“Sustainable” (formerly) at AS220

From my review of “Sustainable,” which closed at AS220 in Providence on Nov. 30:

Sustainable living has, of course, long been a concern, but worries about global warming have pushed it to the forefront. And increasingly made it the subject of art.

For "Sustainable: Visions for a Living Planet" at AS220's Main Gallery, show organizer Meredith Stern, program director at AS220 and a member of the Just Seeds Visual Resistance Artists' Cooperative, wanted to see what sparks flashed when she rubbed the political bent of the Just Seeds printmakers against the Providence printmaking explosion experience (or whatever you like to call it). It's a nice pairing. Providence has created an international reputation as a center for awesome psychedelic rock concert posters over the past 15 years. But the fight over local real estate development (see in particular the razing of Fort Thunder in 2002) helped politicize the artwork.

Stern put out an open call this summer for an unjuried show. As you might expect, the prints here by some three dozen artists — mostly Rhode Islanders, but also a handful of Just Seeds folks — are a hit or miss community art hootenanny.

Read the rest here.

Related:
Some previous reports on art about global warming.

"Sustainable: Visions for a Living Planet," AS220, 115 Empire St, Providence, through November 30, 2008.

Pictured from top to bottom: Meredith Stern’s woodblock print poster for the show “Sustainable” (detail); Ben Fino-Radin’s water soluble ink on contact paper thing; and Victoria Lockard’s linocut “Baptism.”