FARMINGTON, ME  (January 18, 2023)—The Emery Community Arts Center on the University of Maine at Farmington campus launches its spring semester season with “Tidelines,” a stunning exhibit by North Carolina-based artist Katie St. Clair. The exhibit is on display in the Emery Flex Space Gallery from Jan. 26 – March 9, 2023. It is free and open to the public.

An artist talk is scheduled for March 9 at 4:30 p.m. in the Emery Performance Space and will be followed by a closing reception with the artist from 5:30 – 7 p.m. in the Flex Space Gallery.

St. Clair created this new series of large paintings and prints during recent “off-grid” residences on two coastal islands: Haida Gwaii, located in the northwestern reaches of Canada, and the Burren, a rocky landscape on the west coast of Ireland. Deeply inspired by the landscape, St. Clair’s art practice and research explores color and form as well as the interconnectivity of ecosystems within a specific environment.

According to St. Clair, she is inspired by the rich sensations of living and dying life. The crunching of pine needles beneath her feet. Decaying leaves under the muddy surface of a puddle. The lichen that is inseparable from its stone. She believe stories are held in the landscape.

She writes, “These paintings act as documentation of an environment–the result of natural observations and the altering effects over time of such factors as moisture, heat, wind, and movement. The paintings capture indefinable moments in the landscape between light and shadow, the gap between lichen and stone, or the intertidal water and land.”

Katie St. Clair is an Assistant Professor of Art at Davidson College, NC. Her work has been widely exhibited at museums and galleries, including the Burren College of Art, Ireland; Museum of Contemporary Art, Detroit, MI; and the Zhou B. Art Center, Chicago, IL. She has received many honors and awards, including Best in Show, Annual Alumni Exhibition, University of Michigan, and the 2019 Young Affiliates of the Mint Choice Award for her work in Coined in the South, Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte, NC.

The Emery Arts Center gallery is located on Academy St. (between Main St. and High St.) in downtown Farmington. The gallery is open Monday-Friday, 10am-6pm; Saturday, 12pm-6pm. Closed Sundays and holidays.  Please check Emery’s website for updates at https://wpsites.maine.edu/emerycommunityartscenter/

More on the UMF Emery Community Arts Center

The Emery Community Arts Center is an innovative, experimental venue for the arts in Western Maine. It features an exciting 2,500-square-foot, 109-seat multipurpose performance space with dynamic vertical foldaway doors that open onto an outdoor performance area and a 1,600-square-foot Flex-Space gallery for traditional exhibits, new media and performance art. A dramatic interior corridor offers additional exhibition space and connects the center with the UMF Alumni Theater.

For more information contact Ann Bartges, director of UMF Emery Community Arts Center at ann.bartges@maine.edu or 207-778-7461.