ROZHON AND WHEELER’S AUTUMN EQUINOX
by J. Fatima Martins
In a time when many contemporary commercial art galleries are closing, business acumen and good old fashioned “people sense” is the “secret sauce” holding together the successful art partnership between gallerist Anita Trezvant and her cadre of artists, notably regional favorite Ann Rozhon.
Trezvant’s Hope Gallery, located in Bristol, Rhode Island’s charming historic downtown, celebrates 11 years in operation in December. It is a highly approachable space reflecting Trezvant’s authentic personality. Her common sense coupled with a clever and experimental instinct often direct her to taking in new artistic voices in hope of attracting a broader audience of savvy collectors, sometimes exhibiting abstraction, new-media photography and design-focused sculpture.
“My customers want to take home something beautiful that they understand,” she reminded me. “They are visiting downtown and want a piece of art that reflects the locality as well as matches their personal taste.”
She is also wise in organizing seasonal exhibitions. These “mini- shows” are focused to spotlight veteran power artists whom Trezvant is representing, such as Rozhon, as well as to introduce new emerging talent, such as watercolorist Jessica Wheeler.
Most often, Hope’s collection always original, one-of-a-kind, fine art, fine craft, glass, textile, metal, pottery and a variety of mixed-media objects created by regional artists and artisans is within the object d’ art arena (beautiful, small-in- scale contemporary-traditionalism).
Likewise, Rozhon, a respected and well-known Rhode Island School of Design (RISD)-trained sculptor with a modern sensibility, acknowledges and respects the tastes and needs of her fans, gladly giving them what their souls and minds are seeking. While she can and has produced amazing large-in-scale expressive figurative sculptures for museum installations, her admirers and buyers want sentimental impressionistic landscapes, water scenes, cityscape architectural paintings and smaller, more digestible vignette sculpture for the home environment.
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