Rice Polak Gallery Presents 2024 Summer Exhibition Schedule
Provincetown, MA – May 22, 2024 – The Rice Polak Gallery today announced its 2024 summer exhibition schedule. This season’s schedule features six shows throughout the summer, and introduces three new artists to the collection: Lainard Bush, Kurt Reynolds, and Ellen Rolli. The gallery will also participate in a satellite show at the Mary Heaton Vorse House, “The 3 Amigos” Carroll, Galloway & Rice.
The 2024 Summer Feature Show Schedule includes:
OPENING GROUP SHOW
MAY 1 – JULY 3, 2024
Rice Polak Gallery
The Gallery is proud to kick-off the 2024 summer season with an Opening Group Show. It will be on view throughout the first half of the summer, and will feature new works from all gallery artists. This includes works from gallery newcomers Lainard Bush, Kurt Reynolds, and Ellen Rolli.
MARY HEATON VORSE HOUSE SPECIAL EXHIBITION: “THE 3 AMIGOS” CARROLL, GALLOWAY & RICE
JUNE 7 – JULY 21, 2024
Mary Heaton Vorse House, 466 Commercial Street, Provincetown
Opening Reception: Saturday, June 15, 5 – 7pm
Additional Reception: Friday, July 5, 5 – 7pm
The Rice Polak Gallery is proud to participate in this year’s satelite show, “The 3 Amigos” Carroll, Galloway & Rice at the Mary Heaton Vorse House, curated by Gene Tartaglia. The show is a collaboration between the Rice Polak Gallery, the Schoolhouse Gallery, and the William Scott Gallery. It will feature the works of many Rice Polak artists: Olga Antonova, Stanley Bielen, William Ciccariello, Anne Lilly, Joshua Meyer, Nick Patten, David Prifti, Christie Scheele, and Sean Thomas. Notably, the works shown by Rice Polak artist Nick Patten will include still-life paintings of the Mary Heaton Vorse House itself.
SHOW 1: JULY 4 – JULY 17, 2024
Opening Reception: Rice Polak Gallery, Friday, July 5, 7 – 9pm
This show features the work of Lainard Bush, Joshua Meyer, and Craig Mooney. Thematically, all three artists focus heavily on process to convey a deeper meaning in their work; Bush’s acrylic pieces are meticulously layered geometrics works, while Meyer’s relies on thickly layer paint to convey the passage of time, and Mooney uses brushes and pallet knives to build form, gesture, and color into his paintings.
This will be Lainard Bush’s debut show at the Rice Polak Gallery. Bush is an acrylic painter whose work has a kinship with the tradition of sacred geometry, and explores concepts such as pattern, order, and the infinite variety of life. Joshua Meyer is known for his thickly layered paintings of people, and for a searching, open-ended process. He paints people over long stretches of time, building up thick impasto, inviting the audience into his creative process. Craig Mooney’s work is a form of impressionism with a contemporary bent. His paintings come from a reality that never existed, but are instantly recognizable and purposefully ambiguous.
SHOW 2: JULY 18 – JULY 31, 2024
Opening Reception: Rice Polak Gallery, Friday, July 19, 7 – 9pm
This show features the work of Bill Ciccariello, Nick Patten, and Sean Thomas. Thematically, the show explores reflection, and the appreciation of moments in a person’s life. Ciccariello’s show is an impressive fictional narrative of the life of one man, while Patten’s pieces seek to explore the stories and quiet drama of everyday life, while Thomas’ works reference moments in specific locations the artist has visited.
Bill Ciccariello’s show features 48 paintings, titled “Lower 48,” presenting a narrative of the life of a fictional man, Jeremiah Smith, in the mid to late 1800’s. The series is an acknowledgement of the past, and explores the ideas of loss, impermanence and fragility, and in doing so, tells a story of a life not wholly forgotten. Nick Patten, often described as an American Vermeer, brings beauty and mystique to everyday scenes, with simple subjects yet profound vision. Through working from photographs with the aim of creating believable paintings, he strives to bring a quiet drama to everyday scenes. Most of the pieces in Patten’s show were inspired by images of the Mary Heaton Vorse House. Oil painter Sean Thomas’ works extract material from specific locations in Arizona, Pennsylvania, and New York. The references accumulated over recent years are processed and manipulated to create imagery that emphasizes fragmented color and space, linear repetition, and atmosphere.
SHOW 3: AUGUST 1 – AUGUST 14, 2024
Opening Reception: Rice Polak Gallery, Friday, August 2, 7 – 9pm
This show features the work of Kurt Reynolds, Liz Dexheimer, and Robert Goldstrom. Thematically, the show explores how the artists’ initial inspiration lends itself to the narrative of each piece. Reynolds’ works center on his experience with objects, beginning at the moment of his initial encounter with each object. Dexheimer’s paintings start with elements of landscapes, using them as a point of departure to create an abstract representation of the cadence, fluidity and lyricism of what she has observed at the location. Goldstrom is a realist painter, using the figurative to deliver undercurrents of social politics or sex, going beyond the initial encounter with the piece to tell a story.
This will be Kurt Reynolds’ debut show at the Rice Polak Gallery. Reynolds has a reverence for found, acquired, and purchased objects, using them to design a visual narrative in the assemblages he creates. Liz Dexheimer’s work takes elements of landscapes, conveying something more abstract, building a narrative about how color, shape, pattern, and gesture work together. Robert Goldstrom’s work is about color, light, design, balance, and some sort of drama; painting from life, and combining what he sees with what he feels about what he sees.
SHOW 4: AUGUST 15 – AUGUST 28, 2024
Opening Reception: Rice Polak Gallery, Friday, August 16, 7 – 9pm
This show features the work of Jennifer Goldfinger, Ellen Lebow, and Julie Levesque. Thematically, the show explores unique mediums – Goldfinger’s nostalgic mixed media collage pieces, Levesque’s exploration of unusual media in her photographs on metal, and LeBow’s entry in an entirely new medium for the artist, clay and gypsum models.
Jennifer Goldfinger works focus on the interaction between found antique images and the artist’s own photography, bringing forward modern design balanced with nostalgic subject matters. Ellen LeBow has taken an aesthetic leap this year into a new medium, working in clay or gypsum to model images in bas relief, creating shallow sculptures rising from a flat surface. Julie Levesque’s work draws from the discovery inherent in new materials and processes as the artist connects unusual media to a monochromatic physical form.
SHOW 5: AUGUST 29 – SEPTEMBER 12, 2024
Opening Reception: Rice Polak Gallery, Friday, August 30, 7 – 9pm
This show features the work of Olga Antonova, Ruth Williams, Robin Winfield, and Sandra Pratt. Thematically, the show explores the power of the mundane, and how that exploration is experienced and transformed by the viewer.
Olga Antonova has the gift of taking ordinary subjects from everyday life and elevating them to the level of high art, using simple compositions and monumental scale, she presents her subjects with loving care and romantic vision. Ruth Williams’ paintings explore the powerful, multidimensional, unapologetic, and at times, flamboyant, faces of nature, creating a palpable, transformative experience for the viewer. Robin Winfield continues her quest to find beauty in the mundane, incorporating photographs from her travels into her work. Relying on structure and balance, she extends the textures found in these photographs, creating a world that borders on the surreal. Sandra Pratt’s paintings communicate her inner world, enabling viewers to experience a sense of enlightenment and connection that transcends the mundane.
FINAL GROUP SHOW
SEPTEMBER 14 – DECEMBER 31
Rice Polak Gallery
The Gallery will close out the summer season, and carry into the colder months with a final group show. It will feature new works from all gallery artists, and will be on view through the end of the year.
A full list of Rice Polak Gallery artists can be found at www.ricepolakgallery.com.
The Gallery’s full summer exhibition schedule can be found here. For press inquiries, to be connected to the artists, or to request photos, contact Natasha Fee at [email protected] or 978-460-4449. You can also contact the Gallery at [email protected] or 508-487-1052.
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ABOUT THE RICE POLAK GALLERY
The Rice Polak Gallery holds a prominent place in Provincetown, Massachusetts as one of the primary venues for contemporary art. The gallery represents a select group of emerging and established artists whose work is both contemporary and contemplative. The gallery shows a wide cross-section of artistic approaches, including paintings, works on paper, sculpture, photography and installation. For more information visit ricepolakgallery.com.
