I recently visited photographer Amy Montali at her Providence, Rhode Island studio where we sat with each other discussing her art. She had purposefully arranged on a table between us a scale-model, or miniature version, of her upcoming solo exhibition, “Amy Montali: Thief,” that will be on view from November 9 through December 8 at the Bannister Gallery at Rhode Island College. Using the scale-model as a tool, Montali was in the midst of making placement decisions among the included photographs, controlling sight lines in advance. Montali described her photography approach as aligned mostly with ways in which dance and theater are made, explaining that her work shares with these art forms a sensibility for isolating gestures, developing new phrases, as the method for building content. She mentioned an affinity for “Samuel Beckett, for the mix and cross play of epic, mundane and … [Read more...] about STOLEN MOMENTS AT RIC: AMY MONTALI’S MOVING IMAGES AT BANNISTER GALLERY

While featuring only 16 artworks, don’t let the size of the “Faith Ringgold: Freedom to Say What I Please” exhibition stop you from making a trip to the Worcester Art Museum during its six-month run. Each piece has its own intricate story and, judging by the audience reaction to its first month on exhibit, each person attending brings their own personal experience with Ringgold’s art to the space. The show was organized by Samantha Cataldo, the museum’s Associate Curator of Art, who built the show around Ringgold’s 1991 “Picasso’s Studio” narrative quilt from the museum’s collection. “WAM acquired the ‘Picasso’s Studio’ quilt soon after it was made,” Cataldo said. “It is a reflection on the museum at the time. Ten years later, other museums were catching up. They (WAM) had the good foresight to acquire it in the ‘90s.” The quilt hadn’t been exhibited at WAM for at least 10 … [Read more...] about STILL TEACHING: FAITH RINGGOLD’S LIFE STORIES IN WORCESTER