Five new exhibits opening at the University of Maine Museum of Art in Bangor this week provide a wealth of different colors, textures, attitudes and approaches to experience, from boldly abstract camera-less photography to bright, sensual, figurative paintings.
Photography is a medium UMMA curator George Kinghorn repeatedly has returned to when choosing new exhibits over the past few years, choosing artists who explore the formal and technical boundaries of what constitutes a photograph.
“What we want when people see these exhibits is for them to really think about what photography means. With the rise of digital photography and iPhones, we’re constantly surrounded by it,” Kinghorn said.
Nowhere is this more apparent than in three new exhibits: “Traces: Amy Theiss Giese & Keliy Anderson-Staley,” “Keliy Anderson Staley: Tintype Portraits” and “Meghann Riepenhoff: Littoral Drift Nearshore.”
The first of these, “Traces,” in the main gallery, features works by two photographers who use traditional darkroom chemistry and 19th century photographic techniques such as tintype, silver gelatin and chromogenic paper to create abstract, painterly images.
Amy Theiss Giese, based in Boston, does a kind of “chemical painting,” skipping the use of a camera or lens and applying photographic chemicals directly to to silver gelatin and chromogenic paper — the paper old snapshot photos are printed on — to create an abstract, experimental image more akin to a painting than a photograph. And yet, by all technical definitions, her works are photographs.
“It requires you to really question your conception of what actually constitutes a photograph,” Kinghorn said.
Similarly, Keliy Anderson-Staley’s works in “Traces” are abstract, though Anderson-Staley — Houston-based, though she grew up in an off-the-grid homestead in central Maine — uses collodion tintype as her medium. Collodion tintype, among the oldest of photographic techniques, dating back to the 1850s. It requires the image to be developed in less than 15 minutes — the surface must remain wet the entire time, or the image will warp or fade. Anderson-Staley’s images in “Traces” aren’t concerned with capturing a specific image, however; they are experimental, evoking the seemingly random shapes found in nature, or the undulations of landscapes.
In complete opposition to her abstract works, Anderson-Staley has another show at UMMA, “Tintype Portraits,” a solo exhibition that, of course, also uses tintypes. In this case, however, it’s anything but experimental. It features a selection of tintype portraits Anderson-Staley took of individuals and couples from across the country, captured in the soulful, dramatic, distinctive way that only tintype can.
The final photographic exhibit at UMMA this fall is “Littoral Drift Nearshore,” in the Zillman Gallery, featuring works by San Francisco-based artist Meghann Riepenhoff. Riepenhoff works in cyanotype, using watercolor paper coated with light-sensitive chemicals. Riepenhoff, however, takes a totally unique approach to creating her images. She takes the paper to natural environments, including beaches, forests and tidal pools, exposing it to things like water, wood, sand and vegetation. Then she “paints” with the chemicals, using the natural elements on the paper to convey the visual and kinetic aspects of the environment.
The centerpiece of Riepenhoff’s exhibit is “Littoral Drift Nearshore #516 (Bainbridge Island, WA 04.27.17),” a stunning, monumental 10-foot work created specifically for her UMMA show, capturing the powerful, terrifying beauty of ocean waves.
Photography is not the sole medium represented at UMMA this fall. The rear of the museum’s main gallery is dominated by “Jack Balas: Maine and Again,” featuring over 40 works by Colorado-based painter Jack Balas.
“Maine and Again,” a midcareer retrospective of Balas, 62, showcases the artist’s striking, sensual, often deftly humorous body of work. For more than 20 years, Balas has explored the male form — particularly athletic, youthful, clean-cut men — in his paintings, working in watercolor and oil.
“He really explores it as a kind of counterpoint to the way the female form has been explored throughout the centuries,” Kinghorn said. “There’s a kind of energy and vitality inherent in these images. There’s something kind of optimistic about them.”
Though figures and landscapes dominate his work, text and more graphical elements are often layered on top of those images, lending a kind of pop-art sensibility, at times, to Balas’ work. Additionally, each painting is very clearly numbered, highlighting a workmanlike quality — though Balas’ clear mastery of watercolor through his expertly rendered male figures is apparent in each image.
True to the exhibit’s name, scenes and icons of Maine show up throughout many of the paintings in the show. Balas is a regular visitor to the state. They include “Christina’s World (The Day I Met Andrew Wyeth,” which juxtaposes a male figure against the iconic landscape of Wyeth’s titular painting, along with a short story written along the bottom. There’s also a new work titled “Portage (Evening Would Know My Reply, #1470),” an enormous canvas evoking the fleeting pleasures of summer in the Maine woods.
Rounding out the five exhibits is a selection from UMMA’s permanent collection, including the museum’s prized Pablo Picasso, photographs that complement the other four exhibits and several newly acquired works.
The University of Maine Museum of Art is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday. Admission is free. It is located at 40 Harlow St. in downtown Bangor. The new exhibits open to the public Friday, Sept. 15.
