2009 BUTTON ARTISTS

JENINE BRESSNER

Glass artist Jenine Bressner wants to see things she has never seen them before. She aims to make things that satisfy this wish by drawing with glass rods and a torch flame and the beads pictured in Jenine’s pin are made with such a process.

Jenine works across several media and her work has been featured in MAKE Magazine, CNN Money.com’s Small Business report, and Handmade Nation — a film documenting the DIY craft movement.

Jenine regularly exhibits in Providence’s Craftland Sale and is the recipient of the 2010 Fellowship in Crafts from The Rhode Island State Council on the Arts. She recieved a BFA in Glass from RISD in 2001. Jenine grew up outside of New York City and has lived in Providence since the spring of 1998.

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JUNGIL HONG

Korean born artist Jungil Hong moved to New Jersey at the age of 10. In providing context for her art she notes how her family spent its early years fishing in that state’s post-industrial streams which are much like the one that Jung’s studio looks down on today in her present home of Providence, Rhode Island.

Primarily working in silkscreen and collage, Jung’s work tends toward dense images of turbulent nature. The critic Greg Cook says this of Hong’s art, “Her work seems a mysterious allegory, a dream of scratching out an existence in the shadow of looming environmental collapse.”

In 2007 Jungil was one of ten artists selected for the DeCordova Museum’s Annual Exhibition. In 2006, Her work entitled “Supermarket Spirit Ship,” an enormous lantern made from shopping bags, was included in “Wunderground: Providence, 1995 to the Present,” at The Rhode Island School of Design Museum.

SEUNG-HEA LEE

Jeweler and metalsmith, Seung-Hea Lee learned the art of origami as a child. Fascinated by the “magic” of folding that turned paper into three-dimensional objects, she later discovered in her studio that working with paper-thin metal is a similar process.

Commenting on her pieces, Seung-Hea describes how, “Movement and flexibility is performance art on the body.” Her work has been exhibited internationally at galleries and museums including the Museum of Art and Design, New York City. It has been featured in the Metalsmith Magazine-Exhibition in Print, American Craft magazine, Masters Gold, and on the cover of 500 Necklaces – one in a series of books on juried jewelry selections. 

Seung-Hea received her BFA from California College of Arts and Crafts and MFA from
The Rhode Island School of Design. She is inspired by how the interaction between teacher and students motivates her as an artist and has taught at RISD since 2001.

ANGEL QUINONEZ

Angel is a painter, sculptor, and tattoo artist who is best known for his large scale multi-media public works which can be seen on the streets of Providence, AS220, The Cuban Revolution, and various locations throughout New England.

Born and raised in Central Falls and the Providence area, Angel graduated from Hope High School in 1991 and Brown University in 2001. His professional career has included work with a number local community and arts organizations including Big Nazo, Progreso Latino, The Providence Black Repertory, and AS220. Angel’s artwork is in many collections and he has had numerous shows throughout the country.

Most recently he held the position of Visuals Coordinator at AS220’s Broad Street Studios. He is also an art instructor at the Rhode Island Training School working with incarcerated youth. Angel is now working on a new body of work in his Providence studio, and on the Martha’s Vinyard..

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SUSAN STARKWEATHER

Susan works primarily in pastel and oil with an emphasis on portraiture. Her work is characterized by a open, colorful style that focuses on the unique personality each individual subject.

A graduate of the University of Maryland, Susan has studied at the Corcoran School of Art, Washington Portraits and the Rhode Island School of Design. Her commissioned portraits are found in private collections and she has exhibited her work in many Rhode Island shows.

In addition her illustrations appear in numerous publications, including “The Longest Game”, a children’s book that recounts the 1981 game between the Pawtucket Red Sox and Rochester Red Wings, the longest in baseball history.

Susan has taught painting through a grant with the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts and currently coordinates the Master Portrait Class at the Providence Art Club, where she also is an exhibiting member. She also volunteers as a portrait artist for patients at Hasbro Children’s Hospital.

2008 BUTTON ARTISTS

PAUL CLANCY

Paul Clancy is a self taught artist and photographer who has enjoyed commercial success for over 20 years. Clancy’s client list has included such high profile companies as Audi USA, Fidelity Investments, Rockport, Saucony; Blue Cross, and Hewlett Packard.

In 2004, Clancy was chosen as one of 10 artists to participate in an artist-in-residence program in Balatonfured, Hungary. He is currently an artist-in-residence at AS220 and a co-teacher at Broad Street Studio’s Photographic Memory Program.

His work has been published in Graphis, Archive, and Photo District News, and is part of several local and national private collections. Clancy’s work is represented by The Gallery at 17 Peck in Providence.

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LIZ COLLINS

Liz Collins is an artist and designer, recognized internationally for her use of machine knitting to create ground-breaking clothing, textiles, and 3-D installations.

After five years as an independent designer of seasonal ready-to-wear collections in New York City, Collins returned to her alma mater, Rhode Island School of Design, as an Assistant Professor in the Textile Department. In addition to teaching, Collins currently designs knitwear under her own label, which she sells at trunk sales and select boutiques in New York and Tokyo.

She also collaborates with other designers, producing signature knit pieces and collections for them. A member of the Council of Fashion Designers of America, Collins was has been cited by the New York Times as a creator of “brilliantly crafted” garments and a “designer with many industry accolades”.

In the spring of 2005, a new facet of Collins’ work emerged: a series of performance-based installations called “KNITTING NATION”, that employ uniformed machine knitters to create a multi-sensory experience that examines the relationship of humans to manufacturing and the process of machine knitting.

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BENJAMIN Q. JONES

Ben Jones is an artist and illustrator best known as a member of the ever-popular art collective, Paper Rad along with Jacob Ciocci, and Jessica Ciocci.

The three person crew, involved in painting, performance, animation, music, comics, web sites, sculpture, clothes, dolls, photos and video, has showcased their work at galleries and museums including the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Whitney Museum of American Art. Critics have called Paper Rad “the closest thing to grass roots digital art” there is.

Jones’ solo work is currently featured in his first major solo show, touring Europe through 2009. He has also produced a stunning catalogue to coincide with the tour featuring his work in print form. His work will also be featured at Deitch Projects in the spring of 2009.

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ARLEY-ROSE TORSONE

Arley Rose Torsone grew up in a small river valley town in Pennsylvania. She moved to New York City to go to school at Parsons, where she met her music video hero, director Michel Gondry. After working for Michel, graduating design school, and being a freelance prop stylist, illustrator, designer, painter, and rumbler, she grew tired of the city and decided to get a job that had more soul.

While doing research on her thesis at Parsons (which was to restore a historic Ice House in Milford, PA into a community arts center), she discovered AS220 in Providence. She sent a copy of her thesis to AS220 and began immediately as Communications Director.

She has been working at AS220 since October 2004 and is now establishing an in-house design studio called Design Providence that integrates Providence’s community of artists and designers with work from non-profits, educational orgs, grassroots initiatives and folks who work to promote change in the world.

Arley also belongs to the Dirt Palace, an arts space in Olneyville where she screenprints, makes music, draws, paints, whistles, sings, makes things on the computer.

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MARTINA WINDELS

Martina, who opened MARTINA & Company in 1998, is a critically acclaimed jeweler in her own right. Born in Germany, Martina moved to Providence to attend the Rhode Island School of Design’s Graduate School of Metalsmithing, only to go on and teach jewelry at RISD for seven more years.

Martina’s works in 18kt gold and sterling are known for their extraordinary beauty and ingenuity of design. Her work takes inspiration from architecture and engineering; the pieces suspend and interlock, expand and collapse. Her works, which are made in the studio at the store, are contemporary, minimal, and timeless.

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