PLEASE NOTE: FOR OCTOBER GALLERY NIGHT ONLY - THE ART BUSES WILL DEPART FROM WASHINGTON PLACE BRIDGE AT THE FOOT OF WATERMAN HILL. LOOK FOR OUR TENT AND BALLOONS!

It’s Gallery Night Providence’s 11th season!Join us for a fun filled cultural extravaganza. Nineteen galleries, museums and historic sites; eight convenient parking lots; live music; refreshments; art busses; celebrity guides and it’s all free!

WHEN:The Third Thursday, October 18th, from 9pm

WHERE: Meet at any one of the galleries and jump on the art bus, or park behind Citizens Plaza and walk to the Washington Place Bridge. For October 18th only, the buses will pick up and depart from that location. A guide will be stationed at the front of Citizen’s Plaza to direct you. The buses depart every twenty-five minutes or so.

On view at Bert Gallery: Artists Who Marry Artists

Artists as couples pose one of the most complex of human psychological drama. They make Freud’s Oedipus complex seem like child’s play. Just think of Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner! Visit Bert gallery and get a first-hand glance at the competitive, yet successful pairings of some Rhode Island artist couples, including Florence Leif and Gordon Peers along with Percy and Grace Albee. How did they negotiate home life and the world of art? Did they exhibit together or paint together? Does one artist dominate or influence the other? Look at their art and their resumes to decide for yourself.

View the virtual tour

Celebrity Guides:Dr. Deborah Johnson

Dr. Deborah Johnson is Professor of Art History, Women’ Studies and Black Studies at Providence College, and former Director of the Providence College Women’s Studies Program. While Curator at the Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, she published several catalogs in the areas of prints, drawings, and photography, two of which won national awards. As a modernistat Providence College, she has been nominated three times for Providence College’s Outstanding Teacher Award and has continued to publish widely on 19th -21st century art and culture. In addition to her inclusion in the landmark publication, Readings in 19th Century Art (Janis Tomlinson, ed.), her most recent books include Women Making Art, Women in the Visual, Literary, and Performing Arts Since 1960 and Seeing and Beyond: Essays on 18th-21st Century Art in Honor of Kermit S. Champa, both published by Peter Lang International. We look forward to Johnson’s insights on the local art scene.

Cristina M. Di Chiera

Cristina M. Di Chiera is the Director of Individual Artists and Public Art Programs for the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts. In this capacity she administers grants and fellowships to individuals and she runs artist advocacy programs and the state’s 1% for Public Art program. She is a graduate of Eastern Michigan University, where she received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree with a concentration in Photography, and Ohio State University, where she received a Master of Arts degree in Women’s Studies with a concentration in the history of women’s performance art. Cristina is also a founding member of the Urban Greens Food Cooperative on the West Side of Providence. Work and life preclude her from making art as much as she would like to these days, but she still occasionally shows her photography in group-shows and contributes her illustrations to independent publications. Arley-Rose TorsoneJoining Cristina M. Chiera will be Arley-Rose Torsone.

Arley is Art Director for Design Providence and Communications Director at AS220. She is also affiliated with the Dirt Palace Women’s Art Collective in Olneyville. Torsone; received her BFA from Parson’s School of Design in 2004. Her work is currently on display in a group show in the Hera Gallery in Wakefield, RI.

Web site: www.gallerynight.info

We hope to see you there!

taking a look
2007 Theme series

Bert Gallery Program – Round Table discussion with three contemporary artist couples
during “Artists who Marry Artists” Exhibit.

Thursday – September 20, 2007, Gallery Night Providence
at Bert Gallery starting at 6:30pm

Artists as couples pose one of the most complex of human psychological drama. They make Freud’s Oedipus complex seem like child’s play. Just think of international Abstract Expressionist artist couples such as Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner or Elaine and Willem de Kooning. Both couples are well recognized for their individual achievements but their personal and professional lives read like a Marilyn Monroe biography.

Bert Gallery will exhibit two twentieth century artists couples in the September/October show “Artists Who Marry Artists” and explore the competitive, yet successful pairings of Rhode Island artist couples, Florence Leif (1913-1968) and Gordon Peers (1909-1988) along with Percy Albee (1883-1959) and Grace Albee (1890-1985). How did they negotiate home life and the world of art? Did they exhibit together or paint together? Does one artist dominate or influence the other? Visit the exhibition, look at their art and resumes to decide for yourself.

What about artist couples today? A September program will ask artist couples practicing in Rhode Island today to comment on their lives together. Artist couples include – Kenn Speiser, sculptor and Constance Brown, photographer; Jonathan Bonner, sculptor and painter Jacqueline Ott; and Craig Masten and Gail Armstrong, painters. All have been married many years and negotiated two careers in one household. Moderator, John Tessitore will lead a discussion among the couples about their successful marriages.

The program is in conjunction with the Bert Gallery exhibit “Artists who Marry Artists”
• Exhibit on view September 4th – October 26th, 2007
• At Bert Gallery, located along the Providence waterfront at Corliss Landing, 540 South Water Street in Providence, Rhode Island
• Open Gallery Night: September 20tth
• Gallery Hours are Tuesday – Friday from 11 – 5pm, Saturdays 12 - 4pm or by appointment.
• Exhibits are free and open to the public.
BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION ON THE PARTICIPANTS OF THE ROUND TABLE DISCUSSION

John Tessitore is Executive Editor of the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs (New York City), and a Communications Consultant to the United Nations Development Programme and other UN agencies worldwide. From 1986 to 2001 he served as Executive Director of Communications of the United Nations Association, where he worked with the international media and diplomatic community. In 1995 he was Executive Producer of the feature documentary film “In Search of Peace: 50 Years of the U.S. in the U.N.,” narrated by Paul Newman and shown on over 600 Turner broadcasting stations nationwide. A native of Rhode Island (LaSalle ’69), John returned to his home state in 2002, where he appears as an “occasional contributor” to the editorial pages of the Providence Journal.

Kenn Speiser (married to Constance Brown) Born in New York City, Kenn Speiser has had a thirty-five year career living and working as an artist, sculptor, and printmaker in Providence, Rhode Island. With a degree from the Rhode Island School of Design, Speiser has an extensive background working on commissioned projects for corporations and public institutions from Miami, Florida to Boston, Massachusetts, and as far away as Finland. As an artist, Speiser’s primary interests lie in the discovery, alchemy and process, of transforming generally ignored and overlook common objects and materials into something thought provoking and beautiful. Kenn Speiser is currently working on a design project with a grant from the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts: www.safetyenvelopes.com.

Constance Brown (married to Kenn Speiser) After studying painting at Lake Erie College, Constance discovered the camera and never looked back. More importantly she discovered that there was a way to make a good living with the cameras that was still creative and challenging. Commercial photography. After attending the Art Center of Design in Los Angeles to further develop her skills and portfolio and a brief fling with Film and Hollywood (where she worked on two documentary shorts nominated for academy awards and one nominated for an Emmy) she came back and set up her own studio in 1977. Since then she had worked producing Executive portraits for many of the leaders of this community, annual report images, capability brochures and public relations work. She has developed a niche specialty working with politicians and in a political year is often “on the road” photographing various politicians during their campaigns including the last two Presidential Elections.

Jonathan Bonner (married to Jacqueline Ott) Jonathan Bonner has had over 40 solo shows and is represented in many public and private collections throughout the United States. The work includes sculpture, installation and works on paper. Bonner has also completed many large-scale site-specific commissions. Recently he has installed work at Nashua Street Park in Boston, the Colorado Convention Center in Denver and the Rhode Island School of Design Campus.

Jacqueline Ott (married to Jonathan Bonner) received an MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design and a BFA from University of the Arts in Philadelphia. She has exhibited extensively in the Northeast, participating in recent shows at the Miller Block Gallery, Boston, Massachusetts; the Danforth Museum of Art, Danforth, Massachusetts; risd/works, Providence, Rhode Island; and the Bernard Toale Gallery in Boston, Massachusetts among many others. She has received grants from the Rhode Island State Council for the Arts (Painting Fellowship, 2000; Artist Project Grant, 1991), the New York Foundation for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts. Her work is in numerous collections, including those of the Newport Art Museum and the Rhode Island School of Design Museum.

Craig Masten (married to Gail Armstrong) is an award winning artist member of the Providence Art Club, Rhode Island Watercolor Society, Wickford Art Association, South County Art Association, Cape Cod Art Association, Newport Art Guild and Newport Art Museum. He has shown his work in numerous juried shows and exhibitions at these organizations, as well as at the DeCordova Museum, the Warwick Art Museum, the Newport Art Museum, BFA Studioworks Gallery, and Spring Bull Gallery.

Gail Armstrong (married to Craig Masten) received a Master’s from Rhode Island School of Design in 1980 and a BFA from Hartford Art School in 1972. She taught art for over thirty years, mainly at North Kingstown High School in R.I. Memberships include the R.I. Watercolor Society, Providence Art Club, Wickford and South County Art Associations, the Newport Art Museum, Newport Artists’ Guild and the Cape Cod Art Association. Gail has exhibited and received awards in numerous open juried shows, including “Best of Show” in “Scenes of R.I.-2005”, an exhibit sponsored by Governor Carcieri and the R.I. State Council on the Arts.

Auction Hits in the Rhode Island Market

March 6th – April 19th
Gallery Night: March 15th
Closed Gallery Night in April

The billion-dollar art auction market is booming across the world and some Rhode Island artists are making their mark. Who are the 19th and early 20th century Rhode Island artists who have hit auction highs? What if an artist sells for $5,000 in a gallery and $500 at a Sotheby’s auction—how do you interpret the data? Visit Bert Gallery and get an insider’s look at how different Rhode Island artists are faring in the auction market. Find out about the secondary market, a critical component in securing an artists’ reputation in the art world.

April Gallery program

• Saturday, April 14, 2007 at 4pm - What does auction data mean? Discover the inner workings of the auction market. Among the panelists are Charlie Wharton of UBS Financial Services, Inc. and Dan Mechnig of Meckandil Tool Co., Inc., both local collectors.

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