URI’s Main Art Gallery is exhibiting a group show that provides a behind-the-scenes look at making art. PHOTO CREDIT: Nadia Sutyrina | Production Manager
The University of Rhode Island Fine Arts Center’s Main Gallery is currently presenting “Pardon Our Appearance,” a unique art exhibit that shows what goes on behind the scenes of making a masterpiece.
The exhibit can be seen Monday through Thursday from 12-4 p.m. until March 10. “Pardon Our Appearance” is a group show featuring URI alumni and artists Oscar Bedford, Nick Fagan, Bradley Milligan and Anthony Montuori.
“These artists have all worked or are currently working in the unglamorous behind-the-scenes jobs of the art world: moving artwork, installing shows and building crates, among others,” an article from the College of Arts and Sciences said. “This experience makes these artists incisive and no-nonsense voices on the contradictions and artifice involved in exhibiting art.”
The exhibit presents a deeper and different look into the backstage world of making art.
The first display at the entrance of the exhibit are a set of enlarged art tools (paintbrush, foam brushes, ruler, etc), designed by Bedford, to create a setting as if you were in a giant’s workshop. The name “Pardon Our Appearance” and the names of the four artists are displayed as you enter.
“Anthony Montuori contributes a series of absurdist games housed in meticulously constructed cabinets, Oscar Bedford exhibits painstakingly crafted and mostly fully functional oversized tools of the trade,” the article said. “Nick Fagan shows a group of tapestries made out of moving blankets. Bradley Milligan focuses on craft traditions in his poetic mixed-media pieces, which explore Milligan’s personal background and history as a carpenter.”
The gallery itself isn’t a very large area, but it utilizes the space it has very well. Some of the pieces are interactive and include games, such as “Jump Man” and “Avant-Guard” by Montuori, while others make you ponder on their design and purpose, like “Sorry (Plot)” by Milligan made of latex paint, scrap wood and sheetrock.
One piece called “Creative Block” by Bedford shows six wooden plungers stuck to a wall and one laying on the ground, making the viewer think about the deeper meaning of this work. Another called “Employment Data” by Fagan was hand sewn using moving blankets in 2020. Here, the viewer can see the various designs on the blanket that will show each person a different angle, open to their interpretation.
“This work investigates the relationship between art as an impulse for expression and art as a useful arm of global capitalism, whose luxury status is created by an army of badly paid and poorly protected labor,” an employee of the gallery said. “The artists’ work is made to show hidden gems that go into the dirty work behind creating art.”
The exhibit itself is not large and consists of only one room in the Main Gallery, but you still feel like you have walked into a whole new world. Between the games and the abstract art, finding the deeper personal meaning for these might be harder than it looks, so make sure to take your time with each piece.
Follow the gallery on Instagram via @urimaingallery to learn more about upcoming shows, events, and special hours.