BANGOR – William Gropper, George Daniell and Per Kirkeby are the featured artists through May 10 at the University of Maine Museum of Art, Norumbega Hall, 40 Harlow St.

William Gropper’s painting focused on the people and conditions of American life, providing symbolic and narrative visual essays.

As a poor child growing up in New York, he understood firsthand the challenges new immigrants and the working-class poor faced; as a blacklisted artist, he understood feelings of alienation.

Long considered one of America’s leading social realist artists, Gropper uses imagery that encompasses powerful and emotional figures, which convey insight into societal problems and situations. The exhibition draws from the museum’s large collection of Gropper’s works.

George Daniell was born in Yonkers, N.Y. He came to Maine in 1936 and visited the art colony of Monhegan. In the fall of 1937 he spent time on the North Atlantic island of Grand Manan off the Bay of Fundy in New Brunswick.

His photographs portray the artist’s newspaper photo-essay on the island’s herring fishing industry.

The photographs and accompanying text were syndicated in newspapers throughout the United States and Canada. Daniell moved to Maine permanently in the 1950s, living in Trenton until his death last year.

The imagery found in Per Kirkeby’s work draws on his enduring love affair with nature. He was schooled as an archaeologist and now is a long-standing summer resident on a remote island in the channel between Denmark and Sweden.

Kirkeby’s work captures the palette, light and forms of his environment and intellectual imagination.

The monotype process, used in Kirkeby’s work, is a spontaneous medium which frees an artist’s hand and mind to act impulsively.

The result is often fresh and lyrical, as seen in the 13 prints, created with master printmaker Richard Tullis, selected for the exhibit.

Museum hours are 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday and 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday. Cost of admission is $3.

There is no charge for University of Maine Students with ID, or for museum members. To obtain information, call 561-3350.