The Rhode Island State Council on the Arts (RISCA) announced today that a new art exhibition, entitled PERSONAL SPACE, will be held from May 13 through September 1, 2015 at GREEN SPACE, a gallery at T.F. Green Airport in Warwick that presents the work of contemporary Rhode Island artists.
PERSONAL SPACE features three artists who present their unique vision of the space they inhabit. The artist's relationship to the surrounding environment is portrayed in ways figurative and abstract, literal and suggestive. The dimensional works of Jeong create a psychological space depicting her feelings of isolation and displacement. Two-dimensional works by McKnight and Roarke are also inspired by everyday environs, but use the atmospheric layering of paint to transcribe this personal vision.
Born and raised in Korea, Nayoung Jeong currently makes her home in Providence and recently received her MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design. Working with ceramics, sculpture, painting and performance, her works explore issues of cultural isolation, displacement and expatriotism.
Nicholas McKnight earned his BFA from the University of Rhode Island and lives in Providence. Exhibiting throughout New England, Nick seeks to convey through his paintings nature in all its glory, as well as man's relationship therein. McKnight works at Mad Dog Artist Studios in Pawtucket.
A Rhode Island native, Karen Roarke left the state to study and work in Boston, California and New York before ultimately settling in Middletown. Her paintings derive inspiration from her surroundings, but explore formal rather than figurative elements. She has exhibited nationally and internationally over the last 20 years, and her work is held by numerous private and corporate collections.
These artists were selected for exhibition by an accomplished panel: Lynn Harlow, a sculptor and former GREEN SPACE Gallery Director, Touba Ghadessi, an art historian and professor at Wheaton College, and Erik Gould, an exhibiting photographer and staff member at the RISD Museum.
The Airport Galleries, a partnership between the Rhode Island Council on the Arts and the Rhode Island Airport Corporation, promote outstanding work by artists living and working in Rhode Island. The galleries present art to an ever-changing audience of local, national and international travelers.
About RISCA: The Rhode Island State Council on the Arts is a state agency supported by appropriations from the Rhode Island General Assembly and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency. RISCA provides grants, technical assistance and staff support to arts organizations and artists, schools, community centers, social service organizations and local governments to bring the arts into the lives of Rhode Islanders.
About RIAC: The Rhode Island Airport Corporation operates T.F. Green Airport and the five general aviation airports in Rhode Island. A long-time supporter of public art in Rhode Island, the Rhode Island Airport Corporation has worked with the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts on a number of public art commissions for T. F. Green and Block Island airports.