Colorful portrait of a medium-dark-skinned Sikh man wearing a yellow and orange pagri, or turban. Standing at the counter of his deli, with food and convenience items behind him.
Jagdeep Raina, Satnam Singh at the Punjabi Deli. Paula and Leonard Granoff Fund

Perception and Presence in Contemporary Drawing

March 5 - September 11, 2022
Colorful portrait of a medium-dark-skinned Sikh man wearing a yellow and orange pagri, or turban. Standing at the counter of his deli, with food and convenience items behind him.
Jagdeep Raina, Satnam Singh at the Punjabi Deli. Paula and Leonard Granoff Fund

Introduction

This presentation explores the ways artists have pushed the medium of drawing to address aesthetic, social, and representational issues pertinent to our time. Made between 1962 and 2019, these works solicit our participation and direct our attention.

What does the act of perception require of us as viewers? How does a drawing come to have presence? Whether figurative, abstract, or somewhere in between, these works invite close looking as you, the viewer, move closer to their meanings, intentions, and possibilities.

Conor Moynihan, Assistant Curator Prints, Drawings, and Photographs

The RISD Museum is supported by a grant from the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts, through an appropriation by the Rhode Island General Assembly and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, and with the generous partnership of the Rhode Island School of Design, its Board of Trustees, and Museum Governors.

Exhibition images