Inside Art with Michael Rose - Artists of All Ages Featured at AS220

Inside Art with Michael Rose - Artists of All Ages Featured at AS220

 

AS220’s mission of opening up creativity to an unjuried and uncensored pool of talent has always been one of its great strengths. It is in this spirit that the longtime Providence organization brings visual art to audiences at its multiple gallery spaces dotted around downtown. AS220’s current exhibitions, which wrap up on May 28th, feature the work of a range of talented artists aged eighteen to ninety-three years old. Local art enthusiasts should explore these shows during gallery hours, which are Thursdays through Saturdays from 12-5 pm before they conclude. They offer a chance to explore artists at every stage of their respective careers.

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On view in AS220’s Project Space at 93 Mathewson Street, 18-old Creole artist Rhiannon Landry is sharing recent pieces in the show “We Are Royalty”. The exhibition has a varied body of work by a gifted young person. Among the pieces on view, a series of three brightly-hued collages illustrate Landry’s creativity and eye for design. Stripes of vivid color accentuate portraits in Landry’s work and celebrate her subjects. Originally from Lake Charles, Louisiana, Landry now resides in Bristol and studies at Moses Brown School. Although in the early stages of her artistic practice, Landry has already exhibited work in Sacramento and Laguna Beach in California as well as at the Bristol Art Museum and now at AS220. It will be exciting to follow this promising artist’s career as it develops.

 

Alongside Landry’s work in AS220’s Reading Room, also at 93 Mathewson Street, a densely installed display of works by 93-year-old art-maker Theo Meyer is featured. The modest gallery space is packed from floor to ceiling with everything from papier-mâché and wire sculptures to oil paintings and fine prints executed using multiple methods. It is a journey through the better part of a century’s worth of artistic production.

 

 

Many of Meyer’s pieces are dedicated to the study of the figure. Elegant and elongated bodies capture the personalities of sitters who the artist has captured over many decades. In paintings, Meyer’s muted palette and rich surfaces set her work apart. Occasionally an incised line can even be spotted in the thick crust of paint used to describe fabric or pattern. A number of paintings are exhibited alongside prints of the same individual, showing off Meyer’s dexterity across media. Other qualities of Meyer’s oeuvre include her ability to describe personalities and to catalogue fashion trends.

 

Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Meyer studied at Washington University’s School of Art. She has lived in New York, New Jersey, and in Colorado, while frequently summering in Mexico. She now resides in Rhode Island. Meyer has enjoyed a long career and the pairing of her work with an emerging artist like Landry is a wonderful way to celebrate two artists and different points of their lives. It also allows audiences to compare and contrast varying treatments of the figure in art.

 

 

Down the street at AS220’s Aborn Gallery, which is located in a second-floor space at 95 Empire Street, viewers will find digital and video work by Julio Berroa. A 2021 Rhode Island College graduate, Berroa is one of the most promising of the state’s newer generation of creatives and recently completed WaterFire’s Accelerate program for young artists. In the darkened gallery space, multiple screens and projectors glow with Berroa’s imagery. For those who have previously seen Berroa’s more static artworks, this special show is an opportunity to see his vision in motion. It is also one of the strongest shows of digital work made locally in recent memory.

 

Mid-career artists Kim Edge and Antonietta Kies are featured opposite each other in AS220’s Main Gallery. Originally from Rhode Island, Edge studied art at New York University and Parsons School of Design and is showing abstract work in her current exhibition. Kies earned an MFA in painting and drawing from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art in 2013 and is sharing works that have a distinct Surrealist influence. Next door in AS220’s restaurant space, urban photographs by Jared Winslow document downtown Providence and adorn the walls. Winslow is another great young artist and another WaterFire Accelerate alum.

 

 

Throughout a plethora of exhibition spaces, AS220’s current shows celebrate artists at all points on their creative journeys, from young adults just beginning to develop their voices, to established creators looking back on years of productivity. Viewing these exhibitions gives viewers access to an exciting group of voices, which illustrate the rich creative ecosystem of Rhode Island.

 

AS220’s current exhibitions conclude on May 28, 2022. The galleries are free and open to the public from Thursdays through Sundays from 12-5 pm each day. For more information, visit www.as220.org. To learn more about the AS220 galleries, contact gallery director Neal Walsh at [email protected].