A Visit to RISD

We had the opportunity to meet Cade Tompkins of Cade Tompkins Editions at the Editions/Artists' Book Fair in New York in November. We were quite taken with works by Enrique Chagoya and Serena Perrone. Cade has worked with many of the visiting artists at RISD. We were lucky enough to meet up with Cade for a long overdue visit to the RISD Art Museum. In the newly opened Chace Center addition to the museum, we checked out the Dale Chihuly exhibition which featured not only works by the artist, but in a separate exhibition, 9 of his students. The most spectacular portions of the Chihuly exhibition were the oversized installations featuring blown glass images "growing" out of the floor -- in on case looking like giant kelp in an ocean setting.

Cade made sure that we didn't miss the Beth Lipman installation: After You're Gone. Beth also works in glass. The centerpiece of the installation is a large dining table, jammed with clear glass objects which evoke the scene of a baroque still life painting with a variety of food and serving pieces. The installation is at the same time whimsical (which snails crawling up the side of the table) and morose (with dead animals and broken goblets). The walls of the room included glass "wallpaper" -- inspired by wallpaper in one of the historic rooms elsewhere in the museum. Cade explained that Beth also photographs her work and we are looking forward to seeing some of the limited edition photographs.

Overall, the RISD Museum was quite impressive and we know we'll be back to further explore the strong permanent collections (and hopefully make our way into the print room)!