The Newport Art Museum is pleased to present a new exhibition this spring featuring work by Jodie Mim Goodnough entitled Biophilia. Goodnough is a Providence-based artist who works with photography, new media, installation, sculpture, performance, and sound to engage with the issues related to psychology, psychiatry, health, and nature. Biophilia will be on view April 27 through September 8 in the Studio Gallery of the historic John N.A Griswold House on the campus of the Newport Art Museum, located at 76 Bellevue Avenue, Newport, RI. The show, along with two others, will be celebrated at an Opening Reception on Friday, April 26 from 5 – 7 pm. Museum members are welcomed free, non-members are asked for a $10 suggested donation. Cash bar and light refreshments will be available. More details about the exhibition and opening reception are available at newportartmuseum.org or by calling (401) 848-8200.
Focusing on the influence of environments on one’s mental health and well-being, Biophilia brings together work from multiple projects. For the series “Prospect,” Goodnough created contemporary views from the site of Victorian-era mental institutions in New England. Now the sites of condominiums and townhouses, these images tell the complicated story of psychiatric institutions in the United States. A participatory work, “Forest Therapy Pod,” speaks to the artist’s study of “forest therapy” in Japan. Her new media work “The Yellow Wallpaper” (referencing the story by Charlotte Perkins Gilman) invites the viewer on an experiential journey through a reconstructed contemporary psychiatric hospital while commenting on paternalistic approaches to mental health. Collectively the works in this exhibition explore the impact of nature on one’s psychology and health.
Jodie Mim Goodnough attended the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies (Portland, ME) and received her MFA from Tufts University (MA) in 2013. She has exhibited her work nationally in solo and group exhibitions including at the Midwest Center for Photography (KS), Site: Brooklyn Gallery, Arsenal Gallery and at Spring/Break Art Fair (both in New York City). Her work has been reviewed in The Washington Post, Art New England and the Boston Globe. She is currently on the faculty of Salve Regina University in Newport.
About the Newport Art Museum
Founded in 1912, The Newport Art Museum is one of the oldest continuously operating and most highly regarded art museums and schools of its kind in the country. The Art Museum offers a provocative diversity of creative voices in its historic Newport setting. Visitors can expect treasures from its permanent collection featuring American art from the late 19th century to the present, as well as programmed exhibitions of contemporary art. Dedicated Museum docents are available to offer guided tours of the campus and educate visitors on the architecture, artwork and history of the Museum. Artist Talks, film screenings, lectures and musical performances are scheduled throughout the year.
The Museum operates on a three-building campus, the main building being National Historic landmark, the John N.A. Griswold House. It was designed by architect Richard Morris Hunt, completed in 1864 and remains the premier example of American “Stick-Style” architecture. Richard Morris Hunt went on to design Marble House, The Breakers, Ochre Court, Belcourt Castle, and other landmarks in Newport and New York, including the base for the Statue of Liberty. Adjacent to the Griswold House is the Cushing Building, built in 1919, featuring two rotating galleries as well as the Cushing Memorial Gallery dedicated to the artist Howard Gardiner Cushing. Completing the three-building campus is the Art Museum’s art school, the Coleman Center for Creative Studies, which offers year-round art classes, camps and workshops, incorporates the Museum’s collection into its curriculum and focuses on art fundamentals as well as design, digital studies and continuing education for artists of all ages and interests. The Newport Art Museum is fully accredited by the American Alliance of Museums.
The Museum is open to the public Tuesday through Saturday from 10 am to 5 pm, Thursdays April – December until 7 pm, Sunday from noon to 5 pm, and from 10 am to 8 pm every second Thursday of the month for the Art After Dark programming. The Museum is closed to the public on Mondays. Museum membership levels and benefits, art school classes and registration, exhibition schedules, public programming, and more can be found at www.newportartmuseum.org. Phone: (401) 848-8200.
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