‘WINDMILL’ Chromogenic print by William Wegman, 1989, on view with other images of his iconic Weimaraners at the Bowdoin Museum of Art, starting July 13. |
Some parts of Portland may get quiet in the summer, but there's plenty action in the art biz. And lots of cruise-ship visitors this year to quicken the streets a bit.The PORTLAND MUSEUM OF ART has a number of works done in Normandy when it was a gathering place for artists, and is mounting a show of them from its own collection and that of Isabelle and Scott Black in "The Draw of the Normandy Coast, 1860 -1960," opening on June 14.
In between his travels to find far-flung grand vistas, Frederic Edwin Church made a number of trips to Maine. PMA shows 23 oil sketches he made here in "Maine Sublime: Frederic Edwin Church's Landscapes of Mount Desert and Mount Katahdin," opening on June 30.
MAINE COLLEGE OF ART is cutting the ribbon on a woodworking department and also hosting a furniture design conference. Two Portland galleries are marking the event with woodworking and furniture-centric shows. ROSE CONTEMPORARY has "Then & Now," featuring wood sculpture and furniture by MECA alumni and students. JUNE FITZPATRICK also shows furniture and sculpture in wood by Matt Hutton, Jamie Johnston, and Adam John Manley. Both are through June.
For the balance of the summer Rose Contemporary has "Mythologies," featuring Lucinda Bliss, Stephen Burt, Rebecca FitzPatrick, Carrie Scanga, Todd Watts, Tim Wilson, and others.
After a series of rambling group shows, AUCOCISCO anchors its summer with drawings by Will Barnet (who, on the occasion of his 100th birthday has been showing just about everywhere) and his granddaughter, Ellie Porta. Porta's work focuses on women in conflict, as developed through the seven deadly (or interesting) sins and their corresponding virtues. The show opens on July 11 and runs through early August.
Outside of an unfortunate interest in Paul Manship, the TOM VEILLEUX GALLERY in Portland has on view, at any given time, an interesting group of early American modernists, the gallery's central business. Where else in Portland can you find a Max Weber or a Guy Pène du Bois? The gallery is moving from its Market Street location to new rooms at One City Center, starting on June 15.
GREENHUT currently has a show up by Sandra Quinn and will follow it with the paintings of Jeff Bye in July, Tom Paiement in August, and Jon Imber in September.
Call it chauvinism, but I think the best way to go to get out of Portland and be a locavore tourist for a day is to head east. Start in Brunswick at the BOWDOIN COLLEGE MUSEUM OF ART, where William Wegman will be showing selections from 30 years of Maine-inspired work, many of which star his trademark Weimaraners as actors in his photographic dramas. Opens July 13. Dog days.
Farther along Route 1 in Rockport, the CENTER FOR MAINE CONTEMPORARY ART has a show marking its 60th anniversary that includes Katherine Bradford, Fred Lynch, Todd Watts, Mark Wethli, and John Bisbee.
The August show is Samantha Appleton, a photographer from Camden who covered the war in Iraq for three years and was staff photographer in the Obama White House. CMCA also will show paintings by Anne Neely and sculpture by Tom Chapin, part of an ongoing series matching a sculptor and painter. In the interest of full disclosure as well as self-promotion, the downstairs gallery will show a number of my works on paper.
Jerry Salz, the art critic for New York Magazine and Bravo TV's Work of Art, will deliver a lecture celebrating CMCA's 60 years on August 12 at the Rockport Opera House. Tickets for this are available on the CMCA website and will go pretty fast.
