Kiley Court Gallery (398 Commercial St.)
Inga Bernstein, a lawyer from Boston, is in Provincetown for GLAD’s 2023 Summer Party. This evening, she’s strolling Commercial Street. At Kiley Court Gallery, her favorite painting is Bradford Street by Robert Cardinal. “I’ve always liked his work,” she says. “I think he does beautiful stuff with light. What I really love is the sky.”
A lot of times, Bernstein says, Cardinal will go with one complete color for the sky. But in Bradford Street, the dusky firmament is brushed with pink cloud wisps. Visible in the distance is the Pilgrim Monument.
“Sometimes, I don’t like it,” says Bernstein of the monument. “It feels like it gets a little kitschy.” But in this piece, she says, she likes that “it’s just there. This is just a street somewhere where you can see the monument.”
Gallery 444 (444 Commercial St.)
Greg Kelleher, who lives in Cambridge and is a “software person,” surveys paintings by Lisa Grubb: bright, funky, joyful pieces, all involving a sophisticated use of neat strokes outlining intense color, and most featuring a distinctive blue dog.
Kelleher is accompanied by his own small black-and-tan dog, Bandit. Their favorite painting is Grubb’s Jazz Parade.
“Notice the feet?” Kelleher says. Two of the three characters in Jazz Parade have shiny bulbous feet. “Look at those feet! The feet are fabulous. It’s very much not classic American. It feels like something you’d see in Berlin.”
The characters in Jazz Parade (a green dinosaur, a blue dog, and another blue dog with a saxophone and a beret) are marching to the left. Above them, three yellow taxis fly to the right. “The taxis appeal to me,” says Kelleher, “but I love dinosaurs, too — dinosaurs are great.”
Rice Polak Gallery (430 Commercial St.)
Thomas De Raedt, who does pediatric cancer research, and Gary Ellis, who works in media, live “between New York and Philadelphia.” At Rice Polak Gallery, they won’t reveal their very favorite piece for fear of someone else discovering it. But their second-favorite is Adoration of Technology by Steven Skollar.
“I like the contradiction between Minnie Mouse and the robot giant,” says De Raedt. “It’s like the very hard robot versus the very soft mouse. I like the quality of it as well — it’s very realistic. It just speaks to me.”
Ellis steps forward to give his opinion: “I also think that, even though you’re right about the hard robot and the soft Minnie Mouse, they’re still together in the piece. It feels like they’re interacting.” Simply put, Ellis likes that “it’s a little weird.”
De Raedt and Ellis agree that they wouldn’t have the piece in their house. Ellis says, “It wouldn’t match our decor.”
William Scott Gallery (439 Commercial St.)
“I absolutely love all of Trevor’s work,” says Gisele Patry, who has homes in Provincetown and Somerville, where she works for Advance Auto Parts. Tonight she’s with friends — they’re all giggling in front of Trevor Mikula’s Thigh Highs. The piece is a crisp portrait of an ostrich: bright white tail feathers, dainty pink legs, an elegant neck. And the bird is wearing bright-red thigh-high boots.
“I appreciate the whimsy and the color that he uses, and just the fun that he brings to everything he does,” says Patry. “It’s warm and loving and kind and not too serious.”
Thigh Highs is especially hilarious, she says. The reason: “Well, the boots!” More laughter, then, “And just look at the expression on her face. Kind of a little … shocked!”
On Center Gallery (352 Commercial St.)
The artist Gin Stone, whose work is on display at On Center, says she does “humane taxidermy.” The life-size horse busts that protrude from the walls are made of muslin, wood from shipwrecks, and copper — no animal products. Stone describes her piece The Mechanics of Flight Through Crystalline Structure as a “Pegasus concept.” The wings, made of old Russian netting fibers dredged up by the groundfishing boat Donna Marie, mimic a split-open geode. “Geodes have a very soft look,” says Stone, “but on a molecular level, you have very sharp crystal structures.” That angular structure, drawn with fibers, extends from the wings onto the shoulders of the horse.
Why horses? Stone says, “Who doesn’t love horses?” She grew up with the animals; her neck is fused from a horseback-riding accident.
The Friday-night stroll is a chance “to meet everybody from around the world,” she says. But the best part when she has a show up is watching people through the gallery windows as they pass by outside. “And they walk over, and you can see them talking about it,” she says. “I can see their faces, like, ‘Oh my god, look at that!’ ”
