PROVIDENCE — By the 1980s, downtown Providence had gone from bustling, pedestrian-filled streets lined with shops to a ghost town of vacant buildings. But still, local artist Umberto Crenca saw possibilities and opportunity.
In 1985, Crenca and a small group of artists founded AS220, a non-profit community arts organization, in one of those vacant buildings in downtown Providence. Since its founding, its members have taken pride in its “uncensored forum for the arts,” a space where people could “come together, collaborate, innovate, experiment and take risks.”
He had a legendary run as its artistic director, standing firm on the principle that freedom of expression is crucial for a community and for “individual spirits.” His art and his commitment to service in the city have been recognized both locally and nationally: in 2016, he was honored at the White House as a “Champion of Change.”
He passed the baton at AS220 around 2015, largely retiring to focus on the next chapter of his life.
“I’m 70 years old, so I’m thinking, ‘What do I need to do? What’s this next chapter in terms of my legacy?’” Crenca said in a recent interview with the Globe. “Easy. I fulfill my dream [of being in his studio everyday]. And I do it while telling the story of Providence.”
Crenca will exhibit artwork and release his new book “Divine Providence” at a pop-up gallery space in downtown starting Thursday. He describes the paintings as “loving but unsentimental glimpse into the corners, crevices and in-between spaces in which life happens in the city.”
Q: How did this series start?
Crenca: During the pandemic, people were forced to stay at home and they couldn’t move too far beyond their area. So I wanted to celebrate the neighborhoods and kind of elevate where we are as opposed to where we would like to be — everything from the ubiquitous trash cans and electrical wires. Not all of them are pretty. They show burnt buildings, mounds of tires in the foreground, and old bodegas. But they show the truth.
What you see in the work is not iconic buildings. They’re tightly cropped and a “pedestrian perspective” on living in the city. The things that we take for granted like a backyard or alley are really part of this collection.
Q: What’s your hope for “Divine Providence,” and this collection of paintings?
Crenca: I’m committed to creating something epic. This book is only volume one. I’m imagining a thousand of these in a museum exhibit. That just gets me all excited. [In this first volume] We kept the design minimal— it’s just all about the images with an index in the back. For future volumes, I might start including some of my writings, which are all over the place. I’m old and I’m thinking about how all of this may have a life beyond me.
Q: Which neighborhoods are featured in this volume?
Crenca: The North End, there’s a good representation of South Providence, and a decent representation of Olneyville — but I’m just scratching the surface there. Mount Pleasant was also one of the neighborhoods that I wanted to get to right away. It’s where my father’s family lived when they first immigrated here from Italy and I have a lot of childhood memories there. So I started in areas most familiar to me.
But I’ve lived in nearly everywhere in Providence — I was crashing at an apartment in South Providence with a bunch of people during my hippie days. I’ve lived on Manton Avenue and on the edge of the East Side. I was sort of “squatting” in downtown in the early days. I was in Federal Hill for a bit and now in the North End for a while.
Q: What areas are not in this collection?
Crenca: You don’t see a lot of East Side images. There, everything is so coiffed, so carefully manicured, so well attended to. There’s beautiful homes, gardens, and landscaping, but they leave me a little cold. There are East Side paintings, and there will probably be more. But there’s something a little more gritty about what I did. Something a little more honest.
Plus, someone told me that there’s not enough trash in these paintings, that they are “too clean.” I thought it was an interesting take since there’s a lot of trash in the North End where I live, so I might consider that a little more as the paintings progress.
For me, the more trash, the less potential for gentrification. Vinyl siding and garbage are my only defense against it where I live.
Q: Tell me about the creative and technical process.
Crenca: This collection is probably the most representational work I’ve ever done. With these pieces, it’s really about the narrative in the story. Technique is subject to the narrative, which is best told by as many of these works as possible. They’re all puzzle pieces in a much larger image.
I go on my walks with my iPhone and take a lot of photos. I decide which ones I think could become paintings, and crop them some more. And for this body of work, it all starts with composition. A strong composition speaks to everyone — whether they can articulate it, understand it, or not. It has a deep way of communicating: repeated forms, angles, shapes.
Q: What is the legacy you want to leave behind in Providence?
Crenca: It’s not popular in the high art world to paint representation. Everything is about the next crazy conception. That’s all wonderful and inspiring... But that’s not what I’m up to. I make art for a broad audience. Art was never meant to be for the elite. It’s a form of expression that’s critical to share, from the process to the finished product.
There really is a legacy here, and these paintings are my feeling about Providence.
I want the people that were brought to Mr. Lemon for generations with their parents to come in and see how important this collection is. They are the audience — the people of Providence — that are important to me.
The exhibit will be launch with an opening reception on Aug. 19 from 5 to 8 p.m. Gallery hours are 2 to 5 p.m. on Aug. 21, Aug. 22, Aug. 28, and Aug. 29, and by appointment.
Alexa Gagosz can be reached at alexa.gagosz@globe.com. Follow her @alexagagosz and on Instagram @AlexaGagosz.