Rice Polak Gallery Presents First Exhibition of Summer 2025
Show to be held July 3 – 16, 2025; Featuring works by Bruce Ackerson, Rebecca Kinkead, and Anne Lilly
Provincetown, MA – June 12, 2025 – The Rice Polak Gallery is proud to announce its first exhibition of the summer. The show will run from July 3 – July 16, featuring works by Bruce Ackerson, Rebecca Kinkead, and Anne Lilly. This marks an exciting milestone as Rebecca Kinkead returns to Rice Polak and will have a feature exhibition at the gallery. While each artist brings a distinct visual language to the exhibition, they share a deep commitment to process, materiality, and emotional resonance.
There will be an opening reception at the Rice Polak Gallery on Friday, July 4 from 7:00 – 9:00pm. Wine will be provided and there will be the opportunity to meet the artists in person.
Bruce Ackerson’s richly textured oil paintings invite viewers into a world of imagination, where modern life and the hidden corners of the human psyche collide. Seen from above, his paintings explore narrative scenes that are both abstract and figurative, delving into the complexity of the human experience. With a focus on texture and color, Ackerson’s works evoke a sense of depth and intimacy, capturing moments that are both personal and universal. His use of color and composition challenges the viewer to look beyond the surface and discover the hidden stories within each piece.
“Oil paint is my medium of choice,” said artist Bruce Ackerson. “The visual and the narrative go hand in hand in my paintings. I want to offer thrills for the eye and the mind. The colors are rich and multi-layered. The paint is applied with agitated brush strokes, resulting in an exciting, lush paint surface. I find a square format to be the most satisfying for my images. The birds-eye view allows a variety of angles and perspectives. The human dramas of the paintings are sometimes goofy, sometimes strange, often familiar.”
Rebecca Kinkead’s wax-infused paintings blend abstraction and figuration to capture fleeting moments of movement and memory. Drawing inspiration from both the natural world and the human condition, Kinkead’s work evokes a sense of emotional resonance that lingers long after the initial glance. Her rich, layered paintings of people and animals convey a collective experience, expressing the beauty and fragility of life. Through her distinctive use of wax and texture, Kinkead creates compositions that are tactile and immersive, offering a visual language that speaks to both the personal and the universal.
“These paintings are based on memories, both personal and borrowed,” said artist Rebecca Kinkead. “They are an attempt to explore a collective human experience. Details and features remain ambiguous, inviting the viewer to seek something of themselves in the work. The figure, human and animal, has provided a generous vehicle for color, form and surface to evolve. Paint and wax are layered, dripped and scraped to create a sense that the subject is still emerging… still ‘becoming’.”
Anne Lilly’s intricate drawings and watercolors carry forward the geometric precision of her sculptural practice, creating a sense of harmony and balance in each piece. Known for her delicate gradients and repetitive patterns, Lilly’s works invite close looking and contemplation, drawing the viewer into a world of quiet precision and subtle beauty. Her ability to fuse geometric form with organic flow creates a unique tension that challenges the viewer to consider both the physical and emotional aspects of the works. Lilly’s practice reflects her deep commitment to process and materiality, exploring the layers that shape our perception of the world.
“Throughout my art making career, I’ve been guided by the taut pairing of opposites: precision blending with looseness, clarity yielding to confusion, rationality suffused with feeling,” said artist Anne Lilly. “The relation between these poles has always been a quiet interdependence and mutuality. But recently I’ve itched to establish a more blunt and antagonistic dispute. To contradict the discreet abstractions of my usual approach, I work figuratively with clay. It is a process that involves swift improvisation, draws from a deep well of emotion, and neutralizes my compulsion for order and regularity. Rather than reciprocity, now the titans of reason and emotion clash overtly and without explanation. Their juxtaposition generates a fractious proximity, enlisting the viewer in a glaring but unexplained conflict, a state of affairs that can only be interpreted by their own intuitive self.”
The press release announcing the Gallery’s full summer schedule is available here, and the details for upcoming shows are listed below.
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.
Upcoming 2025 Summer Schedule:
SHOW 2: JULY 17-30, 2025
Opening Reception: Rice Polak Gallery, Friday, July 18, 7pm
This show features the work of Stanley Bielen, Donald Saaf, and René Romero Schuler.
SHOW 3: JULY 31 – AUGUST 13, 2025
Opening Reception: Rice Polak Gallery, Friday, August 1, 7pm
This show features the work of Susan Mikula, Jessica Pisano, and Nicolas V. Sanchez. This will be the debut show at Rice Polak for new artist Jessica Pisano.
SHOW 4: AUGUST 14-27, 2025
Opening Reception: Rice Polak Gallery, Friday, August 15, 7pm
This show features the work of Willie Little, Pamela Murphy, and Christie Scheele.
SHOW 5: AUGUST 28 – SEPTEMBER 10, 2025
Opening Reception: Rice Polak Gallery, Friday, August 29, 7pm
This show features the work of Larry Calkins, Ellen Rolli, and Les Seifer.
FINAL GROUP SHOW: SEPTEMBER 11 – DECEMBER 31, 2025
This show will feature new works from all gallery artists.