Dowling Walsh Gallery features new work by artists Elizabeth Fox and Cig Harvey in August exhibitions

Dowling Walsh Gallery in Rockland will feature two solo exhibitions by artists Elizabeth Fox and Cig Harvey from Aug. 4 to 26. A public opening reception celebrating the exhibitions will be held from 4 to 7 p.m. Aug. 4.

The exhibition “Elizabeth Fox: Goddess In A Bubble Jacket” presents new work by painter Elizabeth Fox, who lives in Standish. Fox is widely known for her carefully crafted paintings, whose tender colors and precisely drawn subjects belie their sly, dark humor. She works in an exacting, traditional method that connects her work to the early Renaissance masters. The pristine surfaces of her paintings are achieved by applying multiple thin layers of oil paint over a detailed black-and-white underpainting. Each layer is allowed to dry before adding the next, slowly building the image with each successive layer. Embracing “the beautiful and the mundane,” Fox’s meticulously constructed images reference Pop culture, art history, and the mysteries of everyday life. Populated by figures engaged in action and full of personality, her narratives are open-ended, allowing their interpretation to change over time. Each scene is caught in a frozen moment, a “cut” from a fantastical film of life.

“By emphasizing the relationships between people, objects, color, and space, everyday scenes can become mysterious, funny, or strange,” she says. 

Fox was born in Orlando, Florida, and attended the Ringling School of Art in Sarasota. She lived in New Orleans for eighteen years before moving to Maine in 2008. Fox has exhibited her work widely at galleries across the United States and the Netherlands. She has had twelve solo exhibitions, including Played to Win at the Center for Maine Contemporary Art in 2014.

Also opening on Aug. 4 is the exhibition “Cig Harvey: FEAST,” an immersive installation by the highly regarded photographer and writer Cig Harvey, whose work urges the viewer to find and celebrate the beauty in the everyday. 

“I want people to see my work and seek more joy … because tomorrow will be different. Time is the only currency,” Harvey says. 

Harvey’s art is rich in implied narrative and deeply rooted in her environment. Nature, familial relationships, and domestic life inform her subjects. She describes “FEAST” as “a maximalist affair involving photographs, installation, audio, neon, and text. Something for all the senses.” Included are photographs of cakes from her most recent body of work. Lavish, extravagant cakes made by her daughter, Scout, as taught by a treasured family friend. 

Harvey says, “I am fascinated by the rituals surrounding cakes. How entrenched they are in personal stories, both positive and negative. As much as cakes are a symbol of joy and life, they are also complicated and have a nefarious history connected to colonialism and gender inequality. I search for these dualities in the pictures.” The cakes in Harvey’s photographs range from the dignified to the zany. Each is an offering to be shared with those present and those gone. 

Harvey grew up in the county of Devon in South West England and received her MFA from Rockport College in Maine. Her photographs and artist books have been widely exhibited internationally. They are in the permanent collections of The Library of Congress, Yale University, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Farnsworth Art Museum, and the International Museum of Photography and Film at George Eastman House, Rochester, New York. Her first solo museum exhibition was in 2012 at the Stenersen Museum, Oslo, Norway, in conjunction with the release of her first monograph, “You Look At Me Like An Emergency” (Schilt Publishing). 

In 2019, she had a solo exhibition at the Ogunquit Museum of Art, and most recently, her work was featured in the exhibition, In Bloom, at Fotografiska Museum, Stockholm, Sweden. She was awarded the Prix Virginia Laureate in 2018 and the Farnsworth Art Museum’s Maine in America Award in 2021. In 2022, she was the JP Morgan Highlighted Artist at Paris Photo. She lives in Rockport, Maine.

Dowling Walsh Gallery is at 365 Main St. in Rockland. The gallery is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and by appointment on Sundays and Mondays. Visit www.dowlingwalsh.com, or c all 207-596-0084 for more information.