Rice Polak Gallery Presents Third Exhibition of Summer 2026
The Rice Polak Gallery is excited to announce our third exhibition of the 2026 season. We will be presenting three one person exhibitions, featuring the work of Emmanuel Gillespie, Robert Goldstrom & Julie Levesque.
The show previews on – Thursday July 30th and runs through Wednesday August 12. The Opening Reception is on Friday July 31st beginning at 7pm. We’d love to see you at the gallery.
Emmanuel Gillespie is a visual artist whose work centers on the Black experience throughout history. Grounded in a deep educational foundation, Gillespie’s art reveals a profound understanding of humanity, identity, and cultural memory. Gillespie’s newly created “Joy” & “Love” series expands upon his interests in humanity and existence while earlier works illuminate untold stories of struggle, triumph, and resilience within the Black community.
”In Where Love Rests, I continue the exploration of my Love series as something quiet and sustained. I’m interested in the moments that often go unnoticed. The figures in these works are not performing for an audience. They exist in a state of reflection, sometimes alone, sometimes in proximity to another, but always grounded in an internal experience. I’m drawn to moments, and in particular, memories. Rather than showing love as something overt, I focus on the subtle moments in life. Whether it is a walk alone, a bicycle ride, a coffee break or those moments we had as kids when we were at play, the joy that hides within oneself in these moments are of great importance for me.”
Robert Goldstrom is an artist living and working in upstate New York. In a former life he worked as an illustrator, learning how to paint while on the job and earning gold and silver medals from the Society of Illustrators. His work has appeared on the covers of Time, the Atlantic, and New York Magazine; in the New York Times and The Boston Globe; posters for the New York City Opera; and stamps for the UN. Eventually, his desire to paint full-time won out.
Goldstrom’s Aquarium series began as an illustration in pencil for a poem, “Song of the Places of Power in Chicago” by Paul D. Carroll, in the Chicago Reader. “The text mentioned several landmarks in the city, but not the Shedd Aquarium, which I love. So I drew a father and daughter silhouetted by a huge fish tank. This led to a version in color, which snowballed into a broad series of paintings examining the play of color, light and transparency. The ways we respond to the blue world, as well as to one another, is also explored.”
Sculptor and installation artist Julie Levesque continues to attract critical acclaim for her work. This year’s body of work uses the key as both object and metaphor—an essential device that unlocks, translates, and divides. Keys appear across systems: passwords that grant or deny access, thought that moves ideas through concept to resolution, cartographic keys that decode terrain, and genetic codes that structure life itself. In each form, the key operates as a mediator between what is known and unknown, visible and concealed. Each piece will invite the viewer to consider what is being unlocked—and what remains deliberately out of reach.
In 2001 Levesque won 1st prize in the Provincetown Art Association and Museum’s Annual Invitational Exhibition. She is a past winner of the prestigious Massachusetts Cultural Council Individual Artists Grant as well as a recipient of the Artist’s Trust Grant from the Berkshire/Tatonic Fund. Her work is included in the collections of the DeCordova Museum, Danforth Museum, Provincetown Art Association & Museum and 21C Museums. You can presently see Julie’s installation “What Remains” at The Historic Hampton House in Miami, Florida.
The gallery is now open daily, Thursday, Friday & Saturday evenings, online and of course by appointment. Please visit our website where you now purchase artwork directly online. And if you are in town this Friday please stop by the gallery and experience this wonderful show in person.
Marla
Please email or give me a call at 508-487-1052 with any questions or inquiries.