ica : schedule of exhibitions

A Meticulous Ferment: Beth Lipman & Kirsten Hassenfeld
June 23 - August 15, 2010

Opening Reception: Wednesday, June 23, 5-8 PM

The Institute of Contemporary Art at Maine College of Art located at 522 Congress St. in Portland, will host the exhibition A Meticulous Ferment: Beth Lipman & Kirsten Hassenfeld from June 23 – August 15, 2010.

This two-woman show employs material decadence as a format for a discussion of culture and consumption. Lipman and Hassenfeld create obsessively crafted works, respectively wrought in glass and paper, that share an interest in the history of the decorative arts and the cultural value of ornamentation.   By balancing order with disorder these works critique our “object-obsessed lifestyles”, while simultaneously employing the role of things to convey important personal and cultural messages. 

The exhibition will include a large scope of objects including Lipman’s towering handblown glass sculpture, The Bride, works on paper, photography, sculpture and a monumental installation of ornamental paper sculpture in the ICA main gallery by Hassenefeld. Unfolding on a grand scale, this array of works is the result of masterful and obsessive labor.  Their grandeur is shadowed, however, by an insidious dissonance that bubbles under the surface, resulting in a languidly beautiful ferment.

Mind-bending with the Mundane
September 1 - October 17, 2010

Mind-bending with the Mundane is an exhibition occasioned by the fact that marriage
equality remains a civil rights question in Maine, among other places. Three independent artists
and one husband and husband team present the mundane realities of private lives for public
examination in this exhibition curated by Adriane Herman, Associate Professor of Printmaking
and Digital Imaging at Maine College of Art.

The exhibition will feature a wide variety of media such as photography, performance,
performance residue, engravings, bureaucratic documents and installation. Miller & Shellabarger
chart their lives in specific and mundane detail, documenting their ongoing joint presence in the
world largely because their relationship is socially invisible at best, and renders them subject to
discrimination or violence at worst. Andrew Raftery places contemporary life on display with old
master authority in engravings depicting real estate open houses. Allison Smith reminds us that
revolutionaries fighting for causes they find worthy can be bolstered by a resting place to proclaim
and reflect upon their beliefs. Alix Lambert highlights the often fleeting nature of marriage by
documenting the four weddings and divorces she undertook in six months, one of which took
place in a drive-through Vegas wedding chapel.