Virtual Opening for ‘Unnamed for Decades’ solo exhibit by Erin Johnson

The Center for Maine Contemporary Art in Rockland will host its first-ever virtual opening reception from 5 to 6 p.m. June 6 to celebrate the exhibition “Erin Johnson | Unnamed for Decades.”

Spanning two galleries, “Erin Johnson | Unnamed for Decades” presents a series of new, site-specific installations by the artist.

Johnson is the recipient of the second annual Ellis-Beauregard Foundation Fellowship Award, which grants $25,000 to a Maine artist working in the visual arts and is paired with a solo exhibition at CMCA.

Johnson’s research-driven video installations blend documentary, experimental and narrative filmmaking devices to examine the ways in which individual lives and sociopolitical realities merge. Comprised of footage of site-specific performances, the videos explore how power structures are communicated through relationships, focusing on histories of nationalism and place.

“Unnamed for Decades” is the artist’s first solo museum exhibition in Maine and presents a series of new site-specific installations that incorporate videos, sculptures and photographs. These works explore the artist’s ongoing interest in the complexity of collectivity, the wide-ranging consequences of scientific research, as well as dissidence, desire and the queer body.

The public is invited to join the event on Zoom or view live on CMCA’s Facebook page. CMCA associate curator Bethany Engstrom will offer a live video view of the exhibition, and Johnson will discuss her research and work. Donna McNeil, director of the Ellis-Beauregard Foundation and Ellen Tani, A.W. Mellon postdoctoral fellow at the National Gallery’s Center for Advanced Studies in the Visual Arts will also make remarks.

To register for the Zoom event, visit www.cmcanow.org/event/virtual-opening-erin-johnson-unnamed-for-decades.

A 360-degree virtual tour of the exhibition along with Johnson’s video works can be viewed beginning June 6 on the CMCA website at www.cmcanow.org/event/erin-johnson.