Painting of Janet Manyan by Tim Reimensyder '84

Wednesday Mornings: Recent Work by The Mill Painters
Through August 29 // Charles C. Thomas Gallery, Porteous Second Floor
Open for Viewing: Monday - Friday, 9:00am-5:00pm
The Mill Painters group is a collection of artists who met through Janet Manyan's Continuing Studies portrait painting classes and formed a weekly painting group.  They gather each Wednesday morning in a studio in the Dana Warp Mill in Westbrook, Maine and work from live models.  Their group exhibition is dedicated to Janet Manyan, who inspires each of them through her talent and teaching. Participating artists include: Meredith Cough '89, Maria Canning, Tim Reimensnyder '84, Betsy Elliman, Lyn Means, Patty Lage, Doug Jones, Priscilla Stevens, Sara Gray, Bronwyn Sale, and Kathy Wagner.


"Ben Davan Where Are You?", C. David Thomas '68 , United States Army

ART | SERVICE: Group show of current MECA students and alumni who are veterans
June 27 - July 18  // Artists at Work Gallery
Opening July 4 (5-8PM)
Open for Viewing: Monday - Friday, 9:00am-4:00pm
Veterans who are artists bring the spirit of creative resilience into a mainstream creative arts community.  This exhibition is about service, war, and art as therapeutic work for both the veterans who make it and the community in which it exists. This show includes the work of Ren Albon '14, United States Navy; Peter Buotte MFA '05, United States Army; Lesley Corbett '13, United States Army; Evan Poole '15, United States Army; Frederick Twombly '15, United States Army; Patrick Scholz '15, United States Marine Corps; Phil Stevens '91, United States Army; and C. David Thomas '68, United States Army.
 
Rehearsal Space: Dance and Conversation
June 11 - August 3 // ICA at Maine College of Art
Open for Viewing: Wednesday - Sunday 11:00am-5:00pm, Thursdays until 7:00pm
Choreographer, writer, and performer Jack Ferver joins visual artist Marc Swanson in a collaboration to create an original work that is both performance and art installation, coupling the formalism of Swanson’s art practice with the emotional intensity of Ferver’s choreography and text. Their piece "Chambre" will use the controversial French playwright Jean Genet’s 1947 work Les Bonnes (The Maids) as its inspiration. The work explores societal notions of difference in class, gender, and sexuality. Ferver’s performances use high-energy, often violent choreography and exacting scripts that juxtapose hyperbolic prose with “hyper-real” dialogues to explore the tragicomedy of the human psyche. For one month the artists will be active within the ICA at MECA’s galleries, thinking about and building on their piece within a gallery space that will be completely open to the public.
 

Tyra Hansen, owner of The Gallery at Somes Sound announces an exhibition of eight MECA graduates on view July 6 - 19, 2014 as part the gallery’s summer calendar.  Located in Somesville, Maine, The Gallery at Somes Sound's primary focus is to celebrate America's long standing tradition in the art of fine furniture making, painting and sculpture. It continues to be the finest Furniture and Art Gallery along the Coast of Maine. 

The featured artists in the MECA exhibition are: Diane Fitch BFA '79, Anne Garland BFA '93, Connie Hayes BFA '80, Margaret Lawrence BFA '93, Grace Nelson BFA '82, Jude Valentine BFA '78, Mary Vaughan MFA '00 and Michael Vermette BFA '80. 

The opening reception is Sunday, July 6 from 4:30 - 7:00PM and several of the artists will attend.

The Gallery will donate a portion of sales from the MECA work to the College’s scholarship fund. 

>>More info

Maine College of Art is excited to announce the arrival of its online store! Now you can purchase MECA merchandise from anywhere. Items available range from T-shirts and sweatshirts to mugs and water bottles. Show your school spirit and rock the MECA merch.
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(Honour Mack featured above in front of one of her paintings) 
MECA Professors Featured in New Maine Blog
Maine designer Angela Adams recently launched a new blog called Sea Fantasy that explores her aesthetic interests and her Maine musings. Since the launch, Angela has already interviewed and written about two MECA faculty members: Painting Professor Honour Mack and Illustration Adjunct Assistant Professor Mary Anne Lloyd. Both interviews explore each professor's creative processes, styles and quirks. 
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MECA Professor Releases New Book
Dana Sawyer, Professor and Program Chair of LIberal Arts at MECA has just published Huston Smith: Wisdomkeeper (Fons Vitae Press, 2014), an authorized biography of Huston Smith, renowned authority on world religions and comparative religion.  
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Rick Lowe, July 7
Rick Lowe works both inside and outside of art world institutions by participating in exhibitions and developing community-based art projects. Among other projects, he has worked with artist Suzanne Lacy and curator Mary Jane Jacobs on the Borough Project for Spoleto Festival 2003; spearheaded Transforma Projects, a collaborative effort to engage artists and creativity in the rebuilding of New Orleans after hurricane Katrina; and developed "Small Business/Big Change" for the Anyang Public Art Program, in Anyang, Korea. President Obama appointed Rick to the National Council on the Arts in 2013. 
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Richard Renaldi, July 14
Exhibitions of Richard Renaldi's photographs have been mounted in galleries and museums throughout the United States, Asia, and Europe. In 2006, Renaldi's first monograph, Figure and Ground, was published by Aperture. His second monograph, Fall River Boys, was released in 2009. Richard is the founder and publisher of Charles Lane Press, an independent publisher that showcases important new projects by contemporary photographers. Renaldi's forthcoming monograph, Touching Strangers, will be published by the Aperture Foundation in the spring of 2014. 
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Lisa Sigal, July 21
Lisa Sigal's recent work includes painting on walls and making forms that combine painting with architecture. Her work suggests a mutable delineation between interior and exterior and explores their meaning both socially and politically. Utilizing and expanding upon notions of space, she investigates how art can challenge set ideas about property, containment and freedom. She is curating a new program, Open Sessions at the Drawing Center in New York City, and lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. 
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Sharon Hayes, July 28
Sharon Hayes' work moves between multiple mediums, including video, performance, and installation, in an ongoing investigation into the interrelation between history, politics, and speech. She employs conceptual and methodological approaches borrowed from practices such as performance, theater, dance, anthropology, and journalism. Her work has been shown at a multitude of museums, galleries and performance spaces, including the Museum of Modern Art, the Tate Modern in London, and the Deutsche Guggenheim in Berlin, as well as in 45 lesbian living rooms across the United States. 
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October 8-11, 2014
Invitational Preview October 8

Build your art collection while supporting artists and MECA’s scholarship fund. Join us for a unique fundraising event featuring the work of MECA faculty, students, alumni, and others. Admission is free. Qualifying artists are encouraged to register to participate.  See www.meca.edu/artsale for more information.