Jessie Rauch-Dickson created this digital print, titled A Pantheon of Media Gods / Hermes Colbert, which is part of the Rhode Island School of Design’s 2008 Annual Graduate Thesis Exhibition.

RISD

It’s often said that art helps bring people together. Still, it’s something of a shock to emerge from the Rhode Island School of Design’s 2008 “Annual Graduate Thesis Exhibition” and realize that you’ve just seen artworks devoted to, among others, celebrity chef Rachael Ray, conservative attack-pundit Ann Coulter and the 18th-century German philosopher Immanuel Kant.

If that’s not a kinky threesome, I don’t know what is.

Then again, making strange, random and even kinky connections is part of the fun of visiting the exhibit, which opened yesterday at the Rhode Island Convention Center.

Certainly, you don’t visit the RISD grad student show, as it’s more popularly known, looking for a tidy, one-stop summary of art-world trends and styles. It’s simply too big (this year’s show boasts more than 120 contributors) and too diverse (master’s degree candidates in 14 disciplines, ranging from painting and sculpture to video art, jewelry- making and landscape architecture, are eligible) to provide more than a passing glimpse of coming attractions in contemporary art.

At the same time, it’s worth recalling that some of today’s biggest art stars are veterans of past RISD grad-student shows. Among them: X-rated silhouette-maker Kara Walker, Walker’s fellow MacArthur “genius grant” winner Shazia Sikander and graffiti-master Shepard Fairley.

It’s quite possible that the next hot young artist or celebrity designer is lurking somewhere in Exhibit Hall A, the cavernous convention center space that last year became the grad show’s official home. (Previous graduate student exhibitions were held in the RISD Museum.)

With that in mind, here are some quick thoughts and observations regarding this year’s show:

•Painting is dead; long live painting. Famously left for dead during the Minimalist heyday of the 1970s, painting has since scraped and clawed its way back to prominence. Younger artists, in particular, have returned to painting for many of the same attributes — its rich, multilayered history, its exacting technical demands and its hands-on working methods — that once made it taboo.

That resurgence, in turn, is reflected both in the high quality of this year’s painting contingent and in occasional nods to older styles and periods. A good example is Heather McPherson, whose panoramic views of fog-shrouded hills and forests can be found in the middle part of the exhibit. At once beautiful (and beautifully painted) and a bit creepy, they suggest an eerie cross between traditional Hudson River School landscapes and illustrations for a Stephen King novel.

King, who often mixes humor and horror, would also appreciate the work of Jonathan Edwards, three of whose paintings hang near the entrance to the exhibit. In one, the German philosopher Immanuel Kant is shown lying on his back, apparently moments away from becoming a human sacrifice. (Actually, Edwards’ doesn’t leave much room for doubt: the painting’s title is Kant and the Historical Imperative Awaiting Sacrifice.) Other works devise similarly gruesome ends for two more prominent thinkers: Georg Friederich Hegel and John Stuart Mill.

•Smile for the camera. Photography is also strong this year. Among the highlights: Matthew E. Clowney’s sympathetic yet emotionally charged portraits of extended families, including dogs, cats and (in one photograph) a rather scared-looking hamster; Nicole Hatanaka’s finely observed studies of biology labs and natural history displays; and Annie Langan’s eye-teasing landscapes, in which trees, rocks and even people seem to be in more than one place at once.

Also good are Grzegorz Kordas’s striking nighttime views of that great American roadside icon: the gas station. Bathed in glowing pools of fluorescent light, they look like religious shrines emblazoned with the names of long-lost saints: Exxon, Mobil, Citgo.

•High-tech vs. low-tech. One thing that hasn’t changed this year is the show’s appetite for technology. Digital projectors, high-definition video screens, computers and other pieces of high-tech gadgetry are ubiquitous (and, at times, cacophonous). But there are also signs of a move away from cutting-edge electronic gear toward more low-tech artworks.

Andrew Ames’ Mano a Mano, which allows viewers to engage in impromptu arm-wrestling matches accompanied by the sounds of a frenzied announcer, is one example of this low-tech trend. Another is George Terry’s Homes Pun installation, in which viewers supply their own power to a battered-looking television set.

•Mini-me exhibits. Students from several departments are showing their work together, effectively creating mini-exhibits within the larger graduate student exhibition.

The graphic design section, for example, is located on the left (west) side of the exhibit hall, about midway through the exhibit. Here you’ll find one of the show’s funniest entries: Jessie Rausch-Dickson’s A Pantheon of Media Gods, which features mock-neoclassical portraits of television personalities such as Anderson Cooper, Stephen Colbert and the aforementioned Ms. Coulter. (You’ll also find the work of Chris Ro, the talented designer who created the poster for this year’s grad show.)

Another cluster of mini-exhibits can be found near the back of the exhibition hall. Here you’ll find sections devoted to architecture, landscape architecture and interior architecture (at RISD, they’re all considered separate majors), as well as industrial design. Viewers will also discover (if they didn’t know it already) that many of the design-related fields are rife with social and cultural activism, including projects devoted to rescuing historical buildings, revitalizing struggling urban neighborhoods and saving the planet by employing various “green” technologies.

•Small is beautiful. Given the size of the exhibit, it’s easy to overlook some of the smaller and/or less flashy artworks. That’s a shame, since there are some true gems scattered amid the general scrum. Here, in no particular order, are some of the pieces that caught my eye: a suite of wonderfully twisted prints by Douglas Bick; a display of luscious hand-made clothes and fabrics by Ritsuko Hirai; Meg Dreyer’s deck of insect-decorated playing cards; and the swirling, vine-like designs of jewelry-maker Andi Velgos.

The responses of other viewers may, of course, vary.

The Rhode Island School of Design’s 2008 “Annual Graduate Thesis Exhibition” runs through June 1 at the Rhode Island Convention Center, 1 Sabin St., in Providence. Hours are Mon.-Sun. noon-5. For more information, visit www.risd.edu\graduate.

bvansicl@projo.com