Maine's art pulse

Portland Museum of Art"s Biennial highlights unconventional landscapes

Every two years the Portland Museum of Art presents the much-anticipated Biennial, which serves as a snapshot of Maine"s contemporary art scene. Each show differs depending on the aesthetic sensibilities of the three jurors chosen to curate the show, and this year"s exhibition is defined by seven large scale installations with back-up from a thoughtfully selected grouping of paintings, photographs and films. According to curator Susan Danly, who worked closely with this year"s jurors, the show"s broad theme can be summed up as "contemporary artists looking at landscape in new ways."

This novel approach to landscape reproduction shows clearly in the first piece visitors encounter: Ethan Hayes-Chute"s "Hermitage." This massive work fills the Great Hall in a life-sized homage to Maine"s backwoods vernacular architecture. Hayes-Chute, who grew up in Freeport and now lives in Germany, intends the work to provoke feelings of isolation and solitude, but with the public"s ability to enter and explore this hermit house (and its associated outhouse), the piece contains an unmistakable voyeuristic appeal and equates the manmade landscape with more pristine views.

A towering wall confronts visitors when they enter the main gallery, helping guide each person into the space. As you round the corner, the piece spills out in undulating waves of Sheetrock bricks reminiscent of the ocean lapping at Maine"s shore. It speaks to the way humans alter our landscape, while hinting at issues of human detritus washing ashore on our beaches. The installation is called "Falsework" and is the creation of Wade Kavanaugh, who splits his time between Brooklyn and Brunswick.

Deeper inside the gallery, Sean Foley's colorful installation "Menace" looms large. This work by the former Maine College of Art professor who now resides in Ohio, combines his signature animation-inspired canvases with a mural and three-dimensional sculptural pieces. This work references the graphically-intense urban landscape and our growing immersion in a manufactured digital world.

Nearby South Portland artist Andy Rosen presents an imaginary woodland scene titled "Let's not and say we did." Composed of a never-before-seen furry creature and deteriorating moss covered tree, the sculpture speaks to the unfettered landscapes of our inner fantasies.

With a complementary form to Rosen"s piece, Bronx and Skowhegan artist Melissa A. Calder—n"s "Permanence of Pain" consists of a silver tissue box spewing forth a cascade of cried upon tissues. Here the landscape reference turns even deeper inward as it represents a physical manifestation of personal anguish.

In his work "Thumper," Sam van Aken, who splits his time between Syracuse, NY and Portland, turns the landscape of sound into a tangible form. The work, which consists of 80 subwoofers woven into the shape of geodesic dome, brings the intrusive and often unwelcome booming bass of a passing car into the defined and deliberately created gallery space.

The final installation is "Visonary" by Susan Prince Thompson of Wilton, NH. Her work consists of brown paper bags adorned with lacy cutouts and hung Tibetan prayer flag style. It's a landscape filled with references to sacred traditions and the enduring human emotion of hope.

- Avery Yale Kamila

[The jurors for this year's Biennial are Elizabeth Burke, an art consultant, Denise Markonish, curator at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, and Dan Graham, a video, installation and performance artist. Additional artists with work in the show are Eric Aho, Mary Aro, Dozier Bell, Tillman Crane, A. Jacob Galle, Ilana Halperin, Tanja Alexia Hollander, Steven Perkins, Julianna Swaney and Susan Hayre Thelwell. The Biennial remains on view until June 7. FMI visit www.portlandmuseum.org.]

Small works, big deals

Popular 10 x 10 show returns with $200 art

They took a break last year, but the artists who organize the always well attended "10 x 10" show reunite this month for a 20th anniversary exhibition and sale. This year"s art frenzy takes place at the June Fitzpatrick Gallery at the Maine College of Art on Congress Street in Portland. The show opens Friday, April 24 from 5-8 pm and continues the following day from 10 am-2 pm.

Each work on view in the show measures 10-inches by 10-inches and sells for $200. The show is divided between current members of the 10 x 10 group, who will each offer 10 works on Friday and 10 different works on Saturday, and alumni, who will offer one work on Friday and one on Saturday. Member artists include Carol Bass, Kate Cheney Chappell, Rebecca Goodale, Lindsay Hancock, Pat Hardy, M.R. Hedstrom, Gail Page, Robert Shetterly, Sharon Townshend and Michael Walek.

Alumni artists include Josefena Auslender, Chris Ayres, Edgar Allen Beem, Bill Curtsinger, Brita Holmquist, Eric Hopkins, Kate Mahoney, Natasha Mayers, Marjorie Moore, Meg Brown Payson, Nikki Schuman, Abby Shahn, Alice Spencer and Richard Wilson.

FMI call Pat Hardy at 676-2685 or email her at pshardy@maine.rr.com. The gallery is located at 522 Congress St., Portland.]

- Avery Yale Kamila