On a sidewalk in Philadelphia, Jon Davis found new direction.
A suitcase full of old photographs lay outside a house in a rich neighborhood, tossed away like trash. Davis picked them up. What he found — a family’s life journey recorded through pictures — helped create his now defining artform, which combines images with layers of glass and light to create exploratory work inviting the viewer to take a peek inside.
“It was this whole family’s history from 1908 through the ’50s. This whole series of artwork started out with these photos,” Davis said, motioning around the gallery space of the University of Maine Museum of Art.
For artist Richard Whitten, what began with model planes he constructed when he was young eventually led to imagined machines within Renaissance style architecture. Wooden panels painted to create 3-D experiences began not with a degree in painting but one in economics.
Each artist has a story. Often it is fraught with challenges.
Davis worked for years in construction and revived his interest in art after the chance meeting with a box full of photos. Whitten’s mother was a painter from Hong Kong, but she wanted to him to be a businessman because she knew what the life of an artist was like.
“I was being groomed to go to [the University of Chicago], get my doctorate, come back to Yale, be a professor there. It wasn’t that great a challenge,” Whitten said. “Painting was.”
The work of both artists tells tales of their lives. It is a combination of their experiences and a testament to their resolve, and it will be on display at an upcoming winter exhibitions at UMMA, from Jan. 15 to April 30.
When patrons enter the gallery space, they’ll be met by an exhibition titled “Three-Sided Dream,” featuring Davis’s work. He’s a resident of Miami, Florida, and his collage compositions incorporate images from throughout art history. Davis’ pieces have a multidimensional quality exacerbated by his use of glass and light, creating layered pieces that require exploration to fully consider.
In the next gallery section, a piece on the far wall of the gallery called “Orrery” by Whitten, who is based in Rhode Island, draws viewers toward the back of the space, where they will be met by a collection of his works. His work offers a layered, multidimensional experience. Viewers first are faced with an object, then with a world existing within that object. “Studiolo” not only features Whitten’s large, oil-based paintings on wood panels but also his drawings, whimsical sculptures and smaller pieces.
“You’re able to get a glimpse into the artist’s creative process from the preparatory drawings that inform the paintings, to some of the 3-D sculptures that are reflected in the painting. You’re seeing a whole breadth of the artist’s creative activities in the studio,” George Kinghorn, director and curator of UMMA, said of Whitten’s work.
Whitten likens much of his work to toys.
“They’re very playful pieces. They’re about the idea of playing. I think playing is a way to learn.” he said.
The show also will feature a rotation of the permanent collection that complements these sculptural pieces as well as an exhibition called “thick skinned” by Phippsburg-based artist Dan Dowd. Dowd’s compositions incorporate materials such as old wool blankets, rubber and rusted metal, combining separate items with history to create assemblages of texture and stories.
“The common thread of these three feature exhibitions is the idea of artists exploring assemblage, mixed media works and collage in three very distinct ways,” Kinghorn said.
UMMA is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday.
