The University of Maine at Presque Isle’s Reed Fine Art Gallery presents the 2013 Bachelor of Fine Arts Exhibition, featuring selected works created by five graduating UMPI art students, now through August 17. The public is invited to view the exhibition and attend a reception, being held in conjunction with the First Friday Art Walk, on Friday, Aug 2 from 5-7 p.m. in the Reed Gallery.
The Reed Fine Art Gallery has presented a Senior Thesis Exhibition each year for the last six years as an opportunity for young and upcoming artists in northern Maine to showcase their work to the public and to provide a forum for them to discuss their art.
Artists in this year’s exhibition include: Angel Cray, Robb Miller, Lanette Virtanen, Corey Levesque, and Karrie Brown. The works featured were selected from individual shows held by each artist during the Spring 2013 semester as part of the Fine Art Senior Thesis Exhibition course. Students in the course are required to prepare a body of work for solo exhibition, and defend it orally and in writing, in order to graduate.
Photography pieces rich with experimentation from Angel Cray’s show “An Artist’s Dedication,” are featured. These include large prints photographed from a pinhole camera. Her images superimpose a portrait over an environmental image, all relating to her muse. The photographs are finished with a layer of wooden stain and a wood burned message completes the process.
Photographs from Robb Miller’s show “Forgotten Landscape” are on display. His photos capture the isolation in vast spaces. The landscape imagery evokes a sense of introspection and sometimes an emotional turbulence. Miller’s process, founded in experimental darkroom techniques, layers imagery with textures, such as rusted metal, which create the stark image.
Lanette Virtanen honored the legacy of her family in her digital photography exhibition “Josh’s Trees” and pieces from that show are featured in the Reed Gallery. Choosing to photograph her son’s trees that he planted at age 5, she documented the trees now 20 years later, as they withstand the Canadian seasons. The changing seasons reflect the cycles of life in her family and document a precious place where their legacy was built.
Corey Levesque was the first student in the history of UMPI’s Fine Art program to take on layered painting using epoxy resin and acrylic paint, exhibiting “An Ephemeral World.” Several pieces from his exhibition are now on display. Levesque’s work is seemingly cut from a place in time and archived as a luminescent jewel within a birch panel. His work engages the landscape and the memory tied to that place.
Paintings from Karrie Brawn’s show “Amour-proper,” consisting of acrylic paintings revolving around the duality of narcissism, also are featured. Brawn created a series of large self-portraits strongly influenced by action painting and classic painters, such as Caravaggio, resulting in a modern approach to composition for a contemporary dialogue.
The 2013 Senior Thesis Exhibition gives visitors the opportunity to view some of the cutting edge work at the University in the last year. The Aug. 2 reception is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be served.
The Reed Fine Art Gallery is open Monday through Saturday 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. The gallery is closed Sundays and university holidays. For more information about this event, please contact: Rowena Forbes at 768-9442, 227-3236 orrowena.forbes@maine.edu.