Great Art in Small Doses at Paper Nautilus - Inside Art with Michael Rose

Great Art in Small Doses at Paper Nautilus - Inside Art with Michael Rose

Exhibitions of small artworks are a staple of the holiday season. On view through January 15, 2022, at Paper Nautilus Books on Wayland Square, Small Doses offers a collection of modestly sized contemporary artworks that reinterprets the idea of a small works show. Curated by Barbara Owen of Periphery Space, this exhibition offers an enticing collection of work by fifteen talented local artists inside one of the city’s most beloved bookshops.

 

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Small Doses includes a wonderful variety of media, from printmaking and painting to collage and drawing. Works executed in watercolor are at home alongside monotypes, etchings, and letterpress prints. Although small in scale, the works on view are interesting and worthy of examination. They delightfully show off a range of subjects that draw the focus of contemporary art-makers.

In mixed media works by Mara Metcalf, the familiar aesthetic of chain link fence is paired with more organic forms to probe space. A longtime professor at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University in Boston, Metcalf is widely exhibited and her work can be found in the collection of the RISD Museum among others. Another multi-part work on view is Sonja Czekalski’s “Lady Garden”. Incorporating wallpaper, dried flowers, lace, and steel wire, the piece offers a view into the art-making process of one of the most talented members of Rhode Island’s younger generation of artists. A RIC alumna, Czekalski is the Director of Hera Gallery in Wakefield.

While the fine details of mixed media are expertly laid out in the artworks of Metcalf or Czekalski, other pieces are a bit more punchy. Willa Van Nostrand’s appropriately titled painting “Lemon Chiffon” is vivid, bright, and pleasantly tart. Text works by letterpress printmaker Dan Wood illustrate the power of language. In one piece, a quote from A. Bartlett Giamatti speaks of baseball in a spherical format. Both Van Nostrand and Wood are Providence-based artists.Van Nostrand operates World’s Fair Gallery on Broadway and Wood is the owner of DWRI Letterpress, a commercial and fine art print shop.

Still, other artworks in Small Doses take up the theme of subtlety itself. Watercolors by Lisa Perez are calm, meditative, and muted. Inspired by nature, Perez’s work is beautiful and thoughtful. Perez, who earned her MFA at the University of California at Berkeley, is an arts educator whose works can be found in many collections including locally in the RISD Museum and Newport Art Museum.

 

 

 

 

Another of the show’s laudable watercolors is Shari Weschler’s “Girl Emerging Girl Hiding”, a work which shows off the themes of transformation and change that populate much of Weschler’s production as an artist. Seeing Weschler’s work in such a small scale and delicate medium is an enjoyable departure. In addition to her work as an artist, Weschler is the creative force behind Newport’s Coastal Contemporary Gallery.

Alongside Weschler, works by Josh Baptista also offer an illustrative sensibility. One of Baptista’s untitled works in the show contains seemingly malleable architectural forms that appear to jump from their two-dimensional confines. Baptista, who earned his MFA at Washington DC’s American University, masterfully uses ink and line to define and shape space and surface.

Thoughtfully arrayed across a broad, unbroken wall over a staircase in the space, Small Doses draws viewers in from across the well-stocked bookshop. The works included in this special exhibition, in addition to being of a high artistic caliber, are also notable for their affordability and accessibility.

Located at 80 Fountain Street in Pawtucket until 2017, Periphery Space was a dedicated exhibition venue and the brainchild of Barbara Owen. Owen currently curates regular shows under the Periphery Space banner at Paper Nautilus Books, a Wayland Square institution since 1996. In the shop’s description, Paper Nautilus is framed as “specializing in rare and recent books, art, ephemera and assorted oddments”.

 

 

The partnership between Periphery Space and Paper Nautilus provides art lovers and bibliophiles with a place of engaging overlap. It is worth noting that in addition to the artful display organized by Owen, Paper Nautilus is also home to a fantastic and well-chosen selection of art-focused books. It is the perfect location to find inspiration both on the walls and on the shelves.

 

Small Doses is on view at Paper Nautilus Books at 19 South Angell Street in Providence through January 15, 2022. Paper Nautilus is open Sunday - Tuesday, 12-5 pm each day, and Wednesday - Saturday, 11 am-7 pm each day.

 

To learn more about Periphery Space, visit www.peripheryspace.com.

 

To learn more about Paper Nautilus Books, visit www.papernautilusbooks.com.