LOOKING BEYOND AND REACHING OUT Suzanne Volmer Tucked into an historic mercantile block with its entrance discretely marked at the door, the Providence Center for Photographic Arts has an emergent vibe that feels very much like a relaxed atelier. Visitors step into a vestibule and then head up a flight of stairs to find the gallery at the second-floor landing. The building’s upper floors have a mix of artist studios and design offices, and the North Main Street location at the foot of Providence’s College Hill functions as a nexus point between the city’s education and commerce sectors. Peter Miller, founder of Peter Miller Gallery, transitioned his business into the current non-profit entity. He recruited a board of directors whose founding members are himself; David DeMelim; Rosemary Marchetta; Steve Szydlowski; Ronald W. Dunbar, Jr.; Shari Weschler Rubeck; Tim Tolman … [Read more...] about UNSEEN IN PROVIDENCE

MCLANE’S GLOBAL IMPACT Marcia Santore She was almost at the top of the world when everything changed. Shandra McLane discovered her calling to work in glass when she was hired as the print shop coordinator at Pilchuck Glass School in Stanwood, Washington, founded by Dale Chihuly. She was first drawn to the kiln-fused glass technique vitreography by pioneer Harvey Littleton, whom McLane cites as “a huge inspiration.” “I was attracted to the medium because you constantly have to problem-solve,” McLane said. “Colors, patterns, how to design what’s in your head … the outcome is rewarding but it can take 10 tries to get you there!” Today, she lives in central New Hampshire, where she maintains Squam River Studios in a beautifully redeveloped former bank building in Ashland, N.H.; here she creates her experimental glass art. McLane completed a master’s of education degree … [Read more...] about HEART OF GLASS

DREAMSCAPES OF A WORLD CONTAINED Lisa Mikulski The work of Philippe Charles Jacquet is often described as dreamlike or imaginary. There are also those who have pigeonholed the paintings as mere landscape. I endeavor to describe them as something more. The work of an arts writer, or even an art lover viewing various works, depends on seeing — indeed feeling — what moves you in a particular piece. Perhaps it is the palette, the line, the composition or the content. Seeing art, really seeing it, requires reflective time and often outside-the-box thinking. Jacquet’s work indeed reminds me of places I’ve seen in my dreams. The artist, in fact, describes his work in such terms. Here are vistas with blue-green pools of water and reflective rivers, rounded rocks, jagged cliffs and boats set in unusual or peculiar positions. These are surreal environments, which in Jacquet’s works … [Read more...] about PHILIPPE CHARLES JACQUET

SPAZUK PLAYS WITH FIRE Molly Hamill I ran down the streets of Boston’s SOWA district on a chilly night in early April, heading to the opening reception of “Spazuk: Hubris, Beauty & Greed.” The Adelson Gallery on Harrison Avenue was buzzing, but the work on the walls immediately commanded my attention more than the colorful, well-coiffed crowd. Elegant clouds of black carbon soot billowed on the canvases and images emerged: butterflies, birds and bunnies; skulls, flowers and gas masks. The pieces … an alarm. Steve Spazuk paints with fire. Well, not fire per se but rather the potent pollution produced as it burns. He says the idea came to him in a dream 16 years ago. “I had a dream one night where I was looking at a painting or a drawing, it was a landscape, and I knew in my dream that this work was done with a flame, with a candle,” he explained. “I knew it was done … [Read more...] about HUBRIS, BEAUTY & GREED

KAT O’CONNOR IN NEW HAVEN Brian Goslow The idea for Kat O’Connor’s current series of “Water: Pools/Figures” oil paintings came to her at a hotel in Marfa, Texas. “We were sitting around at night, watching bats diving into the pool for drinks in the middle of the desert,” she explained. “Somehow, the reflection of figures around and in the pool became more than the pool.” The inspiration of that evening became more than a memory for O’Connor, as it led to what has become an ongoing collection of water-inspired works. One of them, “Epic,” served as Artscope’s cover for our July/August 2016 issue, where it was showcased in conjunction with its showing in the Copley Society of Art’s “Ship to Shore” exhibition that summer. It caught the eye of Reynolds Fine Art’s owner, Robert Reynolds, who after reviewing O’Connor’s portfolio on her website, contacted her about showing her … [Read more...] about MAKING A SPLASH

A GENEROSITY OF SPIRIT Donna Dodson I do not think I am alone in thinking Shelley Reed has “made it.” I admire her, look up to her and respect her work. She makes no secret of how hard she works or how serious she is, but she is also approachable, generous and kind. She has had an impressive trajectory in the last 10 years since winning the Maud Morgan Prize for painting in 2005. Reed is currently represented by the Sears-Peyton and Danese/Corey galleries in New York City, and her work has recently been on view at the National Museum of Wildlife Art in Wyoming, the Columbia Museum of Art in South Carolina and The Art Institute of Chicago in Illinois. I was first introduced to Reed’s work by friends who knew that I have a particular fascination for artists who work with animals in unique and surprising ways. When I visited her studio at Westinghouse Lofts to see her work … [Read more...] about SHELLEY REED’S CURIOUS NATURE