Painter Lois Dodd, Multimedia Pioneer Bill Viola, Photographer Jacob Hessler with Poet Richard Blanco

The Ogunquit Museum of American Art (OMAA) will debut three new exhibitions in mid-July that celebrate creativity across media.

Bill Viola (b. 1951), The Fall Into Paradise, 2005, single-channel video installation, high definition, color, sound; 09:58 minutes, Smithsonian American Art Museum, copyright 2005, Bill Viola, museum purchase through the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment, 2012.56.
Bill Viola (b. 1951), The Fall Into Paradise, 2005, single-channel video installation, high definition, color, sound; 09:58 minutes, Smithsonian American Art Museum, copyright 2005, Bill Viola, museum purchase through the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment, 2012.56.

Opening Thursday, July 12 in the Little Gallery, Bill Viola: The Fall Into Paradise is a digital cinema installation that renders the human experience in a dramatic wash of water, light, and sound.  Viola’s work offers a meditation on the instance of transcendental and spiritual breakthrough, tracing the artist’s continuing search for consciousness and empirical knowledge through art. Viola is a leading American artist and pioneering figure in video and the moving image. This installation marks the artist’s first exhibition in Maine and its presentation – immediately next to the sea – promises a compelling and profound experience. The show, organized by the Ogunquit Museum of American Art with the important assistance of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, is generously supported by the Cliff House.

Lois Dodd (b. 1927), Moose, 1958, oil on linen, 32 x 42 inches, @Loise Dodd, courtesy Alexandre Gallery, New York
Lois Dodd (b. 1927), Moose, 1958, oil on linen, 32 x 42 inches, @Loise Dodd, courtesy Alexandre Gallery, New York

Lois Dodd: Drawings and Paintings opens in the Sculpture Gallery on Saturday, July 14. Dodd belongs to an influential circle of painters that began congregating in Maine in the 1950s, including Fairfield Porter, Rackstraw Downes, Alex Katz, Yvonne Jacquette, and Neil Welliver. Dodd’s determined explorations of the American scene include observational renderings, landscapes, still lifes, and figurative works, each in a voice of her own making. This exhibition assembles drawings and paintings spanning seven decades in celebration of the remarkable contributions of this beloved American artist.  The show, made possible by Charles T. Clark, is organized by the Ogunquit Museum of American Art and includes an illustrated publication and public interview with the artist on Tuesday, July 31.

Jacob Bond Hessler (b. 1985), Poetry Assignment #14, 2016, dye-sublimation printed on aluminum, 40 x 60 in.
Jacob Bond Hessler (b. 1985), Poetry Assignment #14, 2016, dye-sublimation printed on aluminum, 40 x 60 in.

Furthering the museum’s representation of the visual arts and literature, Boundaries, opening Saturday, July 14 in the Long Gallery, is a collaborative visual literacy project between Presidential Inaugural Poet Richard Blanco and contemporary landscape photographer Jacob Bond Hessler. Blanco’s poems and Hessler’s photographs together investigate the visible and the invisible boundaries of race, gender, class, and ethnicity in the American experience. The installation, supported in part by the Meadowmere Resort, is arranged by OMAA in collaboration with the artists and travels to Ogunquit following openings in Boca Raton, Florida and Rockland, Maine.  Both artists will participate in a Totally Tuesday Talk on August 14. Richard Blanco will also read poetry at OMAA on Sunday, July 22 to open the museum’s inaugural Artists and Writers By the Sea series.

OMAA’s 65th Anniversary Exhibition Season is made possible by the generous support of an anonymous donor with additional support by 2018 Director’s Circle sponsor Harvest & Plate Catering; exhibition underwriters Kennebunk Savings Bank, Gail and Ernst von Metzsch, Timothy B. Ellis, Sparhawk Oceanfront Resort, Kevin and Irene Rowe, Charles Clark, the Meadowmere Resort, the Cliff House, Huston and Company, and Araby Rug Galleries; foundation sponsors the Fisher Charitable Foundation, the Libra Foundation, the Seattle Foundation, and the Will Barnet Foundation; and sponsors the Beachmere Inn, Admiral’s Inn, Colonial Inn, Barnacle Billy’s Inc, and Anthony Moore Painting Conservation, LLC.

The Ogunquit Museum of American Art (OMAA) was founded by Lost Generation artist Henry Strater and opened in 1953. Closely tied to one of the earliest art colonies of the American modernist art movement, OMAA today houses a permanent collection of important paintings, sculpture, drawings, prints, and photographs from the late 1800s to the present. The museum honors Strater’s vision to preserve and showcase American art by mounting innovative modern and contemporary exhibition programs each year from May through October. OMAA and its three-acre seaside sculpture gardens overlook Narrow Cove and the Atlantic Ocean. Learn more at www.ogunquitmuseum.org