UMaine Museum of Art Announces Spring Exhibitions
University of Maine Museum of Art news release. Images are available upon request (kathryn.jovanelli@umit.maine.edu)
SHADOW PLAY: Works by Brian Shure
Brian Shure exhibits a series of realist landscapes and cityscapes rendered primarily in ink on paper. The subjects of these works are locations in Japan, Italy, the United States and China. The bustle of activity and architectural diversity in urban environments is often the subject of Shure’s compositions. For example, 55th and 5th and Union Square Skateboarders capture the congested streets and ever-changing nature of the city. Shure states, “My subjects are continually evolving: the most obvious examples are the continually changing light and the moving people and cars.”
While the city is certainly a source of inspiration for Shure’s drawings, so is the tranquility of the landscape. Several drawings of locations in Nara and Kyoto, Japan depict forests of cedars and bamboo rendered in indigo and gold ink on paper. The horizontal format of these works, repetitive lines of the flora and dramatic lighting evokes the serenity of being immersed in nature. Shadow Play is presented as part of the statewide collaboration, Where to Draw the Line: the Maine Drawing Project, which celebrates drawing at Maine museums and art venues throughout 2011.
Shure received a BA in Printmaking and Painting from Antioch College and worked as a professional lithographer for 15 years. He is on the faculty of the Rhode Island School of Design and is represented by Katharina Rich Perlow Gallery, NYC and Lenore Gray Gallery, Providence.
IMPLEMENTS: Recent Sculpture by J.T. Gibson
Maine-based artist J.T. Gibson has created a new series of sculptures for this exhibition in the Leonard Gallery. Gibson’s sculptures are abstract, warm-toned forms that are loosely inspired by tools and machinery. The large-scale floor work End Game brings to mind the exaggerated profile and posture of Easter Island Moai figures or an enlarged handgrip.
Three of the works featured are created using a process of stacked lamination. After carving the forms, the artist then hand paints the sculptures using artist oil paint, tung oil and a tinted waterproof pine tar finish. In addition, Gibson debuts a new wall installation titled Operation Milkweed consisting of rust-orange forms that may reference seed pods or bombs. The curved work is created out of weathering steel with contrasting seams of stainless steel. Drift, a highly finished piece carved from black walnut, offers both man-made and organic associations such as the horn of an anvil, a thorn or perhaps a bird’s talon.
Gibson is constructing a new site-specific outdoor work that will be featured this summer at the Center for Maine Contemporary Art. His works were included in a recent exhibition at the Messler Gallery at the Maine Center for Fine Furniture in Rockport as well as UMMA’s I-95 Triennial exhibition.
HANGING DRAWINGS: Nancy Murphy Spicer
Nancy Murphy Spicer, who lives and works in the United Kingdom, often blurs the boundaries between two and three dimensional art in her conceptual-based works. Her expansive view of the process of drawing and questioning traditional mark-making materials is reflected in her Hanging Drawing installation. During the course of the exhibition Murphy Spicer’s wall drawing, which is constructed out of stripped and plied electrical tape and 50 pins, will be altered at several creative sessions. During these sessions, students and museum visitors are invited to create their own wall drawing and then document their composition through photography or with drawing paper supplied in the gallery. Visitors may also view a video depicting several previously exhibited spontaneous and successive wall drawings.
The Boston Globe comments that the artist’s work is, “spare, oblique, and lacking in narrative. They don’t expect the viewer to make sense of them; rather, they invite you to engage and discover what the art provokes within you.” Murphy Spicer’s works are presented as part of the statewide visual arts initiative, Where to Draw the Line: The Maine Drawing Project.
Murphy Spicer has exhibited in many solo and group exhibitions and has taught at the University of West of England, School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and the Art Institute of Boston. She is represented by Carroll and Sons Gallery, Boston.
Admission to the Museum is FREE in 2011 thanks to Machias Savings Bank in honor of Ted Leonard.