The 2009 PMA Biennial steps awkwardly forward
By IAN PAIGE | April 8, 2009
LOOKS BETTER IN THE CATALOG Sam van Aken's "Thumper," from 2007. |
Two years ago, I wrote about the '07 Biennial's senses of scope and adventure, though it was also sprawling and inconsistent, as a comforting mirror image of the Maine art world's idiosyncratic inclusiveness. I eagerly anticipated the tighter focus of this year's exhibition as our state's calling card for a worldwide contemporary dialogue. Although no one piece in this spartan biennial is lacking in value, the collective effect is one destined to get lost in the Rolodex. If I didn't know better what Maine artists have to offer, I'd be asking, "Wait — is | 2009 BIENNIAL | through June 7 | at Portland Museum of Art, 7 Congress Square, Portland | 207.775.6148 |
that all you've got?"The jurors, Elizabeth Burke of New York's long-standing Clementine Gallery, video art pioneer Dan Graham, and Mass MoCA's Denise Markonish, developed a streamlined vision as they confronted a record number of submissions and creatively culled them to a severe 17 artists. There are several impressive large-scale works where magnificence within the museum space is paramount and presence overwhelms previous biennials' occupation of accounting. Unfortunately, many of the works are dwarfed by what should be a savvy sea change heralding what is expected to be a bold new chapter in the PMA's history.
Ethan Hayes-Chute's "Hermitage," a full-scale construction of a cabin in the woods, seizes the viewer upon entry into the museum's large lobby. Coaxed into a voyeuristic fascination, you peruse all the minute details of a life out of context. Every object in every corner has the mysterious aura of story. You leave the immersion eerily affected, but marveling at the hand that created it.
Wade Kavanaugh outdoes himself with the formidable piece that begins the show. The viewer is ushered down a narrow hallway created by a massive wall laid out in compressed-sheetrock bricks. By the time you turn the tight corner, the wall has reached the ceiling to create a spatial vantage point where the only focus is the material. As you are led into the next gallery, the space reopens to reveal a cascading sea of bricks, filling the entire first gallery room. The right angles become choppy waves as the singular becomes mass. All viewpoints reveal new relationships to the space. In a masterful stroke, Kavanaugh transmutes our expectations by manipulating our perceptions.
A. Jacob Galle's ambitious video work, "Spring Fever/Pilgrimage," is a lengthy video narrative that is worth the 20 minutes. Cinema vérité with fixed camera is the rule. The protagonist puts his laundry in the washer, packs his bag with the results, and begins a long hike. Hard edits between landscapes establish an austere sierra through which the artist diligently trudges, slowing the rapid digital medium to nature's crawl. You begin to empathize with the sense of accomplishment that accompanies the summit. Galle performs his appointed task, slowing to a godly pace not of the instantaneous miracle, but of our miraculously small place in the world.
Related:
Summer people, Growing Maine art, Idealist views, More 
- Summer people
Ever wonder why there is so much professional-level art made and shown in Maine, a state with a total population less than that of many minor cities? One answer is that following the fame of people like Winslow Homer, creative types flocked to Maine, often to artists' colonies.
- Growing Maine art
Long ago an art critic of my acquaintance remarked that New York was a border town to Europe, and until fairly recently that was true. Artistic ideas would be born in Europe, often France, and migrate slowly across the Atlantic and take root.
- Idealist views
The path through my various responsibilities has led me to the Portland Museum several times in recent weeks, and along most of the floors. While passing through the Julia Margaret Cameron exhibit of photography I was struck by thoughts about templates created by dominant illusions, and how a consistent sense of an ideal world flowed through Cameron's work.
- Growth + maturity
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- Slideshow: Portland Museum of Art 2009 Biennial
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- Art for art's sake
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- The thinking ass
Before his imagery got captured and turned into poster art backdrops for dorm-room bong-hits, Salvador Dalí imagined it in service of a revolution in consciousness. “Accommodations of Desire: Surrealist Works on Paper Collected by Julien Levy,” at the Portland Museum of Art through this spring, traces the stages and offshoots of this revolution along the axis established by one crucial figure in its history and its dissemination — collector and dealer Julien Levy.
- New discoveries
The show presents works by artists that influenced the Impressionists and artists who were, in turn, influenced by this most powerful of artistic movements.
- Movies are moving, hot dogs are hopping, Binga's is burning
Even as the temperatures drop and we head into hibernation mode for winter, Portland's drinking, dining, nightlife, and shopping scenes continue to evolve. Here's a round-up of comings and goings.
- Less
Topics:
Museum And Gallery
, Dan Graham, Jacob Galle, Sean Foley, More
, Dan Graham, Jacob Galle, Sean Foley, Sean Foley, Portland Museum of Art, Portland Museum of Art, Portland Museum of Art, Biennial, Elizabeth Burke, Less
