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Arts & Entertainment

Hope Gallery Features Roger Williams University Student Artists

Twenty RWU students are participating in a juried show at Hope Gallery in Bristol.

Twenty students majoring in the visual arts are currently involved in a juried exhibition at in Bristol. The show opened with a reception last Saturday evening and will be up through May 17. RWU Associate Professor of Art and Visual Studies Program Coordinator Michael Rich, a nationally recognized painter, oversaw the selection of small works. 

“This is a survey and a sampling of the range of work done in the program,” Rich said. “We’re interdisciplinary-based, but we don’t focus too heavily on any one medium. We ask the students to be flexible, and challenge them on context and media.”

Indeed, the artists are using everything from carbon paper to burlap in their quest for expression. Many of them, including Mike Formenski, are taken with the photographic process. Formenski creates one-of-a-kind photographic monoprints by altering the surfaces of his images with a chemical process in the darkroom. A dilapidated barn, bridge spans and an industrial parking lot take on a weathered and otherworldly feel with his alterations.

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“I’m taking a physical place and trying to add a consciousness or another dimension to it,” Formenski said.

Senior Lauren Opaciuch, who presented black and white photographs of an abstracted female form, has flat out rejected all things digital. 

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“I find real film more romantic and captivating,” she says.

Her self-portrait entitled ‘Eve’ offers up a fractured nude with a strategically placed apple that seems to merge with her flesh. In order to capture the image in real time Opaciuch shot it using broken mirrors.

Senior Phillip Soucy was also inspired by the figure. Using black ink on soft rag paper Soucy’s surreal line drawings suggest body parts and grotesque human forms. Inspired by the work of illustrator Ralph Steadman of Hunter S. Thompson fame, Soucy’s subject matter utilizes “dreamscapes and psychedelia.”

After graduation Soucy will continue working at Gateways to Change in Warwick, where he teaches art to people with developmental disabilities. He is one of the lucky few who already have a career in the arts, the very topic of which seemed to inspire both excitement and fear in his fellow soon-to-be grads.

Several of the seniors expressed interested in finding gallery representation or, like photographer Deanna Baxter, hope to open their own commercial businesses to support their fine art work.

Gallery owner Anita Trezvant says student artists don’t get enough exposure in professional galleries, and that shows like this give them “a boost.” She’ll be handpicking a few of the students to be guest artists in Hope Gallery’s annual holiday show.

Until then, the eager job seekers might do well to follow Opaciuch’s advice to capture the perfect photograph, “You have to take what’s available. It’s about the decisive moment."

is located at 435 Hope Street in Bristol. Gallery hours are Wednesday thru Friday 12 - 5 p.m, Saturdays 12 - 6 p.m. and Sundays 12 - 4 p.m.

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