Industrial Maine: Our Other Landscape

Atrium Art Gallery

University of Southern Maine's Lewiston-Auburn College (USM)

51 Westminster St, Lewiston, ME 04240

March 12 — June 1, 2018

Opening Reception: Thursday, March 22, 2018, from 6 – 8 PM

The Atrium Art Gallery at University of Southern Maine's Lewiston-Auburn College (USM) is hosting an exhibition, Industrial Maine: Our Other Landscape, a group show in March of 2018.

Painter Janice L. Moore is the creator and guest curator for this exhibition. Moore has had a longtime interest in Maine's work landscapes and how they have shaped us both physically and culturally. Her art has focused on our working factories, abandoned work sites, and repurposed structures throughout the state. Robyn Holman, retired curator of Atrium Gallery, will also participate as a juror in the artist selection.

Portland Press Herald Exhibit Review

The exhibition included works by Mark Barnette, Stephanie Barry, Chris Beneman, Susan Bennett, Crystal Cawley, Dan Dowd, Bruce Habowski, Nina Jerome, Samantha Jones, Kate Katomski, Carol Liscovitz, Mike Maron, Allison McKeen, Caren-Marie Michel, Leslie Miller, Janice L. Moore, DiTa Ondek, Dennis Pinette, John Ripton, Roland Salazar Rose, Bronwyn Sale, Gail Skudera, Matthew Smolinsky, Anne Strout, James B. Taylor,Deb Vendetti, and Laura Waller.

These artists include a variety of industries as subjects in the exhibition: Bucksport Paper Mill, Rumford Paper Mill, Celotex (Lisbon Falls), Penobscot River Dam, Biddeford Textile Mill, Dana Warp Mill (Westbrook), T.W. Dick Co. Steel Fabricators (Gardiner), and Dragon Cement Co. (Thomaston) among others.

Curator Statement

Industrial Maine: Our Other Landscape is an exhibition of 70 works of art by 27 artists all residing in Maine and working in a broad range of media, including paintings in oil, acrylic, and watercolor; textiles; collected and found objects; mono prints; digital photographs; and dimensional sculpture. The unifying thread is that every work of art in the exhibition references Maine’s industrial heritage. The result is a diversity of strong, compelling artistic perspectives on a subject that, for many of us, in our everyday lives, goes unnoticed: the factories that — operational or abandoned, present or remembered — are a part of our context and saturated with meaning.

I have been obsessed with Maine’s mills and factories for a very long time. I began painting mills and factories more than a decade ago. I was drawn to the structure, the light, the interplay between rusting metal and brick and concrete, and the stories about meaning and purpose. I knew other Maine artists were taking Maine’ industry as their subject matter, too. I knew I wasn’t alone. My idea was a multi-artist, multi-media exhibition based on a call to Maine artists who were referencing Maine’s industrial landscape in their work. The response by Maine artists has exceeded my expectation and deeply enriched my connection with Maine and Maine’s industrial heritage.

I am very grateful to Dean Joyce Gibson, University of Southern Maine, Lewiston/Auburn, for embracing my vision and making available the Tom Platz-designed USM L/A Atrium; Robyn Holman, the long-time former curator of the Atrium Art Gallery, whose understanding and expert guidance meant everything; to Samantha Patton for her exceptional organizational skills, to the staff at USM_LA for their support and to Randy Estes, who manages the facility and was instrumental in staging the exhibit.

jlmooreart@gmail.com