Contemporary Arts

Brooklyn gallery features Maine artists in "Home" exhibit


	Gallery photos courtesy of the Maine Center for Contemporary Art

Brooklyn, New York and the d.u.m.b.o (an acronym for Down Under the Manhatten Bridge Overpass) arts center was the location for the January 17 opening of The Center for Maine Contemporary Art's (CMCA) "Home" exhibit. The show featured the work of 16 Maine and Brooklyn, New York artists and ran through March 14.

"Home" marked veteran curator Bruce Brown's first invitation to organize an exhibition outside of Maine. With more than 150 exhibitions to his credit at CMCA since 1988, this show was a great opportunity for Maine artists to have a showing of their works outside of the state. The exhibition coincided with Governor Baldacci's proclamation that January 17 was Contemporary Maine Art Outreach Day. The Governor's proclamation was issued to honor the CMCA and to recognize the role that it has in promoting Maine's Creative Economy.

"Home" originated from an exhibition that CMCA had a year ago, featuring a number of emerging artists interested in utilizing alternative materials in the expression of their artistic vision. The use of these materials suggested a sense of domesticity in their work.

When Brown was originally contacted about the possibility of doing a show at d.u.m.b.o., he immediately reflected back to the winter production of "Home" at CMCA and knew this was the exhibition that he wanted to bring to New York City. For Brown, "Home" seemed just right for the d.u.m.b.o. space, since the highly regarded arts venue is focused on featuring the work of young and emerging artists whose work often diverges from the mainstream. With the exhibit's alternative use of unusual materials, or traditional materials used in an unusual way, d.u.m.b.o. was an excellent venue for the exhibit.


	A gallery visitor looks at a piece by Maine artist Diana Cherbuliez at the d.u.m.b.o. gallery in Brooklyn

Donna McNeil, contemporary arts/public art associate at the Maine Arts Commission, traveled to Brooklyn for the opening and offered this assessment of the show.

"The 'Home' exhibition at d.u.m.b.o. was an extraordinarily high energy event showcasing the depth and ingenuity of Maine artists," she says. "The exhibition spoke to the emergence of Maine as an ensemble creative tour de force, resounding Maine's distinguished history as a home for the very highest level of artistic endeavor."

The exhibit is concerned with home being the site of life's most resonant and formative experiences. Histories from home often define what people become as adults.

While some of the exhibits featured a set of material objects and structures (Jill Dalton, Lauren Fensterstock, Erica Hansen and Sean Ryan's altered domestic artifacts; Diana Cherbuliez's New York Times cross-word puzzle tower), others imaged their subject in physiological-based terms (Aaron Stephan's imprint of his own body; Katherine Bradford's painting of a man spilling blood as he shaves his legs).

Ultimately however, it is the human interactions that form the essential dynamic of home. These interactions, raw and contentious, or kind and loving (the animal metaphors of George Ferrandi's cartoons or the unpretentious wit in Melonie Bennett's family photographs), define home for many of us.

For Brown, having the opportunity to organize the show in New York City was a special opportunity. "The opening was a moment of high energy," he admits. "I have been impressed by the shows I've seen at d.u.m.b.o., and I appreciate the staff's hard work on behalf of these young artists. I am most appreciative for a chance to organize a show outside of Maine. All of this would never have happened without the encouragement and extra fund-raising efforts of my colleagues and board members of CMCA. They are as vested in this as the artists and I are."

Mainers will have one more opportunity to see the exhibition back home. A modified version of "Home" will appear in Portland in mid-May at the University of New England's Westbrook College campus.