Faculty art on display at UM campus gallery

ORONO – An exhibition of new work by University of Maine Department of Art faculty, artNOW!, may be seen through Nov. 19 in the Carnegie Galleries on the UMaine campus.

ArtNOW! brings together the art of 22 faculty members in an exhibition of 80 pieces of new work, said MaJo Keleshian, gallery coordinator. This year’s work includes photographs, paintings, drawings, prints, ceramics, books, mixed media, sculptures and installations.

The work is “a representation of the creative productivity of the faculty,” said Mike Lewis, a painter and professor of art. “It’s the equivalent of research in other departments.”

Anyone who has taught art in the department in the last year was invited to submit work for the exhibition.

“Each faculty member is developing conceptual ideas that are addressing a very broad range of issues, interests and concerns,” said Lewis. “They have to figure out which materials to use in expressing the ideas, the concepts – personal, social or political. It’s a full spectrum of contemporary interests.”

Lewis’ work, “Beauty and Darkness,” for instance, depicts fields, trees, clouds and light, overshadowed by a sense of darkness.

“They start with the landscape, but try to move the viewer to an inner space, more emotional and more mystical,” he said. “It’s a response to the current scene, especially the political scene where there is all this beauty in the world, but also this inability to function peacefully. There is a sense of ambient darkness that hovers over us.”

Assistant professor of art Sam Van Aken, who teaches sculpture, has a piece consisting of 16 tomatoes with teeth, some real and some from dentures, titled “Killer Tomatoes.” It is a statement about how technology transforms the way we live, he said.