VRAGE Exhibition
2017-04-26 11:00 - 2017-04-28 20:00 (America/New_York) | ME
VRAGE: The Virtual Reality Art Gallery Experience
On view from April 26, 2017 – April 28, 2017, Closing Event: Fri., April 28, 5:00-8:00pm
Institute of Contemporary Art at Maine College of Art & Design
ICA Gallery hours: Wed, 11:00am–5:00pm, Thurs, 11:00am–7:00pm, Friday, 11:00am–5:00pm
The Virtual Reality Art Gallery Experience, or VRAGE, is an exploration of the parallel progression of the worlds of technology and fine art, utilizing virtual reality to add context to the typical gallery experience and to showcase art in creative, immersive ways.
Without the restrictions of real-world environments, VRAGE transcends the idea of what an art gallery is supposed to be. Rather than the gallery existing as a separate entity from the art, VRAGE collectively acts as a piece of art in itself. Through game development and 3D modeling techniques, we have the opportunity to tailor individual galleries to represent the vision of the artists in ways that a traditional gallery room could not accomplish. The optimization of space also plays a key role; VRAGE will contain multiple individual gallery rooms within the confines of an eight foot by eight foot play space.

Collect: Summer Art Sale
2017-06-29 10:00 - 2017-07-01 18:00 | Institute of Contemporary Art at Maine College of Art & Design, first floor
Join Us for our Summer Art Sale
June 29 - July 1 at MECA&D's Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA at MECA&D)
Featuring the original works of students, faculty, staff, alumni, and friends, proceeds benefit MECA&D’s Student Scholarship Fund to enable the next generation of artists to pursue their talents.
A Sampling of Featured Work:

See the list of Featured Artists.
Open to the Public June 29 - July 1
The Art Sale is held in MECA&D’s ICA within the Porteous Building, 522 Congress St, Portland, Maine.

Shop: 10am-6pm, Thursday, June 29
Shop: 10am-6pm, Friday, June 3
Shop: 10am-6pm, Saturday, July 1
Maine College of Art & Design presents Collect: MECA&D’s Summer Art Sale 2017, June 29 - July 1, a fundraiser in support of MECA&D’s Student Scholarship Fund. This three-day, salon-style extravaganza is a great opportunity to discover emerging artists, view new work by established artists, and build or add to an art collection. The art sale features a unique, diverse and unexpected array of original work in a variety of genres with a range of sizes, prices, and media, including furniture, sculpture, jewelry, paintings, prints, photography, textiles, drawings, and more. One to five works are priced by the artists and sold to benefit MECA&D, with 50% and 25% commission or full donation options.
For more information, email collect@meca.edu
Read the press release.
Special thanks to our generous supporters:
Sponsors

Media Sponsors

Additional Support

Special Thanks

'American Genre: Contemporary Painting' Exhibition
2017-07-20 11:00 - 2017-09-15 17:00 | Institute of Contemporary Art at Maine College of Art & Design, first floor
The ICA at Maine College of Art & Design is free and open to the public. Wednesday–Sunday 11:00am–5:00pm, Thursday 11:00am–7:00pm, and First Fridays 11:00am–8:00pm.
American Genre: Contemporary Painting
Hope Gangloff, After Party, 2015, acrylic and collage on paper
On view from July 20, 2017 – September 15, 2017
Exhibition Reception: Thursday, July 20, 2017, 5:00–8:00pm
The Institute of Contemporary Art at Maine College of Art & Design is pleased to announce American Genre: Contemporary Painting curated by artist, writer, and curator Michelle Grabner. Grabner is the Crown Family Professor of Art at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
American Genre: Contemporary Painting is an exhibition built on a triad of traditional painting genres: still life, landscape, and portraiture. Fifty-two paintings by fifty-two American artists offers a critical balance to the conditions of atemporality, affected responses, and the material turn shaping much of contemporary painting discourse. Alternatively, this exhibition employs historically recognized groupings of subject and forms. Genres incorporate and invoke structures of knowledge by performing classification. Deeply embedded in everyday life, genre is conspicuous and powerful in its ability to chart historical continuity and differences through its organizing forces.

Artists include:
Still Life: Gina Beavers, Dana DeGiulio, Wendy Edwards, Francesca Fuchs, Hope Gangloff, Evan Gruzis, Angelina Gualdoni, Magalie Guerin, Jessica Halonen, Jonn Herschend, Tucker Nichols, Aliza Nisenbaum, Walter Robinson, Roger White, Griff Williams, Kelly S. Williams, Emi Winter, Mathew Zefeldt
Portraiture: Herman Aguirre, Lucas Ajemian, Deborah Brown, Kristin Calabrese, Brian Calvin, Susanna Coffey, Angela Dufresne, Andreas Fischer, Howard Fonda, Richard Hull, José Lerma, Keith Mayerson, Frank J. Stockton, Henry Taylor, Storm Tharp, Kehinde Wiley
Landscape: Dan Attoe, Peter Barrickman, Amy Bennett, Michael Berryhill, Patrick Chamberlain, Ann Craven, Paula Crown, Cynthia Daignault, Rackstraw Downes, Mari Eastman, Shara Hughes, Brad Killam, Eva Lundsager, Tyson Reeder, John Riepenhoff, Claire Sherman, Gail Spaien, Spencer Sweeney, Emily Sundblad
This exhibition will include an exhibition catalog that also functions as a genre reader. The exhibition will close with a one-day symposium hosted by Maine College of Art & Design, and featuring a panel discussion moderated by Barry Schwabsky on September 15, 2017.
For more information or to request an interview, please contact Erin Hutton, Director of Exhibitions and Special Projects, Institute of Contemporary Art at Maine College of Art & Design (ICA), 207.699.5025 or ehutton@meca.edu.

ICA at MECA&D: American Genre Painting Symposium
2017-09-15 10:00 - 17:00 | ME
Portland, Maine ~ The Institute of Contemporary Art in conjunction with the Painting and MFA programs at Maine College of Art & Design (MECA&D) is pleased to invite the public to attend On Genre: A Painting Symposium, a daylong series of conversations about the power of painting and the idea of genre as a cultural structure — one that guides interpretation, anticipation and imagination.
This unique community gathering will spotlight and examine the exhibition American Genre: Contemporary Painting, curated by Michelle Grabner, Crown Family Professor of Art at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Nationally and internationally recognized presenters will be joined by an engaged group of artists, arts leaders and students to share perspectives about still life, landscape and portraiture as categories that chart historical continuity and reveal American value systems. A rich opportunity for extended discussion, Grabners’ exhibition is compelling and approachable, and yields great potential for interpretation and reflection on painting and genre as spaces of agreement.
The morning session will begin with a brief overview by Michelle Grabner, followed a keynote lecture entitled Contemporary Genre Painting: Animating the Intimate by Marie Shurkus, Ph.D, Chair of Academic Studies and Professor of Art History at MECA&D. Drawing insight from the feminist tenet that the personal is political, this talk will analyze how contemporary genre paintings invite audiences to participate in an imaginary realm that activates real consequences.
An afternoon panel discussion, Painting as Common Ground, led by Barry Schwabsky, American poet and the art critic for The Nation (the oldest continuously published weekly magazine in the United States), will explore genre and painting as systems that organize, interpret, translate and imagine history and experience. In response to Michelle Grabner's curatorial focus, five panelists Sharon Butler, Angela Dufresne, Shara Hughes, Chris Stiegler and Roger White will share a variety of perspectives and insights about contemporary painting and illuminate the role of genre as a ubiquitous frame of reference. A community event intended to foster cultural dialogue, audience members will be encouraged to take part in an extended question and answer period following the presentation.
On Genre: A Painting Symposium will end with a closing reception in the ICA. For more information, please contact Erin Hutton, Director of Exhibitions and Special Projects, Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) at Maine College of Art & Design at 207.699.5025 or ica@meca.edu .
This event is free and open to the public. Due to limited seating, RSVP to the September 15th Symposium by emailing ica@meca.edu.
Header Artwork: Dan Attoe, Cedar Tree with Creep, 2017

Confabulations of Millennia
2017-10-06 11:00 - 2017-12-08 17:00 | Institute of Contemporary Art at Maine College of Art & Design, first floor
Confabulations of Millennia
On view from October 6–December 8, 2017
Exhibition Reception: Friday, October 6, 2017, 5:00–8:00pm
Melora Kuhn, Waterfall Bust, 2016
Curated by artist Richard Saja, Confabulations of Millennia brings together the works of 19 contemporary artists who take direct inspiration from the 18th and 19th centuries. Using established styles, techniques and objects perfected in the 18th and 19th centuries, the 19 artists assembled deploy history as a springboard in order to speak to the intricacies and inconsistencies of modern life be they social, political or aesthetic.
Artists include: Martha Arquero, John Brauer, Joey Chiarello, Emily Diaz Norton, Douglas Goldberg, Jeremy Hatch, Beth Katleman, Ryan Wilson Kelly, Melora Kuhn, Livia Marin, Oscar Sancho Nin, John O'Reilly, Erin M. Riley, Richard Saja, Anthony Sonnenberg, Ryan Swanson, Vadis Turner, Julia Whitney Barnes, Kehinde Wiley
Masthead Image: Beth Katleman, Hostile Nature, USA (detail), 2014
The ICA at Maine College of Art & Design is free and open to the public. Wednesday–Sunday 11:00am–5:00pm, Thursday 11:00am–7:00pm, and First Fridays 11:00am–8:00pm.

Opening: 'Confabulations of Millennia'
2017-10-06 17:00 - 20:00 | Institute of Contemporary Art at Maine College of Art & Design, first floor
Confabulations of Millennia
On view from October 6 - December 8, 2017
Exhibition Reception: Friday, October 6, 2017, 5:00–8:00pm
Curated by artist Richard Saja, Confabulations of Millennia brings together the works of 19 contemporary artists who take direct inspiration from the 18th and 19th centuries. Using established styles, techniques and objects perfected in the 18th and 19th centuries, the 19 artists assembled deploy history as a springboard in order to speak to the intricacies and inconsistencies of modern life be they social, political or aesthetic.
Melora Kuhn, Waterfall Bust, 2016
Artists include: Martha Arquero, John Brauer, Joey Chiarello, Emily Diaz Norton, Douglas Goldberg, Jeremy Hatch, Beth Katleman, Ryan Wilson Kelly, Melora Kuhn, Livia Marin, Oscar Sancho Nin, John O'Reilly, Erin M. Riley, Richard Saja, Anthony Sonnenberg, Ryan Swanson, Vadis Turner, Julia Whitney Barnes
Masthead Image: Beth Katleman, Hostile Nature, USA (detail), 2014
The ICA at Maine College of Art & Design is free and open to the public. Wednesday–Sunday 11:00am–5:00pm, Thursday 11:00am–7:00pm, and First Fridays 11:00am–8:00pm.

Opening: 2017 Salt Alumni Exhibition
2017-10-06 17:00 - 20:00 | ICA at MECA&D, 522 Congress St., Portland, Maine, 04101, United States
2017 Salt Alumni Exhibition
October 6–November 10, 2017
Opening Reception: Friday, October 6, 2017, 5:00-8:00pm
Artists at Work Gallery, First Floor, Porteous Building
This exhibition features the work of thirteen alumni from the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies, which is now a graduate certificate program at MECA&D. As we welcome Salt to campus— Fall 2017 students are the inaugural class – we honor the history of Salt and its long commitment to documentary storytelling.
Featured artists include: Abigail Holtzman '14, Adam Kampe '05, Alexandra Marvar '06, David Foster '10, Douglas W. Milliken '05, Grace Mendenhall '13, Jodie Goodnough '07, Kristin Moe '12, Molly Graham '09, Morgan Springer '14, Posey Gruener '05, Stephanie Mitchell '95, Thalassa Raasch '12.
Thalassa Raasch, Dessert from the series Rim Road, 2015

Q&A + Exhibition Walkthrough: Confabulations of Millennia
2017-10-07 11:00 - 13:00 | ME
Join us in the ICA at MECA&D for a Q&A and Exhibition Walk-Through — with Guest Curator Richard Saja and the artists from Opening: 'Confabulations of Millennia' exhibition.
Richard Saja, Guest Curator. Participating Artists: Erin M. Riley, Melora Kuhn, Beth Katleman, and Anthony Sonnenberg
Artwork in Header:
Richard Saja, A Three Day Party (detail), 2016
Confabulations of Millennia
On view from October 6 - December 8, 2017
Exhibition Reception: Friday, October 6, 2017, 5:00–8:00pm
Melora Kuhn, Waterfall Bust, 2016
Curated by artist Richard Saja, Confabulations of Millennia brings together the works of 19 contemporary artists who take direct inspiration from the 18th and 19th centuries. Using established styles, techniques and objects perfected in the 18th and 19th centuries, the 19 artists assembled deploy history as a springboard in order to speak to the intricacies and inconsistencies of modern life be they social, political or aesthetic.
Artists include: Martha Arquero, John Brauer, Joey Chiarello, Emily Diaz Norton, Douglas Goldberg, Jeremy Hatch, Beth Katleman, Ryan Wilson Kelly, Melora Kuhn, Livia Marin, Oscar Sancho Nin, John O'Reilly, Erin M. Riley, Richard Saja, Anthony Sonnenberg, Ryan Swanson, Vadis Turner, Julia Whitney Barnes
Masthead Image: Beth Katleman, Hostile Nature, USA (detail), 2014
The ICA at Maine College of Art & Design is free and open to the public. Wednesday–Sunday 11:00am–5:00pm, Thursday 11:00am–7:00pm, and First Fridays 11:00am–8:00pm.

'Off the Wall' Exhibition
2018-01-18 11:00 - 2018-02-23 17:00 | ME
Off the Wall
On view from January 18 - February 23, 2018
Exhibition Reception: Thursday, January 18, 2018, 5:00–7:00pm
In 1966, German-born American sculptor Eva Hesse attached a seemingly simple long metal cord to a canvas that dramatically transformed a painting into a sculpture. Such a simple act revolutionized our understanding of what a painting could be. By privileging the painting’s marginal feature—the frame, its structural support — Hang Up transcends the medium’s inherent two-dimensionality.
Rosy Keyser, 'Skeleton'
Off the Wall pays homage to Hesse’s groundbreaking work and investigates how contemporary artists continue to explore this liminal space between painting and sculpture. At times, a painting’s skin slides onto the floor or creeps onto the ceiling. In others, structural components protrude outward into the gallery space. As our spatial relationship with such works is reconfigured, objects on view in Off the Wall permeate into space and challenge our comprehension of both painting and sculpture. To provide an intimate perspective on this topic, Off the Wall will feature a range of works by two Brooklyn-based artists, Rosy Keyser and Ryan Wallace. A representative sampling of work will be presented by each artist to provoke thought about the shifting dynamics between painting and sculpture or sculpture and painting as well as their collision. The exhibition will be accompanied by a catalog with an essay by guest curator Jaime DeSimone.
Artist Biographies
Rosy Keyser (born 1974, Baltimore, MD) lives and works in Brooklyn, NY and Medusa, NY. Keyser received a BFA from Cornell University and an MFA from School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Recent solo exhibitions include Maccarone, NY/LA, Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin, Lora Reynolds, Austin TX, Freddy, Baltimore, Karma, New York and Peter Blum, New York. Keyser has been included in exhibitions at Louisiana Museum of Art, Humlabaek Denmark, Hauser and Wirth, New York, NY, The Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN, and The Chianti Foundation, Marfa TX. Her work is in the permanent Collection of The Portland Art Museum, Portland ME, The Louisiana Museum of Art, Humlabaek DK, The Zabludowicz Collection, London UK, and The Walker Art Center, Minneapolis MN.
Ryan Wallace was born in 1977 in New York City, and lives and works in Brooklyn and East Hampton, New York. He received his BFA from Rhode Island School of Design. Recent solo exhibitions include Susan Inglett Gallery, NYC; 56 Henry, NYC; Cooper Cole Gallery, Toronto; Romer Young Gallery, San Francisco; and the Window on Broad, Rosenwald Wolf Gallery, University of the Arts, Philadelphia. His work has been exhibited at The Elaine de Kooning House, East Hampton, Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art, University of Nevada Las Vegas; BAM, Brooklyn; Albada Jelgersma, Amsterdam; Jerome Pauchant Gallery, Paris; and Anat Ebgi, Los Angeles among others. Wallace’s works can be found in the collections of the RISD Museum, Providence; Museum of Modern Art, New York; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, California; Marjorie Barrick Museum, Las Vegas, and the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, among others.
Guest Curator
Jaime DeSimone
With over twelve years of curatorial experience in contemporary art, Curator Jaime DeSimone conceives and implements the exhibition program and manages the Permanent Collection at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) Jacksonville. Most recently, DeSimone has curated Project Atrium: Gabriel Dawe, Synthesize: Art + Music, and Confronting the Canvas: Women of Abstraction, the first museum show to focus on contemporary female abstract painters. She was previously the exhibitions project manager at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts, where she managed a portfolio of exhibitions, including Calder and Abstraction and FreePort No. 008: Celeste Boursier-Mougenot . From 2005 to 2012, DeSimone served as the assistant curator at the Addison Gallery of American Art, located on the campus of Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, where she curated a number of exhibitions, including Flash Back: November 23, 1963 (2013), The Civil War: Unfolding Dialogues (2011), and Kara Walker: Harper's Pictorial History of the Civil War (Annotated) (2008). She holds a master's degree in American contemporary art from American University (2005) and a bachelor's degree in art history from Bates College (2001).
For more information or to request an interview, please contact MECA&D’s Director of Exhibitions and Special Projects, Erin Hutton, at 207.699.5025 or ehutton@meca.edu.
The ICA at Maine College of Art & Design is free and open to the public. Wednesday–Sunday 11:00am–5:00pm, Thursday 11:00am–7:00pm, and First Fridays 11:00am–8:00pm.
Masthead Image: Ryan Wallace, Dragnalus, 2016

'Off the Wall' Opening Reception
2018-01-18 17:00 - 19:00 | ME
Off the Wall
On view from January 18 - February 23, 2018
Exhibition Reception: Thursday, January 18, 2018, 5:00–7:00pm
Rosy Keyser, 'Skeleton'
In 1966, German-born American sculptor Eva Hesse attached a seemingly simple long metal cord to a canvas that dramatically transformed a painting into a sculpture. Such a simple act revolutionized our understanding of what a painting could be. By privileging the painting’s marginal feature—the frame, its structural support — Hang Up transcends the medium’s inherent two-dimensionality.
Off the Wall pays homage to Hesse’s groundbreaking work and investigates how contemporary artists continue to explore this liminal space between painting and sculpture. At times, a painting’s skin slides onto the floor or creeps onto the ceiling. In others, structural components protrude outward into the gallery space. As our spatial relationship with such works is reconfigured, objects on view in Off the Wall permeate into space and challenge our comprehension of both painting and sculpture. To provide an intimate perspective on this topic, Off the Wall will feature a range of works by two Brooklyn-based artists, Rosy Keyser and Ryan Wallace. A representative sampling of work will be presented by each artist to provoke thought about the shifting dynamics between painting and sculpture or sculpture and painting as well as their collision. The exhibition will be accompanied by a catalog with an essay by guest curator Jaime DeSimone.
Artist Biographies
Rosy Keyser (born 1974, Baltimore, MD) lives and works in Brooklyn, NY and Medusa, NY. Keyser received a BFA from Cornell University and an MFA from School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Recent solo exhibitions include Maccarone, NY/LA, Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin, Lora Reynolds, Austin TX, Freddy, Baltimore, Karma, New York and Peter Blum, New York. Keyser has been included in exhibitions at Louisiana Museum of Art, Humlabaek Denmark, Hauser and Wirth, New York, NY, The Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN, and The Chianti Foundation, Marfa TX. Her work is in the permanent Collection of The Portland Art Museum, Portland ME, The Louisiana Museum of Art, Humlabaek DK, The Zabludowicz Collection, London UK, and The Walker Art Center, Minneapolis MN.
Ryan Wallace was born in 1977 in New York City, and lives and works in Brooklyn and East Hampton, New York. He received his BFA from Rhode Island School of Design. Recent solo exhibitions include Susan Inglett Gallery, NYC; 56 Henry, NYC; Cooper Cole Gallery, Toronto; Romer Young Gallery, San Francisco; and the Window on Broad, Rosenwald Wolf Gallery, University of the Arts, Philadelphia. His work has been exhibited at The Elaine de Kooning House, East Hampton, Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art, University of Nevada Las Vegas; BAM, Brooklyn; Albada Jelgersma, Amsterdam; Jerome Pauchant Gallery, Paris; and Anat Ebgi, Los Angeles among others. Wallace’s works can be found in the collections of the RISD Museum, Providence; Museum of Modern Art, New York; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, California; Marjorie Barrick Museum, Las Vegas, and the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, among others.
Guest Curator
Jaime DeSimone
With over twelve years of curatorial experience in contemporary art, Curator Jaime DeSimone conceives and implements the exhibition program and manages the Permanent Collection at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) Jacksonville. Most recently, DeSimone has curated Project Atrium: Gabriel Dawe, Synthesize: Art + Music, and Confronting the Canvas: Women of Abstraction, the first museum show to focus on contemporary female abstract painters. She was previously the exhibitions project manager at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts, where she managed a portfolio of exhibitions, including Calder and Abstraction and FreePort No. 008: Celeste Boursier-Mougenot . From 2005 to 2012, DeSimone served as the assistant curator at the Addison Gallery of American Art, located on the campus of Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, where she curated a number of exhibitions, including Flash Back: November 23, 1963 (2013), The Civil War: Unfolding Dialogues (2011), and Kara Walker: Harper's Pictorial History of the Civil War (Annotated) (2008). She holds a master's degree in American contemporary art from American University (2005) and a bachelor's degree in art history from Bates College (2001).
For more information or to request an interview, please contact MECA&D’s Director of Exhibitions and Special Projects, Erin Hutton, at 207.699.5025 or ehutton@meca.edu.
The ICA at Maine College of Art & Design is free and open to the public. Wednesday–Sunday 11:00am–5:00pm, Thursday 11:00am–7:00pm, and First Fridays 11:00am–8:00pm.
Masthead Image: Ryan Wallace, Dragnalus, 2016

STILL STANDING: The Abyssinian Meeting House Story Archive
2018-01-24 09:00 - 2018-02-24 17:00 | ICA at MECA&D, 522 Congress St., Portland, Maine, 04101, United States
STILL STANDING, The Abyssinian Meeting House Story Archive
Opens Friday (Artwalk), February 2, 2018
On view January 24—February 24, 2018
Artists at Work Project Space
SALT Program in Documentary Studies will be conducting live interviews and audio recording on first Friday, February 2 and there will be a Story Circle event on Saturday, February 3 from 3-6PM. All events are free and open to the public.

The Public Engagement Program at Maine College of Art & Design presents the exhibition STILL STANDING, The Abyssinian Meeting House Story Archive, to be held at Maine College of Art & Design. The show is a culmination of a three year oral history and storytelling project with elders and community leaders from Portland and students at MECA&D.
The Abyssinian Meeting House is full of great stories. In 1866 it survived The Great Fire when fireman and member William Wilberforce Ruby saved it by covering it in wet blankets courtesy of spring running through the building’s basement. The Abyssinian Meeting House functioned as a cultural center and a leading contributor to The Underground Railroad. After years of vacancy, this cultural center was almost lost again in the 1970’s when it was slated for demolition by the city. Deborah Cummings Khadraoui rediscovered this important cultural center and catalyzed its restoration. As the third oldest African American meeting house in the country, The Abyssinian Meeting House is an important American cultural landmark.
For the past three years, students in the Public Engagement class Storytelling 101 have collaborated with The Abyssinian Meeting House to celebrate its story. For this project, students interviewed African American elders in Maine, to create an archive of stories to be housed at The Abyssinian Meeting House. By documenting these stories, the partnership aimed to honor the contribution and experience of African American elders by creating an archive of stories for future generations. Still Standing is the culminating event to celebrate the importance of African American experiences in Portland and communicate the significance of this history in the state of Maine.
The exhibition features audio, text and photographs from all three years of the project. The exhibition opens on first Friday, February 2, 2018 and runs from January 24, 2018–February 24, 2018 in the Artists at Work Gallery at 522 Congress Street, Portland. Students from the SALT Program in Documentary Studies will be conducting live interviews and audio recording on first Friday, February 2 and there will be a Story Circle event on Saturday, February 3 from 3:00-6:00PM. All events are free and open to the public.
Header
Lelia DeAndrade at the 2016 Still Standing event in the ICA. (Photography by Kyle Dubay '18)
For more information contact
Elizabeth A. Jabar, Associate Dean + Director of Public Engagement, ejabar@meca.edu
Quote from one of the interviews:
Because the true story of the black community, the African Americans in Maine, in Portland, they’ve done an awful lot of good. History books have not been kind to the African Americans here in Maine, or in Portland. But we’re changing that. We’re the Abyssinian, we’re changing that. Make sure the history books at least tell part of the story, the true story. At least from this point on, if anybody beat the drum I think we beat the drum, we helped make Portland a better place to live for the people that were here as well as for my family. — Leonard Cummings

World Premiere of Burrow: Revisited
2018-02-02 19:00 - 20:00 | ME
Maine College of Art & Design presents the world premiere of Burrow: Revisited, a collaborative performance piece by sound artist Alex Waterman and Assistant Professor Seth Rogoff.

Portraits:
Left: Sound artist Alex Waterman.
Right: MECA&D Assistant Professor Seth Rogoff
Burrow: Revisited is a collaborative performance piece by world-class musician and sound artist Alex Waterman and MECA&D Assistant Professor, writer, and scholar Seth Rogoff, premiering at the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) at Maine College of Art & Design (MECA&D) at 7pm on Friday, February 2, 2018, during the First Friday Artwalk. The performance, based on a prose piece written by Rogoff that engages with and interprets Franz Kafka’s short story “The Burrow,” explores our shrinking privacy and how the disruptive quality of sound shapes our personal and social lives. An interactive discussion will follow the performance.
Structured as a fictional lecture that is delivered to an imagined class, Burrow: Revisited offers an interaction with literature that is non-academic and explorative, probing exciting new ways of transmitting, teaching, and enjoying literary work. Alex Waterman, a New Music composer who is deeply interested in how to create artificial soundscapes in order to provide multi-dimensional imaginary landscapes for the audience, has created an original score.
Burrow: Revisited takes place in the Institute of Contemporary Art at MECA&D, an established art space that features innovative exhibitions and public programs that showcase new perspectives and trends in contemporary art. This project is funded in part by an Arts & Humanities grant from the Maine Arts Commission, an independent state agency supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Maine Humanities Council.

You Never Know How You Look Through Other People's Eyes
2018-03-08 11:00 - 2018-04-20 17:00 | ME
The ICA at Maine College of Art & Design is free and open to the public. Wednesday–Sunday 11:00am–5:00pm, Thursday 11:00am–7:00pm, and First Fridays 11:00am–8:00pm.
You Never Know How You Look Through Other People's Eyes
On view from March 8 - April 20, 2018
Exhibition Reception: Thursday, March 8, 2018, 5:00–8:00pm
Sean Downey, Untitled, 2017
“Cinnamon and sugary and softly spoken lies, you never know just how you look through other people’s eyes.” - Gibby Haynes, 1996
In the summer of 1996 pop culture gave us the songPepperby the Butthole Surfers. Deceptively playful, the lyrics make clear the impossibility of having first-hand knowledge of the self by boldly stating that you can never fully know who you are to someone else. The artists involved allow their works to exist sympathetically and in spite of each other for an exhibition that proposes a state of coexistence at odds with itself. Within this experimental framework they free and restrict through unpredictability. All involved are both collective collaborator and individual practitioner within a complex network that confirms and denies the possibilities of true egalitarianism toward some kind of antagonistic equilibrium. This exhibition is curated by artist Scott Patrick Wiener. Artists include: Sonia Almeida, Paul S. Briggs, Caleb Charland, Sean Downey, Sean Fader, Sean Glover, Jaclyn Jacunski, AJ Liberto, Lilly McElroy, Eric Petitti, Scott Patrick Wiener.
Masthead Image: Jaclyn Jacunski, Lay of the Land (2017-18), process detail, 2017-18

Opening Reception: You Never Know How You Look Through Other People's Eyes
2018-03-08 17:00 - 19:00 | ME
You Never Know How You Look Through Other People's Eyes
Exhibition Reception: Thursday, March 8, 2018, 5:00–7:00pm
On view from March 8 - April 20, 2018
Sean Downey, "Untitled," 2017
“Cinnamon and sugary and softly spoken lies, you never know just how you look through other people’s eyes.” - Gibby Haynes, 1996
In the summer of 1996 pop culture gave us the songPepperby the Butthole Surfers. Deceptively playful, the lyrics make clear the impossibility of having first-hand knowledge of the self by boldly stating that you can never fully know who you are to someone else. The artists involved allow their works to exist sympathetically and in spite of each other for an exhibition that proposes a state of coexistence at odds with itself. Within this experimental framework they free and restrict through unpredictability. All involved are both collective collaborator and individual practitioner within a complex network that confirms and denies the possibilities of true egalitarianism toward some kind of antagonistic equilibrium. This exhibition is curated by artist Scott Patrick Wiener. Artists include: Sonia Almeida, Paul S. Briggs, Caleb Charland, Sean Downey, Sean Fader, Sean Glover, Jaclyn Jacunski, AJ Liberto, Lilly McElroy, Eric Petitti, Scott Patrick Wiener.
Masthead Image: Caleb Charland, Cube with Phosphorescent Particles (cropped), 2015, Pigmented ink print , 40×32 inches
The ICA at Maine College of Art & Design is free and open to the public. Wednesday–Sunday 11:00am–5:00pm, Thursday 11:00am–7:00pm, and First Fridays 11:00am–8:00pm.

Q+A and Exhibition Walkthrough: You Never Know How You Look Through Other People's Eyes
2018-04-06 15:30 - 16:30 | Institute of Contemporary Art at Maine College of Art & Design, first floor
Q+A and Exhibition Walkthrough:
You Never Know How You Look Through Other People's Eyes
Friday, April 6, 2018 - 3:30PM
Join us in the ICA at MECA&D for a Q&A and Exhibition Walk-Through — with Guest Curator Scott Patrick Wiener and the participating artists from the exhibition.
Participating Artists: Sean Fader, Sean Downey, Sean Glover

MECA&Dmorphosis Runway Fashion Show 2018
2018-05-04 19:00 - 21:00 | ME

EXHIBITION: Photographs by Sebastião Salgado
2018-07-26 - 2018-12-31 | Selma Wolf Black Great Hall, Portland Museum of Art, 7 Congress Square, Portland, ME, 04101, United States
A selected exhibition of photographs by photographer Sebastião Salgado.
>> Click here to return to Exhibition Affiliated Events Calendar <<

Curious Nature: 2018 Alumni Triennial
2018-08-03 11:00 - 2018-09-15 17:00 | Institute of Contemporary Art at Maine College of Art & Design, first floor
Curious Nature: 2018 Alumni Triennial
On view from August 3 – September 15, 2018
Exhibition Opening: Friday, August 3, 2018, 5:00–8:00pm
Institute of Contemporary Art at Maine College of Art & Design
ICA Gallery hours: Wed–Sun, 11:00am–5:00pm, Thurs, 11:00am–7:00pm, Friday, 11:00am–5:00pm, (FFAW until 8:00pm)
Curious Nature brings together a diverse group of artists who draw inspiration from the natural world. Employing various mediums, from painting to sculpture, photography, and installation, their works are rooted in the act of looking closer.
The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness. - John Muir
“These artists explore our relationship with the natural world through investigating the structure of reality, daily rhythms, beauty, texture, and emergent patterns. Focusing their attention on places and processes that are often overlooked, they illuminate the various forces affecting ecosystems and the environment that surrounds us. Their perspectives range from the micro and macro, revealing new views of familiar terrain. In an attempt to capture that which is in a state of constant transformation, they record their surroundings, yielding works that inspire our own sense of awe, inviting us to both celebrate nature and protect it.” -- Guest Curator, Shannon Rankin ’97.
Rankin’s selections include fifteen artists exhibiting diverse works that range from painting, printmaking and photography, to sculpture, ceramics, metalwork and installation. Artists include: Annika Earley MFA ’16, Kristin Fitzpatrick ’13, Danielle Gerber ’12, Alisha Gould MFA ’10, Kayla Goulden ’13, Lenka Konopasek MFA ’01, Mark Marchesi ’99, Tessa Greene O'Brien MFA ’16, Isabelle O'Donnell ’17, Catherine Quattrociocchi ’17, Sam Richardson ’15, Celeste Roberge ’79, Bryan Stryeski ’01, Sarah Camille Wilson ’07 and Charley Young MFA ’14.
Learn more
Masthead Image: Danielle Gerber, Canyon, 2012, bronze, brass, spray paint.

Opening of Curious Nature: 2018 Alumni Triennial
2018-08-03 17:00 - 20:00 | Institute of Contemporary Art at Maine College of Art & Design, first floor
Curious Nature: 2018 Alumni Triennial
On view from August 3 – September 15, 2018
Exhibition Opening: Friday, August 3, 2018, 5:00–8:00pm
Institute of Contemporary Art at Maine College of Art & Design
ICA Gallery hours: Wed–Sun, 11:00am–5:00pm, Thurs, 11:00am–7:00pm, Friday, 11:00am–5:00pm, (FFAW until 8:00pm)
Curious Nature brings together a diverse group of artists who draw inspiration from the natural world. Employing various mediums, from painting to sculpture, photography, and installation, their works are rooted in the act of looking closer.
The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness. - John Muir
“These artists explore our relationship with the natural world through investigating the structure of reality, daily rhythms, beauty, texture, and emergent patterns. Focusing their attention on places and processes that are often overlooked, they illuminate the various forces affecting ecosystems and the environment that surrounds us. Their perspectives range from the micro and macro, revealing new views of familiar terrain. In an attempt to capture that which is in a state of constant transformation, they record their surroundings, yielding works that inspire our own sense of awe, inviting us to both celebrate nature and protect it.” -- Guest Curator, Shannon Rankin ’97.
Rankin’s selections include fifteen artists exhibiting diverse works that range from painting, printmaking and photography, to sculpture, ceramics, metalwork and installation. Artists include: Annika Earley MFA ’16, Kristin Fitzpatrick ’13, Danielle Gerber ’12, Alisha Gould MFA ’10, Kayla Goulden ’13, Lenka Konopasek MFA ’01, Mark Marchesi ’99, Tessa Greene O'Brien MFA ’16, Isabelle O'Donnell ’17, Catherine Quattrociocchi ’17, Sam Richardson ’15, Celeste Roberge ’79, Bryan Stryeski ’01, Sarah Camille Wilson ’07 and Charley Young MFA ’14.
Learn more
Masthead Image: Celeste Roberge, Agarum Clathratum, Cyanotype on Somerset paper, 30" x 22", 2014.
Photography Credit: Robert Diamante. Printed at: University of South Florida, St. Petersburg, FL. Collection of the Artist.

Listing of all 'Traces' Events (107): Fall 2018
2018-09-08 08:00 - 2018-12-31 17:00 | ME

Lecture: Martina Castro | Maine College of Art & Design Visiting Artist
2018-09-18 18:00 - 19:00 | Maine College of Art & Design, 522 Congress Street, Portland, ME, 04101, United States
Martina Castro, founder of Adonde Media and co-founder of Radio Ambulante, will discuss storytelling and podcasting in the Americas as part of MECA&D's Visiting Artist lecture series. The talk will be hosted in MECA&D's Osher Hall.

Martina Castro is a bilingual radio producer, sound designer and podcast consultant. She is CEO & Founder of Adonde Media, a new podcast production company and the Spanish-language podcast community, Podcaster@s. Over her career she has worked at NPR and KALW, including cofounding and producing NPR's Radio Ambulante.
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Martina Castro es una productora de radio, diseñadora de sonido y asesora de podcasts bilingüe. Ella es CEO y fundadora de Adonde Media, una nueva productora de podcast y de la comunidad de podcast en español, Podcaster@s. A lo largo de su carrera ha trabajado en NPR y KALW y es cofundadora del podcast Radio Ambulante de NPR.

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Opening Reception for 'Making Migration Visible: Traces, Tracks & Pathways' | MECA&D
2018-10-05 17:00 - 20:00 | ICA at MECA&D, 522 Congress St., Portland, Maine, 04101, United States
The opening night of the featured Making Migration Visible: Traces, Tracks & Pathways exhibition at MECA&D's Institute of Contemporary Art.
Find more information about the exhibition at meca.edu/traces

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Traces | Exhibition: VR Pop-up: At the Periphery | @ MECA&D
2018-10-11 18:00 - 19:00 | Maine College of Art & Design, 522 Congress Street, Portland, ME, 04101, United States
Virtual reality filmmakers Daniel Quintanilla and UnitedYES, working with the Yarn Corporation, will be in the gallery to share At the Periphery, a virtual experience that explores the often paradoxical idea of "visibility" as it relates to the immigrant experience. In this virtual journey, one is transported to spaces occupied temporarily or permanently by immigrant communities in Maine: a seasonal blueberry camp, a community farm organized by refugees, a takeout restaurant.
This event will be hosted in the Institute of Contemporary Art at MECA&D.

Traces | READING: Refuge Malja ملجأ | @ MECA&D
2018-10-18 17:00 - 17:30 | Maine College of Art & Design, 522 Congress Street, Portland, ME, 04101, United States
A reading from Refuge Malja ملجأ by Bess Welden with Arabic translation by Ali Al
Mshakheel. A scene from the play Refuge Malja ملجأ will be read in English and Arabic.
Portland Stage will present Refuge Malja ملجأ as a full lenth production October 30 –
November 18, 2018. Short discussion regarding the play to follow.
This reading will be hosted by the Institute of Contemporary Art at MECA&D.

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Closing Reception | Tim Bavington: Rock & Roll Abstraction
2018-10-19 17:00 - 19:00 | ME
Closing Reception: Tim Bavington: Rock & Roll Abstraction Oct. 19, 5–7pm
Abstract painter translates Rolling Stones, Beatles, Cream, and Jimi Hendrix songs into visual experiences
Dedicated to using music and art as a gateway to learning, the Bob Crewe Gallery at Maine College of Art & Design (MECA&D) is exhibiting Tim Bavington: Rock & Roll Abstraction July 13 through October 19. The pieces are on loan from the artist and Morgan Lehman Gallery in New York.
British-born, Las Vegas-based Bavington uses a unique system of pairing musical notes with specific hues of color to represent some of his favorite rock and roll songs of the sixties and seventies. Music by the Rolling Stones, Cream, the Beatles, and Jimi Hendrix form the foundation of his work. Among the songs depicted in the exhibition are “Hey Joe” by Jimi Hendrix, “Kansas City” by the Beatles, “A Kind of Magic” by Queen, “Secret Agent” by Chick Corea, “(back to) Black (addicted)” by Amy Winehouse, and “Let My Love Open The Door” by Pete Townsend.
“Tim Bavington’s work offers an innovative way to deconstruct music into color and form,” said guest curator Jaime DeSimone. “He uses bright, vividly colored stripes to represent the musical notes in the base lines, rhythms, and string solos of each song.” DeSimone previously organized Synthesize: Art + Music for the Museum of Contemporary Art Jacksonville.
“Bridging the disciplines of both art and music, Tim Bavington’s intimate drawings alongside large-scale abstract paintings help to cultivate creativity, critical thinking, and self-expression, all goals of the Bob Crewe Gallery,” said Erin Hutton, Director of Exhibitions and Special Projects, MECA&D.
Free and open to the public. A closing reception and opportunity to meet the artist will be held on Friday, October 19 at 5–7pm.

About the Bob Crewe Gallery at Maine College of Art & Design
Named after the legendary record producer, songwriter and artist Bob Crewe (1930-2014), the Bob Crewe Gallery at Maine College of Art & Design presents the work of Bob Crewe and explores the connections between music and visual arts by contemporary local, national and international artists.
Contact
Sue McGovern
​smcgovern@meca.edu
(781) 315-3400

Traces | VR Pop-up: At the Periphery #2 | @ MECA&D
2018-10-25 17:00 - 19:00 | ME

Traces | SYMPOSIUM: Art + Politics | @ MECA&D
2018-11-02 09:30 - 17:30 | Maine College of Art & Design, 522 Congress Street, Portland, ME, 04101, United States

Traces | MUSIC + POETRY: Culture + Displacement | @ MECA&D
2018-11-08 17:00 - 18:30 | Maine College of Art & Design, 522 Congress Street, Portland, ME, 04101, United States

Traces | FILM: Infiltrators by Khaled Jarrar | @ MECA&D
2018-11-09 18:00 - 20:00 | Maine College of Art & Design, 522 Congress Street, Portland, ME, 04101, United States

Traces | PANEL: ACLU/ILAP on US Immigration Policy | @ MECA&D
2018-11-15 17:30 - 19:00 | Maine College of Art & Design, 522 Congress Street, Portland, ME, 04101, United States
