Guilty by Association

November 19th - December 17th, 2016

Opening Reception, November 19th, 6 - 8 p.m.

Hera Gallery is pleased host Guilty By Association, an exhibition featuring the work of Hera Members Iris Donnelly, Susan Matthews, Barbara Owen, and James Sundquist.

We invite the public to join us Saturday, November 19th from 6:00 to 8:00pm for the opening reception and to the artist panel discussion on Thursday December 1st, at 7pm.

Iris Donnelly began studying photography at the University of Rhode Island in the summer of 1985 with Stephen Brigidi. She has two diplomas from the Universite de Caen in Normandy, France and a Master of Arts in Teaching from Brown University. After teaching French and Spanish for six years, she spent most of her professional career as a Bilingual Special Education Resource Teacher with the Providence School Department.

Iris has been awarded several grants by the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts including an Artist Project Grant for the portfolio Photographs of the Handicapped and another for In Nicaragua With Providence's Sister City Project, a document of the city's role in the construction of a school and health clinic in Niquinohomo during the Contra War. 

Most recently, she is the curator and participating photographer of In Cuba With Witness for Peace that includes exhibits at Hera Gallery, Van Vessem Gallery and the AS220 Project Space (May 2016). These latest shows also included a Cuban film series at Hera and two powerpoint presentations at the International House of Rhode Island and the North Kingstown Public Library.  An Arts Access Grant was awarded to Witness for Peace and the International House of Rhode Island for the Cuban events.

Some of her other Latin American photography has been shown at the Rhode Island School of Design Museum of Art, Newport Art Museum, and Atrium Gallery. When Kara Walker was invited to curate an exhibit at the Providence Art Club, she selected a photograph by Iris Donnelly. She is currently working on several portfolios of recent work from France and one entitled Landscape of Lemon City (Little Haiti, Miami).

For the past twelve years, Iris has been photographer of the Chappaquiddick Tribe of the Wampanoag Indian Nation during their annual summer gathering on Martha's Vineyard.

Susan Matthews is a multi-media artist, currently working primarily with ceramic and textile mediums.  She received a BA in studio art from Brown University in 1995. She also studied wooden boat-building in the northwest and earned her one hundred-ton captain’s license soon after graduation.  After a time working on and around boats, she returned to graduate school and received her master’s degree in the art of teaching at the Rhode Island School of Design in 1998.  As she was teaching high school art, she rediscovered her passion for ceramics and moved on to study at UMASS Dartmouth and RISD.  She received her MFA in ceramics from RISD in 2004. While focusing her energies on being a domestic goddess for the past decade, she also served for three years on the board of the Jamestown Arts Center, where she chaired the exhibition committee. Her work has been shown in New York, Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Susie lives with her family in Jamestown, and works in her studio at the Shady Lea Mill in North Kingston. You can see more of her work online at www.susanmmatthews.com. 

Babs Owen dgraduated from Bennington College with an interdivisional degree in sculpture and poetry. She wrote a creative thesis under the direction of the poet Ben Belitt and studied sculpture with Brower Hatcher and Lee Tribe, and painting with the painter and art critic Sidney Tillim. Her work is influenced and characterized by her study of sculpture, but she identifies as a painter. Her use of vibrant color, shape, and form is loaded with concepts about history, feminism, and painting.

Her work has been featured at numerous venues, including Minor Injury Gallery, Brooklyn, NY; The Arts Center, Troy, NY; Newport Art Museum, Newport RI and Umass Dartmouth's Art Gallery, New Bedford, MA. In 2016 two paintings were included in exhibitions with the Arts Embassies (AIE) program, Paramaribo, Suriname and Ports MOresby, Papua New Guinea.

Owen has participated in artist residency programs nationwide, including the MASS MoCA/Assets for Artist in 2015. She is also a featured artist in the Networks 2015 Artist Video Portrait series.

James Sundquist is an abstract painter based out of a 1993 Volvo in Central Falls, RI.

The exhibition and events will take place at Hera Gallery, located on 10 High Street in Wakefield, RI. The public is invited to attend the Guilty by Association opening reception Saturday, November 19th from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m.

These programs are presented with partial support the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts, Hera Educational Foundation, and Friends of Hera. Hera Galleryis free and open to the public and is accessible to persons with disabilities. Parking is available.