June 2021 Gallery Openings: Artists Ewa / Sara Dager

In Providence this month:

For the month of June the Gallery at Sprout Providence (166 Valley St) is presenting new paintings by artist Ewa. The exhibition will be open to the public and on display through June 30th. Come by the Gallery at Sprout to see the artwork in-person weekdays from 9am to 3pm, or by appointment. Join us for Gallery Night Providence at Sprout CoWorking to meet the artist and tour the gallery on June 17th from 5 to 7:30pm. If you can’t make it to Sprout, tune in on facebook live for a tour virtually. We hope to see you there!

Triptych titled “Life, Dance, Love”, Oil on linen, 30″x 60″ each panel, created from May 2019 to January 2021.

About Ewa:

Ewa studied architecture in Gdansk, Poland. Later she moved to New York City to pursue her dream of studying art. She graduated from the School of Visual Arts in 1997 with a degree in Fine Arts with her major being painting. 

Ewa moved to Providence, RI in 1999 to live happily ever after and to create oil and watercolor paintings inspired by the natural world.

Artist Statement:

My paintings reflect the awe and love I feel for the natural world around me. 

I see the mystery and vastness of the universe with my own eyes and in the images available through the amazing technology we have now. The magnificence of the universe inspires my oil paintings. 

The whimsical and natural beauty of life on planet Earth inspires my more gentle watercolor paintings. 

Most of my work appears to be abstract, but I do not always perceive it this way. My mind transforms what I see into images, which are connected to the original source. 

I would love my paintings not only to portray my inner world, but also give joy and pleasure to the viewer. I would love my work to be a visual gift to others. 

Please see www.EwaArt.com for more. 

In Warren this month:

This June the Gallery at Sprout Warren (489 Main St) is presenting A Dissimulation by Sara Dager, a collection of mixed media collage artworks centered on birds. The exhibition will be open to the public and on display through June 30th. Visit Sprout Warren to view the work in-person Wed & Thurs 10-6, Fri & Sat 10 -7, Sun 10-3 or by appointment. On June 24th we will have an exciting Art Night Bristol Warren event with lots going on at Sprout!

Sprout Warren will be open on June 24th from 5:30-8:30pm, including a special ribbon-cutting for the Gift Shop presented by the East Bay Chamber of Commerce. Not only will Sara Dager be there to discuss her art, but we will have singer-songwriter Beth Barron playing at the Gallery. Our Gift Shop will stay open late. Lastly, Shari Weinberger will be there painting rocks. She will personalize your name on a rock for or you can pop by and paint your own for a small fee. Stop by to meet Sara Dager and explore the new Gift Shop with handmade items by local makers!

Painting titled “A Crookedness”, Mixed media on canvas.

About Sara Dager:

Sara Dager is a 31 year old artist from Bristol Rhode Island. She primarily works in collage and small-scale sculpture, with some jewelry making and graphic design on the side to spice things up. Sara values things often looked over and thrown away and often affectionately refers to her work as “garbage art,” seeing as much of it is made with things that were rescued from the trash such as damaged books (find her if you want to get rid of birding books,) scrap fabric, and the occasional abandoned canvas. Sara feels that we often don’t take a second look at what we are throwing away and uses her work to encourage others to see that while maybe an object no longer serves the purpose it was designed for, that does not mean it no longer has a purpose at all. You can often find her making deals at a yard sale or taking leftovers from other artists projects.

Sara has presented work at Yellow Peril Gallery, Portsmouth Arts Guild, AS220, and now Sprout, and has tabled all across the state with her cross-stitched jewelry and sculpted charms. When she’s not making art she is booking music and poetry shows, running tours around Providence, and sometimes getting a little too invested in the day to day actions of a cardinal (the feathered kind of course!)

This series relies on a look of luxury, thick lines, and adaptive lettering to impose a theatrical and human eye on more natural and oft pastoral images. I wanted to create a cohesive body of work by carrying materials and images throughout the collection, but ultimately there is not so much a larger message here as there is a goal of pleasing aesthetics. When you take in these pieces, I want to say that you are welcome to look without the demand for deeper investigation, to simply find some calm in the chaos, as I was trying to when I made them!

-Sara Dager

Sprout is in accordance with the Reopening RI guidelines and is protected by Ocean State Shields. Contact:[email protected] for more information.