“Figurative: The Body as Language” runs Aug. 2 to Sept. 28 at The Maine Museum of Photographic Arts.
Artist talks and demos will be held from 5 to 8 p.m. Aug. 23 featuring Amy Wilton, Andrew O’Brien and Kevin Callahan.
Kevin Callahan is a seasoned museum preparator and art mover with extensive experience working in various prominent institutions throughout Maine, including the Colby College Museum, Bates College Museum, The Maine Museum of Photographic Arts, the Osher Mapping Library, and the Maine Arts Commission. At the artist talk, he will share his expertise by demonstrating the technique of creating and using linen hinges. This method is essential for floating artwork in frames, allowing for a visually appealing presentation while ensuring the pieces are safely secured and preserved for photography and display.
Amy Wilton shows a body of work that is a visual chronicle of the life of her two children, Emma and Nigel, and their friends. “I am capturing transitions, flash moments of life’s absurd, uncanny relentlessness,” she says. “In each image, I find my best and worst traits reflected back at me through their attitude and gestures. I invite viewers to jump into the cacophony, as they create their own narratives around each photograph.”
A Portland resident, Wilton is a fine art and commercial photographer. After moving to Camden in 1997, she received her MFA in photography from Maine Media College. Her photographs have been exhibited most recently FotoNostrum gallery in Barcelona.
In Andrew O’Brien’s current series, “My American Friend,” “I am exploring the residual elements of portrait images in which the subject and all identifying elements have been abstracted or removed,” he says. “My work explores the interplay of color and form, seeking to reveal those lingering and defining artifacts of an individual that persist in the absence of identifiable subject matter. My aim is to invite viewers to engage with the unnoticed and to find meaning in the remnants.”
O’Brien is a Maine-based artist specializing in lens-based arts and photography. His work primarily delves into abstraction and coloration, often challenging conventional perspectives and revealing what is seen beyond its apparent subject matter.
Susan Rosenberg Jones is another brilliant artist from MMPA’s current exhibition, “Figurative: The Body as Language.” On display is a book and prints created from this portfolio titled “Second Time Around.”
Rosenberg Jones is a portrait and documentary photographer based in New York City. In 2012, Rosenberg Jones, having been widowed, married her second husband, Joel. She began shooting in her own home, and Joel was a willing subject. From this practice, Susan’s body of work, titled “Second Time Around,” emerged. Rosenberg Jones explores her feelings about growing older, family and community connections, through photography.
“After having been married for 32 years my husband passed away in 2008, after a long illness,” she says. “Once widowed, I experienced the confusing and mixed feelings of grief: guilt, loneliness, regrets, indelible memories of loving glances, hugs, and laughs. In 2009 I decided to try online dating because I wanted to meet a man for an occasional movie or dinner date. The second man I met online was Joel, and we felt a bond right away. Soon after, I closed my account on JDate. We married in January of 2012 in a lovely ceremony at home. I hadn’t expected to fall in love, but I did. To my surprise and delight, I found that I could deeply love this wonderful man who entered my life, while holding dear the memories of my first husband. Having been in a long-term marriage, I came to this new relationship with the tools in place to be a good wife. We quickly fell into the routine and ease of being a stable married couple, except that we were newlyweds in our 60s. There is humor in that. For one thing, our bodies are not supple and streamlined the way they were when we were young. We both come with a lot of baggage, and at our ages, it’s no big deal, nothing to get excited about. We’ve both seen a lot, done a lot, and have higher thresholds for idiosyncratic behavior than in our 20s and 30s.”
The Maine Museum of Photographic Arts is at 15 Middle St., A3, Portland. Hours are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday and by appointment on Wednesdays. See www.mainemuseumofphotographicarts.org for more information.
Dowling Walsh Gallery in Rockland is featuring “IDK,” an exhibition of paintings by Tollef Runquist that explores the intersection of personal reflection, archetypes, fantasy and play. Runquist’s paintings combine images and symbols drawn from lived experience, emotional landscapes and cultural influences, creating an intuitive dialogue between imagery and meaning. “My work explores a space where […]
Meetinghouse Arts in Freeport is presenting a full schedule of fall exhibitions and performances, including a members show, a collaborative exhibition by longtime artist friends Tim Sample and Linda Rowell-Kelley and several concerts. The gallery’s fall members exhibition, “Nature’s Palette: Art Inspired by the Season,” will remain on view through Oct. 18. Featuring paintings, drawings, […]
Local Color Gallery in Belfast will feature printmaker, collage artist and sculptor Jeff Wahlstrom from Oct. 19 to Nov. 22. An Art Walk reception will be held from 4 to 7 p.m. Oct. 23, with an artist talk at 5 p.m. Based in Bangor, Wahlstrom creates block prints and watercolor collages inspired by the natural […]
Women Eco Artists Dialog (WEAD), based in Berkeley, California, is accepting submissions for its 2027 members exhibition, “Prototyping Futures of Making: Water, Data, and Living Systems.” The exhibition will explore the relationships among water, data, ecological systems and emerging technologies, asking how artists can engage with living systems as sites of collaboration, construction and consequence. […]
Triangle Gallery in Rockland is presenting three exhibitions through Oct. 31, including an extended solo exhibition by Carter Wentworth, a group fiber arts show and a fall exhibition of work by gallery artists. Wentworth’s “Sound of Rain Crossing the Lake” will remain on view in the upstairs gallery through the end of October. “Interwoven,” a […]
Waterfall Arts in Belfast will present “Found in Translation,” a mixed-media exhibition featuring Maine artists Deborah Jellison, JoAnne Houlsen and John LeBlanc, from Oct. 23 to Nov. 28. An opening reception will be held from 5 to 7 p.m. Oct. 23. The exhibition brings together three artist friends whose work explores familiar Maine landscapes, objects […]
Courthouse Gallery Fine Art in Ellsworth is presenting “Form Meets Surface,” an exhibition highlighting porcelain ceramics by potter Mark Bell and collaborative works created with painter William Irvine. The artists, both established in their respective fields, have worked together since 2015 to create porcelain vases and plates that combine Bell’s ceramic forms with Irvine’s painted […]
Barn Gallery in Ogunquit concluded its 2026 exhibition season Oct. 12, but the venue will continue to welcome visitors for two performances in the 19th annual Elizabeth Dunaway Burnham Piano Festival. Pianist, composer and vocalist Zahili Zamora will return to Ogunquit with her Afro Cuban Jazz Trio for a performance from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. […]
The Brunswick Guild Fine Craft Show will return to the historic Fort Andross Mill in Brunswick on Oct. 24 and 25, celebrating its 10th season with work by 40 juried Maine craft artists. Presented by Shop Maine Craft, the indoor show will feature basketry, ceramics, decorative and wearable fiber art, furniture, glass, jewelry, mixed media, […]
Receive news and information about Maine artists and events delivered right to your inbox.