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Urban Epic
Museum of Art
Rhode Island School of Design
Am ie Zimmerman: Inner City
Providence,
Ri
Sept. 25,2009 - Jan. 3,2010
risdmuseum.org
Inner City,
O and©, combines
two important aspects of Arnie
Zimmerman’s ceramic oeuvre:
his architectural interests, rep-
resented by the large carved ves-
sels he produced in the 1980s,
and the intimate groupings of
figures he focused on beginning
in the 19 90s. This complex
installation, whose gridlike
framework was designed by
the Portuguese architect Tiago
Montepegado, spreads across
a 4,000-square-foot space of the
RISD
Museum’s Chace Center
galleries, comprising more than
150 figures and architectural
elements. There are pedestals
of varying heights, components
attached to walls and viewing
ramps. This isn’t the men’s first
collaboration: Montepegado’s
base for a group of figures
shown in Lisbon in 2004 gave
Zimmerman the idea for
Inner
City.
It “made me realize that
I wanted to push the narrative
with the small figures into a
context that confronts the view-
er the way architecture does.”
They constructed versions of
Inner City
that were displayed
in Lisbon in 2007 and in Leeu-
warden, the Netherlands, in
2008. Zimmerman says, “Tiago
serves as master city planner
to my role as the creator of lit-
tle people, buildings and other
objects.”
Out of stoneware clay, glaze
and epoxy, Zimmerman has de-
vised a miniaturized urban pan-
orama, resembling the densely
populated scenes in the paint-
ings of Brueghel or Bosch, but
also evocative of the style of
some
WPA
artists of the New
Deal. The diminutive stoneware
tenements, skyscrapers, scaf-
folding and trestles are teeming
with figures (more like figurines)
of workers, who dumpster
dive, build, rest, eat and brawl.
There’s an antic side to these
tableaux—some figures have pots
or saucepans on their heads—but
the vision is ambiguous. There’s
vitality, but is it bringing prog-
ress or repetitive toil?
Zimmerman has noted that in
the
RISD
Inner City,
he worked
more on architectural forms and
less on the figure, an attempt
at “architectural diversity,”
reflecting the New York City
he has lived in for over 25 years.
He is commenting on the relent-
less pace of tearing down and
building that can obliterate
neighborhoods even as it brings
forth new streetscapes. “The
parts of the city I was most fa-
miliar with when I first arrived
had a visceral, palpable connec-
tion to the past,” Zimmerman
says. “Over the past few de-
cades, New York City has irre-
vocably changed into a different
urban environment—something
more civil and benign, more
bland and corporate.”—
b . s .
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CT/Guilford
Guilford Art Center
Artistry 2009
to Jan. 3
guilfordartcenter.org
Over 350 makers in every me-
dium display their wares in this
must-see show and sale.
IL / Chicago
The Art Institute of Chicago
Apostles o f Beauty: Arts and
Crafts from Britain to Chicago
to Jan. 31
artic.edu
This interdisciplinary exhibi-
tion highlights a wide range of
objects from Chicago collec-
tions, exploring, through a the-
matic history, the complex in-
fluences of the Arts and Crafts
movement.
ME / Rockport
© Center for Furniture
Craftsmanship
Maine Wood: 2010 Biennial
Exhibition
Dec. 4-Feb. 12
woodschool.org
The breadth of woodworking in
the Pine Tree State, illustrated
by Matthew Lindsay’s
Strum-
mers Stool,
are celebrated in this
juried presentation.
M A / Brookline
Brookline Arts Center
jyth Annual Crafts Showcase
Dec. 2-20
brooklineartscenter.com
An eclectic display by 100 gifted
artists reveals the versatility
and appeal of the handmade.
