PAST | 2023
Generations: University of Maine Artists Choose Artists
August 30 - October 18, 2023
Generations: University of Maine System Artists Choose Artists pairs Art faculty from the University of Maine system campuses with stellar alums from their programs. Arranged to create a visual dialogue between the works of artist-faculty and artist-alums, Generations addresses not only the person-to-person ways Art faculty in different University of Maine system Universities teach art techniques and practices, but also the ways a studio education supports artists in stepping fully into their own distinct practices, materials, and concepts.
The exhibition’s title also indicates the ways Art faculty in the University of Maine system share their gathered knowledge in direct and indirect ways through mentorship, creating waves of artists that radiate around them and through time. The studio generates creative energy; it is a place where ideas and artworks are created - a possibility-generator. The Art faculty that feed the studio’s generative engine as teachers, and the artists that draw forge new visions there as learners know it as a warm place where, with skill, care, and encouragement, art and artists grow.
View the exhibition catalogue
Hannah Barnes Associate Professor of Art and Art Department Chair at the University of Southern Maine
Ali Dion University of Southern Maine 2023 Bachelor of Fine Arts
Jesse Potts Chair of the Division of the Arts and Associate Professor of Art at the University of Maine Farmington
Abigail Cloutier University of Maine at Farmington 2022 Bachelor of Art
Peter Precourt Professor of Art and Art Department Coordinator at the University of Maine at Augusta
Ted Closson University of Maine at Augusta 2009 Bachelor of Art
Susan Smith Director of the Intermedia Program at the University of Maine at Orono
Anna Martin University of Maine at Orono 2023 Interdisciplinary PhD
Generations Artist Conversations:
Hannah Barnes and Ali Dion
Generations Artist Conversations:
Peter Precourt and Ted Closson
Generations Artist Conversations:
Jesse Potts and Abigail Cloutier
Generations Artist Conversations:
Susan Smith and Anna Martin
Making is Knowing: 2023 UMA Architecture Student Show
MAKING is KNOWING
2023 UMA Architecture Student Show
November 6 - December 6, 2023
Opening Reception Nov. 6 at 12 p.m.
The Art of Assemblage: Myth, Mystery, and Spirituality
THE ART OF ASSEMBLAGE
MYTH, MYSTERY, AND SPIRITUALITY
January 23 - March 8, 2023
ABBIE READ
DAVID MATSON
SALLY WAGLEY
ROBERT KATZ
GALLERY TALK
Tuesday, January 24 at 12 p.m.
OPENING RECEPTION
Sunday, January 29, 1 - 2:30 p.m.
ZOOM PANEL DISCUSSION
Wednesday, February 22 at 6 p.m.
Zoom Talk Recording
Installation Views
About the Exhibition
The Art of Assemblage: Myth, Mystery and Spirituality centers upon the artistic practice of assemblage - artworks made of found objects - and questions of spirituality. It includes the work of four contemporary Maine artists: Abbie Read, David Matson, Sally Wagley, and Robert Katz. The artists employ diverse approaches to assemblage, and represent different spiritual traditions. The exhibition was organized by artist and UMA Professor of Art Robert Katz, and is on view from January 23 - March 8.
The Art of Assemblage: Myth, Mystery and Spirituality includes artists whose use of assemblages turn the bricolage of found and re-contextualized objects toward spiritual considerations. The exhibition is supported by an original essay by Dr. Aaron Rosen, Professor of Religion & Visual Culture and Director of the Henry Luce III Center for the Arts & Religion at Wesley Theological Seminary and Director of The Parsonage Gallery in Searsport, Maine. In his essay, Dr. Rosen wrote, “The artists come from a range of religious traditions, from Katz’s Jewish upbringing in Brooklyn and continued study of Jewish sacred texts to David Matson’s vocation as an Episcopal parish priest. Despite such different spiritual journeys, the artists bring a similarly non-dogmatic, playful spirit to their works, sparking numerous interreligious parallels and dialogues along the way.”
In organizing The Art of Assemblage: Myth, Mystery and Spirituality, Professor Katz explained the impetus for the show: “I received a fellowship and was working with found objects that had been accumulating in my studio. As I began working in assemblage, I was interested in discussions I was having with people working and using similar materials as me.” Katz conceived of The Art of Assemblage as a public continuation of those conversations among artists. The exhibitions even include approximations of artists’ assemblage studios, bringing viewers into the creative process that reimagines miscellaneous things to create a new synthesis of objects, concepts, and even spiritual connection. Exhibiting artist David Matson explains, “When I became a priest, my prayer was that I may also be an artist. At the time, priest and artist seemed to stand at opposing poles. I have since come to believe that priest and artist fundamentally do the same thing: in either case, one stands on a threshold between the Worlds.”
Exhibition Essay
The Art of Assemblage: Myth, Mystery and Spirituality
Maine is a good place to gather things. The seasons here are marked by this act, from stacking wood to collecting seashells to picking blueberries. But Maine is also renowned for its antique stores, auctions, yard sales, and transfer stations, replete with “trash and treasures” to take the name of one roadside shop. And while out-of-staters might be willing to pay top dollar, Mainers seem to value the act of rummaging itself, regardless of the outcome.
While the most celebrated assemblage artists—such as Kurt Schwitters, Man Ray, Joseph Cornell, Louise Nevelson, and Leonardo Drew—have hailed from all over, there is a case to be made for a special Maine tradition of assemblage, with its own homespun take on this art form. Among its many virtues, this exhibition makes that argument brilliantly, bringing together—dare I say, assembling—four noted Maine artists, each with an eye for mysterious objects and ideas, hidden in plain sight.
The artists come from a range of religious traditions, from Katz’s Jewish upbringing in Brooklyn and continued study of Jewish sacred texts to David Matson’s vocation as an Episcopal parish priest. Despite such different spiritual journeys, the artists bring a similarly non-dogmatic, playful spirit to their works, sparking numerous interreligious parallels and dialogues along the way. Whether tackling the prejudices of the canon, as Sally Wagley does, or delving into the overlapping acts of map and mythmaking, as Abbie Read does, the works in this exhibition invite responses as personal as the objects they bind together. To adapt the words of the great theorist and collector Walter Benjamin, one could say that for each of these artists, “the whole background of an item adds up to a magic encyclopedia whose quintessence is the fate of [their] object…turn[ing them] into interpreters of fate.”
Aaron Rosen, PhD
Author, Art & Religion in the 21st Century
Director, The Parsonage Gallery, Searsport
2023 UMA Student Art Exhibition
2023 UMA STUDENT
ART EXHIBITION
MARCH 26 - APRIL 26, 2023
This much-anticipated annual juried exhibition includes remarkable artworks created by UMA students in Art classes this academic year.
We are grateful to artist Annie Lee-Zimerle, an Assistant Professor of Art at the University of Southern Maine and the Coordinator of the Kate Cheney Chappell ‘83 Center for Book Arts, for selecting awards for outstanding works.
Please join us in celebrating the creative excellence of UMA’s student artists!
EXHIBITING ARTISTS
Abigail Clark
Ashlynn Lund
B.Forbes
Baylie McLaughlin
Courtney Harmon
Eleanor Fisher
Isabelle Jadik
Jacqueline Neas
Jeff McKay
Jennifer Worthing
Jordan Nirza
Julia Basham
Julia Habib
Kariann Woolf
Lila Pierce
Lindsay Brackett
Logan Tourtillotte
Marc Chamberlain
Marguerite Jacques
Mary Claire Howe
Micah LaSalle
Mohamed Alalloush
Sally Wagley
Sarah Cook-Wheeler
Savanna Brann
Sophia Reyes
Tahiri
Ouroboros and Ostinato: 2023 UMA Senior Thesis Exhibition
Tayla
Knapp
Tayla Knapp, Eternal Transfiguration, 2023
Courtney Harmon, Reiterated Memory, 2023
OUROBOROS
AND OSTINATO
2023 UMA SENIOR THESIS EXHIBITION
May 6 - August 11, 2023
Opening Reception MAY 6, 12 - 2 P.M.
The University of Maine at Augusta is proud to present the 2023 UMA Senior Thesis Exhibition: Ouroboros and Ostinato featuring student artists Tayla Knapp and Courtney Harmon. The exhibition explores the processes of the body and the mind in both psychological and physical processes of change. Knapp’s portion of the exhibition, Ouroboros, centers metamorphosis through fluent line that bridges anatomical studies with graphic storytelling, while Harmon’s Ostinato translates the creative influence of music on the mind and psyche into three-dimensional paintings that bridge musical and visual experience through form and metaphor.
Ouroboros and Ostinato’s subjects and forms reflect circular themes of music and the body. Knapp’s work addresses the outward surreal metamorphosis of the body through life to death, while Harmon’s opens onto the creative interior workings of the mind during embodied experiences of music. Knapp’s graphic and illustrative approach, and Harmon’s circular canvases and multimedia 3D sculptural elements play on the beauty in the sometimes macabre or imperfect cycles that, in the space of the gallery, open onto the nearly limitless creative possibilities through which our bodies and minds circulate.