MDI Graduates Bring a Night Gallery to Portland While Art Takes Over Bar Harbor This Weekend
The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by The Witham Family Hotels Charitable Fund.
BAR HARBOR—William Hathaway graduated from Mount Desert Island High School in 2000 and the island hasn’t let him go yet. He spends time here in the summer and every other year for Christmas.
“For years I have wanted to have a Night Gallery exhibition in Maine,” Hathaway said. “Ideally, it would have been in Bar Harbor or Northeast Harbor, but when the opportunity came about to show with Boru at Dunes in Portland, we jumped on it.”
Boru is Boru O’Brien, and he’s not only another MDI High School graduate; he’s Dunes’ founding director. Hathaway is the sales director and partner of Night Gallery. The men grew up together in Bar Harbor. O’Brien also introduced Brian Faucette, senior director of Night Gallery, to the region when the pair attended art school together in the early 2000s.
“Additionally, Brian Faucette, the senior director here at the gallery, also went to the Museum School in Boston with Boru, so they are good friends as well,” Hathaway said of the ties between the men and the island. “He's spent time in Southwest Harbor with another friend of ours so he also jumped on the opportunity to be involved.”
There is an attraction to the dense forests and rocky shores for artists that exceeds provinciality, a deep impression that has, and continues to shape, American art, they said.
Tonight, the Night Gallery, in collaboration with Dunes, presents “The Wrong Sea,” an exhibition featuring work by Sachiko Akiyama, Jared Buckheister, Cathleen Clarke, Lynne Mapp Drexler, Marley Freeman, Jerrell Gibbs, Bambou Gili, Dylan Hausthor, Danielle Mckinney, Jesse Mockrin, Catalina Ouyang, Eric Palgon, Lily Stockman, Owen Westberg and Coco Young.
The opening reception is from 3-7 p.m., August 3.
“The Wrong Sea” will be on view from August 3 through October 5, 2024 at Dunes, in Portland.
This collaboration was motivated by the two galleries’ mutual desire to celebrate Maine’s place within art history.
Beginning in the late 1800s, Maine became known for its artist communities, including Ogunquit, Haystacks, and Skowhegan among others. Many of their founding artists studied in Europe; they brought back to the States a romanticized vision of the pastoral and an emphatic rejection of modern life. These artists were deeply influenced by the Barbizon and post-impressionist painters who sought unmanicured nature as a subject. And so the lush forests and jagged coasts to the north of New York and Boston became in many ways the American Fontainebleau, attracting Edward Hopper, Frederic Edwin Church, Robert Henri, Margaret Jordan Patterson and countless subsequent followers to the landscape.
Throughout “The Wrong Sea,” contemporary artists from both gallery programs echo the sentiments of this history.
Sachiko Akiyama, Bambou Gili, Jerrell Gibbs and Danielle Mckinney depict personal reflection in communion with the natural world. Jesse Mockrin and Coco Young both look to and recontextualize works of the western canon. The paintings of Lily Stockman and Owen Westberg are shaped by the land that surrounds them. Each artist forgoes the search for something “new,” looking instead to the past for a better understanding of their worlds.
Beyond an exploration of regional history, many artists included have a connection to Maine and have been influenced by its landscape. Lynne Mapp Drexler lived and worked on Monhegan until her death in 1999, Lily Stockman works from Maine part of the year, Coco Young traveled from New York to Maine for childhood summers, and Sachiko Akiyama, a local artist, and Jerrell Gibbs both studied at Skowhegan.
Hathaway said, “My first job in the art world was serving wine at Wingspread in Northeast Harbor. That was such an important gallery for the island. After college, I spent time working for the Gagosian Gallery and bounced around to a few other galleries until I landed at Night Gallery nine years ago. It's been an incredible experience working in art.”
Wingspread was really the first place that exposed him to the idea that you could have a profession in the arts, he said.
”I would love to someday have a gallery that shows both artists from away and local artists and show kids that it's possible to have a successful career in the arts.”
ARTWALKS AND HUDSON TO HARBOR
On Friday night Bar Harbor hosted both the Hudson to Harbor event and an ArtWalk and reception, highlighting artists and art in a community that was partially built on the images and creations of artists who travelled here well over a century ago.
The ArtWalk was organized by Linda D’Alessio, who runs the D’Alessio Gallery on Mount Desert Street with her husband, Russell D'Alessio, the artist.
It was also the opening reception for D’Alessio new series featuring his latest paintings, "BELLA VITA."
The Hudson to Harbor event was organized by the Bar Harbor Historical Society and Garden Land Preserve.
“In the realm of artistic expression, a silent conversation unfolds—a dialogue that transcends words, inviting viewers to engage in thought-provoking reflections on societal issues,” writes artist Matt Gable.
Art can inspire conversations both silent and spoken. This was true at all the events as people spoke of shore paths being rebuilt, planes that had crashed, politics, cruise ships, historical moments of Bar Harbor, the woes of Atlantic Avenue cellars, and the joys of summer camp flirtations.
How we frame stories and discussions influence how we create conversations, but it also influences who we talk and listen to, Linda D’Allessio said.
Argosy Gallery, Queen Anne’s Flower Shop, Island Artisan MDI, Sagegrass Gallery also participated in the ArtWalk. The next walk is in September.
LINKS TO LEARN MORE
More information on Bar Harbor ArtWalk can be found here.
To purchase (and view) art from the Hudson to Harbor event, go here.
A link to the Night Gallery/Dune show, The Wrong Sea.
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