Providence’s Newest Gallery Showcases Art with Teeth

Photography by Caterina Maina

Converting a dentist’s office into an art gallery may sound like a headscratcher — what happens with all those X-ray machines? But for Angell Street Galleries’ founder, Tom Petrosino, the third-generation co-owner of a scrap metal business in his native Brooklyn, the transition inspired innovation. 

Angell Street was the first property he visited on his search for a mixed-use commercial building and he instantly saw opportunity to create the cohort-based, collaborative exhibition space he’d imagined. The seven dental exam rooms became “micro galleries,” and he honored the space’s history with playful gestures — fish tank and decommissioned nitrous oxide ports included.  

The space opened in January and exhibits multiple artists at once, thanks to the micro spaces. Petrosino partnered with gallery director Richard Goulis to put on the first shows. Over the next few months, the likes of the Seekonk Artist Network and Allison Paschke will exhibit work. 

As Petrosino imagined Angell Street’s role within Providence’s artistic community, however, he developed a different model for showcasing local talent.

Photography by Caterina Maina

“I’m concerned about making sure that it’s not the same people cycling through galleries in Providence, so we developed this random drawing to be an equalizer,” he says.

The “junkman’s pick-of-the-month” system allows artists to select a bingo ball and drop it into a cage for random drawings. If their number is picked, they’ll have a space in the next show. Currently, two artists in each exhibit are selected by junkman’s bingo, and Petrosino hopes to have the gallery fully selected by these drawings by December. 

Petrosino, who lives in Colts Neck, New Jersey, fell in love with Providence when his daughter enrolled at RISD. Feeling a kinship between the Brooklyn of his youth and Providence today, he saw an opportunity to uplift the next generation of artists, and his background in scrap metal shed a new light on how a gallery could bolster that mission. 

The gallery doesn’t collect commissions from artists, for example, and finds creative ways to bring new voices into the space. 

Photography by Caterina Maina

“I’m not making decisions based on what a piece is worth because, to the gallery, it doesn’t make any difference,” Petrosino says. “I don’t have to choose between a $10,000 piece or a $50 piece. Those both have equal value to me. I learned that from my scrap business because every transaction has the same value — a person could come in with a shopping cart and make $3, and someone else could come in with a vanload of copper wire and make $5,000, but those two transactions are the same for me. That’s what this space is.”

For Petrosino, creating space to uplift emerging artists in his daughter’s generation is deeply rewarding, and he sees that it all relates back to the building that housed a dental practice for forty-seven years.  

“To have this space continue with that [family] legacy means a lot to me,” he says.  “This was a family business, and it continues to be so.” 324 Angell St., Providence, 264-4104, angellstreetgalleries.com