A screen shot from the "NetWorks 2008" video profile of groundbreaking artist Toots Zynsky
Elegantly filmed portraits of two of the most established artists working with glass can be found in YouTube video profiles of Toots Zynsky and Howard Ben Tré. The films about these two ground-breaking artists at mid-career are part of a project to document Providence, Rhode Island’s creative class. Called the “NetWork 2008″ project, the initiative was started by a local art collector and physician named Dr. Joseph Chazan who, together with Umberto Crenca, the director of the Providence nonprofit arts center AS220, is attempting to chronicle the careers of artists and musicians who have shaped the city’s artistic identity (learn more about NetWork in another video here). Richard Goulis, an installation and performance artist, oversaw the production of video
A screen grab from the video about the career of Howard Ben Tré.
portraits of some of the artists living in the area, and the results are visually elegant and form a surprisingly sensitive and thoughtful portrait. The videos were just one part of a multi-tiered approach to this project that included actual portraits, an exhibition at the Newport Art Museum, as well as at a commercial gallery.
Both Ben Tré and Zynsky recall the moment they discovered the glass department at RISD as if they had stumbled upon the art form they had been in search of without quite knowing what it was they were looking for.
You can watch the films by clicking on the embedded videos below.
Toots Zynsky
Howard Ben Tré
