07/10/2003

Adjunct professors are the workhorses of the academic world. After all, they're expected to do everything a full college or university professor does -- teach students, grade papers, listen to hundreds of variations on the theme of "the dog ate my homework" -- without any of the perks and protections of tenure.

So it's a pleasure to report that the current exhibit at Rhode Island College's Bannister Gallery, which showcases works by the school's part-time art staff, is one of the sleepers of the summer season.

Granted, you might not like everything in "Side Kicks: Works by Adjunct Art Faculty," especially if your tastes run to the more traditional end of the artistic spectrum. And granted, RIC didn't do its hardworking part-timers any favors by scheduling the show at a time when most people would rather be at the beach than inside an art gallery.

Still, "Side Kicks" is a solid effort. The show's dozen or so artist-educators may not have tenure, but they definitely have talent.

LET'S START with the show's largest and most impressive entry: a big, chart-like installation by Providence artist Yizhak Elyashiv, which dominates the gallery's back wall.

For the past few years, the Israeli-born Elyashiv has been making large-scale etchings using a unique process. First, he scatters a handful of wheat kernels on a series of metal etching plates. Then he marks the point where each kernel comes to rest and connects each point with all the rest. Finally, he prints the individual sections, then reassembles the completed prints in their original positions.

Confused? Then try imagining one of those route maps that airlines put at the back of their on-flight magazines. Now try superimposing three or four maps on top of each other, to the point where the crisscrossing lines and points form a taut, dense, inky-black web.

That's Elyashiv's printmaking process in a nutshell.

To further complicate matters, Elyashiv adds a 3-D touch by attaching lengths of black thread to a series of push-pins inserted in each point or node of the etching. The threads are anchored by a collection of small bronze weights (actually castings made from the tips of Elyashiv's fingers) placed on a shelf that juts from the gallery wall.

Surprisingly, the extra hardware creates an odd feeling of weightlessness -- as though a few strands of thread and a handful of tiny fingers are the only things keeping this very large print from taking flight.

ANOTHER STANDOUT is John Hames, a Narragansett photographer who contributes a series of elegant black-and-white nude studies. In one, a simple arrangement of body parts -- thigh, hip, hand, breast -- becomes a slyly sensuous still life. In another, a woman rests her hand on a tattoo printed on her upper thigh. Is it a warning or a welcome?

By contrast, I wasn't sure what to make of Providence painter Francoise McAree, who's represented by a trio of dog portraits.

Two of McAree's mutts didn't make much of an impression. But the middle painting -- a fiercely worked, in-your-face portrait called Polko Dog -- is a beauty. If Lucian Freud, the British artist who's known for his paint-lashed portraits and figure studies, did dogs, this is what they'd look like.

Other highlights include wire-mesh sculptures by Erica Meyer and Elizabeth Keithline, a pair of crusty-tarry paintings by Jason Travers and a small architectural study by Richard Whitten. Also good are a series of botanical studies by Wakefield photographer Alexandra Broches, displayed in the hall outside the gallery.

Through July 24 at the Bannister Gallery, 600 Mount Pleasant Ave., Providence. Summer hours: Tue.-Wed., 11-5 and Thu. noon-9. Phone: 456-9765; www.ric.edu/bannister.

Armenians at Gallery Z

Two years ago, photographer Berge Ara Zobian opened a small gallery on the first floor of his studio in Providence's Olneyville district. Since then, Zobian's Gallery Z has showcased the works of a wide variety of artists, some from as far away as Lebanon and the Czech Republic.

Zobian's current exhibit focuses mainly on artists of Armenian descent, although one of the contributors -- the Providence-based painter-printmaker known as Astrid -- hails from Cuba.

Like most group shows, it's something of a mixed bag. Highlights include a group of sketchy, Picasso-esque figure studies by Karen Kazinian, a large painting by Medina Topalian that mixes contemporary and religious references and Astrid's series of small calligraphic prints.

But the star of the show is Kevork Mourad, a New York painter who moves easily between a kind of lyrical abstraction (think Arshile Gorky) and impressionistic realism (think Claude Monet). (Note: a closing reception for the show will be held tomorrow from 6 to 8 p.m.)

Through tomorrow at Gallery Z, 17 Amherst St. (near Eagle Square), Providence. Hours: Tues.-Fri. noon-5, or by appt. Phone: 454-8844; www.bergezobian.com.

From Sol to City Hall

You can also sample the increasingly international flavor of the city's art scene at Providence City Hall, which is hosting a multi-ethnic art exhibit on its second floor mezzanine.

The dozen or so contributors are all associated with the Sol Gallery, which is looking for a new home after losing its longtime space in South Providence.

In particular, look for the work of Augustin Patino, an artist whose dense, figure-packed painting Long Shadows suggests the work of a latter-day Hieronymus Bosch. Also good are the playful Pop Art paintings of Tamara Diaz (especially her portrait of revolutionary leader Che Cuevara) and a pair of photographs of Santeria shrines by Paul Daglieri.

Through July at Providence City Hall, 25 Dorrance St. (at Kennedy Plaza). Hours: Mon.-Fri. 8:30-4:30.