Dike Blair has been a habitue of the New York art world long enough to have observed a lot of artists at a lot of different stages in their careers. For our next show, "Here Comes Rhody," on view at the Allston Skirt Gallery from January 7 - February 26, 2000, Blair curates a group show of work by five artists who graduated from his 1999 senior painting class at the Rhode Island School of Design last June -- Joe Bradley, Maia Cannon, Matthew Chase, Tori Duncan and Molly V. Smith. RISD is a vital spot on the map of New England's art world, and the thought-processes and art currents being explored by students there add a distinctive contribution to the mix of the art dialogue in Boston. In the essay that accompanies this show (attached here), Blair discusses what he finds compelling about the work of these five, providing insight into how he looks at this new generation of artists, and at the larger social and cultural process of "emerging" artists.

"Rhody" is the fur-covered, rabbit-shaped lure that the dogs chase at Rhode Island's Lincoln Greyhound Park. Blair sees the dog races as a metaphor for the art world, both in the way that collectors and curators place their bets, and in the way that artists choose to chase the lure of history and of their own vision. About the artists, in Blair's words:

Joe Bradley: " Joe may be the most historical and the most iconoclastic painter of the group...a good hard look at Joe's palette and paint handling shows his affection for Ryder, Dove, Marin and Avery; but Joe likes to give only the slightest hint that he's capable of virtuostic and formally sophisticated canvasses."

Maia Cannon: "The subjects of Maia's paintings are things close at hand: some candles, some candies, a lipstick, her belly, a landscape depicted on a plate. She renders these objects and views in watercolor and ink, sometimes achieving a radiant tenderness that elevates the ordinary to mysterious beauty." Matthew Chase: "Matthew creates his own ecosystem... reworking the detritus of consumption (discarded newspapers, cigarette butts, bits of plastic) into phyla and species that spring from his obsessive and fertile imagination. He plans to create the flora and fauna in this show from the waste of the millennial celebration in Boston."

Tori Duncan: "Tori's art operates in an area somewhere between Warhol's Factory and Judy Chicago's Dinner Party. Her fascination with the Home and post feminist theory led her, perhaps not unsurprisingly, into the realm of Martha Stewart. The membrane between artist and subject has all but disappeared, Tori now works as a prop stylist for Martha's television show."

Molly V. Smith: " Molly is one of those artists with such an innate sense of design and taste that she transforms mundane materials into things of grace and elegance; and she does so without creating preciousness. If the viewer chooses to go through the lovely pane of Molly's surfaces, there's her mnemonic world with a melancholic atmosphere."

Dike Blair is a painter and sculptor who has shown extensively in the US and Europe. Upcoming group exhibitions include Let's Entertain at The Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, and Elysian Fields at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris. He is an Associate Editor of Purple, and a Contributing Editor to ArtByte. He curated 49cent Breakfast at the Temporary Contemporary in Las Vegas, and co-curated The Winter of Love at PS1 in Long Island City, and exhibitions at Basilico Fine Arts (New York) and Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac (Paris).

NOTE -- Special Performance by "Barkley's Barnyard Critters" at Opening Reception:
Immediately following the opening reception at the gallery on Friday, January 7 from 6-8 p.m., we will host a free performance by this notorious Providence band.

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ALLSTON SKIRT GALLERY is located at 119 Braintree Street in Allston, near Able Rug and the Sports Depot. Please enter at 129 Braintree, and come up to the second floor. We are open Wednesday through Saturday, from noon - 5 p.m., and by appointment. For more information, please call Randi Hopkins or Beth Kantrowitz at 617-254-7027.