The BankRI Galleries present:
BankRI Pitman Street Gallery: “Perfect Days: New Paintings by Michael Guy”
March 3 through April 6, 2011.
The branch is located at 137 Pitman Street in Providence.
Hours are Monday through Friday 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., Saturday 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. and Sunday noon to 4 p.m. For more information, contact www.bankri.com or call 456-5015, ext 1330.
Fresh out of college in 1975, Warwick painter and graphic designer Michael Guy applied for and got a job as a receptionist at Trinity Rep. He filed, he typed, he answered the phone. Ultimately, Guy decided the job wasn’t for him and he left after one season, only to return a year later as an assistant to the scenic painter.
In 1980, Trinity Rep held an internal competition for a new poster designer. Guy, who had been designing and illustrating posters since his youth, got the job and now thirty-six years later he is still at Trinity Rep in the role of fulltime graphic designer. Only veteran actors Time Crowe and Barbara Meade have been at Trinity longer. “They’ve pretty much been my only employer,” Guy says a little sheepishly. “I feel badly for the young out looking for work. I looked once. I have a résumé somewhere ……”
While at the Rhode Island School of Design, Guy focused on lithography and ceramics, eventually transferring to the painting department and graduating with a degree in painting. During his long tenure at Trinity Rep, he has always worked on his own canvases in his free time. “I’ve been painting all along,” Guy says. “I used to be a very slow painter and my output has been very small.” But recently he and his longtime partner Padric Meagher bought a small studio space in Provincetown on Conwell Street and Guy’s output has increased dramatically. He has started to exhibit and sell his work at Provincetown galleries and stores, including Southstream Design and Gallery Ehva.
In both his paintings and his illustrations for the theater posters, Guy puts the narrative first. “Theater is about people,” Guy explains. “ And the posters usually have figures front and foremost in the illustrations so the viewer can get a sense of the narrative or story there.”
His paintings have a similar focus from a decidedly different angle. “I really like the beach a lot,” Guy says. “So it makes sense that I paint it. It’s a place where we’ve all agreed it’s all right to wear very little clothing. It takes a certain amount of confidence,” he continues “to strip down to a bathing suit. It takes a certain amount of nerve to be in that state of vulnerability. I think that is part of what makes going to the beach so invigorating.”
Guy’s paintings of the beach are lively egg tempera paintings on masonite panels that celebrate an idyllic exuberance and are reflections on the carefree playtime we allow ourselves as adults.