The Center for Maine Contemporary Art (CMCA) invites the public to a conversation and book signing with artist John Bisbee on Saturday, October 13, 2018, from 3:00 to 5:00pm. The event celebrates the release of the exhibition catalog, American Steel, and serves as a closing reception for the final weekend of the exhibition.

Art critic Carl Little, writing about American Steel in the online arts publication, Hyperallergic, states: “There’s something homegrown, authentic and tough about this artist—a cross between Bruce Springsteen and the village blacksmith. With American Steel, Bisbee has brought a new voice to his art, one, in his words, that ‘summons the utilitarian associations of the nail with new vigor and responds to the world outside of myself, pointedly and with humor.’ He calls American Steel ‘an aggressive spectacle,’ his ‘patriotic and poetic reexamination of America.’ It’s all that and then some. Excuse the pun: Bisbee has nailed it.”

 

 

Accompanying the exhibition, and available for purchase and signing by the artist at the reception on October 13, is the newly released 64-page, fully illustrated, 11×11 inch, hardcover catalog. The publication includes a foreword by CMCA Director Suzette McAvoy and an essay by Glenn Adamson, Senior Scholar at the Yale Center for British Art and former Director of the Museum of Arts and Design, NYC. The catalog has been designed by Maeve O’Regan, with photography by Andrew Estey. It was printed in Lewiston by Penmor Lithographers.

Constructed entirely from nails, by hand, John Bisbee’s sculptures draw on a deep well of American historical and vernacular imagery. Made in a spirit of solidarity with workers of all kinds, each nail expresses the idea of things joined together.

John Bisbee: American Steel is on view at CMCA in Rockland through October 14, 2018. Major support for the exhibition has been provided by the Roxanne Quimby Foundation, John and Linda Coleman, the Lucas Kaempfer Foundation, James and Lisa Mooney, Robert and Elizabeth Nanovic, the David E. Shaw Family Foundation, and Cold Mountain Builders.

For additional information on events and exhibitions at CMCA, please visit cmcanow.org.