Making Waves: Artists Speak Out - The Provincetown Independent

Our new virtual exhibition Making Waves: Artists Speak Out was featured in The Provincetown Independent – “An Exhibit Makes Waves in Provincetown: Protest art gets a showcase at a time of crisis.” The exhibition features over 40 artists reflecting on politics, social justice and the effects of the pandemic. The show is on view now and will be live virtually through Election Day on Tuesday, November 3rd. Here is an excerpt from the article:

“Art doesn’t bring truth to power — it brings power to truth. And truth is complex, sometimes enigmatic. We’re more likely to find it in museums than in galleries, which exist to sell art, not to express outrage. Even in progressive Provincetown.

Marla Rice of the Rice Polak Gallery is bucking that trend. She had been offered a painting by Steven Skollar, one of her gallery artists, that depicted Trump with blood literally on his hands, but felt she couldn’t show it in the height of the season. Instead, she decided to show it in the fall. “I wanted to put it in the window before the election, when it would be me making a statement, not just him,” Rice says.

She asked other artists if they’d be part of a show about current crises: Trump’s cruelty and mendaciousness, the suffering caused by the pandemic, and protests against racism and police brutality. The response was strongly supportive, and the result is “Making Waves: Artists Speak Out,” a live and virtual exhibit opening Oct. 16 and on view through Election Day.

“I feel so strongly about social justice,” Rice says. “It allows me to give voice to my own feelings. Artists create art, and I curate shows.”