State Arts Council Announces New Art Exhibition at TF Green Airport Gallery
The Rhode Island State Council on the Arts (RISCA) announced a new art exhibition on display at GREEN SPACE Gallery at TF Green Airport. The new exhibition features works by Rhode Island artists JB Hack, Fernando Pezzino and Mara Trachtenberg. The show will be on display through January 17, 2021.
Each artist presents visions of encrypted places in this show that draw their attention to the secrets embedded in their subject matter.
JB Hack is an emergency physician and medical toxicologist from Rhode Island who employs photography of found objects on the streets of Rhode Island, including the current series of manhole covers, to focus attention on the underappreciated objects both living and inanimate. A physician, scientist, educator and inventor, he values the experience of being present, nuance, and bringing his training to bear on the objects of his artistic inquiry. These photographs feature unstaged, handheld work, using only natural light present which emphasizes the fleeting combination of light, breeze, background, and imperfections experienced when the images were captured.
Fernando Pezzino is an Argentinean artist who lives and works in Providence, whose recent work evaluates how we collectively and individually navigate the physical and virtual landscape of a modern society that has rapidly evolved through technological advancements. His work interweaves figuration with abstraction and uses puzzles as a foundation to question changes in human behavior in relation with current events and quotidian life. In the Passwords and Identities series, Pezzino explores in detail how individuals can alter their identities, forming our online personas as we craft our digital presence. Pezzino’s work considers the fluid nature of these online identities, including the passwords that grant or deny access to information. As they are alphanumeric fingerprints of an individual, he questions what passwords might tell us about the hopes and intentions of online users as they present their personas to new and various audiences. Do passwords disclose important information about the user’s true self? As our headlines are full of discussions about AI, data breaches, internet privacy concerns, and sophisticated online disinformation campaigns meant to manipulate public opinion, Pezzino’s work feels timely and consequential.
Mara Trachtenberg is a lens-based artist who works in photography, animation and sculpture, the RISCA (Rhode Island State Council for the Arts) 2020 and 2016 Photography Fellow, and an adjunct professor of Photography and Digital Art and at the Community College of Rhode Island, and Photography and Gender and Women’s Studies at the University of Rhode Island. In the series on view, “A Decadent World Night”, she sees herself as an explorer, akin to a turn of the 20th century conservationist visiting an unknown, unexplored place to discover the existence of strange and beautiful winged creatures. In her interdisciplinary practice, she sculpts these fantastical creatures in sugar and creates dioramas that become the stage for her photographs and animations. In this series, she is an observer, documenter, hunter, and preservationist of this imaginary world of her own making, exploring the power hierarchy between animals and humans through the lens of the early conservationist movement of the 20th century.
Exhibitors for GREEN SPACE were chosen by panelists Nancy Whipple Grinnell, Ana Flores and Angel Smith. The GREEN SPACE Gallery and Block Island Airport Gallery are a partnership between the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts and the Rhode Island Airport Corporation, promoting 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.
Artist contacts:
Fernando Pezzino: www.fernandopezzino.com | instagram @fernandopezzino
Mara Trachtenberg: www.maratrachtenberg.com | instagram @maratrach
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.