UMaine Art Faculty Exhibit Runs Oct. 15-Nov. 19
Contact: George Manlove at (207) 581-3756
ORONO — artNOW!, an exhibition of new work by University of Maine Department of Art faculty can be seen from Oct. 15 to Nov. 19 in the Carnegie Galleries on the UMaine campus.
ArtNOW! brings together the art of 22 faculty members in an exhibition of 80 pieces of new work, says MaJo Keleshian, gallery coordinator.
This year’s work includes photographs, paintings, drawings, prints, ceramics, books, mixed-media, sculptures and installations. The exhibit opens Friday, Oct. 15 with a reception from 5-7 p.m. The exhibition and reception are free and open to the public.
The work is “a representation of the creative productivity of the faculty,” says Mike Lewis, a painter and professor of art. “It’s the equivalent of research in other departments.”
Anyone who has taught art in the department in the last year was invited to submit work for the exhibition.
“Each faculty member is developing conceptual ideas that are addressing a very broad range of issues, interests and concerns,” says Lewis. “They have to figure out which materials to use in expressing the ideas, the concepts — personal, social or political. It’s a full spectrum of contemporary interests.”
Lewis’ work, “Beauty and Darkness,” for instance, depicts fields, trees, clouds and light, overshadowed by a sense of darkness.
“They start with the landscape, but try to move the viewer to an inner space, more emotional and more mystical,” he says. “It’s a response to the current scene, especially the political scene where there is all this beauty in the world, but also this inability to function peacefully. There is a sense of ambient darkness that hovers over us.”
Assistant Professor of Art Sam Van Aken, who teaches sculpture, has a piece consisting of 16 tomatoes with teeth, some real and some from dentures, titled “Killer Tomatoes.” It is a statement about how technology transforms the way we live, he says, an absurd transformation of a similar piece he created about genetic engineering of fruit combined with the concept of a B-grade movie (“Attack of the Killer Tomatoes”) coming to life.
Adjunct Professor Wayne Hall calls the exhibit “a spot in time,” since “everybody’s work is always changing.” Few people have a chance to see the collective talent and creativity of the Department of Art faculty in one location, he says.
“Nobody really sees it all until you have a faculty show,” says Hall, who teaches three-dimensional design and wood sculpture. Hall’s work, “Studies from the Wood: Branches and Bridges” includes pieces of beech and red maple from his Bucksport studio, where he creates wooden furniture from saplings, twigs and tree branches.
“I have these pieces all around me that arise like Haiku,” Hall says. “I sort of live with these materials, literally, every day.”
Keleshian, who works with watercolors and wax to replicate marks made in nature, says her three pieces, titled “de rerum natura”, are part of a series.