Common characteristics are (1) third-wave feminist art's proud embrace of "girly" and (2) artists adopting handcrafts traditionally not considered fine art, but "women's work." Simultaneously, our culture at large has seen a flourishing of craft (see Stitch 'n' Bitch and Etsy) that reflects a craving for handmade in our ever more digital, synthetic world.
Hassenfeld, who earned a BFA degree from RISD in 1994, works this specific cut-paper territory alongside a growing collection of artists. Imi Hwangbo's floral and geometric patterns cut into stacks of Mylar were shown at the Bell Gallery in 2007; RISD undergrad student Melissa Armstrong installed hand-cut dangling paper foliage at the RISD Museum in 2007. At the Wheeler School's Chazan Gallery in January, Kim Salerno showed cut-out paper and organza "chandeliers." Hassenfeld's version is the best I've seen because of the crispness of her decorative motifs and dynamic use of scale.
A vestibule gallery before Dans La Lune offers four glistening blue-and-white sculptures that Hassenfeld finished this year. (Hassenfeld will also have work at the new Cade Tompkins Editions/Projects gallery at 198 Hope Street from September 25 to November 14.) They're made of paper — rolled, cut, colored with ink and paint, and lacquered — but look like candlesticks or vases holding bare tree branches made from Dutch Delftware, Chinese export ware, or English Willow Ware. It's a new and promising direction for the artist.
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Rock n' Roll saves the day, Photos: Kirsten Hassenfeld at Bell Gallery, Séance, More 
- Rock n' Roll saves the day
One way to keep dry, academic art theorizing from getting too, well, dry and academic is to inject some rock and roll.
- Photos: Kirsten Hassenfeld at Bell Gallery
Photos from Hassenfeld's show at the Bell Gallery
- Séance
Rachel Berwick's art is concerned with conjuring ghosts — in particular the spirits of creatures or peoples near extinction or already died out.
- More closings and a question: Can galleries survive here?
More closings and a question: Can galleries survive here?
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The lousy economy hit home this year as Stairwell Gallery in Providence and Yes Gallery in Warren closed their doors.
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For several years, Woonsocket sculptor Jon Laustsen has demonstrated a curious and original vision with a series of model construction sites that resembled 1/8-scale roller coasters, or perhaps the outer wall of the Providence Place Mall, or a landscape of miniature buildings with one at the end mysteriously torched.
- Brown's 'Faculty Triennial 2010'
Enter music composer Todd Winkler's installation Glint and you find yourself in a small, dark room, surrounded on three sides by projected video of water, and installation art's requisite electronic drone soundtrack.
- ‘Rolemodelplaytime’ at Brown’s Bell Gallery
Randy Regier's Dime Star is a story about disappointment. A traveling salesman's sample cases are stacked up, displaying vintage '60s (looking) toys — a "Dime Star" space cowboy policeman and his human-headed space horse, wristwatches ("Shows exact time twice a day — anywhere in the world"), a clock.
- Lucas Foglia’s ‘A Natural Order’ looks at self-sufficiency
In 2006, after finishing undergraduate studies at Brown University and photographing a series on community gardens managed by Providence's Southside Community Land Trust, Lucas Foglia bought a minivan, put a bed in the back, and drove south "to photograph people who had responded to current day events ..."
- “Nostalgia Machines” at Brown’s Bell Gallery
Jonathan Schipper's Measuring Angst (2009) might be a complicated machine built to help you ponder whether your life would be better if you could take back the stupid thing you did last night.
- Review: ''Among the Breakage'' scratches the surface at Bell Gallery
Over the past dec-ade, Providence art has been known for its visionary printmaking and graphics, crafty constructions, and funhouse installations, but local painting has tended to operate out of the limelight.
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Museum And Gallery
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