The Agenda

Wunderground at the RISD Museum

by Matt Obert

Providence has a love/hate relationship with underground art spaces, unlicensed show venues, and unauthorized posters wheatpasted in public areas. On the one hand, you have the official story, and on the other hand, you have the true state of affairs. Sometimes, it seems that one hand doesn’t know what the other one is doing. On the one hand, we love to boast that our city is “friendly to artists,” and often cite success stories from the grubby underbelly of the Renaissance City to prop up this point. Wunderground: Providence, 1995 to the present, showing at the RISD Museum now through January 7 of next year, fairly bursts with examples of this kind of success story. Eight established and respected local artists (alphabetically: Mat Brinkman, Brian Chippendale, Jim Drain, Leif Goldberg, Jungil Hong, Xander Marro, Erin Rosenthal and Pippi Zornoza) were courted by RISD Contemporary Art Curator Judith Tennenbaum to co-curate these exhibits. After the shows come down, the museum is slated to close for extensive renovations — which affords the museum a rare opportunity to give these rowdy young artists temporary free rein without worrying too much about the cleanup afterward.