Native Iranian Roya Amigh earned her MFA in Tehran, and later moved to Boston where she earned a second MFA, in Painting, at Boston University. Roya has shown in academic and public venues from Korea to Greece to the U.S., including Brooklyn; Boston; Lincoln, Nebraska; New York City; Providence, and Wellesley, Massachusetts. She has had residencies in Art Omi, Ghent, New York; MASS MoCA, North Adams; and The Millay Colony for the Arts, Austerlitz, New York, among others.

 

Roya's latest project reflects the roles of women and the importance of their voices in social movements and women’s rights protests. In depicting these events which occurred in different parts of the world, she establishes connections between societies that are too easily dismissed as "Other" and aims to demonstrate that all violence against women is related, even as cultural practices may differ.

           

Roya Amigh is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and San Mateo, California. She has been working on the Digital Archive project, Women's Worlds in Qajar Iran, at Harvard University since 2017. 

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Board Service 2020-2023

Spencer Evans is a figurative draftsman, painter and sculptor who aims to tell detailed stories by using the imagery of specific moments. The aim of his work is to contextualize relationships between internal conflict and external circumstance based on his life experiences. His choice of clothing and dramatic poses/facial expressions for the work references shared experiences rooted in identity and culture within the Black American community.

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Spencer sees Black expression as a heroic form of communication from one generation to the next. It has existed despite direct violent opposition since his ancestors were brought to American shores. He sees its heroism in the form of overt revolutionary acts as well as survival-based assimilation, and everything in between. He attempts to depict the spirit of this world of expressions in each work, from the subtly nuanced to the completely polarized: "My work is free for any and every one to witness and enjoy our songs of joy and pain; however, I am speaking to those who know. The Descendants of the Unfadable."

 

Spencer Evans was born in Houston, Texas and earned his BFA in Drawing and Painting from the University of Missouri and his MFA from the University of Texas at Arlington. He lives and works in Providence where he is currently a Professor of Drawing at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD).

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photo credit: Kris Craig

Jeff Foye was born in Arcadia, California  and earned his BA in Theater and Dance from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut and his MFA in Sculpture and Intermedia from California State University at Long Beach. At CSU Long Beach he helped establish the graduate student-run exhibition, the Greater Los Angeles Masters of Fine Arts exhibition (GLAMFA), which is now in its 17th year.

 

Jeff is the Lead Preparator and Performance Curator at the Jamestown Arts Center as well as Director of Exhibitions for Rhode Island Airports. He collaborates with the artist Gordon Winiemko under the collective name, JEFF&GORDON. The work deals with the social structures that exist between people and how these influence interactions and connections between people. They have exhibited across the Los Angeles area and internationally. Jeff’s work consists of interventions, performances, videos and an 8-hour long split-screen movie. Jeff Foye currently lives in Wakefield, Rhode Island.

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photo credit: Kris Craig

With a background in writing and painting, Pamela Markham Heller divides her time between Westerly, Rhode Island, and New York City, where she had a painting studio for 30 years. Her immersion in contemporary art coincided with raising a family in the city. She has written general features for newspapers and magazines and reviews for art journals.  

 

Pamela continues to serve on the Museum of Modern Art’s Contemporary Arts Council, having joined in 1983. A collector of contemporary art, she has traveled extensively to exhibitions and art events in the US and abroad.  International sites include Havana, Guadalajara, Sāo Paulo, Shanghai, Delhi, Istanbul, Venice and Kassel.  

 

Pamela is currently engaged in letterpress printing and book arts.  Having discovered an SP-20  Vandercook proof press languishing on the campus of her alma mater, Westover School in Middlebury, Connecticut, an independent girls’ high school, she collaborated with an English teacher and a press journeyman to refurbish the machine and establish Agere Press, Westover’s now flourishing letterpress initiative. Pamela Heller's own press is housed in Westerly, where she produces works under the imprint of 2Dog Press.  

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Board Service 2011-2023

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photo credit: Viera Levitt

Lisa Scull is a designer of woven textiles with a strong focus on structural and material developments and innovations that she explores on Jacquard looms and 24 harness Dobby looms. She is interested in investigating and revealing how overlapping systems of woven structure, pattern, and color interact with the physical properties of material to bring about new experiences of light, shadow, color, dimensionality, and texture.

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Lisa has taught in the Textile Department at RISD as a Senior Critic for the past 35 years. During this time, she has also designed and developed textiles for the field of interiors as an independent designer and consultant. Prior to that she worked in New York City for Jack Lenor Larsen, Inc. as Senior Weave Designer and Associate Design Director.

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As an independent designer and consultant Lisa has developed fabric collections with Maharam in NYC, Himatsingka Seide in India, Valdese Weavers in North Carolina, Rohleder in Germany, and Sekers in England. Her fabrics have been placed in the lines of leading textile firms around the world, including Pollack & Associates, Zimmer Rhode, Dedar, Maharam, DesignTex, Sacho Hesslein, and Romo.

 

Lisa Scull received a BA in Political Philosophy from Middlebury College, and a BFA in Textiles from RISD.

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photo credit: Kris Craig

Jonny Skye, former owner and curator of Skye Gallery in Providence (2017 - 2021), believes thoughtful and inclusive visual arts experiences change our conversations and connections while challenging our spirits. Jonny has worked in visual arts education, urban school reform, youth and family advocacy, community engagement and facilitated a variety of innovative projects.  

 

Jonny is a practicing painter and working on her first book.

 

Arriving in Providence from Oregon in 1987, Jonny earned a BA in Visual Arts from Brown and a MAT in Art Education from RISD. A member of the Peoria Tribe, Jonny is the mother of four adult children and has lived in Santa Fe, New Mexico and The Gambia, West Africa.

 

Board Service 2021-2023

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photo credit: Kris Craig

Judith Tolnick Champa is founder and president of the Providence Biennial, and has long cultivated the complementary practices of curating and writing. She is a committed independent curator launched by Brown University’s History of Art graduate program, where teaching with objects became her passion and the impetus for a curatorial career.

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Judith is recognized for her range of focused group exhibitions occurring in unexpected locations, from alternative to traditional venues. These have included a multi-sited exhibition in Queens called Transpositions along the Queensborough Bridge and the National Members' exhibition for A.I.R. Gallery in Brooklyn, Facing Disjunction, to the recent ReSeeding the City: Ethnobotany in the Urban for the Rhode Island State House under the aegis of the Biennial, part of the Year of the City: The Providence Project.

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Judith's earlier career of academically affiliated curatorial work in modern and contemporary art took place in public and private institutions. She was associate director, curatorial affairs for Brown’s David Winton Bell Gallery and later director/curator for the University of Rhode Island's  former Fine Arts Center Galleries. An experienced art writer, Judith Tolnick Champa also served as editor-in-chief of Art New England, Boston’s long-standing regional art magazine.

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photo credit: Kris Craig

Neal T Walsh was born and raised in Rhode Island and has developed his creative and professional practice in the local arts community. As Gallery Director of the celebrated, wide-ranging arts nonprofit AS220, Neal has worked with hundreds of artists and collaborators to curate and mount exhibitions, coordinate artist talks, and run public events large and small.

 

Neal’s tenure as Gallery Director at AS220 has coincided with a time of unprecedented growth for the organization. He has designed and programmed new exhibition spaces, developed new initiatives, and continues to push the boundaries of gallery programming. Neal has worked with a wide range of artists, from those who have never exhibited before to those with successful careers, including self-taught artists, academics, students, and arts professionals. He has been  particularly gratified to work with many artists who explore issues of aesthetics, identity, social justice, and change.

Neal T Walsh is a practicing visual artist working primarily as a mixed-media painter. His work has been exhibited at the David Winton Bell Gallery, The Chazan Gallery, and he has been represented by Gallery Agniel, Candita Clayton Gallery,  and the Traverse Gallery. Neal has served on the Board of Directors of the American Friends Service Committee of New England. He is a co-founder of Providence Recycle-A-Bike, the micro-grant program Providence Provisions, and Urban Greens Food Coop.

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photo credit: Kris Craig