Rice Polak Gallery Presents Fifth Exhibition of Summer 2026
The Rice Polak Gallery is excited to announce our fifth exhibition of the 2026 season. We will be presenting three one person exhibitions, featuring the work of Joshua Meyer, Craig Mooney & Ruth Williams.
The show previews on – Thursday August 27 and runs through Wednesday September 9th The Opening Reception is on Friday August 28 beginning at 7pm. Please stop by the gallery to meet all of the artists.
“In Sequent Toil” gathers paintings by Joshua Meyer that dwell in the tension between continuity and change. Taking its title from William Shakespeare’s meditative sixtieth sonnet, each painting approaches time not as a linear progression but as a layered, recursive experience—moments folding into one another, surfaces holding traces of what came before. Painter and artist, Joshua Meyer’s figure paintings have lingered between order and chaos.
One of the delights of his work is the transformation of the physical material of paint into seemingly living, breathing figures, inhabiting an interior life. His energetic swipes of paint are layered with a palette knife and reveal the artistic process while involving the viewer in each artistic decision along the way. Rather than illustrating time, these works inhabit it. They propose that meaning is not found in isolated instants, but in the subtle pressure of sequence—the way each mark contends with what precedes it and anticipates what follows. In this space, time is not merely measured, it is felt, held, and continually remade.
Craig Mooney is an oil painter known for painting dramatic cityscapes, skies and seascapes with a cinematic sense of mystery. In his figurative and landscape work, Mooney romanticizes his subjects and presents them in an atmospheric lens that is best described as dreamlike. He works in moody tones with sweeping brush strokes. Craig’s recent collection features a series of paintings based on both new and older motifs.
Each piece possesses a timeless quality, lending itself to the inherent ambiguity of dreams. Throughout this group of paintings, the passage of time does not seem to matter, emphasizing a sense of enduring presence and atmosphere. The work has a broad reach of subject matter, the solitary figure, the abandoned dwelling, the silent city streets and a deserted shoreline. The emptiness of the compositions is intentional creating a space for the viewer to fill in the details – the subtext and the narrative.
Ruth Williams translates her profound response to nature’s landscapes and colors onto canvas. “Once complete, a painting moves beyond my feelings during its creation,” It becomes entirely about what the piece evokes in the viewer. ”My work begins with a source of inspiration, an image that moves or speaks to me. Soon after, that original reference is left behind and what stirs within me intuitively takes charge. The process becomes personal, guided less by technical intention and more by the emergent voice of the canvas. Paths inevitably appear in my painting’s. A way to get to ‘there’ from ‘here’; some clear and inviting, others obscured or uncertain. I have long been fascinated by the paths we are given in life and, and when given the opportunity, the ones we choose for ourselves. Whether shaped by age, experience, or the complexity of the times we live in, I find the ‘why’s’ and the ‘what if’s’ of those choices compelling, meaningful and more urgent than ever to understand.
Over the last two decades, along with a treasured career as a School Counselor and private psychotherapist, Ruth has been pursuing painting, developing the craft, while exploring ideas of importance to her. “My intuition has guided me through my personal and professional life; it continues to do so in my artwork.”
The gallery is now open daily, Thursday, Friday & Saturday evenings, online and of course by appointment. If you are in town this Friday, August 28 please stop by the gallery and experience this wonderful show in person. Please email or give me a call at 508-487-1052 with any questions or inquiries.
Marla
PS Please join your friends from the Provincetown Art Gallery Association on Saturday September 12th at 6pm for a Screening of Anne Packard: An Artist’s Resolve a beautiful film directed by Arthur Egili. Tickets can by purchased by clicking here.