New Shows and a New Curator at Dryden Gallery - Inside Art with Michael Rose

New Shows and a New Curator at Dryden Gallery - Inside Art with Michael Rose

 

A new year means new exhibitions and a new curator at Dryden Gallery, Providence Picture Frame’s exhibition venue on Mineral Spring Avenue in North Providence. On view through February 10, Dryden is mounting two exhibitions that merit a visit. The first is a Holiday Group Show featuring the work of eight artists, and the second is a solo show of paintings by Mallie Loring Pratt. The two shows were co-curated by outgoing curator Mea Duke and local artist Liz Kelley who is taking over from Duke to become Dryden Gallery’s new curator in 2024.

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Dryden’s Holiday Group Show is a delight and features paintings, photographs, drawings, printmaking, and mixed media works by Jenny Brown, Nina Cherie, Mike Coute, Dugg Desjardins, Sam Allerton Green, Janie Kinnane, Read McKendree, and Amy H. Parker. The show offers a range of work, from seaweed pressings and colorful textiles to poignant and memorable photographs and more.

 

 

Some of the most striking pieces in the show come from Desjardins, who is exhibiting a wall-spanning collection of moderately sized shaped panels that take on whimsical and colorful forms like animals, musicians, or cars. Desjardins has been active on Block Island for the last 15 years and has exhibited his work at the International Outsider Art Fair in New York as well as at the New Mexico Folk Art Museum.

 

Speaking of the exhibition co-curator Liz Kelley says, “For the Holiday Group Show our hope is to present a unique assortment of mediums and genres, from hyperrealism and photography to landscape and sculptural paintings, all with the common thread being New England talent.”

 

 

Both of Dryden’s exhibitions offer well-executed artworks in an array of treatments. The gallery’s other current show features a strong collection of landscape paintings by Mallie Loring Pratt, who earned her BFA from RISD and has exhibited at the RISD Museum. Her art leverages strong brushwork to shape memorable images of fleeting moments. Pratt states that her paintings “explore memory and sensory encounters with the natural world.” In the artworks on view in her show at Dryden, viewers will get a sense for this combination, which leads to images that convey the artist’s connection to place.

 

Asked about the exhibition of Pratt’s work, co-curator Mea Duke says that “It is a thorough representation of the artist’s paintings encompassing the symbiotic relationship between ourselves and the environment. In each painting, whether it be a micro or macro view of the biodiversity of a meadow or a mailbox tucked naturally and into blooms and wild brush, our hope is that visitors to the gallery feel reminded of all the ways we and our surroundings imprint on each other.”

 

Dryden’s current exhibitions offer viewers the opportunity to learn about an array of local artists’ visionary work, but they are also significant because they represent a leadership transition for one of the state’s most important commercial gallery spaces.

 

Speaking of the new path the gallery is taking, Providence Picture Frame owner Geoff Gaunt explains, “In the summer of 2020, Mea Duke joined the Providence Picture Frame and Dryden Gallery team to help gradually rebrand all aspects of the business, from advertising and website design to physical changes within the store and gallery. In the fall of 2022, Mea assumed the role of interim curator to implement much needed changes to Dryden Gallery’s standards and programming. Having successfully brought the gallery to a thriving and sustainable level, Mea was able to bring on Liz Kelley in the fall of 2023 as the new lead curator for Dryden Gallery with a promising and clean slate to start her own program with.”

 

 

Kelley is an established illustrator, muralist, and creative consultant. Locals will recognize her public artworks, which can be found on the side of West Elm on Wayland Square or in the heart of Federal Hill on the outer wall of the Nitro Bar on Broadway.

 

Gaunt goes on to say about Kelley, “Liz’s background in the arts as an artist and as a curator/consultant combined with her experience in design make her a valuable and wonderful addition to Providence Picture Frame and Dryden Gallery. Dryden’s winter 2024 shows, Mallie Loring Pratt: Signs of Life and the Holiday Group Show, were co-curated by Kelley and Duke. Working as a team for this round of shows allowed for a seamless transition from one curator to another.”

 

 

Dryden’s current exhibitions hint at continued high quality in the shows that will be mounted at the gallery and offer an exciting start to 2024 in the local art community.

 

Dryden Gallery is located at Providence Picture Frame at 1350 Mineral Spring Avenue in North Providence. Hours are Mondays through Saturdays from 9 am - 5 pm. Learn more and plan your visit at www.drydengallery.com.