“Primal Self,” by Nick Sider. Courtesy of the artist.

The Zillman Art Museum at the University of Maine opened six new exhibitions on May 20 that will run through Aug. 18 (Second Floor Galleries) and September (Main Floor Galleries).

ZAM, located at 40 Harlow St. in downtown Bangor, is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and brings modern and contemporary art to the region, presenting approximately 21 original exhibitions each year.

Admission to the Zillman Art Museum is free in 2022, thanks to the generosity of Birchbrook.

—

“Otherwise,” by Deborah Zlotsky. Courtesy of the artist.

DEBORAH ZLOTSKY: GEMINI

May 20 to Aug. 18

“Gemini offers” viewers a dynamic look at two interrelated bodies of work by Deborah Zlotsky. The New York-based artist presents several never-before-seen paintings from 2021 and 2022, as well as a selection of wall-based fabric works.

At first glance, Zlotsky’s paintings may appear solely rooted in hard-edged geometric abstraction, but within these works there is considerable variation in paint application. Drips, dragged paint passages and blurred edges move the eye about the composition, while areas of her thickened lines become three-dimensional. The rigidity and flatness of lines transition into modeled ovoid forms whose presence and gestures are unexpected.

The artist states, “Where one shape rests upon another and casts a delicate shadow, I am relaying tenderness and touch.”

Zlotsky paints these forms as a reflection of the human body and adds, “I’m drawn to incongruities, to creating paintings and drawings that seem old and new, flat and fleshy, geometric and figurative.” A hallmark of the artist’s paintings is a bold palette and surprising juxtapositions of color. For instance, a warm blue unites with bubblegum pink, acid citrus- green borders an earthy olive and electric fuchsia meets vivid tomato red.

Zlotsky’s wall-based tapestries or “soft paintings” offer an energizing visual experience. These flowing wall installations are fabricated using vintage women’s scarves from the 1960s and 1970s. Zlotsky combines the patterns of an immense array of repurposed textiles—with their repeated curvilinear lines, colorful stripes, and circular motifs — to discover continuities and discontinuities. The artist deconstructs, rearranges, and joins together the textiles — through hand and machine sewing — to create sometimes graphic, sometimes nuanced, color and design relationships. Through Zlotsky’s re-envisioning, these women’s fashion accessories — each with imperfections and histories — are cast in an inventive new light. The artist states that “the transformation of recognizably everyday feminine items adds to the story of American life — and the vulnerabilities and power of being a woman.”

Within Zlotsky’s creative practice, there are visual connections between the bold geometric patterns and colors of her collected and assembled scarf tapestries and the shapes and structures employed in the artist’s large-scale oil on canvas paintings as well as shared notions of history, aging and humor.

—

NICK SIDER: LIONS AND TIGERS AND NICK

May 20 to Aug. 18

Nick Sider’s paintings of lions, tigers and largescale self-portraits are depicted in an astonishing hyper-realistic manner. Three of the NYC-based artist’s works make their debut in the Zillman Art Museum’s exhibition “Lions and Tigers and Nick.”

While the level of detail achieved by Sider is remarkable in itself, his use of acrylic — a medium that is quick to dry and often considered as inflexible and unforgiving — further attests to the artist’s skillful and unique process of layering paint. Lions and tigers have long been principal subjects for his work and he continues to be enthralled with portraying the majestic nature and spirit of these large cats. Up-close portraits of a lion and tiger, both created in 2022, reveal the intense stare and striking features of these powerful creatures.

A focal point of the exhibition is two largescale self-portraits that depict the artist in 2016 and 2022. Primal Self, 2016 captures Sider, who is a self-taught artist, during a particularly difficult time. He was finding his way as a painter, navigating the challenges of creating art while living in NYC and ultimately feeling “beaten up by the art world.” The recently completed self-portrait “Tamed Self” (2022) documents a newfound contentment. This work reflects a more confident and grounded version of the artist, having achieved a degree of commercial success, notoriety, and a fully formed artistic practice. Identifying physical changes in the six-year span between these self-portraits is a subtly nuanced exercise. The artist admits that he contemplated the process of aging while creating the recent self-portrait. The passage of time is evident through several physical features — a slightly fuller face and more noticeable wrinkles on the forehead and around the eyes. By executing the self-portraits in the same large size and format, Sider has created the opportunity for comparison and close inspection for ZAM viewers.

—

“American Woodcock,” by Walter H. Rich. Courtesy of Kendra Raymond.

WALTER HERBERT RICH: BIRDS OF A FEATHER

May 20 to Sept. 3

Walter Herbert Rich (1866-1948) began drawing and painting as a child and was primarily a self-taught artist. He perfected his craft and produced exquisitely rendered ornithological portraits. A selection of the artist’s watercolors of New England birds are featured in the exhibition “Of a Feather,” organized by the Zillman Art Museum.

Rich served as an agent for the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries in Portland from 1913 until his retirement in 1936. An avid sportsman and hunter, he illustrated several publications on fish species including “Fishes of New England-The Salmon Family” by W.C. Kendall.

One of his greatest achievements was authoring and illustrating the book “Feathered Game of the Northeast,” published by Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., New York, New York, in 1907. Along with astutely written descriptions of his feathered subjects, the artist created over 80 illustrations of the land and water birds for his 432-page book. Several of the works in this exhibition, including “American Woodcock,” “Harlequin Duck” and “Purple Gallinule,” were reproduced in his celebrated book. A reviewer for The Nation commented in 1907 that Rich was to be congratulated for being “not only the student and collector of the material for which he writes, but the artist as well.”

“Of a Feather” was organized with the active involvement of high school students from the Cobscook Experiential Program in Lubec, who served as guest curators for the exhibition. This educational outreach project was funded in part by a University of Maine Arts Initiative seed grant. The Zillman Art Museum wishes to extend sincere appreciation to Kendra Raymond for generously loaning the Walter Rich works for this exhibition.

—

“Chris’ Corner,” by Matthew Cornell. Courtesy of the artist.

MATTHEW CORNELL: AMERICA ON A FIRST NAME BASIS

May 20  to Sept. 3

Matthew Cornell’s new series of oil paintings, many of which were created in 2021 and 2022, is being exhibited for the first time at the Zillman Art Museum. “America on a First Name Basis” depicts an assortment of mom-and-pop businesses found along stretches of America’s backroads. These intimate outposts are meeting places that locals frequent for an inexpensive bite of food and the comfort of seeing familiar faces. Cornell’s enjoyment of traveling small byways, along with his desire to connect with people, served as inspiration for the works. The paintings portray places that the artist and his wife visited with a desire to “hear about the lives” of local residents. Many off-the-beaten-path eateries and groceries, with their informal homey charm, are in decline, independent owners being supplanted by giant corporations with slick brands.

The level of realism in Cornell’s paintings is achieved through many hours of work. He exhaustively studies every detail of his chosen subjects — “every line and every brick and every window” is considered. The depicted buildings in these compositions, some as small as 7 by 7 inches, document aspects of Americana, and as Cornell states, “are the backbone of another era.” The artist has meticulously rendered the unique settings and features of these roadside businesses with their hand-painted signs, aged exteriors and weathered parking lots. Adding to the drama is Cornell’s ability to capture the transient nature of light. The works reflect these local spots at various times of day, from a sky of tranquil drifting daytime clouds to the moody lights and incandescent signs of the buildings at night.

—

CARLY GLOVINSKI: CANNING THE SUNSET

May 20 to Sept. 3

“Time and Time Again” features a selection of works that highlight Carly Glovinski’s diverse and concept-driven creative practice. As the exhibition title suggests, the artist’s work emerges through repetitious acts that reflect the passage of time and natural cycles of renewal. Often Glovinski’s pieces are a response to a specific space, such as the monumental wall installation titled “Parade,” created for the Zillman, in which the gallery walls are filled with an immersive array of painted flowers. The colorful cutout forms that meander around the walls are based on flowers the artist has gathered and pressed, their flattened shapes giving them a “nostalgic, keepsake quality.” While rooted in the representational, the flower petals also take on an abstract quality as the vivid paint passages bleed and bloom on the transparent Mylar.

In “Canning the Sunset,” which Glovinski began in 2020 at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, she purposefully set out each day to capture nature’s fleeting moments of beauty. In roughly 100 recycled glass jars, the artist has recreated the sunset in meticulously dye-colored sand.

Glovinski states, “The sunset marks the sky with color in a fleeting moment each day, slipping down behind the horizon like grains of sand through an hourglass. To try and capture it, contain it, or possess it, is a futile and impossible gesture.”

These vivid and varied moments in time are arranged on a slender 13-foot floating shelf, as if to mimic the horizon line and the point in which shards of colored light and moving clouds dissolve into night.

—

ROBIN MANDEL: HOME FIRES BURNING

May 20 to Sept. 3

Robin Mandel’s sculptures are created from collected everyday items that are activated through the incorporation of electrical components. In “Red Giant,” the largest featured work at roughly 8 by 8 feet, wooden-head golf clubs radiate from a central steel armature. The center element of flickering bulbs emits an orange glow. The fluctuating light that emanates from the carefully balanced, yet sizable structure, suggests an encounter with an otherworldly entity. White Dwarf, consists of a spherical configuration of porcelain teacups and saucers attached to a steel support. An internal bright light glows and dims as it highlights translucent areas of the bone china. The work invites a calm interaction as the change in light intensity seemingly echoes a rhythm of breathing.

Mandel’s works also explore the perceptions of time and movement, while exploring the material quality of objects. Perched atop a wooden stool, a Plexiglas silhouette of a baby’s bottle, questions the limits of our perception. Mandel states, “To see one thing and know another — to grapple with paradox — the mind must find a way to allow for the impossible.” When activated by the artist, a flat cutout shape spins rapidly on a motorized disk, it appearing to have volume and tricking the eye with the illusion of being filled with milk.