Providence, RI (April 13, 2017) – Nancy Gaucher-Thomas and Mimo Gordon-Riley will exhibit new work at the historic Providence Art Club, 11 Thomas Street, Providence.  This is the second exhibit in which the two artists have been featured together at the Art Club. The opening reception (including music by Mark Taber and refreshments) will take place on Sunday, April 23, 2:00-4:00pm and the exhibit runs through May 12.

Gaucher-Thomas will exhibit recent figurative drawings and portraits, subjects from which she finds an endless source of inspiration. She bases her work on reference photographs of people she has known for many years or those glimpsed in passing on the streets of New York. The sense of identification with her subject is evident in powerfully spare portraits of individuals focused meditatively inward or who observe distance the passing world from a distance.

Her approach to creating an image remains fundamentally the same in whatever medium she might work.  She said, “With charcoal and pastel on either mylar or paper, I have the ability to build the surface with layers of the medium as well as the flexibility to add or remove layers as needed.  It’s a very contemplative and thoughtful process.”

Mimo Gordon-Riley will exhibit thirteen new abstract paintings that are part of a series she began recently, which, in a sense, are a real departure for her.  For several years, she found great interest in the interplay of color, light and shadow in the natural world and specifically, in trees.  She translated the surrounding green environment into a bold world of color and light, which she parsed into small shapes that became the building blocks of her paintings.

These new paintings came from a different kind of inspiration, from experimentation with random, repetitive marks, which transformed into shapes and colors. As she worked on these canvases, she said, “I became aware of a deep feeling of recognition of something in nature, not necessarily recognition of a ‘thing’ but of a memory, a thought, a state of mind. I am excited about continuing this exploration.”

Both artists have exhibited widely in New England and throughout the country their work is included in private and public collections, and each is actively involved in the arts community.in Rhode Island.    

written by Ruth Davis, Ruth Davis Associates