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Exhibition Archive 2015 - 2021

Prior to launching its 2022 program called Providence Curates: Cultivating a Transformative Experiment, the Providence Biennial curated and presented a schedule even more frequently than every two-years and in various types of alternative venues. These ranged from an empty office in downtown Providence to the Rhode Island State House, from an academic office building to an outdoor bocce ball court, and we reached into nearby Massachusetts as a venue for our program. All images courtesy of the artists unless noted otherwise. Each archive gallery contains a selection of images, rather than a comprehensive representation. Clink on the image to see more of each exhibition. 

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Installation view, Lynne Harlow, Winter King Hawthorn

June 11-14, 2015

Lynne Harlow, Winter King Hawthorn

A site-specific sculptural installation combining projected light, sheer and opaque fabrics and vinyl curtain in arrangement both reductive and exuberant. The temporary work thoroughly animated a vacant office space above TD Bank, Dorrance & Westminster Sts. Part of ProvidenceFest. Organized by Judith Tolnick Champa. All images courtesy of Jessica Raimondi of JCrest Photography.

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Greg Mencoff, What We Carry, 2014

September 30 - November 8, 2015

Nuanced: open-endedness, capaciousness and other provocative conditions of making

Work by six New England and New York based artists: Ashley Billingsley, Caroline Burton, Wilson Harding Lawrence, Greg Mencoff, Wendy Wolf, and Heeseop Yoon. Dedee Shattuck Gallery, Westport, Mass. Curated by J. Tolnick Champa.

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June 3, 2016

The City's Ephemeral Gestures: a constellation of artworks that play with the idea of art as an ephemeral gesture, and as a practice that chases the ephemeral gestures of the city

Ziyang Wu, The Story of the Pig, 2016

An immersive inflated pavilion in (a former bocce court) by PNEUHAUS and three- screen program of videos by Annie Berman, New York; Dennis Hlynsky, Providence; Ziyang Wu, Providence/New York. Grant’s Block, corner Union and Westminster Sts. Providence Biennial DBA Providence Implantations for ProvidenceFest/FirstWorks. Curated by J. Tolnick Champa and Leora Maltz-Leca. 

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September 9 - October 14, 2017

Crossing Borders

Artist Camilo Cruz photographing Teruko Isabella Kushi, The Back of My Head, 2017, Hair and wax on wood © Kris Craig

Work by eight artists practicing internationally from Holland to India, California to New England and New York: Roya Amigh, Camilo Cruz, Poonam Jain, Teruko Isabella Kushi, Ariana Gharib Lee, Julia Mandle, Esperanza Mayobre, Jason Noushin, Saman Sajasi and Heeseop Yoon. Periphery Space Gallery, Pawtucket, RI. Curated by J. Tolnick Champa and Jocelyn Foye.

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October 27 - January 26, 2017

Crossing Borders

Camilo Cruz, Adeliz, 2017 with metal detectors

The now-bifurcated exhibition was mounted concurrently in the John Nicholas Brown Center for Public Humanities and Cultural Heritage and the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, Brown University

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February 4 - April 29, 2019 

LatinXpression: The Absorbing Nature of Line

Patricia Carzorla & Nancy Saleme, 
Flying High for Equality, 2017

Work by nine artists based in California, New York and Rhode Island: Carolina Arentsen, Andrea Pérez Bessin, Nilton Cardenas, Patricia Cazorla and Nancy Saleme, Patricia Figueroa, Wayne Alaniz Healy, Evans Molina, and Joel Rosario Tapia. Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, Brown University. Curated by J. Tolnick Champa with Raphael Diaz.

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October 25 - November 27, 2019

ReSeeding the City:
Ethnobotany in the Urban  

Detail of central portion,
Leslie Bostrom, RYBPOG Rain, 2013

The dual forum and exhibition project, with a special focused exhibition introduced by a Watson Institute Colloquium. Work by 21 artists from Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island: May Babcock, Gabrielle Barzaghi, Leslie Bostrom, Elizabeth Duffy, Susan Erony, Holly Ewald, Jesseca Ferguson, Patricia Figueroa, Ana Flores, Leslie Hirst, Mo Kelman, Scott Lapham, Jordi Lister, Andrew Raftery, Luke Randall, Rick Shaefer, Megan Singleton, Esther Solondz, Robin Spears, Jr., Wendy Wahl and Margery Winter. Rhode Island State House. Developed as part of the municipal initiative, Year of the City of Providence. Supported by 15 partners and individual donors. Curated by J. Tolnick Champa.

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September 22 - January 31, 2021

Out of the Fray

Lower half of vertical diptych,
Vanessa Leroy, Altar of Stars, 2014

A focused group exhibition featuring the American flag as a powerful symbol of critique, 20th-21st centuries. Entirely digital, the exhibition focused on the complex meanings and creative absorption that the flag has held for a dozen contemporary artists who represented an aesthetically, racially, ethnically and geographically diverse practice. Museum held works by three progenitor artists--Robert Frank Jasper Johns and Faith Ringgold--were featured with works by twelve contemporary artists: Janie Cohen, Vermont; David Cole, New York; Liz Collins, New York; Tasha Dougé, Bronx, New York; Elizabeth Duffy, Rhode Island; Gary Graham, New York; Barbara Kruger, California and New York; Vanessa Leroy, Massachusetts; Jessica Deane Rosner, Rhode Island; Edwin Schlossberg, New York; Adrienne Sloane, Massachusetts; WORK/PLAY, Missouri. Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, Brown University. Curated by J. Tolnick Champa.

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Launched September 22, 2021, ongoing

PODCAST: Expand -- Ignite -- Invite: What Does a More Inclusive Art World Look Like?

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A special podcast for Trending Globally: Politics and Policy. Guests of host Sarah Baldwin were Providence Biennial board members Spencer Evans, Jonny Skye, and Judith Tolnick Champa with Melaine Ferdinand-King. Developed for PVDFest Ideas.

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