The Rhode Island State Council on the Arts (RISCA) announced today that a new art exhibition is on display at TF Green Airport. At the GREEN SPACE Gallery, an exhibit entitled OBJECT OF AFFECTION featuring works by Craig Crawford, Sherie Harkins and Mary Jameson is on display from May 17 through September 4, 2017. The GREEN SPACE Gallery, a partnership between the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts and the Rhode Island Airport Corporation, promotes outstanding work by artists living and working in Rhode Island. The gallery presents art to an ever-changing audience of local, national and international travelers.
OBJECT OF AFFECTION examines how artists find inspiration in everyday objects, such as is illustrated by the time-honored tradition of still-life painting. In this exhibit, three artists examine this genre in different, even unorthodox ways. In these bodies of work, the object is in one case the subject; in the next, the medium with which the image is materially made; and in the third, the physical vessel supporting further imagery. Here, the obsessive quality of these artists' work elevates the commonplace.
Jamestown resident Craig Crawford studied Textile Design at the Rhode Island School of Design. She worked in the field for ten years before turning to ceramics in the form of custom tiles and dinnerware. In recent years she has leaned increasing towards a fine arts approach in her work. She exhibits here three installation pieces utilizing layered imagery inspired by the botanists of the 17th & 18th centuries. Exhibiting widely, she maintains a studio in East Greenwich.
Sherie Harkins earned her B.F.A. in Painting from the Visual and Performing Arts College at UMass Dartmouth and an M.A.T. in Creative Arts from Bridgewater State University. Over the years her creative practice has included landscape design, graphic design, commissioned portraiture and visual arts instruction in public schools. Her recent canvases feature large-scale objects rendered in a hyper-realistic style. She resides in Providence.
Mary Chatowsky Jameson is an artist who explores the marine environment for inspiration. Her marine botanical pressings and collages are created from seaweed and organic elements collected on excursions throughout the northern Atlantic coast. She earned her B.F.A. from the University of Miami and holds a Graduate Certificate in Museum Studies from Tufts University. She is the owner of Saltwater Studio in Newport, and is represented by numerous galleries on the east coast.
Artists for GREEN SPACE were selected for exhibition by an panel consisting of Dennis Hlynsky, Professor and Department Head of the Film/Animation/video Department at the Rhode Island School of Design; Andrea Raynor, Interim Chair & Professor of Photography at Northeastern University; and Jiyoung Chung, artist, writer and curator.
The GREEN SPACE gallery is funded through Rhode Island's Percent for Art law.
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.