Antidote Seeking by Lena Mac (2022)
Exhibit details coming soon.Material: C2 Paint, Montana Gold Spray PaintArtist IG: @_lena_mac_Sponsors: Tiny Bar~TAKE A CLOSER LOOK~ What words or ideas come to mind when you look at this mural? Why does the mural make you think about those words or ideas? How would you describe the artist’s form of expression?What does the name Antidote Seeking make you think of?What feeling does this mural create for this space and how is it different from past exhibits? (Michael Ezzell's Blue Moon 2020, or Ricky Vespia's Bird Mural 2019 - scroll to see past exhibit pics.)
Liquid Sunshine (Poured) and Beacon by Michael Alfano
Michael Alfano creates sculptures that are figuratively based, surreal, philosophical, and evocative. He sculpts in clay, then casts in bronze and other materials. Quotes often accompany his sculptures.Self Reflection, red painted aluminumSelf Reflection alludes to mental well-being as a process of harmonizing mind, body, and spirit, which often requires looking inward and engaging with your memories, fears, and dreams. “I'm friends with the monster that's under my bed. Get along with the voices inside of my head.” - EminemMaterial: AluminumArtist IG: @michael_alfano_sculpture~Take a Closer Look~How does the movement of the figure inform your thinking about what the artist is saying?How does the environment around the artwork add to your perception of the piece?What do you think the color of the sculpture signifies?
You Are My Sunshine by Michael Ezzell (2024)
Material: C2 PaintArtist IG: @eezzllSponsors: Point 225, Wexford Science & Technology~TAKE A CLOSER LOOK~What does this mural mean to you?Does it inspire you? If so, why?How do the colors make you feel?
Fun and Funner by Brian Butler
Location: Thames and KosmosFun and Funner is a whimsical tribute to Providence’s regional trivia and tradition, with references spanning centuries. This lighthearted mural stands on its own as a bustling scene that could “easily double as a mini golf course,” smirks the artist. He continued by sharing that:A guiding lighthouse points out a variety of meaningful icons from around the Ocean State. Beside the gravity-defying ship wheel is a lightning bolt-laden fort that references Olneyville’s storied artist collective Fort Thunder, which overlooks a big roadside bug drinking an Awful Awful. The state tree is referenced in a maple leaf framed by the three eyes of AS220. A quahog and famed potato man listen as a tree drums up some What Cheer while a nearby sailboat fetches ice cream and counter navigates the fate of the Gasbee and its annual torching. Look closely, and one might even find a snow birding Skunk Ape entertaining a Rocky Point roll by the Fire Water. The mural has personal significance for Butler. “I grew up visiting Providence. One of my first-ever concerts was at the Gravity Games. It was a pleasure to revisit the quirky and cultural things that informed my development and reflect them back through the filter of my illustration,” he says.About the artist:Based in Miami, Butler established The Upper Hand Art studio in 2004, designing flyers for third-wave ska bands out of his college dorm room. Today the studio operates at the intersection of Brian's fine art career and commercial services. As a practicing artist, Butler has been invited to paint in globally acclaimed art festivals like Pow!Wow! Hawaii, Colorado Crush, numerous Secret Walls events, and even more Art Basel Miami activations. His practice of drawing at concerts has led to commissions from SXSW, Bonnaroo, and a countless number of performances. In 2019, Simmons University produced a touring exhibition that surveyed 10 years of Brian's concert drawing.Materials: C2 PaintPartners/Sponsors: Thames and Kosmos, Adler's Design Center and Hardware, Hilton Providence~ Take a closer look ~What symbols or icons do you recognize?How does your gaze move through the work?What energy or feeling does the work convey to you?
ARYZ x Emblem125
To say that Aryz is one of the biggest names in street art worldwide might actually be a bit of an understatement. The art magazine Juxtapoz has called his murals “game-changing” and Street Art News says “he’s one of the most talented artists working in the field of Urban Art.”The Catalan muralist born Octavi Serra Arrizabalaga in Palo Alto, California has his roots in the Barcelona graffiti scene and has evolved his work into a striking contemporary style that practically demands a large format like public art. This mural – well, really two murals – at the Emblem 125 complex in Providence’s Innovation District represents a major new contribution to the body of public art in the Creative Capital.The two parts of this mural, taken as a whole, represent the industrialization of Providence and the workers who made it possible. The vertical panel, approximately 60 feet high, depicts a “Goddess of Work,” with one hand made of stone holding a sledgehammer. The horizontal section, spanning roughly 100 feet, shows seven workers in various uniforms, both men and women, pulling a rope together. “They’re all pulling in the same direction. Because if we don’t all pull together, things can’t happen,” Aryz told the Boston Globe.The design takes advantage of the size and location of the walls, as well as the layout of the building, to present two murals as part of a cohesive whole. Aryz painted a piece with more movement on the horizontal wall, which works almost like a pattern. The vertical wall, more immediately visible from the street level, works as a point of attention for the pedestrian.Aryz chose the palette and the compositional displacement to increase the viewers' sensation of movement and attract the eye to create a truly striking artwork. The desaturated colors help the mural blend seamlessly with the surrounding brick, creating the effect of a brand new work that looks as if it’s been there for years.The concept is based on Aryz’s research about Providence and the Emblem 125 site. He and his studio assistants learned that the Industrial Revolution came to Providence through the textile, jewelry and machinery industries, with trains, the port and the factories all playing key roles. The intent is not to highlight one industry in particular, but to represent work more generally and the many trades that built this city and its industrial economy over many generations."The idea is to make a representation where you can read the hard years of the construction of a 'modern' city from scratch, representing all the anonymous workers who built it, representing the American Industrial Revolution and the workers in their labors,” Aryz explains.About the ArtistOften painting in abandoned factories early in his career, Aryz seamlessly transitioned to large-scale building façades in cities from Madrid to Tokyo to San Francisco.His murals often depict human and animal figures, creating surreal tableaus where bones and organs are frequently as visible as emotions. His dreamy color palettes can be vivid, but also take on a muted tone that makes them feel oddly natural in the cityscape, as if they just organically appeared there.Highly sought after and very specific about the projects he chooses, Aryz’s interest in a Providence-based project with The Avenue Concept represented a rare and unique opportunity to bring this master to the Creative Capital. This mural will enhance the city’s reputation as an international destination for public art, along with other cities that host his murals, including Oslo, Norway; Arles, France; Kiev, Ukraine and Chongqing, China. In the U.S., the nearest Aryz murals are in Detroit and Richmond, Virginia.Medium: C2 Paint, Montana Gold Spray PaintLocal artist assistance by: Ryan Richardson, Look Alive Signs.Videos and Images: Chop 'em Down FilmsSponsor Partners: Emblem 125, Adler's Design Center & Hardware for providing paint and color expertise, and Hilton Providence for hosting the artists and filmmakers.~TAKE A CLOSER LOOK~How tall do you think this wall is? (100’)How tall do you think the vertical panel is? (approx. 60')What do you think is happening in this picture?What is your favorite color in the mural?
Misty Blue by Andrew Hem (2017)
Location: 118 Orange St.The son of refugees from Cambodia’s brutal Khmer Rouge regime, Hem was inspired by our city’s robust Cambodian community to create the image you see here. Working from a photo of a young girl he encountered in Cambodia, he set her against a dream-like forest full of trees and fireflies.Material: C2 PaintArtist IG: @andrewhemSponsors: Adler's Design Center & Hardware, City of Providence, INOPERAbLE, Marc Greenfield~TAKE A CLOSER LOOK~How tall do you think this wall is? (45’)What do you think is happening in this picture?What do you think the young woman is thinking about?What are the dots floating around the girl? Where is she?What is your favorite color in the mural?
Still Here by Gaia (2018)
Location: 32 Custom House"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, lady slipper and redwing 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. Read more about this piece on The Avenue Concept blog or in this great article about the mural's launch.Material: C2 Paint, Montana GoldArtist IG: @gaiastreetartSponsors: Adler's Design Center & Hardware, Granoff, Knead Doughnuts, Queen of Hearts, Rhode Island Council for the Humanities, Hudson Street Deli.~TAKE A CLOSER LOOK~What kinds of flowers and animals do you see in the picture? What objects are special to you in the picture?What do you wonder about the people pictured? What do you think their story is?What do you think is the connection between the girl holding the photo and the woman pictured in the photo?What do you know about the Narangansett people?
The Serpent by Amanda Hill
Location: 35 Weybosset St (street side)Evoking a sense of idyll rooted in femininity and nature, “The Serpent” by Amanda Bradley Hill features a woman at the shore of an otherwise calm and inviting landscape. Meanwhile, a serpent lurks--plotting, threatening to disrupt her ephemeral peace.“This piece is an exploration of how a single element, no matter the size, can profoundly alter one's environment—a theme that resonates across various experiences. The work then delves into the dynamic between an idealized, serene place and a place of fear and terror. The figure’s expression is intentionally ambiguous, leaving the viewer to question whether she is looking for assistance or assuring them she is in control.”Amanda Hill is a multimedia artist and muralist living and working in Greater Boston. Much of Hill's work is rooted in the exploration of what many consider to be commonplace. Hill takes an interest in a community's ability to make and experience art. As such, she specializes in empowering, honoring, and strengthening communities through art—whether this is through her own mural work or championing others.This piece is a part of the Weybosset Facade Residency, which started in 2016. Special thanks to Paolino Properties and Adler’s Design Center & Hardware for their annual partnership on the project. Additional support provided in part by a grant from the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts, through an appropriation by the Rhode Island General Assembly and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.Material: C2 Paint, Montana Gold Spray PaintArtist IG: @a.b.hillPartners & Sponsors: Paolino Properties, Adlers Designs and Hardware, RISCA~TAKE A CLOSER LOOK~How does the artist work with color and lines across the panels?What do you think of the artist's color palette and its significance?What feelings do you think the mural will inspire in Providence?Look at your surroundings. What do you make of this kind of a place for art?
Fire Season by Marius Keo Marjolin
Location: Back of facade next to 45 Weybosset StreetMarius Keo Marjolin created “Fire Season” at 35 Weybosset St (lot side) as part of TAC’s Weybosset Residency. Their design is inspired by Khmer art forms such as dance, theater, and shadow puppetry. The mural features a female dancer holding an ax and wearing the traditional costume of a male character in Khmer dance. She is bookended by Southeast Asian muntjac deer and tree motifs. The limited warm color palette alludes to both the screen of Cambodian shadow puppet theater, traditionally lit by bonfire, and to the orange skies caused by the wildfires of today. Bridging influences from mythology and ecology, Fire Season is a meditation on how we might emotionally reconcile with our world's rapidly warming climate.Through this mural, Marius hopes to represent Providence’s sizable Cambodian community, who have been established in Rhode Island since the 1970s, as well as to connect the city of Providence with global conversations about diaspora and climate change.Marius is a queer Khmer-American artist based in Providence, RI. They grew up making art and graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2021 with a BFA in Printmaking. They are a Teaching Artist at CityArts and a member of Binch Press + Queer.Archive.Work, a cooperatively run printshop and zine library. Through their vibrant watercolor paintings and screen prints, Marius overlaps colors and textures with characters and symbols from Khmer dance. They are especially inspired by water as a powerful symbol of movement within Cambodian folklore and history. Thank you to Paolino Properties for supporting the residency and renovations to the facade, and to Adler’s Design Center & Hardware for supply support. We’re also grateful for support provided in part by a grant from RISCA through an appropriation by the Rhode Island General Assembly, a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and private funders. Medium: C2 PaintArtist IG: @tofu.twinkPartners and Sponsors: Paolino Properties, Adlers Design and Hardware, RISCA~TAKE A CLOSER LOOK~What do you think of the color palette chosen by the artist and its significance?How does the artist work with color and lines across the panels?Look at your surroundings. What do you make of this kind of a place for art?
City Life Utility Box by Arthur Cayo (2021)
Arthur Cayo is a Brooklyn native who is currently based in Providence’s Olneyville neighborhood. His art has typically been portrait-focused, but in the wake of the pandemic and protest movement in 2020, he began working on public murals, using the heart stencil as a recurring motif. “The foundation for this piece is love, as it is with a lot of my works of late,” he says. “Love for the city.”Material: C2 Paint, Montana Gold Spray PaintArtist IG: @artforsocietyThis utility box was painted as part of The Avenue Concept’s Providence Utility Box program, a public art project intended to beautify our streets, enhance pedestrian wayfinding and provide opportunities for emerging local artists.Special thanks to: AGONZA, Jess Brown, and Kendel Joseph for curating the artists and to The Rhode Island Foundation for financial support.
Prisms Utility Box by Lara Henderson (2021)
Lara Henderson is a book artist, printmaker and designer based in Providence. She prints out of AS220, a community print shop located Downtown. This piece is inspired by her grandmother’s diamond, which Lara has been wearing every day since she was 21. “I have been trying for years to mimic the experience of looking into a diamond, how it is both clear and full of rainbows,” she says. “Its light-catching facets make it seem infinite.”Material: C2 Paint, Montana Gold Spray PaintArtist IG: @makebooksThis utility box was painted as part of The Avenue Concept’s Providence Utility Box program, a public art project intended to beautify our streets, enhance pedestrian wayfinding and provide opportunities for emerging local artists.Special thanks to: AGONZA, Jess Brown, and Kendel Joseph for curating the artists and to The Rhode Island Foundation for financial support.
She Never Came by Bezt (2015)
Insider's Tip: There are SO many amazing places to eat and drink around Westminster Street that we can't pick just one. InDowncity always has the word on what's happening with shops, restaurants and bars. Their Take Out, Dining & Shopping Recapis spot on.Location: Near 134 Mathewson StShe Never Came distills a story of unrequited love into a single moment. Its photorealistic quality evokes BEZT’s admiration for Norman Rockwell, while the surrealism of the rat pays homage to the street art tradition of Basquiat. This calm, quiet moment is a stark juxtaposition to the busy streetscape around it, inviting passersby to pause and reflect on its beauty.Material: C2 Paint, Montana Gold Spray PaintArtist IG: @bezt_etamSponsors: City of Providence, The Dean Hotel, INOPERAbLE, Adler's Design Center & Hardware, Blake’s Tavern~TAKE A CLOSER LOOK~What do you think is happening in this picture?Where is this man? How is he feeling?What is in his hand?Do you see another living thing in this picture besides the man? What element accompanies it?Look at the ring. Is there anything unusual about it?What shapes do you see in the mural? What else do you see that’s familiar?What do you notice about the man’s hands, arms and face? (Done in a realistic style)What direction is the light coming from in the picture?
Salt Water by Garden of Journey (2021)
Location: Near 134 Mathewson StSalt Water by Garden of Journey (Georgie Nakima) explores a theme of creative energy versus destructive energy, featuring two imaginary figures who serve as yin and yang. It is based in Afrofuturism, a cultural aesthetic and philosophy that explores the African-American experience and African diaspora through science-fiction and fantasy.Material: C2 Paint, Montana Gold Spray PaintArtist IG: @gardenofjourneySponsors: supported by The Isenberg Family.Additional sponsorship and community input provided by Adler's Design Center & Hardware, 100 Washington St LLC - partners David Stem & Lori Quinn, Hilton Providence, Down City Parking LLC, and the Downtown Neighborhood Association.~TAKE A CLOSER LOOK~What part of the mural draws your eye most? Why? What is taking place in that part of the mural?Note the repetition of shapes in the mural. Why do you think the artist chose those elements and used them in that way?The artist uses a lot of color in the faces of the women. How does that create shape to the faces?What do you know about Afrofuturism? How does Afrofuturism inform and enrich this work?
帝国崛起 (Empire Rising) by Lauren YS
Curatorial Statement:The artist has selected themes to celebrate the history of theater as well as the historic Chinese-American community and LGBTQ+ contributions and presence in Downtown.* The far left figure holds a scissor and thread: a nod to Perry Watkins, the first Black scenic designer on Broadway, who was from Providence. They are holding a fan with the Port Arthur logo, a Chinese restaurant and dancehall in downtown that was a pillar of the Asian community and a safe haven for the LGBTQ+ community to meet and dance.* Rich red curtains swooping behind the figures highlight PPAC, Trinity Repertory Theatre, and others that have existed throughout the years.* Arches in the background are reminiscent of the Chinese Restaurants and Dancehalls that went hand in hand with the theater experience of the 50’s-80's where visitors would come for a day of shopping on Westminster, followed by dinner at a Chinese restaurant and a show at one of the many theaters. Dance Halls also served as unique performance venues with bands and other entertainment. (Also a nod to Trinity Rep's idea of non-traditional theater stages.)* The two middle figures speak to the Chinatown which existed nearby and are based on Ancient Chinese Opera figures, the artist incorporating elements of modern Drag. The character’s robes reference various Asian communities and histories and one holds two playing cards; a reference to the Kings and Queens of the Drag community and a nod to the RI Bar "Kings & Queens" (1977-2002), which was the backbone of many community events.* The figure on the far right references Providence’s long history with the LGBTQ+ community, harkening back to a theatergoer of the past and drawing on images of Francis "Auriema" Renault, a Drag Performer from Providence in 1910. The jewelry on this figure includes a reference to Beatrice Temkin, "A trailblazing lgbtq+ ally and founding member of AIDS Project RI", also a nod to the Beatrice Hotel namesake owned by Paolino Properties, the owner of the Snow St. building.This project is a signature PVDFest Public Art Commission championed by Providence Mayor Brett Smiley, and is offered in celebration of culture and histories of communities and following a PVDFest tradition of collaborating with national and international artists to encourage tourism and enhance public space through quality of life initiatives. Special thanks to Paolino Properties.About Lauren YS:Lauren YS (they/them) is a queer Asian-American femme with a deep passion for visual storytelling. Based in LA with a B.A. in English and Fine Art from Stanford University, Lauren applies their background in literature to the urban sphere through freestyle muralism.Their signature style of high-chroma design elements interwoven with dynamic portraiture creates lush, florid pictorial portals to worlds that are as just as they are visually captivating. Lauren’s work seeks to bring an element of the fantastical and narrative fluidity to the dignity of their characters’ person-hoods, with a specific passion for creating space for queer and BIPOC stories. From large-scale murals to multi-layered works on canvas, Lauren’s work draws inspiration from queer worlds, fluidity, mythology, dreams, animation, travel, nature, human dignity and their mixed Asian-American heritage. Lauren’s vision encapsulates the lifetime search for identity, a love of local myth, and the constant pursuit of promoting just futures.They have exhibited large-scale murals around the globe including Yale University, Art Basel Miami, Wynwood Walls, Long Beach Museum of Art, PangeaSeed SeaWalls (New Zealand), the World Trade Center in New York, and have shown in galleries including Vienna, New York, London, Tokyo, and Melbourne. They completed a mural in Providence in 2016 after spending a semester studying at Brown and RISD while completing their BA in English and Art Practice from Stanford University. That mural is inspired by a Gypsy Moth epidemic Rhode Island was dealing with at the time of the mural.
The Fighter by Natural (2021)
Natural is a multimedia artist who works primarily in large-scale spray paint and often features flora and fauna as design elements. This piece depicts a Siamese fighting fish. “It resembles how I perceive people in life,” he says. “Trapped in a bowl, but continuing to fight on.”Material: C2 Paint, Montana Gold Spray PaintArtist IG: @naturalsnaturalThis utility box was painted as part of The Avenue Concept’s Providence Utility Box program, a public art project intended to beautify our streets, enhance pedestrian wayfinding and provide opportunities for emerging local artists.Special thanks to: AGONZA, Jess Brown, and Kendel Joseph for curating the artists and to The Rhode Island Foundation for financial support.
Twelfth Unconformity by Lydia Musco
Insider's Tip: We love Trinity Brewhouse. (Also, shout out to Providence Painted Signs who did the Trinity Rep Mural!).Location: Empire St. x Fountain St.Installed: June 2023Lydia Musco is an artist from New England whose work has been exhibited in galleries and outdoor spaces across the United States.This piece is the twelfth in the "Unconformity" series which Musco began making in 2020, which draws inspiration from the landscape of the woods of Massachusetts where she lives and works. The color and patterns of this sculpture are influenced by daily observations of the month of February. The shapes of each piece within the "Unconformity" series are the same and cast from the same mold, but within that form everything changes from piece to piece. “Twelfth Unconformity” depicts shadows of bare trees, the colors of winter brush, and captures the way that the sky can blend with the ground, making them sometimes indistinguishable.Musco offers this description of the work:I started making drawings and notes of the incremental environmental changes that accumulate into weeks and months and years and using these as studies for new sculptures…This sculpture was built from the ground up, in one continuous action, by filling a wood form with wet, pigmented concrete. This building process mirrors my experience of moving through time, as memories and events accumulated to form a story, and it relates to my interpretation of the landscape, with its slow building up of growth and geologic material. This sculpture is cast in layers that fit together like a vertically stacked puzzle. Each time this piece is re-assembled in a new environment it echoes the actions of the original making process and, hopefully, offers new insights and observations. Musco learned to observe the world from her poet mother and from her grandfathers who performed magic tricks and asked expert questions. She learned to work with her hands from her woodworker father and grandmothers who cooked Sicilian delicacies and played piano duets. From them Musco also learned the power of working deeply into whatever boundaries are encountered and the immense, unexpected creative territory that is revealed when choices are limited. She credits her most valuable tools as the rules and constraints encountered while creating. This current body of work began with the development of rules that governed scale, form, color, content, and logistics. For example, the logistics rule - the artist must be able to handle and move an entire piece herself if necessary - which led to a building process that itself led to deeper explorations within the restrictions guiding color and content. Stacking many individual pieces into a larger form was a logistical solution and simultaneously brought in a way to represent the layers of stories and memories that make up Musco's experience of moving through life. When she interacts with the repetitive stacking of these current pieces, she is reconstructing not only the way in which they were built but also the moments that are encoded in the actions that created each layer. The sedimentary layers found in geology and the way that large and small moments can be recorded but can also be changed over time. The object represents both the past - when it was built - and the present moment of being rebuilt. "With the action of building up the form again I’m reminded to consider how things have changed, both from my own perspective and in the bigger picture. Making helps me understand the world. Making helps me learn how things go together, how things come apart, how they stand, how they fall, how they interact, and helps me to see the world. There is so much to learn; I treasure every scrap of understanding I can get," Musco says. Material: Integrally pigmented concreteArtist IG: @lydia_j_musco~Take a Closer Look~Twelfth Unconformity is assembled by the artist layer by layer on-site. What do you think makes that process challenging or easy?What forms or colors do you notice? Are there particular elements that make you think about winter?How do light and shadows affect your experience of the work?What do you think of the scale of the work and the significance of its size and placement?
Continuous Line V (levity) by Kelly Goff
Location: Exchange Terrace x Francis St.Continuous Line V (levity), 2022 is a doodle, unscripted, enacted in slow motion. It is made of lengths of thick-walled steel pipe (2-⅜” diameter), which are bent with hydraulic assistance into partial loops and arcs of dynamic radii. The curved segments are then welded end-to-end, organized intuitively to create a continuous line drawing in three dimensional space.The sculpture shifts dramatically with change in vantage point. Its white enamel coating stands out vividly in urban space, while referring to white linear traffic markings, bike lanes, and crosswalks. Goff is interested in edges, spaces between things, points of tension, distances, lines, throughlines, and the displacement of resources. Kelly Goff grew up next to an oil refinery on a Caribbean island and this small geographic coincidence still colors much of his sense of the world and exploration of it as an artist. Goff is fueled by contrasts of all sorts. "I’m drawn to places in the world where I suspect complexity. Remote landscapes under threat of human industry are especially potent, so time spent in places like the Ecuadorian Amazon, the Alaskan wilderness, and the Himalayan nation of Bhutan have been productive and meaningful in my work.""Line is a major player in the work- lines like those that connect places yes, but also the lines that connect us to each other."About the artist:Kelly Goff is a Curaçaoan-American artist working primarily in sculpture, installation, and public spaces. Kelly was born and raised on the Caribbean island Curaçao, studied science and art at New College of Florida, and completed his graduate work at RISD with honors. Kelly Goff lives and works in Norton Massachusetts, where he teaches sculpture at Wheaton College.Material: SteelArtist Instagram: @kellygoffstudio~TAKE A CLOSER LOOK~What is your initial reaction to this sculpture? How does the exhibit description influence your reaction?What do you think about the choice of materials?
Bioswale Garden (Sculpture coming soon)
Location: Fountain St. x Dorrance St.Bioswales are similar to rain gardens, but often more linear, and specifically created to capture the significant amounts of stormwater that accumulate in heavily paved areas such as this junction of Dorrance, Eddy, Francis, and Fountain Street. Jenn Judge of the local Gravelly Hill Design Group, led the design of this bioswale. Below ground, the bioswale is a large, gravel-filled pit with perforated piping, suited to capturing heavy water flows. Choosing the right plantings is an important part of creating a bioswale that functions effectively. Judge’s group planted switchgrass, which grows deep roots and helps with the quick uptake of water. Winteberry also absorbs heavy water flows and provides a splash of color to beautify the space when other plants are bare. Evergreen shrubs stay green during the winter to help deter people from walking through the space. Bluebeard shrubs and false spirea attract pollinators. “Especially in the cities, pollinators need all the help they can get,” Judge says.Green spaces in cities also provide cooling effects – the more vegetative covering there is, the more plant transpiration can help cool the city air. At a small scale, a bioswale is a human design that regenerates the natural ecosystem processes. ~TAKE A CLOSER LOOK~What stands out to you about the gardens?Are there any pollinators present?Which plants and flowers seem to be in season, and what function do you think they serve?
Morphous
Location: Kennedy PlazaLionel Smit's MORPHOUS is an exploration of hybrid identity and its ever-changing nature within South Africa's social landscape. This particular piece evokes a question of time, of past and future, and the balance point at which his country found itself at the time of the sculpture's creation in 2014, one year after Nelson Mandela's passing. In 2014, South Africa embarked upon yet another chapter, a post-Apartheid and post-Nelson Mandela South Africa, a future South Africa. This "double-vision" is a foretelling, and an acknowledgement of what has already passed and an anticipation of what is still to come.The figures are charged with an emotive and gestural energy, a hallmark of Smit's evocative work. Viewers familiar with Ancient Roman mythology and iconography will undoubtedly think of Janus, the double headed deity of beginnings, gates, transitions, time, duality, doorways, passages, frames, and endings.The end of 2023, the time of the sculpture’s installation here in Providence, is also a time of transition broadly in The United States, and locally here in Rhode Island. It is a powerful message of representation to consider this reference to Janus when depicting a young Black woman.ABOUT THE ARTIST:Lionel Smit is one of South Africa’s most prolific and exalted artists. His artistic diversity is pursued through a variety of mediums and he is best known for his contemporary portraiture. His art is defined by a deeply rooted symbiotic relationship between sculpture and painting. Today, each of Lionel Smit’s works offers us an entry point into the variety and richness that lies beneath every face we encounter in life, whether applied in bronze or paint. The blending of techniques across genres is a display of Smit’s work in multiple media, all bearing a visible and tangible overlap.Lionel Smit was born in 1982 in Pretoria, South Africa. Smit has achieved global success, including sell-out exhibitions from London to Hong Kong. Smit’s painting received the 2013 Visitors’ Choice - BP Portrait Award at the National Portrait Gallery in London. Museum shows include solo exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Miami and at the Didrichsen Art Museum in Helsinki, Finland. In recent years, Smit’s sculpture MORPHOUS was exhibited in Union Square, New York. Over the past 10 years he has established a substantial international following with collectors including the Standard Chartered Bank, Laurence Graff Art Collection at Delaire Graff Wine Estate and Didrichsen Art Museum in Finland.Material: Bronze, steelArtist IG: @lionelsmitstudioSponsors: Mayor Jorge O. Elorza, City of Providence, Providence City Council
