June exhibits and reception at Dowling Walsh Gallery

During June, Dowling Walsh Gallery will host four exhibitions, showcasing work by Hannah Secord Wade, Stephen Pace (1918-2010), Greta Van Campen and Anna B. McCoy.

An opening reception will be held from 4 to 7 p.m. June 3 outside behind the gallery. Masks are encouraged while inside the gallery.

The exhibits will run through June 25.

The gallery is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and by appointment on Sunday and Monday. Visit www.dowlingwalsh.com or call 207-596-0084 for more information.

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Hannah Secord Wade: “Summer Under”

June 3 to 25

Hannah Secord Wade received a Master of Fine Art from Chelsea College of Arts, London, and a BA Fine Art from Hampshire College, Amherst. She has been a resident at the Arteles Creative Center (Finland), Open Wabi (Ohio) and The Sam and Adele Golden Foundation (New York). In 2020, her piece “Dog Fountain” became part of the permanent collection of the Portland Museum of Art, courtesy of Alex Katz and the Alex Katz Foundation. Her work has been shown in London and Paris and throughout the United States. She lives and works in Maine.

“My work depicts a continuous cycle of containment and release, in a series of failed attempts to gain control. Using landscape as a primary focus, the process begins with a gathering of plants, animals, and everyday objects. These elements are pushed into piles, stuffed into containers, or guarded by beings. As the works progress, these collections are slowly washed away, and later rebuilt. Each piece depicts an action, as land is moved and shifted, contained and then cleansed. The gathering period is an effort to organize my surroundings, and create a sense of stability. The cleansing phase is an acknowledgement of the futility of this attempt, and clears space for the process to begin again. I view my work as representation being eaten by abstraction, as objects are defined and obscured, formed and erased.”

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Stephen Pace (1918-2010): “Dunes Party”

June 3 to July 30

Born in Charleston, Missouri, Stephen Pace grew up in Indiana, and initiated his formal art training by studying drawing and watercolor methods with W.P.A. artist Robert Lahr. During World War II, he served in England and France, honing his skills by painting views of local scenery. Pace enrolled at the Institute of Fine Art in San Miguel Allende, Mexico, with funding provided by the G.I. Bill. After a year south of the border, during which time met and befriended the painter Milton Avery, he went to New York, where he attended the Art Students League (1948-49). After time in Florence and Paris, Pace resumed his studies in New York, attending classes at Hans Hofmann’s school. Hofmann’s teachings–especially his practice of creating volume through dynamic planes of color– helped inspire the direct and vigorous Abstract Expressionist style Stephen Pace employed during the 1950s, with jagged forms and pulsating energy. 

After 1960, Pace embraced his rural roots, spending time in Pennsylvania and then Maine, a region that allowed him to reconnect with nature. Dividing his time between studios in New York City and Stonington, Maine, he returned to figural art, working in a style characterized by simplified shapes and a liberal use of color while exploring subjects ranging from Maine lobstermen to landscapes and nudes.

Pace taught at a number of institutions, including the Pratt Institute, Washington University, Bard College, the American University, and the University of California, Berkeley. Examples of his work have been acquired by the country’s foremost public and corporate collections, including A.T.&T., Chicago; the Bristol-Myers Collection, Princeton, New Jersey; the Curie Institute, Paris; the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the National Academy of Design, New York; the Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.; the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.

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Greta Van Campen: “Transience”

June 3 to 25

Greta Van Campen is a painter from Thomaston who is known for her contemporary hard-edged style. Utilizing elements of geometry and abstraction, she presents a new lens to view our familiar surroundings and landscapes. Coming from a family of artists and growing up painting beside her mother, Greta continued her studies in visual art at Bowdoin College and now lives in Thomaston.

Van Campen has had solo exhibitions at Gallery BOM, Boston, ME; Octavia Art Gallery, New Orleans, L.A., and Firecat Projects, Chicago, and has been included in group shows at Greenhut Gallery, Portland; ICON Contemporary Art, Brunswick; and the Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Rockland, among others.

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Anna B. McCoy: “Still Life in Motion”

June 3 to 25

Anna B. McCoy’s paintings present a unique and subtle view of the everyday. Her still life pieces capture beautifully rendered objects and the moment they live within. She works in oil as well as pastels. 

McCoy is the daughter of noted painter John McCoy and Ann Wyeth McCoy, and the granddaughter of N.C. Wyeth. She studied painting and drawing with her aunt, Carolyn Wyeth, and later at Bennett College in Millbrook. Anna B. has quietly established her own reputation in Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maine, where her subjects tend to be personal, introspective and exquisitely evocative of time passing.