The University of Maine at Presque Isle’s Reed Art Gallery will present Recent Acquisitions, an exhibit showcasing recent artwork donated to the University by acclaimed artists and their foundations, from June 2 through August 11, 2017. All four featured artists–John Paul Caponigro, Andy Warhol, Joyce Tenneson and Bernard Langlais–have been the focus of exhibits in the Reed Art Gallery during the past few years. The public is invited to view the exhibition throughout the show’s run and attend the Gallery Reception on Friday, June 2, from 5-7 p.m., which is being held in conjunction with the First Friday Art Walk.
John Paul Caponigro is recognized as one of the prominent photographers of our time whose work has been featured in private collections including the Smithsonian and Princeton University. Recent Acquisitions will display photographs from his exhibit Antarctica, held at the Reed Art Gallery on October 21, 2014. Antarctica is a result of Caponigro’s three expeditions to the region in 2005, 2007 and 2009. Unique to the work he built his career on, Caponigro has been able to photograph the region, creating work that is highly untouched and unaltered. This has placed him in a unique situation where he is able to act as what he refers to as an “outsider journalist.” His Antarctica work documents the reality of the changes in global climate.
Recent Acquisitions will also showcase two of the five Andy Warhol screen prints that were donated to UMPI in 2015 by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and were part of the Reed Art Gallery’s Warhol: Faces exhibit. The University was one of three institutions in Maine, along with the University of Maine and Colby College, to receive an initial gift from the foundation in 2008. The Reed Art Gallery was the first in Maine to put these photographs on display for public viewing.
The two Warhol original screen prints that will be on display during the show are part of the second gift of its kind to UMPI from the Andy Warhol Foundation. This gift, valued at about $25,000, included screen prints of Queen Beatrix, Queen Margrethe, and Sitting Bull, as well as pink camouflage and a fiesta pig, and range in size from approximately 20×30 inches to 38×38 inches. The prints were created between 1979 and 1987. The Queen Beatrix and Fiesta Pig screenprints will be displayed as part of the exhibit.
The work of Joyce Tenneson, a world renowned photographer, is also part of Recent Acquisitions. Photographs from her 2013 Reed Art Gallery exhibition Wise Women, which featured 80 portraits of women aged 65 to 100, will be on display. Internationally lauded as one of the leading photographers of her generation, Tenneson ranks among the most respected photographers of our time. Her images have been displayed in exhibitions worldwide and appear frequently on covers for magazines such as Time, Life, Newsweek, Premiere, Esquire, and The New York Times Magazine. Tenneson is the author of 15 books including the best seller, Wise Women, which was featured in a six-part Today Show series.
The final artist featured in Recent Acquisitions has a close connection to UMPI. Bernard Langlais, known as “the man behind the owls,” was an acclaimed Maine sculptor who created The Owls, an iconic wooden sculpture located in the heart of the UMPI campus. The university is pleased to once again showcase many notable pieces from the Reed Art Gallery’s 2014 exhibition Bernard Langlais: The Man Behind the Owls.
That exhibition featured recently acquired art works from the Langlais estate—totaling more than 800 pieces of artwork—gifted by the Kohler Foundation, Inc. This substantial acquisition, which includes sketches, sketchbooks, studies, and models, established the campus as a research facility for the artist.
“We have been gifted some amazing artwork over the last few years and, while some of it has been shown, many have never been on display here at the Reed Art Gallery,” Gallery Director Hyrum Benson said. “I really wanted to show off some of our highlighted artists from the UMPI Art Collection.”
All are invited to view the show between June and August and to come out to the First Friday Art Walk on June 2 and take part in the free reception. Light refreshments will be served. In addition, Recent Acquisitions will be open during the First Friday Art Walk on Aug. 4 from 5-7 p.m. Please follow gallery happenings on the Reed Gallery Facebook page, www.facebook.com/ReedArtGallery.
The Reed Fine Art Gallery is located on the second floor of UMPI’s Center for Innovative Learning and is open Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The gallery is closed Saturdays, Sundays and University holidays. For more information about this event, please contact Reed Gallery Director Hyrum Benson at (207) 768-9441 or hyrum.benson@maine.edu.