At AS220 (115 Empire Street, Providence, through January 24), Paul Roustan of East Providence presents photos of naked models (almost all women) that he's painted with stripes and patterns and various virtuoso effects. A woman's pregnant belly is painted to resemble the earth, eclipsing a spotlight in the background that doubles as the sun. A real tarantula crawls up the breast of a woman painted with a white spider web that glows against her black-painted skin. Roustan's body paintings have flashy airbrush or spray-can style and exude a sexy fetishistic vibe.
I'm fascinated by the shot of a model painted with blue-on-blue floral pattern that matches the wallpaper behind her, and shots of models posed in crumbling buildings (or sets) and painted to resemble cracked walls or shattered glass. One of these women appears to have a gaping hole right between her breasts. I'm by turns attracted and repulsed by the trompe l'oeil illusions, the undercurrent of violence percolating through the images, and the way the naked ladies become mysteriously one with their surroundings, like chameleons or liquid mercury Terminators.
Read Greg Cook's blog at gregcookland.com/journal.
Related:
California matters, Funhouse, California’s shame, More 
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For four years, and 10,000 same-sex nuptials, Massachusetts has had a monopoly on gay marriage in the United States.
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The politics of division as practiced by lame-duck president George W. Bush at the connivance of his onetime Svengali Karl Rove are not dead.
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Sustainable living has, of course, long been a concern, but worries about global warming have pushed it to the forefront. And increasingly made it the subject of art.
- Connected
In 2004, AS220's StinkTank put out a paper titled "Compost and the Arts."
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Over the summer, José Luis Blondet, curator at the Boston Center for the Arts, invited Boston artist Andrew Witkin to do an unspecified project in a hidden corridor at the BCA's Mills Gallery.
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The Bread and Puppet Theater's Sourdough Philosophy Spectacle & Circus returns.
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Five years ago, when Farm Fresh Rhode Island (FFRI) launched its mission of promoting Ocean State-produced food, co-founder Noah Fulmer discovered a curious disconnection in the local food chain.
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Greg Cook’s breathless description of “the hottest show in the nation right now” ignores a lot of troubling context in the Fairey phenomenon.
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When I asked Chris Daltry just where exactly his acclaimed quintet the 'mericans had been hiding out, the founding father of the rootsy rockers was quick to deflect any insinuation that the Providence group had been slacking.
- Fabulous fakes
The e-mail from "Craig Cook" arrived on March 2. It directed me to a Facebook page pretending to be Greg Cook's, and a YouTube video. I was busy, so I watched only the beginning of the latter.
- Less
Topics:
Museum And Gallery
, California, Mammals, Nature and the Environment, More
, California, Mammals, Nature and the Environment, Wildlife, Games, Hobbies and Pastimes, Video Games, Santa Monica, East Providence, AS220, Less
