Sorting through the CMCA’s Biennial

By NICHOLAS SCHROEDER | October 10, 2012

Biennial exhibitions tend toward the conservative, and the experience of this year's CMCA retrospective doesn't wholly manage to dash the trend. While that could be a reflection of the museum's dwindling submission rate — 415 artists submitted for 10 slots, down more than 200 from 2010 and 300 from 2008 — it's more likely a matter of space and curation. Those collected here deserve to be seen on their own terms, but the fact remains that no combination of seventeen artists can provide an accurate cross-section of the state's best contemporary art without severely limiting the definition.

"2012 CMCA BIENNIAL EXHIBITION" | at the Center for Maine Contemporary Art, 162 Russell Ave, Rockport | Through Dec 2 | 207.236.2875

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Topics: Museum And Gallery , Museums, Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Art, More

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ARTICLES BY NICHOLAS SCHROEDER

SPENCER MCCALL’S BEWILDERING THE INSTITUTE | May 10, 2013
Ostensibly, the first feature film by Spencer McCall seeks to provide a portrait of a San Francisco organization called the Jejune Institute, whose mission hovers somewhere between the poles of self-help, performance art, disinformation, and an alternate-reality game. But if this is a portrait, we're not in art class anymore.

JAMES MARSHALL ESCAPES FLATNESS AT ICON | May 03, 2013
In the first show of the season at the always engaging Icon Contemporary Art, James Marshall's collection of new works breathes life into the paper bag. Literally.

DESIGNTEX STAFFERS STRUT THEIR STUFF AT SPACE | April 24, 2013
"Surface Tension," the fantastic exhibit at SPACE Gallery, is a gorgeous set of oddities, surfaces, and structures, and issues a strong challenge to visual perception using remarkable techniques re-imagining the limits of texture, conception, and color.

THE EYES HAVE IT | April 17, 2013
The paradoxes in Brenda, the rock band of three (or sometimes four) members split geographically between Portland and New York, are hard to iron out.

UNE’S WOMEN PIONEERS DEEPEN INQUIRY | April 04, 2013
Third of four in the UNE Art Gallery's series of Maine Women Pioneers, the curators describe "Worldview" as an exhibit of artists "who are connected to their world . . . inspired by ethics, emotions, and existential holistic themes, as activists, healers, and visionaries." That's a definition with a pretty broad reach