“Truth Unveiled: Art as Reality, Illusion, and Insight” is a call-for-entries exhibition under the auspices of Art League Rhode Island (ALRI) that aims to provoke conversation about art as both a vehicle for, and as a challenger of truth. The show features 56 artworks by 47 artists from across the country as well as one accepted artwork from China. It’s being held at the ALRI headquarters in Pawtucket, Rhode Island through December 6.
ALRI invited Conor Moynihan, Interim Department Head and Associate Curator of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs at the RISD Museum and Christina Alderman, Director of Family and Teen Programs at RISD Museum, to jury and curate this show. Notably, they have unpacked the exhibition’s plethora of information into digestible subsets of: “Calling It Out,” “Environmental Realities,” “Gender Truth,” “Inner Truth,” “Truth Beyond Knowing,” “Veiled and Unveiled,” and “What’s True? What’s Truth?” They also chose five prize winners for the exhibition.
First Prize was awarded to Mark Wholey for his “Allegory of Denial” oil painting that the curators placed in the “What’s True, What’s Truth?” subset. In this painting, the artist is pictured at his easel humorously pondering the ineffable. Second Prize was awarded to “The 3 Little Nutria,” an orange-hued mixed-media artwork by Lisa Devlin created using colored pencil, graphite and ink on illustration board. Devlin travelled from Baton Rouge, Louisiana to attend the opening — likely a trip all the more gratifying to the artist having garnered the recognition of a win.
Third Prize went to “SoNo Site 1-11,” a lithograph and screenprint by Kyle Chaput in the “Environmental Realities” subset. Honorable Mention went to Sarazen Haile for the woodcut embossment “Paper Towel,” a trick-of-the-eye artwork exploring “What’s True? What’s Truth?” and Shelby Scattergood for the wall mounted construction, “You’re so Awkward,” that explored how autism alters an individual’s perception of the world, in the “Calling It Out” category.