"4 Thieves" at Firehouse 13

From my review of "4 Thieves," featuring Providence artists Andrew Moon Bain, Monica Shinn, Anna Shapiro and Angel Quiñonez, at Firehouse 13 in Providence:

Around town lately, you may have noted the screenprint (above) that Andrew Moon Bain designed for the four-person exhibit “4 Thieves” at Firehouse 13. It shows the heads of the artists growing out of a tree amidst a dazzling storm of swirling lines. It looks like the poster for an amazing rock show. And it lured me back to the Firehouse, which has a track record of awesome musical events but disappointing art.

Bain, who splits his time between Providence and Brooklyn, doesn’t disappoint with his collaged paintings. In one picture, a soldier sleeps on hills, made from a pink fish scale pattern, under diamond-leaved trees next to a green lake filled with pink fish. Roses, blue clouds, and winged heads float in the yellow sky above. Another painting shows a cut-out brown bird pasted onto a green sky over a pattern of flat green mountains scarved with mist. They are cute, bright, graphic, patchwork dreamscapes.

But unfortunately, the rest of the show is more typical Firehouse visual fare.

Read the rest here.

“4 Thieves," Firehouse 13, 41 Central Street, Providence, Sept. 17 to 29, 2009.

Pictured from top to bottom: Andrew Moon Bain's poster for the show, two Bain collage-paintings, Monica Shinn cityscape, Anna Shapiro's "Romeo & Juliet," and Angel Quiñonez, "Espiritu."