PRESS RELEASE

Zillman Art Museum - University of Maine
May 22, 2024

Contact:  Kathryn Jovanelli
               207.581.3370
               kathrynj@maine.edu
               www.zam.umaine.edu
               High resolution digital images available upon request

Zillman Art Museum (ZAM) announces New Exhibition

BANGOR – The Zillman Art Museum - University of Maine, located at 40 Harlow Street in Bangor, ME, opens a new exhibition that will run May 17 - August 2, 2024. ZAM is open Tuesday-Saturday from 10 am - 5 pm and brings modern and contemporary art to the region, presenting approximately 21 original exhibitions each year. Admission to the Zillman Art Museum is free in 2024 thanks to the generosity of Birchbrook.

VAINO KOLA: LIVING HERE FEELS LIKE I AM IN MY HOMELAND, FINLAND
May 17 - August 2, 2024

Living Here Feels Like I am In My Homeland, Finland features paintings and works on paper by Finnish-born artist Vaino Kola. After serving as a professor at Wheaton College in Massachusetts for 26 years, Kola settled in Deer Isle, Maine in 1994. Seemingly untouched picturesque locations in and around Deer Isle have provided an endless supply of inspiration for Kola’s landscapes. Many of the oil on canvas paintings in the exhibition are inspired by locations in Maine—in fact, some are but a stone’s throw from the artist’s studio. Kola has a great affinity for his remote island which, with its terrain, flora and climate, reminds him of his Finnish homeland.

While Kola’s paintings appear to be exacting representations of a specific location, he takes considerable liberty in rendering the environment. A particular boulder may be depicted in different positions in multiple compositions. The artist then manipulates lighting and environmental conditions on the canvas for creative impact. Kola states “Nature is very beautiful, but nature should be changed when making art. In my works, I eliminate things, add things, and move things around, so it works for me artistically.”

Also included in the exhibition are a stunning assortment of etchings that showcase Kola’s skill as a draftsman. A number of these works capture the beauty of winter. For example, the artist has depicted snow-lined trees in wooded environments on the outskirts of Oslo, Norway, near the home of the artist Edvard Munch. Winter in Maine inspired Kola’s series Deer Isle Suite, which reflects quiet days when mounds of snow cover the weighted branches of majestic evergreens. Norton Woods, 1976, a large-scale etching from the Zillman Art Museum collection, reflects Kola’s masterful approach to drawing and use of sensitive lines to render a forest of bare-branched trees lined with snow. The work is technically complex, in part due to the sheer size of the 36” x 47.5” copper plate, which pushes the limits of the etching process.

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