past exhibitions : meca: winter 2008 exhibition series

The Institute of Contemporary Art at Maine College of Art will feature three concurrent exhibitions that explore the nature of passing time. Revisioning Portland; Arthur Ganson: Machines Contemplating Time; and Lisa Young: Transcendence and Temporality will hang in the ICA galleries from January 25 through March 16, 2008. Each component of the program will tackle the theme of time from a unique vantage point, collectively telling a story that is determined through historical, scientific, spiritual and temporal lenses.

REVISIONING PORTLAND
January 25 - March 16, 2008
In the Evans Hunt Gallery, the ICA will present Revisioning Portland. With critical support from the Maine Arts Commision’s American Masterpieces Grant, the Maine College of Art invited renowned photographer Mark Klett to work with BFA photography students on this multifaceted project. Klett traveled to Maine to personally mentor MECA’s young artists in the production of new works for this exhibition. Together, the artists scoured through the collections of the Maine Historical Society, the Maine Historical Preservation Commission, the Portland Public Library and other local institutions to select historic images of Portland. Using these artifacts as a point of departure, they have made new works that capture the effects of passing time on Portland’s landscape. Using diverse artistic strategies, the works on display will track shifts in the physical, cultural, and visual terrain of the city. Exhibition catalog available.

Artists include Ashley Curry, Brandy Clapper, Ashley Earl, Kristina Hansen, Susannah Jordan, Brent Legere, Lindsey Milburn, Ray Pringle, Michelle Taylor-Harris, and Alison Thomas.

The exhibition will also feature a selection of photographs by Mark Klett and will include new works produced specifically for Revisioning Portland. Klett began his career as a geology student at St. Lawrence University, (B.S. 1974) and later studied photography at the Visual Studies Workshop in Rochester, New York (MFA 1977). Klett’s famed projects Second View and Third Views explore notions of time and perceptions of the American West by re-capturing views of the landscape made in comparison to nineteenth century photographs. These landmark works provide the methodology for the Revisioning Portland project. Klett’s work has been presented in numerous solo exhibitions internationally including the Cleveland Museum of Art; University of Tulsa; the National Museum of American Art; Center for Creative Photography; Amon Carter Museum; Art Institute of Chicago; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; and Pace/MacGill Gallery.

REVISIONING PORTLAND IS FUNDED IN PART BY A GRANT FROM THE MAINE ARTS COMMISSION, AN INDEPENDENT STATE AGENCY SUPPORTED BY THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS.

ARTHUR GANSON: MACHINES CONTEMPLATING TIME
January 25 - March 16, 2008
In the Lunder Gallery, the ICA will feature the masterfully engineered sculpture of Arthur Ganson. Both playful and provocatively introspective, these kinetic works have won international acclaim. Using clock-like precision, Ganson’s machines provide evidence of time while retaining the allure of its abstraction. These works march through time, but with a human beat. Ganson’s pairing of invention and expression positions him in the dual role of artist-scientist and presents the opportunity for an interdisciplinary dialog that redefines and merges these distinct cultural models.

“We read objects in motion on both the objective and subjective levels. A machine may be about fabric or grease, but it may also be about thick liquid and sensuous movement. A bit deeper, it may be about meditation or the sense of release. And taken yet another step, it may be about pure invention and the joyfulness in the heart of its creator.” – Arthur Ganson

An ongoing artist-in-residence at MIT, Arthur Ganson has explored kinetic sculpture for twenty years. His work has been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions including an ongoing exhibition at MIT; Centre for Contemporary Art in Trondheim, Norway; McColl Center for the Arts in Charlotte, North Carolina; Addison Gallery of American Art at Phillips Academy in Andover, MA; John Michael Kohler Arts Center in Sheboygan, WI; The Exploratorium in San Francisco, CA; and the DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park in Lincoln, MA. Beyond his work in the studio, Ganson is also the creator of Toobers and Zots, a popular and highly imaginative foam toy.

MACHINES CONTEMPLATING TIME HAS BEEN MADE POSSIBLE IN PART WITH A GRANT FROM FAIRCHILD SEMICONDUCTOR.

LISA YOUNG :TRANSCENDENCE AND TEMPORALITY
January 25 - March 16, 2008
In the William Sloane Jelin Gallery, The ICA will feature the work of Providence based artist Lisa Young. Young’s work explores culturally defined moments of transcendence from a temporally based perspective. At the ICA, the artist will contribute a large photographic installation that tracks the changing patterns of the sky over the course of a year, a short video comparing performances by figure skater Michelle Kwan, and a selection of small books. Young’s work balances science and chance, revealing assumptions about cultural expectations for consistency and our changing definitions of perfection.

“I employ forms of serial narrative, documentary practice, and the collaging, codifying and indexing of visual fragments in precise formal structures that also allow for chance or random occurrences…The resulting works read as formal documents, a framing of my consciousness and observation, and as a series of ephemera that reflect the incomplete and transitory nature of sublime or perfect moments.” –Lisa Young

Lisa Young lives and works in Providence, Rhode Island where she is professor at Brown University. She is a graduate of the Whitney Museum of Art Independent Study Program and holds degrees from Tufts University (MFA 1991) and University of Illinois at Champaign- Urbana (BFA 1986). Her work is held in numerous public and private collections including the Museum of Modern Art, Harvard University, The New York Public Library, The Neuen Musuem, Cornell University, and the Newark Public Library.

EXHIBITION DATES:
January 25 – March 16, 2008

EVENT DATES:
Friday, February 1, 5-8 PM Opening Reception

Thursday, February 7, 12-1:15 Revisioning Portland Artist talks

Thursday, February 14, 12-1:15 Revisioning Portland Artist talks

Thursday, February 21, 6 –7:30 Revisioning Portland Panel Discussion featuring:
Revisioning Portland Artists
Abraham Schechter, curator of special collections,
Portland Public Library
Jim Baker, President, Maine College of Art
John Eide, Photography Professor, Maine College of Art

Thursday, February 28, 12-1 Lisa Young Artist Talk

Thursday, March 6, 6 PM Arthur Ganson Artist Talk

MECA exhibit unites city's past, present through photographs

Photographic ghosts of Portland's past come to life in an exhibition at the ICA at MECA.

Portland Press Herald, January 24, 2008