The Rhode Island State Council on the Arts (RISCA) announced today that a new art exhibition, entitled MODERN ARCHEOLOGY, will be held from January 13 through May 1, 2016 at GREEN SPACE, a gallery at T.F. Green Airport in Warwick that presents the work of contemporary Rhode Island artists.
MODERN ARCHEOLOGY features three artists whose works utilize objects and places to depict our current society in various ways. By definition, archeology is the study of human history through the analysis of sites, artifacts and physical remains. Here, the remains of the day convey ephemeral beauty, excess and scarcity, community ties, collective anxiety and implied violence.
David Barnes holds a Masters of Fine Arts in Painting from UMASS Dartmouth and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of New Hampshire. Primarily a painter, his work is held in the collections of the RISD Museum, Salve Regina University and Newport Art Museum. He currently teaches at Bristol Community College in Fall River, the Newport Art Museum, and the Portsmouth Abbey School. Most recently, he is the recipient of a 2016 Pollock-Krasner Foundation grant.
Although Joanne Luongo uses a variety of materials in her work, she mainly employs used tea bags in her assemblages to reflect the ephemeral comfort, ritual and shared community associated with the drinking of tea. A native of Rhode Island, Joanne received her Associates of Fine Arts from the Community College of Rhode Island, her Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston, and her Master of Fine Arts from the University of Connecticut at Storrs. Among the awards and recognition she has received are a Fellowship Award from the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts, the Salonule Mic Bucuresti Award from the Visual Center for the Arts in Romania, the Board of Trustees Award from the Silvermine Guild Arts Center in Connecticut, and first prize for Outstanding Artistic Merit from the Warwick Arts Association in the Statewide Convergence Festival in Rhode Island.
Nina Ruelle is a textile artist based in Providence. She graduated from Brown University with a Bachelors of Arts in Visual Arts, and has since been awarded residencies at the Dirt Palace, the Studios at MASS MoCA, the Mildred's Lane Art Complex(ity), and the Penland School of Crafts. Her work has been exhibited at the David Winton Bell Gallery, Anchor Gallery, the Perry and Marty Granoff Center for the Creative Arts and the List Art Center. The artists were selected for exhibition by an accomplished panel consisting of Peter Geisser, arts educator and public artist, Karen Harris, painter, and Hollis Mickey, RISD Museum educator and new media artist. RISCA thanks the panelists for their service.
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.