Thomas Sgouros (1927-2012)
Born in 1927 to Greek immigrant parents in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Thomas Sgouros is a fifty year veteran of the Rhode Island School of Design Department of Illustration, where he became department chair in 1975. Currently he paints “Remembered Landscapes” in his studio at the Fleur de Lys building, part of the Providence Art Club.
Monica Shinn
After completing a BS in metals and painting at the Oregon College of Arts and Crafts, Monica Shinn moved to Providence in 1996. She has worked as a writer, a painter, a carpenter, a metalsmith, a welder, and an electrician. Having a technician’s knowledge and a fine art training informs both her design work and her painting. Shinn’s paintings describe her neighborhood, bits and pieces of daily life in Providence and other places. She composes as a colorist, pushing depth and dimension with the force of color rather than the traditional time perspective. Her drawings tend more toward reality than realism, and her spare works on paper are often achingly stark and true. Shinn’s images explore the loneliness and awkwardness of humans being together.
Brian Shure
Brian Shure is a painter and printmaker working with representations of people in public spaces. He received a BA from Antioch College. He worked as a professional lithographer for 15 years, published and printed editions under the Smalltree Press imprint and was a Master Printer and Coordinator of the China Woodblock Program at Crown Point Press from 1987 to 1994. His etchings of Ise-Jingu were printed in 2000 when he was the resident artist at Tokugenji Press in Nara, Japan. In 2004 he completed a group of murals for the Pittsburgh Federal Courthouse. In the winter of 2013, he created a suite of prints while in Residence at David Krut Projects in Johannesburg, South Africa, and in the summer of 2015 he completed a print project at Rongbaozhai in Beijing. Brian has been on the faculty of the Printmaking Department at the Rhode Island School of Design since 1996.
Duane Slick
Duane Slick is an artist of Native American descent, the Meskwaki Nation of Iowa and the Ho-Chunk Nation of Nebraska. His paintings blend the subjects of oral and visual Native American traditions with a focus on trickster strategies and modernist/post-modernist painting histories. Born in Waterloo, IA, Slick earned his BFA from the University of Northern Iowa and his MFA from the University of California, Davis. His recent exhibtion venues include the Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art in CT, the Eitlejorg Museum in Indiana, and the National Museum of the American Indian in New York. Slick lives and works in Providence, RI.
Dean Snyder
Dean Snyder was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. he received a b.fa. in photography and sculpture at the Kansas City Art Institute in 1974. In 1975-76 Snyder received a British Arts Council Fellowship for postgraduate work in sculpture at Lanchester Polytechnic, Coventry, UK. He completed his M.F.A. work in sculpture in 1978 at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Snyder has received artists fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation, the Berkshire Taconic Arts Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the New England Foundation for the Arts, the Rhode Island State Council for the Arts, the Hawaii State Foundation on Culture and the Arts, the Vermont State Council for the Arts and the Illinois Arts Council.
His work has been exhibited nationally in both group and solo shows, notably at the Tang Museum (book), The Fitchburg Art Museum, The American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the Decordova Museum. Internationally Snyder’s work has been presented at the Istanbul Biennial Beijing Olympic Park for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, Sculpture by the Sea: Sydney Australia, Berlin Fashion Week, and the Instituto Cultural Peruano, Lima, Peru. Snyder’s work has been collected privately and may also be found in the public collections of fidelity investments, the Tang Museum, the Museum of Art at the Rhode Island School of Design, the Smart Museum of Art at the University of Chicago, Albany International Airport, the city of Beijing, Freedom Park Ordos Cty, Mongolia.
Esther Solondz
Esther Solondz is a visual artist who lives and works in Providence, Rhode Island. She received an MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design, as well as doing graduate work in film at New York University. She has been the recipient of several grants and awards, including three Rhode Island Arts Council fellowships (Photo, Painting, and Sculpture) and a New England Foundation for the Arts regional National Endowment for the Arts fellowship in Painting. Her work has been widely exhibited and reviewed over the last 40 years in one-person and group shows at museums and galleries throughout the Northeast. Esther has also created several outdoor living sculptures including in Lippitt Park, Providence (The Hummingbird Palace), the Audubon Park Zoo, New Orleans, LA. and The Fruitlands Museum, Harvard, Ma. The painting in this show is from a solo exhibition in 2024 at Gallery Naga, Boston, entitled: Jolie Laide/I wasn’t sure what you looked like.
Rosanne Somerson
A designer, professor and academic leader, Rosanne Somerson has been advancing art and design for decades. After launching a successful studio design practice, she returned to RISD to teach and then founded the Furniture Design Department before serving as Provost, interim President, RISD’s 17th President, and now President Emerita. An author and subject of many podcasts, she frequently speaks and writes about the power of art and design as core elements of critical thinking and making. She maintains a studio and consulting creative practice, designing and creating furniture for exhibitions and commissions. Her works have been prominently featured in numerous publications and exhibited in major museums and galleries throughout the globe, including the Musée des Arts Décoratifs at the Louvre in Paris, and she is also represented in many private, corporate and museum collections. Somerson is included in the Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art Oral History Project and has been awarded many honors including two fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the James Renwick Alliance Distinguished Crafts Educator Award, a 2019 Pell Award for Outstanding Leadership in the Arts., a Lifetime Distinction Award from the Furniture Society, and is a named Fellow of the American Craft Council and a Life Trustee of Haystack Mountain School.
Kenneth Speiser
Kenneth Speiser – Born in New York City, NY
Received a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design (Sculpture) Lives and works in Providence, RI
COLLECTIONS: Newport Art Museum Newport, RI
The Rhode Island School of Design Museum Providence, RI DeCordova Museum & Sculpture Park Lincoln, MA Fidelity Investments Boston, MA
Memorial Hospital of Rhode Island Pawtucket, RI Department of Transportation Miami, FL
City of Providence: Parks Department Providence, RI University of RI School of Oceanography Narragansett, RI Town of Westerly: Wilcox Park Westerly, RI
Edwards & Angell Law Providence, RI
Pagano, Schenck & Kay Advertising Boston, MA
GTECH Corporation West Greenwich, RI
Teknor Apex Corporation Pawtucket, RI
Duffy & Shanley Advertising Providence, RI
Prudential Insurance Boston, MA
Hasbro Children’s Hospital Providence, RI
Dean Witter Reynolds, Inc. Providence, RI
Hamilton College Clinton, NY
Brendan Smith Law Associates Providence, RI
Reilly Law Associates Providence, RI
HI-TECH Hose Corporation Newburyport, MA
RI Resource Recovery Corporation Johnston, RI
Royal Caribbean Cruise Line London, UK
Big East Conference Providence, RI
Boston Consulting Group New York City, NY
Meredith Stern
Artist Meredith Stern has a BFA in Ceramics from Tulane University in New Orleans. She is a founding member of the international group the Justseeds Artists’ Cooperative. She has a multifaceted practice that includes printmaking, ‘zine publishing, gardening, and utilitarian ceramic ware. She has received grants and fellowships from RISCA, the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund, and the Puffin Foundation. Her work is in the permanent collections of dozens of archives including the Library of Congress, the National Museum of Women in the Arts, the Book Arts Collection at MOMA, and the Bibliotheque Nationale de Luxembourg. Her work can be spotted in several Hollywood films including the 2014 Annie and The King of Staten Island. During the last decade, Meredith has been a visiting artist at many K-12 schools and colleges. She lives in Providence with her husband Peter, child Fox, and cats Rose and Zorro.
Laura Travis
As an artist, Laura is interested in the intersection of fine and folk art and is inspired by history and artifacts, utilizing traditional iconography in some very contemporary contexts. She works primarily in limestone, soapstone, and slate. Laura has shown her work in Providence, Maryland, Toronto, Worcester, Vermont, and New Bedford. She enjoyed a 25+ year career as an art educator, holds an MFA in sculpture from the Maryland Institute College of Art, and works in her studio at 30 Cutler Street in Warren, and In summer, her post and beam shed a stone’s throw from the ocean in Middlebridge, Rhode Island
John Udvardy
John Udvardy is an American artist who studied at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture and earned his MFA from Yale University. He has worked in various jobs, including in steel mills and a brakeman’s office. He taught at the Cleveland Institute of Art, Yale University, and was an Artist-in-Residence at Dartmouth College. He is a full Professor and has taught Three Dimensional Design at the Rhode Island School of Design. He exhibited widely throughout the United States in many group and one-person shows, some of which are represented by galleries such as the Portland Museum of Art and the Brooklyn Museum. He was a specialist in an artillery battalion while serving in the Army.
Judyth Van Amringe
Judyth vanAmringe’s art is based on years of design work as well as the intricacies of artistic process. She is a graduate of the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and has attended the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. For many years vanAmringe worked in New York City as a designer, running a business that made accessories and clothing, and writing regularly for House and Garden. In 1997 vanAmringe came to Providence and worked in ceramics, creating textured porcelain vessels. She had a Clay Studio Residence for NCECA and in 2001 won the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation award. VanAmringe is represented in the collections of the Rhode Island School of Design Museum, The Wadsworth Atheneum, and the New Britain Museum of American Art.
Wendy Wahl
Wendy Wahl is a 2010 RI Networks artist. Her work has been exhibited internationally with the European Cultural Center in Venice, Italy, and the Art in Embassy Program in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. Her work is in several private and public collections including the Cooper-Hewitt Museum, NY, and the Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design. Wahl’s work has been the subject of exhibitions at the Grand Rapids Art Museum, Michigan, the Newport Art Museum, RI, the Fuller Craft Museum, and the Fitchburg Art Museum, MA. She received artist fellowship awards from the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts in 1986,1988, and 1990. Her work has been recognized in numerous publications including Art News, Art New England, Boston Globe, Casa Vogue, Providence Journal, Metropolis, New York Times, Architectural Digest, The New Yorker, the Britannica blog, and the Curated Object, New England Home, Arttextile, Artnet, and, Artsper. She received an MAE from the Rhode Island School of Design and a BA in Fiber Arts from California State University at Northridge. Wahl is a founding member of the RI Arts and Health Network, a partnership between the RI State Council on the Arts and the RI Department of Health. She is a board member of Hera Gallery and Educational Foundation in Wakefield, RI.
Neal Walsh
Neal Walsh, born in Rhode Island in 1969, graduated from the University of Rhode Island and received important artistic training as the studio assistant for Pawtucket-based Polish artist Wlodzimierz Ksiazek. He serves as Gallery Director for AS220.
James Watkins
Watkins’ work is about contemplation as much as it is about the action of making. His work slows down our perceptual process so that we can consider the possibilities of interpretation rather than having the obvious and often literal shapes name themselves. The universality of his forms reflects whole worlds of faunal, floral and artifactual antecedents. We soon find ourselves asking questions. Does the transparency of a glass form complicate its exterior shape or help us perceive its major volumes? Does a shaped outline in a relief derive from a three-dimensional work or vice versa? Are the other elements which give context to his pieces like wall plaques or horizontal bases integral to his objects or apart from them? Unlike most objects in our modern world, the things that Watkins makes afford his viewers the chance to think, to consider the possibilities, to contemplate, and thus to imagine. From: A Pattern Language: The Sculpture of James Watkins by Ronald J. Onorato.
Gail Whitsitt-Lynch (1949-2017)
Gail Whitsitt-Lynch’s art reflects her curiosity and fascination with animate structures, examining how and why they appear over and over again in nature. With her work she hopes to draw viewers into a dialogue, intending to widen the definition of artists’ community. She explores a variety of materials, both two- and three-dimensional. Wood is the material she first learned to carve, studying with sculptor Arnold Prince. Stone is her alternative carving choice, offering technical challenges and different sensibilities than wood. Whitsitt-Lynch makes drawings and prints on paper as well. Her projects have included a monumental ferrocement Eagle at Roger Williams Park, commissioned for the Bicentennial in 1976, and treatment rooms for young cancer patients at Hasbro Children’s Hospital. For over forty years, the artist has shared her vision through teaching, both college curriculum and residencies throughout Rhode Island.
Richard Whitten
Richard Whitten’s paintings are meticulously crafted images on shaped wood panels. They are definitely painting but teeter at the edge of becoming sculpture. Whitten says, “My paintings imply the existence of places and objects of desire that, like the garden and flowers in Alice in Wonderland, can be glimpsed but neither reached nor acquired. They are about intellectual play.” Richard Whitten earned a BA in Economics from Yale University and an MFA in Painting from the University of California, Davis, where he studied with Wayne Thiebaud and Robert Arneson. He has had numerous exhibitions on both coasts. Notable are solo exhibitions at the University of Maine Museum of Art in Bangor, Maine; the Frye Art Museum in Seattle, Washington; and the Newport Art Museum in Newport, Rhode Island. Whitten is presently a Professor and the Chair of the Department of Art at Rhode Island College.
McDonald Wright
McDonald Wright transferred from the Pennsylvania College of Technology to the Rhode Island School of Design, where he graduated with a BFA in photography. He lives in Providence and continues to use a manual camera and film photography over digital technology.
Toots Zynsky
Toots Zynsky received her BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1973. In 1971, she assisted in the founding and early development of the Pilchuck Glass School. Later that year she explored new possibilities in creating large slumped plate glass sculptures. By early 1973 she began a series of video experiments and performances often in collaboration involving thermo-shocking plate glass with ice and molten glass, often incorporating contact micro-phones to register internal sounds of fracturing and infra-red photography to record heat transfer. From 1980 to 1983, she was a key participant in the rebuilding and development of the second New York Experimental Glass Workshop, now UrbanGlass. In 1985 she was the first contemporary glass artist to have her work directly commissioned by MOMA, NYC. While living in Europe in the 80s and 90s, Zynsky collaborated with Dutch inventor Mathijs Teunissen Van Manen to create glass thread-pulling machines and developed her unique filet-de-verre technique. During this time they also carried out a half-year project in Ghana, West Africa, in collaboration with the Minister of Culture there, making extensive recordings of that country’s music – the first known digital recordings made of African music.
Her love of sound and music is essential to all of her work. Her work is represented in museums and private collections around the world and among other awards, she has been a recipient of two National Endowment for the Arts grants, the Pell Award for Excellence in the Arts in 2006, and the 2015 Smithsonian Institution Visionary Award. In 2016 she was awarded Corning’s prestigious Specialty Glass Residency giving her the opportunity to spend significant time for six months at Corning Incorporated’s research facility experimenting with unique new kinds of glass with unusual properties. While there she began developing a new body of work and collaborated with their scientists on special methods of glass forming. In the words of Tina Oldknow, former Curator of Modern Glass at the Corning Museum of Glass “She is one of a small, core group of pioneering artists who made contemporary glass a worldwide phenomenon, and her distinctive kiln-formed vessels enjoy widespread popularity for their often magnificent, and always unique, explorations in color.” Returning to the USA in 1999 with her family, she lives and works in Rhode Island. She has served on the Board of Trustees of the Rhode Island School of Design, the Board of Trustees of Festival Ballet Providence, participated in the establishment of the Providence After School Alliance and served on that Board of Directors for 15 years and has served on the Board of Governors of the RISD Museum for 20 years to the present.
