City of Providence Downtown Public Art Walking Tour
People live, work, and recreate in Downtown Providence, and public art has all kinds of impacts on them.
This roughly 1.5-hour tour is an opportunity for residents and visitors to learn about a number of the captivating works that populate the neighborhood.
Crossed out entries are past rotating works.
Tour Start
Henry Hudson Kitson – Mayor Thomas A. Doyle Memorial (1889)
A well-known sculptor of his time, Kitson, who created a number of Civil War memorials, was best known for his sculpture of the Minutemen in Lexington, MA. He trained in Paris, where this bronze statue of Mayor Doyle was cast. Prior to Buddy Cianci, Doyle was the longest serving mayor of Providence (18 years to Cianci’s 21). His terms spanned from June 1864 to 1869, June 1870 to 1881, and then again from 1884 until his death in June of 1886. He presided over some of the City’s most prosperous years, during which Providence almost doubled its population and wealth. Doyle implemented a number of historic improvements. He presided over the construction of City Hall and Roger Williams Park, the implementation of a sophisticated sewer system, and the professionalization of the City’s police force. The statue, which was placed upon its 1889 dedication in front of the Catholic Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul, just a few blocks away, depicts the Mayor clutching a rolled “plan,” a nod to his “pioneering” role in the field of urban renewal. It was installed on Weybossett Hill in 1967 at the corner of Broad and Chestnut St.
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Shepard Fairey – “OBEY” AS220 Mural featuring Anjel Newmann (2019)
According to the artist, “This print is a portrait of Anjel Newmann, Director of Programs and Youth Director of AS220 – a non-profit community arts organization based in downtown Providence with whom I’ve worked since the 90’s. AS220 is important to me because they have cultivated a creative community that continues to have a profoundly transformative impact on the city. I’m inspired by Anjel’s dedication to this organization, where she’s been a member since she was 13 years old, learning from a diverse set of communities and facilitating access to opportunities for young people across the city of Providence. Thank you Anjel and #AS220 for all that you do for the people of Rhode Island!”
Yarrow’s Cans/Overspray Studios – Roots Cafe Mural Commissioned for Sound Session 2010/Aurora Fringe Commission
This mural was originally commissioned by The Avenue Concept for a “Yarrow’s Cans” project commissioned to be painted on the side of The Providence Black Repertory Company for Sound Session music festival in 2010. It was covered over several years later by artists from Overspray Studios for an event at Aurora.
The Art of Life – Return of a Century (1998)
Bonnie Lee Turner, who painted this mural as part of The Art of Life, says that she and her collaborator painted themselves in as 13-feet-tall, scowling giants. They depicted themselves in confrontational poses armed with paint brushes because Vincent “Buddy” Cianci, then Mayor of Providence, had refused to pay them for their work. Having been involved in a disagreement with the Police and Firearms Unions, who had commissioned the mural, Cianci withdrew significant funds after The Art of Life had already done extensive work. Instead of painting over the piece entirely when they didn’t receive compensation for their work — an idea they considered — Turner and her partner decided to paint themselves on top of the original design to honor the relationships they had built and the work they had put into the process.
Shepard Clock
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BEZT – “She Never Came” (2015) – curated, funded, and programmed by The Avenue Concept
Bezt was born in 1987 in Turek, Poland. He finished the Academy of Fine Arts in Łódź, where he met Sanier and the two started painting together as Etam Cru. Bezt is particularly specialized in frescoes and has painted a large number of public works depicting magical worlds, usually on facades of dim and gray buildings from socialist era.
Natalia RAK – “Adventure Time” (2015) – curated, funded, and programmed by the Avenue Concept
Born in 1986, Natalia RAK isa young Polish street artist, and a graduate of Fine Arts in Łódź.
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Mary Beth Meehan – Seen/Unseen (2015); ReSeeing (2018)
In Seen/Unseen, photographer Mary Beth Meehan transformed downtown Providence with eight billboard-scale portraits of city residents. Up to forty feet in height, the photographs draw on the power of portraiture to inspire connection and mirror the city back to itself. The work has prompted conversations city-wide about urban identities, socioeconomic invisibility, the modern role of physical media, and the segregated nature of a multi-ethnic city such as Providence. Beginning with the portrait Mollie (2018), Meehan initiated a new phase of the project, one she has called ReSeeing: “After many conversations about ‘SeenUnseen,’ I’ve decided it’s time for a new title. I’ve chosen “ReSeeing,” launched with this portrait of Molly. I like the way it challenges me to keep looking at what my work is doing: the way the portraits are functioning in the world and the way they are operating in the minds of viewers. I like the way ‘ReSeeing’ asks me to pay attention to my own process of seeing. And I like the way it involves all see-ers, not just the powerful ones, asking us to look again at what we think we’ve already seen, already understood. I don’t think I can have much effect on the power structure of the world, but if I can make work that urges people to connect with one another, that will make me happy.” For more on the project, see Meehan’s website.
Mary Beth Meehan – “Bidur” (2017)
Bidur was 27 years old when this photo was taken. Meehan made it on a freezing cold afternoon, outside the apartment where her subject was living in Providence. Bidur and her family are among the eleven million who have lost their homes during six years of war in Syria. Some 18,000 of these people have made it to the United States; fewer than 200 of them have made it to Rhode Island.
Jessica Brown and Mary Beth Meehan – “The Women” (2021)
“The Women” is a collaboration between Providence-based artists Jessica Brown and Mary Beth Meehan, representing the joy, resourcefulness and ingenuity of Rhode Island’s early Black communities, whose stories have not been told. This piece, the first in the “Creative Survival” series, is a visual outgrowth of the history highlighted by the work of the historians – Truth Tellers – of Providence Mayor Jorge O. Elorza’s African American Ambassador Group. The original black and white photograph of The Women comes from the collections of the Rhode Island Black Heritage Society, and is a continuation of the legacy of their work entitled Preserving the Stories of our Creative Survival. The photograph was part of the early 20th century Providence African heritage civic organization collections.
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Mary Beth Meehan – “Wannton” (2015)
In the mid-1990s, while Marybeth Meehan was a staff photographer at The Providence Journal, she became acquainted with a Haitian church community in Providence. When the members first began emigrating from Haiti, in the 1980s, they had gathered in one of their apartments to worship. As more people arrived and joined them, they purchased an old metal shop off Cranston Street, in the West End, and fashioned it into a church. 20 years later she ran into Wannton when he was driving a bus. She made his portrait shortly after. At an artist talk about the work at the RISD museum, Wannton’s daughter Shebna St. Louis said: “It’s not only an honor for him, but it is an honor for our community. When one person is lifted up, everyone’s lifted up.”
Jonathan Pitts-Wiley – “Crown of Thunder” (2023)
Jonathan Pitts-Wiley is a father, husband, storyteller, and educator. A native of the Ocean State and graduate of Yale, he has been the creative director at Curiosity Store in Jamestown, RI since November 2021. Prior to this role, Jonathan taught History in the upper school at Moses Brown in Providence, RI and has, since 2010, been the Artistic Director of Pawtucket, RI’s Mixed Magic Theatre. An avid photographer, Jonathan is drawn to portrait work–particularly on film–and has been fortunate to provide photography for Mixed Magic Theatre, The Rhode Island Black Storytellers, the marketing and communication firm Rustle and Spark, Locus magazine and Brown University. In the spring of 2020, Jonathan co-founded The Vanta Guild, a collective of Black photographers based in and around Rhode Island that held its first exhibition, The Let-Out, at the Waterfire Arts Center Visitor’s Gallery in December of that same year. In the summer of 2021, Jonathan collaborated with renowned photographer Mary Beth Meehan to produce Annye Raye Pitts: Witness, a multimedia exhibit that explores and celebrates both the life of his late grandmother and the experiences and realities of the Great Migration. Jonathan is married to Mixed Magic’s music director, Kim Morrison Pitts-Wiley, and the couple lives in North Providence with their two children. Part of the ACT exhibition “Who We Are Now” curated by Mary Beth Meehan, José Ramirez and David Santilli.
Guillermo Gómez Peña – “The New Barbarians: To The Lords Of Censorship” Mural – AS220 Free Culture (2012)
Guillermo Gómez-Peña is a Chicano performance artist, writer, activist, and educator. Gómez-Peña has created work in multiple media, including performance art, experimental radio, video, photography and installation art. His ten books include essays, experimental poetry, performance scripts and chronicles in both English, Spanish, and Spanglish. He is a founding member of the art collective Border Arts Workshop/Taller de Arte Fronterizo and director of the performance art troupe La Pocha Nostra. The text on this mural is a fragment from his work The New Barbarians: a Declaration of Poetic Disobedience, entitled “To the Lords of Censorship”. The mural was designed by Aaron Peterman. AS220 founding artistic director Umberto Crenca calls it a “manifesto validating the work and integrity of the Providence arts community – a stamp on downtown.”
Shep Fairey (Painted by Johann Bjurman) – “Providence Industrial” Mural – AS220 Free Culture Award (2010)
Shepard Fairey is an American contemporary artist, graphic designer, and illustrator and graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design (BFA 1992). He first became known for his “André the Giant Has a Posse” and “Obey Giant” sticker campaign, in which he appropriated images from the comedic super market tabloid Weekly World News. His work became more widely known during the 2008 U.S. presidential election when he created the iconic Barack Obama “HOPE” poster. Fairey’s work is included in the collections at The Smithsonian, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
Mary Beth Meehan – “Omowunmi” (2015)
Omowunmi was once a mechanic in the U.S. Army. Her specialty was light-weight vehicles: trucks, trailers, Humvees. She has been stationed at Fort Campbell and Fort Bragg, and was deployed twice to the war in Iraq. It was there that an accident injured her hand and ended her military career. Before coming to the United States, Omowunmi was trying to make a living in Nigeria selling bottled soda and bread on the roadside, when her uncle told her she’d won “the lottery.” He was in Providence, and had entered her name for a green card. She was selected. Soon after she arrived here, almost twenty years ago, she bought a used car, for $800. It turned out to be a lemon, and cost more than that to be fixed. So that this would never happen again, she decided to learn to be a mechanic.
Mary Beth Meehan – “Styles” (2018)
Styles remembers being a child in Wakefield, growing up in a small cottage near the ocean, with an outhouse at the back and a fire burning in the pot-bellied stove. He and his cousins would ride in the back of his grandfather’s truck to Narragansett Beach, or run through the woods to dive into a fresh-water pond. It wasn’t until he moved to Providence, in fourth or fifth grade, that he realized he was a Narragansett Indian. Styles got through high school and went to trade school, learning to plaster and do drywall. He had a son. Now sixty years old, he lives in a small apartment in the North End, which he shares with two roommates.
Eli De Faria – “Raheem and Ruel” (2020)
Artist Bio: Eli De Faria, 31, is a photographer based out of Pawtucket, RI. Eli grew up in Central Falls, RI, where he was first introduced to photography at Central Falls High School. He pursued his interest further in photography after school programs at Progresso Latino. Several years later, he opened up his own photography and styling studio in Hopkinton, with business partner, Hannah Wert, working on local and national brands. When not working, Eli loves being outside or in the company of his best friends and family. Part of the ACT exhibition “Who We Are Now” curated by Mary Beth Meehan, José Ramirez and David Santilli.
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Greg Pennisten, Matthew Bevilacqua, Davis Lloyd (Peace Club) – “Dysrhythmia” (2017)
“Dysrhythmia” is Greg Pennisten’s depiction of merged abstractions found within the watercolor and oil paintings of Bevilacqua and Lloyd; it emphasizes his abiding interest in jazz. Figures painted with acrylic spray paint and latex house paint are both jagged and fluid, mirroring the motions of skateboarding and referencing the improvisational timing changes and structure of the music. According to the artists, this is a site-specific piece set within a space of its own rhythm. Special attention was paid to the lines and colors used to replicate the appearance of other paintings that inspired the artists.
Providence Veterans Memorial (1981)
This memorial is composed of twelve granite stones, eight granite benches, three poles displaying the flags of the US, RI, and Providence, and a large circular granite planter surrounded by a concrete and brick plaza. The first stone tells the story of the monument while nine stones list the names of those who perished in WWII. There is one stone listing those who gave their lives in Korea and another memorializing those who perished in Vietnam. The memorial’s stones are linked by a steel design though separated into two groups with a center divide. Each individual stone is inscribed at its base with a single word: “Honor,” “Courage,” “Duty,” “Loyalty,” “Country,” and “Heroism.” This word pattern repeats on either side of the center divide.
George Sherwood – “Grey Area” (2018)
George Sherwood makes kinetic stainless steel sculptures that dance in the wind and light. The choreography of each piece is governed by a set of basic movements, facilitated by an arrangement of aerodynamic surfaces connected by rotational points. The reflective qualities of the material help to integrate each piece into its environment, with shades of light, time of day, precipitation, and seasonal color all transforming the sculpture.
Richard Goulis – “Condemned” (2017) – curated, funded, and programmed by The Avenue Concept
For more information, see the work’s page at The Avenue Concept.
Jerry Ehrlich – “Insert Finger” (2012) – curated, funded, and programmed by The Avenue Concept
Made with repurposed rebar, “Insert Finger” represents the artist’s creative re-use of building materials. Typically, Ehrlich will heat metal and bend it around a form that he creates. He sees his work as a discussion between form and function. Rebar, as a material, is often coiled inside concrete under tension (being pulled apart), or compression (being pushed together).
Mike Hansel – “Collusion” (2018) – curated, funded, and programmed by The Avenue Concept
“I think of my sculptures as reconstructions from my visual memory. Each design is the result of personal observations of my surroundings that have been processed and re-invented in my mind. My ideas go through many evaluations and revisions throughout the design process and construction of each sculpture. I generate and develop most of my ideas through the use of preliminary drawings and clay models. At times, I have explored the idea of “stability” both in terms of structure as well as how it affects perception. I am particularly interested in the relationship between numerous elements when they are working together to establish a unified whole. Collusion takes four rigid forms that have the appearance of being flexible and lively. The elements work together to maintain an uncertain level of stability. A fifth visual element appears to bind the others together to suggest that they are unified. Experiments with these ideas have yielded some compositions that appear to be simultaneously cohesive and yet somehow, unstable.” For more information, see The Avenue Concept.
Joe Chirchirillo – “Earth Arch” (2021) – curated, funded, and programmed by The Avenue Concept
For more information, see the work’s page at The Avenue Concept.
Steven Buduo – Vasanzio ‘Troy’ (2022) – curated, funded, and programmed by The Avenue Concept
For more information, see the work’s page at The Avenue Concept.
Kelly Goff – “Continuous Line V (levity)” (2022) – curated, funded, and programmed by The Avenue Concept
For more information, see the work’s page at The Avenue Concept.
Mikyoung Kim – “Horizon Garden” (2010) – RISCA Percent For Art
Located at the entry area of the Dunkin Donuts Civic Center in Providence, this plaza offers the public a place to gather during the day and after events at the stadium. Sculptural mounds create an intimate setting in this urban environment and embrace wave like steel sculptures that are washed with light and color. Interactive LED lights rotate through a dynamic spectrum of color that defines the plaza at night, creating a vibrant destination for the city and civic center.
Rado Kirov – “Free Fall III” (2018)
Kirov‘s background is in fine metal work. This much is evident in the mesmerizing, mirror-like quality of his stainless steel artworks, something he has dubbed the “Mercury Effect.” He was born in Bulgaria and began as a coppersmith, learning under one of his country’s greatest craftsmen, Alexander Raev. In 1991, Rado moved to South African and began working in silver and gold. His skill and passion led to a number of high profile commissions: a silver chalice given to Pope John Paul II by Nelson Mandela, a silver rose bowl presented as a wedding gift to Japanese Crown Prince Naruhito and his wife by the South African government, and the official People’s Mace and the Black Rod Mace of the South African Parliament. By 2012, Rado was looking for a new creative direction and he found it in stainless steel. He developed a new technique for manipulating the material, using its inherent physical properties to create shimmering three-dimensional surfaces that draw the viewers into their reflections. This new medium became the Mercury Effect, and it has earned the artist great acclaim.
Matthias Neumann – “Basics #46” (2021) – curated, funded, and programmed by The Avenue Concept
For more information, see the work’s page at The Avenue Concept.
Lydia Musco – “Twelfth Unconformity” (2023) – curated, funded, and programmed by The Avenue Concept
For more information, see the work’s page at The Avenue Concept.
Abenda Sohn – “Frances Queweah” From the series “Our Lappa” (2022)
Abenda Sohn (1999) is a multidisciplinary Liberian artist currently based in Providence, Rhode Island. He is a Seth Macfarlane fellow and received his Bachelor of Fine Arts from Rhode Island School of Design. His artwork varies from drawings and paintings to installations and stage photography. He explores the intersections and intimacy of memory, Liberian identity, and archives pertaining to Liberia’s history and his family’s immigration experiences. He has been in numerous local group shows in Rhode Island and recently had his first solo exhibitions: Dream Country at the Brown Art Institute (2021) and Life Is Land at AS220 (2022). He was also one of the lead artists who was recruited by the state to design the Black Lives Matter mural in downtown Providence in 2021.
Providence Painted Signs – Trinity Repertory Company Mural (2016)
Shawn Gilheeney, Buck Hastings, and Greg Pennisten met six years ago in a studio building on Harris Avenue. A couple of years later they got the idea to work together. The product of the trio’s collaboration is Providence Painted Signs, a business that allows them to apply their interests and skills in art and design. Developing this design for Trinity Rep, the state’s flagship repertory theatre company, involved researching old business letterheads and graphics of the period around 1910. The artists developed color schemes in an effort to find the right balance between a period look and a contemporary feel. The original drawing was scaled up in order to reach the final dimensions of 38 feet by 70 feet. A set of pounce patterns was made to transfer a charcoal dot drawing onto the walls of the theater to guide the painting. To access the wall, Providence Painted Signs created special rigging.
Malcolm Greer Architects – Comedy and Tragedy Masks
These metal sculptures of the famed comedy and tragedy masks were a gift from former Mayor Vincent “Buddy” Cianci to Trinity Repertory Company. When Trinity painted its new mural they were moved to the Civic Center Garage facade next door.
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Dean Hotel Mural – Providence Painted Signs (2013)
Sam White – Octopus Mural (2017)
Mary Beth Meehan – “Darnell” (2015)
Meehan says she first met Darnell over the summer when he was working at the Providence Community Boating Center. One of his legs was encased in a cast from thigh to ankle. She asked him what had happened. “I got shot,” he said. After shooting together, Darnell asked if Meehan could take some photos of him with his hands in prayer. The boy called “Bookie” by his family and friends attended Bishop Hendricken High School. He played sports, and did well, following in his older brother’s footsteps. Once that brother left for college, Bookie kind of went off the rails. At around age 15 he started getting high and drinking; then he got kicked out of school. His mother called her sister in North Carolina and made arrangements for him to go live with her. He got clean, put on some weight, enrolled in an online course for his high-school diploma. He even gotten a job, standing outside a tax preparer’s office, wearing a Statue of Liberty costume to attract customers.
Kannetha Brown – “Sara Socheata Brown” from the series The Americans (2022)
Kannetha Brown is a Cambodian-American photographer based in Providence, Rhode Island. Her artwork contemplates the relationship between social justice and photography, and considers how representation shapes self-identity and the perception of others. Brown is currently working on a monograph titled “The Americans”; an oral and photographic history project celebrating Asian American stories in Rhode Island. She is a senior in the B.F.A. Photography program at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. There, the Liberal Arts Department awarded her the Global Competence and Intercultural Understanding Award for her contributions to the Asian American community as an artist and scholar. She was also included on The Phoblographer’s list of The Six Best Asian American Photographers in 2022, and has additionally been supported with scholarships and awards from the Anderson Ranch Arts Center, the MassArt Photo Department, and the Womxn Project. Part of the ACT exhibition “Who We Are Now” curated by Mary Beth Meehan, José Ramirez and David Santilli.
Mary Beth Meehan – “Annye” (2018)
in 1959 Annye had come to Providence from Montgomery, Alabama. She’d answered an advertisement in the newspaper, placed by an East Side widower who was looking for a live-in caretaker for his three children. She met other domestic workers in Rhode Island, many of them also Southern black women – some of whom had college degrees but found that they could make more money here, taking care of white people’s children, than they could in their professions in the South.
Jeny Hernandez-Watson – “Running Dear” (2022)
Documenting through photography has always been a very important part of my life. Since my early teen years, I gravitated toward capturing my environment through the lens of a camera. As I learned the medium, I realized that event documentation was a niche of mine. Capturing the creative process, individuals involved & materials used; the meeting of the minds; the process and the unexpected changes; all ending with final production coming alive is an experience that I enjoy capturing. I love allowing viewers to relive or connect more deeply through the images I produce. Being an indigenous woman, this wonderful gift of creative vision coupled with the amazing medium of photography has taught me the importance of capturing our world; the milestones of loved ones (and self); the gatherings of cultural and social events; and most importantly, the process of it all. Part of the ACT exhibition “Who We Are Now” curated by Mary Beth Meehan, José Ramirez and David Santilli.
Amy Bartlett Wright – “Three Waves for Coastway” (2013)
Amy Bartlett Wright has worked for 30 years as a professional artist, freelance muralist and scientific illustrator. She studied at the University of Maryland and the Rhode Island School of Design. Bartlett Wright is currently a member of the RISD/CE faculty. This piece was generated after the sale of the building whose facade it adorns. AS220’s Umberto Crenca and lawyer Mark Greenfeld encouraged Coastway Bank to do something with the empty facade. Originally the team working on this piece were going to have to reappoint the building and put up a metal panel for the mural to go on it (this was back in 2011.) Interesting detail: the mural goes onto a 42-feet-tall chimney and two 16-feet-tall street lights.
Nidal Fakhouri – “Tile Pedestals” (2015) – curated, funded, and programmed by The Avenue Concept
Comprised of porcelain tiles with colorful silkscreened patterns and designs, each pedestal has its own theme that expresses Nidal’s own personal taste and interests. Some of these themes include: Classic op-art patterns overlaid with technology imagery (Fakouri is a computer engineer and programmer); geometric patterns inspired by Islamic art (his father hails from Lebanon); and sea creature drawings inspired by Ernst Haeckel, a 19th century German naturalist (the artist is a big proponent of swimming in the ocean).
Arley-Rose Torsone – Text, Fontwork on Dreyfus Building (2008)
Arley-Rose Torsone helped to pioneer a look and style of sign painting that took Providence by storm in the mid-2000s. In 2008, AS220 purchased this, its third downtown building. The Mercantile Block is a four-story plus basement building with nearly 50,000 sq ft. AS220’s adaptive re-use of the historic Mercantile Block provides for a vibrant mix of live and work studios, arts related offices, and one-of-a kind, local retail and commercial spaces.
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Unknown – Corliss Steam Engine Mural (?)
A Corliss steam engine (or Corliss engine) is a steam engine, fitted with rotary valves and with variable valve timing patented in 1849. Invented by, and named after, the American engineer George Henry Corliss of Providence, Corliss engines were generally about 30 percent more fuel efficient than conventional steam engines with fixed cutoff. This increased efficiency made steam power more economical than water power, allowing industrial development away from millponds.
Robert Ellison – “Time Wave” (1998) – RISCA Percent for Art
This steel sculpture was commissioned via the RI State Council of the Arts percent for art fund. It acts as a contemporary foil for the Shepherd clock on Westminster St.
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Providence Art Windows (URI and RI Housing Buildings, Kresge and Providence Journal Buildings) (2010-2015)
Providence Art Windows exhibited juried art and art installations to fill empty retail spaces and participating gallery spaces for about a half decade. Curators rotated their shows three times yearly and exhibited local as well as non-local artists. The project was funded in part by the Arts Jobs program of the New England Foundation for the Arts, made possible with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
Buck Hastings and Cornish Associates – Biltmore Garage Mural featuring Luke’s Restaurant (2018)
This vibrant mural depicts a mid-20th century Providence streetscape in front of the American-Chinese restaurant Luke’s, which opened at 59 Eddy Street in 1951.
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Gabriel Warren – “Column 6” (2018) – curated, funded, and programmed by The Avenue Concept
“This series is loosely based on the ice cores that are drilled of out of the ice in the Antarctica and mountain glaciers. These are libraries of information. If you look at the way that I’ve treated the surfaces with these layers, that’s just a hint at what a real ice core looks like, and more importantly feels like. Just like endocrinology with trees you can count the years. At this point the Antarctic cores go back almost 3/4 of a million years. It looks permanent, but actually as we read more every day it is quite threatened. The core’s top and bottom are kind of a matrix into which there is an event. That can be information that’s coming out of the core that the scientists go after or in this case it’s visual. What I’m hoping is that this will read as unstable to symbolize the bedrock under an icecap and then what’s going on at that junction is of interest. That’s where the energy is happening, where the ice is sliding over the rock. The divorce of art and science is artificial. If you think about it, both art and science are based on looking very, very closely at the world and making some kind of sense out of it. The flash of creativity where all of a sudden, there’s poof, something where there was nothing is the same in both fields. That flash is inspired.” For more information, see The Avenue Concept.
Gilberto Boro – “Hektor in Conversation” (2019) – curated, funded, and programmed by The Avenue Concept.
Gilbert Boro is an abstract sculptor working with the interplay of space, place and form. His work relies on formal clarity and uses variations of complimentary elements such as planes and curves. Boro’s long career provides a wide range of works, with varied aesthetics and materials including stone, wood, metal and fiberglass. Many sculptures are figurative representations of cherished memories. Hektor in Conversation is sculptor Gilbert Boro’s artistic interpretation of the epic hero. It is part of Boro’s Iliad series. For more information, see The Avenue Concept.
Brower Hatcher and Marley Rogers of Mid-Ocean Studio – “Cosmic Flower” (2017) – curated, funded, and programmed by The Avenue Concept
This work recreates nature in anticipation of losing it. Its geometric system of metal and reflective plastics has hexagonal cells made out of rods of different lengths that can be put in tension and compression to create different effects. Metal pieces are also powder-coated differently to create what lead artist Brower Hatcher calls “prismatic possibilities.” Hatcher describes the green base of the flower as a “cellular stem” and calls the reflective petals “attractors,” noting that much in the same way flowers attract bees, these reflective surfaces attract onlookers to the work.
BY USING A FLASH ON A CAMERA ONE CAN EXPERIENCE THE FULL ATTRACTIVE EFFECT
Eric Camiel – “Sail Dream” (2018) curated, funded, and programmed by The Avenue Concept
Sail Dream by Connecticut based artist Eric Camiel is made from a single sheet of aluminum that has been cut, folded and welded. Camiel is a life-long sailor. His romance with the sea goes back to his earliest memories. This sculpture evokes the forms and rhythms of sail.
Henri Schonhardt – “Scout” (1911)
Schonhardt was born in 1875 in South Providence and graduated from RISD. In 1898 he returned from study in Europe to Providence to teach modeling at his alma mater. Schonhardt was commissioned by the State of RI for just over $1,500 to create a sculpture as an incentive to patriotism. He modeled “Scout,” on Major Henry Harrison Young, a notorious Union soldier who was just 25 when he enlisted in 1861. He died mysteriously and tragically in 1866 during the Mexican War.
Sydney K. Hamburger – “Fragus”(1998) and “Gene’s First” (1998)
Sydney K. Hamburger, a New York based sculptor, created “Gene’s First” for the 1999 Convergence Festival in Providence. She later donated the work to the City. Considered one of the premiere arts festivals in the country, the Convergence International Arts Festival, which featured an annual exhibition of temporary large-scale public sculpture by nationally and internationally recognized artists, was founded by city arts administrator Bob Rizzo in 1988 as a one-day festival in Roger Williams Park. Over the course of sixteen years the it grew into a three-week statewide festival centered in the heart of downtown Providence.
Liz Potenza, April Franklin, Jackson Morley, Tim Ferland, Frank Barada, Howie Sneider – Steelyard Ice Rink Fence (NEA Our Town 2012)
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Randolph Rogers – “Soldiers and Sailors Monument” (1871)
Designed by Randolph Rogers in 1866, the Soldiers and Sailors monument cost $60,000 and features ‘America,’ a ten-foot-tall bronze figure perched atop a multi-tier monument with four additional bronze figures on its second tier. These secondary figures represent the infantry, artillery, cavalry, and navy involvement in the Civil War. A cannon and cannon ball sit on the monument’s lower steps. The relief panel called ‘History,’ has one of the earliest representations of an African-American in the history of American sculpture. It depicts a Black figure in classical dress about knee length with the broken shackles of emancipation. The monument was sculpted in Rome, moved to Munich, and assembled in Providence. In 1913 “Soldiers and Sailors Monument,” among the City’s oldest, was relocated to the center of Kennedy Plaza where it underwent restoration in 1992. It was relocated to its current location in 1997 as part of plaza renovations.
Erminio Pinque and friends – Big Nazo Studio
Since he founded the puppet-sculpture-performance group BIG NAZO in the streets of Italy in the late 1980’s, director, performer, and fabricator Erminio Pinque and his team of collaborating artists, larger-than-life-sized aliens, robots and animal hybrid characters have performed in thousands of parades, festivals, street and stage shows throughout the USA, Europe, and Asia.In addition to performing throughout New England and at international Festivals around the world, Pinque teaches “Creature-Creation” at RISD. As a 2018 Rhode Island Foundation Innovation Fellow, Pinque will re-purpose vacant storefronts as cultural-activity hubs to inspire large-scale public events. Through community partnerships, he will have school and community groups participate in workshops to create costumes, props, wearable sculpture, and other forms of performance-ready mobile visual constructs unique to the character of their communities.
Quian Huang – “Story-Telling Fence” (NEA Our Town 2012)
What people can see on the fence is only the paint, but the artist used a lot of materials for the construction to tell the story of mass transit in Rhode Island..She used the RISD libraries to find historical images of a 1600s Indian trail, a 1740s stagecoach, an 1820s omnibus, an 1860s horsecar, the first trolley in RI from 1880s, a cable car from the 1890s, the 1892 Providence Trolley, and the 1913 Eastside Tunnel. Then she hand drew them in black and white and used Photoshop and Illustrator to edit the images before printing them out on adhesives. Then she cut out the black parts and pasted them onto the fence, sprayed white paint over them, and peeled off the adhesives, leaving just the white the paint on the fence posts.
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Replica of sculpture by Theodora Alice Ruggles Kitson – “The Hiker” (1906)
Originally titled “The Spirit of ‘96” this sculpture was a gift of the RI chapter of the National Association of Spanish War Veterans. The Gorham Company purchased the design of the statue from Kitson and cast it over 50 times, paying the original artist a royalty each time. Other replicas are sited in Fall River, MA and Washington, DC. The sculpture depicts an infantryman standing on a boulder that represents the Army and Navy. Dressed for tropical warfare with a wide-brimmed hat and sleeves rolled up, this hiker was bestowed upon the city in 1911 but was originally intended to be sited in North Burial Ground. It was installed in the heart of the City after veterans of the Spanish American War’s Philippine Insurrection advocated for it.
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Howard Ben Tre – Bank Boston Plaza (1998)
Ben Tré’s breakthrough technical innovations have extended his mastery of cast glass and allowed him to create monumental sculptures that can survive the rigors of outdoor installation. Much of his work is cast low-expansion glass, bronze, gold leaf, and granite.
Turk’s Head Plaza
According to Robert Isenberg at the Providence Journal, the original face above the plaza was the figurehead of a ship, appropriately named “the sultan.” A shopkeeper named Jacob Whitman somehow procured the eye-catching visage and hung it above his storefront. By the late 19th century, the stoic face was a popular landmark, and shoppers would convene regularly “at the sign of the Turk’s Head.” In 1913, New York architects Howells and Strokes constructed their 16-story edifice on the same site, and the Turk’s Head Building was briefly the second tallest structure in Providence (after the State House.) The original Turk’s head is lost to history, but the builders carved their own replica to embed in the facade.
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Umberto Crenca – “Takes All Types” (2017) – curated, funded, and programmed by The Avenue Concept
Founding artistic director of AS220, Umberto “Bert” Crenca’s twelve-foot-tall drawings are the second temporary installation by The Avenue Concept on the historic 1950s facade of the former Providence National Bank (the first were a series of trees by Philipe Lejune). The original Providence National Bank Building was completed in 1930 and faced Westminster Street. The colonial revival building was designed by Wallace E. Howe and featured “murals of historic Providence buildings, paneling of Burma Teak, and a floor of Vermont Marble.” In 1950 the building was expanded, and a new federal revival façade was added onto Weybosset St. So the façade in question, was really a backside addition to the bank building.
Sam O. White – “Party Shark” (2018) – curated, funded, and programmed by The Avenue Concept
“Sam O. White, is an illustrator, muralist and creator of interactive art installations, like the “Selfie Center”. This mural “Party Shark – Seals Galore” is based on the idea of fallacious fears. “I chose to make it over-sized to represent how overblown and irrational fears can get. In choosing to paint it in pink and titling it Party Shark, I’m attempting to diffuse my own fear by playing with my subject.” For more information see The Avenue Concept.
Amy Bartlett Wright – “We Are One Flock” (2020) curated, funded, and programmed by The Avenue Concept
For more information, see the work’s page at The Avenue Concept.
For more information, see the work’s page at The Avenue Concept.
AGONZA is a Providence native who spent her teenage years in the Dominican Republic before graduating from the University of Rhode Island in 2015. She has displayed work at shows in New York, Massachusetts and Rhode Island, and won 2017 and 2018 People’s Choice Awards at the Salem Mural Slam. Her proposed mural for the rear of the façade will use its five individual panels to depict four seemingly identical women, each with an earring representing the flag of a different country and each wearing “a different ethnic hair style to embrace the ethnicity of each type of hair,” she says.
M.deangelo is a Connecticut-based fine artist and illustrator who has contributed work to juried shows at The New Haven Paint and Clay Club and Pequot Gallery. He was integral as both an artist and facilitator to New Haven’s Under 91 Project, the first mural allowed on Connecticut Department of Transportation property. In contrast to AGONZA, M.deangelo’s proposal for the front of the structure will treat the five separate panels as one unified canvas depicting a woman lying down against the backdrop of a nighttime landscape with a building at the far end. He refers to it a “cyclical composition” that will connect three separate images of the same moment: the woman deep in thought, the reality of where she is (inside the building), and the unknown world beyond represented by the moon in the sky.
Learn more about AGONZA and M.deangelo’s work and the Avenue Concept Residency program here: https://theavenueconcept.org/providence-national-bank-facade-mural-agonza-mj-deangelo/
Gaia – “Still Here” (2018) – curated, funded, and programmed by The Avenue Concept in co-operation with the Tomaquag Museum
“‘Still Here’ was created in co-operation with the Tomaquag Museum. The image features a contemporary young Indigenous woman holding the portrait of Princess Redwing, a Narragansett and Wampanoag elder, historian, folklorist and curator surrounded by native flora. The strawberry, sunflower and red wing blackbird are featured prominently and an endemic cattail springs into the foreground while the invasive phragmites is cast to the margin. “Still Here” is meant to inspire as well as celebrate the resilience of Indigenous people.” For more information, see The Avenue Concept.
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Andrew Hem – “Misty Blue” (2017) – curated, funded, and programmed by The Avenue Concept for PVDFest 2017
Born during his parents’ flight from Cambodia in the wake of the Khmer Rouge genocide, Andrew Hem grew up between the rural animistic society of his Khmer ancestors and the dynamic urban art scene of Los Angeles. Fascinated by graffiti at an early age, he honed his skills with graphics and composition on the walls of the city before following a passion for figure drawing at the Art Center College of Design. This figure was based on a child that approached Hem when he was backpacking in Cambodia. Hem says he likes to paint subjects of all different races; skin tones are especially interesting to him.
Johann Bjurman/Providence Painted Sign – Hanley Building Peeling Facade Mural (1987, restored 2017)
The original mural, painted in the trompe l’oeil style, shows a faux façade of windows and architectural details. The illusion is revealed in the lower right-hand corner of the building as the painted surface appears to peel away from the wall as a giant piece of paper.