fact that you don’t really get to see the work for longer than a split second so the audience at home can’t really get into anything and have a response.  I also know they don’t have a whole lot of time, but I still think the show is interesting.  Dusty mentions that New York in the center of the Art World- Sorry dude, we live in a global market now and most of the highly respected critics have moved the supposed “center” back to London or even Berlin.  I watched it alongside Paddy Johnson’s live commentating feed on her facebook page, which I loved.  The French guy who taught himself how to make art like Keith Haring went home.  Until next week….. 

The other thing that has been on my mind is the state of the art community in Rhode Island.  My GoLocalProv piece for this week is about the new gallery opening near the Steel Yard on Friday.  I remember talking to Candita Clayton months ago about how I had purchased my Gilheeney print from Tiny Showcase and she spread the rumor about a gallery to me.  Here is Jon’s response from July 14th: 

Hey Renee,
We’re still in “rumor” mode but we are trying to get everything to line up. Fingers crossed.

A month later I sent another email to see if there would be a fall opening, which sadly didn’t garner a response, but I’m glad I held out.  I’m even more glad that it looks like I will be the only art writer in Providence covering the opening.  Bill and Greg’s newspaper articles come out once a week and always before Thursday.  Bill covered the Degas exhibit in Boston and Greg looked at stuff I’ve already written about and published through GoLocal and EastSide, but he does review Andrew Moon Bain’s show at AS220, which triggered my major train of thought today.  Bain’s work will also be in the new Buonaccorsi+Agniel show.  There are a fair number of places to exhibit in RI and in the PVD area, but no one is paying any attention to the overlap of work and artists.  So many artists in town are rogue free agents, sending in proposals to different spaces and just looking for a show because they don’t have a dealer or rep paying attention to their careers.  There should be an organization of the gallery owners in town to really use the full potential of talent in the town and not create a repetitive walk around the city.  Add it to my list of things I want to do here.  Young artists should be sending the proposals to out of state spaces and not just the Chazan, or even paying someone sans jury so they can hang their work.  I find that set-up disgusting and cheap.  I’m not quite sure what my solution is yet to what I think of as a problem, especially because I know this isn’t really an across the board problem, just a recognizable issue.  Rhode Island has a very large demographic of artists and not enough real support to help them.  There is only so much Cade Tompkins can do, but her presence at fairs and the quality of her shows, she’s doing it the right way.
I’m sure a potential reader thinks I’m sitting up on my high horse and not understanding the risk involved in becoming a dealer.  I am plenty aware, its one of the reasons I don’t have this overwhelming desire to become one, but too many free agent artists roaming the city is not good.  It’s a lot more complicated than just signing a contract.  Galleries have to have exposure outside of this state to attract buyers to really support their artists, which is why art fairs are so important for spaces dealing with emerging artists, and that means real art fairs… no Wickford… and no Providence Art Festival either.  It always boils down to money.  

I guess that’s enough rambling…. 

Oh one more thing, there is only one Cy Twombly at the evening sales happening in London this week…. what the heck is up with that?

So, where did Risque go?  

It’s still around, but after a conversation about a week ago, the title Risque proved to be just too risky.  I’m sure on a few levels this makes me a sell out, but I certainly don’t want to ostracize and offend anyone because they accidentally end up at the real risque.com or even the real risquerenee.com.  It seems that as the trees will lose their leaves, I have to change a bit too.  

But don’t worry…. I’m not going anywhere. 

Last Thursday, I stopped by the new RK show that opened at 891 North Main, which is a little past the Whole Foods Plaza.  If there hadn’t been a few people outside, I would have driven right past it because it was dark and there wasn’t a lot of light on the building with the address.  

The vision behind this exhibit is a simple hypertextual form of documentation entitled a palimpsest.  On trusty ol wikipedia, it is defined as “A palimpsest is a manuscript page from a scroll or book from which the text has been scraped off and which can be used again” but some of the original of what was on the page is left behind.  This to me is just a fancy way of describing recycling or using a bad eraser.  It is still an interesting concept, especially when so many artists reuse all of their materials.  But some forms of layering and reusing can be successful, and other times its just turns to dirt.

Immediately upon entering the building, there is the feel of space.  It was nice that the cool autumn air was moving through the rooms, it let a small feeling of emptiness circulate even though the rooms now had purpose.  In the front space was a video installation by Emily Martin.  There was something very art house about this work.  The image was distorted but only to slightly obscure the subject until you can make out a scalpel in the monitor.  The work was untitled but the word, internist accompanied the title in parentheses.  Several other pieces of hers in the show had similar subjects.  It fit the mission of the exhibition perfectly because her video art works are carefully layered to be both abstract and simultaneously representational.  

Another great body of work in the show was by Matthew Underwood.  He was doing a lot of different things in this show.  I was personally drawn to the photographs, which are really just layers of color which they are printed out.  There is definitely something about his aesthetic that really captivates me.  Maybe it was the recyling of images, subtle overtones, or the thought process, but Underwood’s work is really worth checking out.  I was drawn to a space in the back which held one of Underwood’s installation behind… a locked door.  As I pressed my nose to the glass to look through my cupped hands, I whispered, “Brilliant.”

There were no signs letting people know, but there is a second floor to the exhibit.  Upstairs were more 2-d works by both Underwood and paintings by Annabeth Marks.  There was also an audio installation by Daryl Seaver that I thought might be altered when you can into close proximity to a point in the room, but that didn’t seem to be the case, but it was nice to wander around the space to sound.  

I think its a great show with definite high points.  I was a little disappointed to not see Tabitha at the opening because I now view Sam and Tabitha as a united front, each talented in their own ways.  There weren’t any sale prices or exhibition listings so its unsure to me if anything was for sale since I feel some works could surely find a home.  RK certainly knows how to put together an interesting show and really work a space.