The Rhode Island State Council on the Arts (RISCA) is pleased to present works by artist Molly Kugler Dickinson on exhibit January 6 through June 7, 2020, at the Block Island Airport Gallery. The Block Island Airport Gallery presents the work of contemporary Rhode Island artists in quarterly exhibitions.
Dickinson's "Fabricated Landscapes" exhibition of recent work features plein-air oil paintings that are a direct response to the moment in the "premier coup" tradition. Dickinson is interested in landscapes that reflect the impact of human activity; thus the term "fabricated" as her chosen locations are no longer in their raw, unaltered state.
The series, painted in Middletown, Maine, and Provincetown, feature landscapes where this intersection of nature and human activity is evident. Examples: the Sachuest National Wildlife Refuge, whose sweeping vistas are the result of the land having been used for grazing, a military station and a garbage dump prior to becoming a park; Pemaquid ME, where the pine forest is unnaturally uniform due to having been clear-cut then subsequently re-growing all at one time; and the Cape Cod National Seashore, whose sweeping, fascinating dunes and vistas are the result of early English settlers overgrazing the area, then planting it with African dune grass in an attempt to shore up the resulting erosion. Little of these lands has escaped the imprint of human activity.
Dickinson asks the question: do we find beauty in unaltered nature only, or have we in some measure adopted a reshaped landscape as our own, more ideal version? As she explores her question in these pieces one feels her hand, her marks remaking the land again. Fabricated Landscapes will be on view through June 7, 2020.
Exhibitors for the Block Island Airport Gallery were selected by jurors Ana Flores, Nancy Whipple Grinnell and Angel Smith.
The Block Island Airport Gallery, a partnership between the Rhode Island Council on the Arts and the Rhode Island Airport Corporation, promotes outstanding work by artists living and working in Rhode Island. The gallery will 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, the Block Island Airport and four other 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.