Providence Biennial for Contemporary Art
Exhibition Archive 2015 - 2023
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.
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.
​Heeseop Yoon, DeeDee Shattuck Gallery
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.
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
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.
Ziyang Wu, The Story of the Pig, 2016
September 9 - October 14, 2017
Crossing Borders
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.
Artist Camilo Cruz photographing Teruko Isabella Kushi, The Back of My Head, 2017, Hair and wax on wood © Kris Craig
October 27 - January 26, 2017
Crossing Borders
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
Camilo Cruz, Adeliz, 2017 with metal detectors
February 4 - April 29, 2019
LatinXpression: The Absorbing Nature of Line
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.
Patricia Carzorla & Nancy Saleme,
Flying High for Equality, 2017
October 25 - November 27, 2019
ReSeeding the City:
Ethnobotany in the Urban
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.
Detail of central portion,
Leslie Bostrom, RYBPOG Rain, 2013
September 22 - January 31, 2021
Out of the Fray
Since Out of the Fray was entirely virtual, developed on the brink of the last presidential election, we provide this link to the exhibition that is combined with an exhibition catalogue. Please explore.
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.
Lower half of vertical diptych,
Vanessa Leroy, Altar of Stars, 2014
Launched September 22, 2021, ongoing
PODCAST: Expand -- Ignite -- Invite: What Does a More Inclusive Art World Look Like?
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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Listen to the complete podcast here.
July 13 - August 20, 2023
Curating Commemoration: Poesis / Remedy
The overarching title of our initial mentored exhibition, Curating Commemoration: Poiesis / Remedy, affirmed a vigorous connection between remembrance and the contemporary art/culture matrix. As the emerging curators investigated the perpetuation of historical memory through current memorializing practices, they found these often sustain a condition of power and domination. A reconsideration of memorializing encouraged the curators to move beyond the self-serving values of earlier (and persistent) 'timeless' monuments to propose and realize new perspectives on commemoration.