August 2020 Virtual Gallery: Rhode Island Threads / Eran Fraenkel

Warren

Rhode Island Threads, a fiber art group who use fabric, thread, paint and other mixed media to create works of art will be on display at Sprout CoWorking in Warren. They challenge each other by practicing skills, learning new techniques and supporting each other with respectful critique and a shared love of the art form. The exhibit will hang through the month of September! Check out the sneak peek: https://gopro.com/v/KRXEqL8Z1lGQG.

“Rhode Island Threads is a fiber art group who use fabric (many times hand dyed), thread, paint, other mixed media to create works of art. We often give ourselves challenges based on a theme to practice our skills and experiment with new techniques. We support each other with respectful critiques and a shared love of this art form. This show is a collection of members’ work during the past several months, no particular theme per se, just a nice sampling of our work to enjoy.”

Join Art Night Bristol Warren for the last virtual event of the season! Tune in on August 27th at 5:30pm for a tour of the artists’ quilts on display. Celebrate local music, open studios, poetry, arts and demos online with the full line-up of participating art spaces – featuring The Collaborative, Rosemary’s School of Dance, HotPoint Emporium, Bristol Art Museum & even more! Check out the Virtual Art Night BW website to learn about the exciting event.

Providence

Eran Fraenkel is a self-taught abstract artist who moved to Providence in 2016 after 22 years of living and working in Macedonia, Brussels, Jakarta, and Barcelona. A life-long musician, Eran responds to the aural and visible world to create visual rhythm, tempo, and harmony. In Indonesia, Eran was inspired by the oceans and his experiences underwater; by Java’s vibrant batiks; and by Javanese gamelan.

His Barcelona pieces juxtapose the aesthetics of Catalan modernisme and vestiges of the region’s Moorish past. Eran’s pen-and-ink work reflects his fascination with Islamic geometricity and calligraphy. Eran works primarily with acrylics, inks, and pencils. Recently he began experimenting with alcohol inks and resin pours, and is currently learning glassblowing. Eran is an ex-officio board member of the Pawtucket Arts Collaborative; is on the board of Providence Gallery Night; and is an Elected Artist of Art League Rhode Island.

Gallery Night Providence tours have gone virtual! Watch below for a livestream walkthrough of Eran’s drawings during the August 20th Virtual Gallery Night event. For more online programming and tours of Providence’s many art galleries, please visit the GNP website.

https://www.facebook.com/gallerynightprovidence/videos/1715511348613192/

Artist Statement

The pieces on display at the Gallery of Sprout Co-working during the month of August 2020 belong to a much larger group of pen-and-ink drawing that Eran has been creating for the past 5 years. Eran’s interest in the arts of the Middle East and Central Asia has inspired him to draw black-and-white images that resonate with the underlying aesthetics and flavor of Islamic arts without imitating them. All of these drawings begin as skeletal outlines without a specific shape or motif in mind. They only take their form and details as the work progresses. In this series, the dimensions of the paper also have influenced the designs seen in the drawings.

Most of Eran’s pen-and-ink work is done on paper that has more of a square, or at least symmetrical aspect. These images are all on rectangular paper with quite short and quite long sides. This creates the sensation that the images are moving either from one side to another, or from the bottom up. In hindsight, it also seems that the dimensions of the paper have inspired more organic, almost floral designs. The pieces are untitled, as are most of Eran’s painting and drawings. This is allow the viewer to imagine and to see whatever s/he thinks is there, rather than trying to grasp what the viewer thinks the artist wants him/her to see.

All the pieces are for sale for the same price: $125. If you are interested, please refer to the drawing according to the number that is placed next to the item at Sprout. Please contact Gallery Manager (and Gallery Night President!) Shari Weinberger for more information about how to purchase some of these works, at GalleryManager [at] sproutcoworking.com.