Kristen Levesque
Director of Marketing and Public Relations
Seven Congress Square
Portland, Maine 04101
(207) 775-6148 ext. 3223
klevesque@portlandmuseum.org
Release: April 7, 2005
2005 Portland Museum of Art Biennial
Editors: Please call for images.
(Portland, Maine) Join the Portland Museum of Art this spring in honoring the 62 artists whose work has been selected for the 2005 Portland Museum of Art Biennial. This ongoing exhibition series, presented in alternate years, highlights 93 works by both emerging and established artists associated with the state of Maine. Though paintings predominate the exhibition, a range of media is represented, including video, site-specific work, installations, photography, and sculpture. The 2005 Portland Museum of Art Biennial will be on view from April 7 through June 5, 2005.
This past summer, a record 948 artists submitted more than 3,696 slides and 24 videos to be considered by a panel of three jurors. John Cheim, owner of Cheim and Read Gallery in New York; Yvonne Jacquette, nationally recognized artist; and Judith Tannenbaum, Curator of Contemporary Art at the Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, spent a weekend viewing slides and selecting the work that comprises this year?s Biennial. A Jurors? Prize will be announced at the Members? Opening Reception on April 6, as will one or more purchase prizes awarded by the Museum?s curatorial department, which will add work from the Biennial to the permanent collection.
As a series, the Biennial exhibitions create a visual record of Maine?s evolving contemporary art scene and testify to the profound influence that the landscape, traditions, and people of Maine continue to have on living artists. The Biennial encourages a dialogue between the history and future of Maine art on a local, regional, and national level. Maine has nurtured artists for centuries, and its influence reaches far beyond its borders. Although the majority of Biennial artists are residents, a number are part-time residents or recent graduates of the state?s many prestigious art programs. This blending of influences and experiences enriches Maine?s artistic community and helps to define its art scene as one that benefits from a diversity of traditions, both established and new.
The Biennial reveals a confluence of broad interests and influences not tied to any one genre or subject. Urban environments replace traditional landscapes and figurative work ranges from self-portraiture to fantastical human narratives. Photography depicts powerful, intimate images of family and home, as well as more austere and surreal uninhabited exteriors. Geometrical and graphic abstraction, reappropriated materials, and politically inspired work in a variety of media also have a place in the 2005 Biennial. A full-color catalogue has been published in conjunction with the exhibition and will be available in the Museum Store.
The 2005 Portland Museum of Art Biennial is made possible by the William E. and Helen E. Thon Endowment Fund with additional generous support from Gorham Savings Bank. Media support is provided by The Portland Phoenix and 92.1 WFNX.
Museum Information
The Portland Museum of Art is located at Seven Congress Square in downtown Portland. The Museum is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday, and 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Friday. Memorial Day through Columbus Day, the Museum is open on Mondays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Museum admission is $10 for adults, $8 for seniors and students with I.D., $4 for youth ages 6 to 17, and children under 6 are free. The Museum is free on Friday evenings from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Museum Cafe and Store. For more information, call (207) 775-6148. Web site www.portlandmuseum.org.