In the Bedroom (2001)
Hard Tellin’… is less an attempt to define Maine, or Maine in the movies, than an opportunity to celebrate four great films that accomplish something most art should aspire to: they capture the ineffable in a place and its people at a particular moment in time. They get at something unique and a bit hard to define about us. They feel, for lack of a better word, honest.
In her work, Ashley Page explores the vulnerability, grace, and complexities of the Black experience. She believes art is a vessel used to present larger conversations about representation and visibility of the African American image, intellect, and spirit. Employing paper, fiber, and steel in her work, she envisions a world where individuals are given the autonomy to represent themselves.
Read MoreThe relationship between site, story, and mobility fuels a wide range of research and production, including the relationship between natural histories, myth, and individual story. For Poitras Santos, walking is a form of listening to a site and giving it agency in an age of climate change.
Read MoreA few years ago, she embarked on a body of figurative works, which is a longstanding tradition by Maine painters. Stanton credits this shift in her painting practice to her increased involvement with social media as well as the devolving political climate of the past four years. She likens her new painting endeavors to a “fascinating adventure: like dreaming awake.”
Read MoreGiles Timms, a digital artist based in Orono, Maine, combines media and genres into hybrid art. His work borrows from current events, specifically the terrific and terrifying absurdities of modern life, and he translates his impressions into wistful, animated films. In each animation, Timms casts a leading protagonist, or “Creep” as he refers to them, into environments that possess a familiarity with local settings yet equally surreal architecture.
Read MoreArtists’ Rapid Response Team! (also known as ARRT!) is a collective of year-round members of the Union of Maine Visual Artists (UMVA). UMVA is dedicated to upholding the dignity of artists, while creating positive social change through the arts.
Read MoreIn the fall of 2020, the Portland Museum of Art presented Mythmakers: The Art of Winslow Homer and Frederic Remington, the first exhibition to explore the unexpected resonances between the themes, artistic sensibilities, and technical processes of these two great American artists and exploring the mythologies both artists perpetuated in their work. Co-organized by the PMA, Denver Art Museum, and the Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Mythmakers situates Homer and Remington within their historical moment, highlighting moments of convergence in their biographies, their chosen subject matter, and their experimentation across media in an era of profound social change.
Read MoreWe love hearing from our colleagues about their favorite artworks in the PMA Collection. Here, Ashleigh Hill shares why she loves the haunting image of Florence Leyland by James Abbott McNeill Whistler.
Read MoreWinslow Homer and Frederic Remington both depicted Indigenous people in their work in varying capacities. Two Maine experts discuss the layers of meaning and implications behind those depictions.
Read MoreHear from all three curators at the PMA for a conversation about the new exhibition Freedom, A Fable. Together, they touch upon the mission and themes behind the show, and examine how the featured historic and contemporary artworks from the PMA collection inspire complex dialogues around race, representation, and American history.
Read MoreIn this virtual conversation for the PMA, Barbara Haskell, long-time curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art, shares her latest exhibition: Vida Americana: Mexican Muralists Remake American Art, 1925–1945,
Read MoreBrian Chin, Co-founding Partner and Creative Director at p3, spearheaded the use of innovative technology in our galleries and shared the experience with us.
Read MoreFor several years, the PMA has commemorated Day Without Art, an international day of action and mourning in response to the AIDS crisis, by shrouding works of art and writing personal reflections that honor the movement and the countless artists whose lives were lost to the crisis. Though we can’t gather in person this year to commemorate Day Without Art, we highlight past PMA staff reflections as a moment of pause, reflection, and solidarity.
Read MoreOur friends at New England Distilling have created a craft cocktail to toast to Mythmakers: The Art of Winslow Homer and Frederic Remington and celebrate Thanksgiving, no matter what the holiday looks like for you this year.
Read MoreThe Portland Museum of Art has received a grant for $10,000 from the Avangrid Foundation to support Art for All, the PMA’s guiding principle and commitment to Diversity, Equity, Accessibility, and Inclusion (DEAI).The grant marks the second consecutive year that the Avangrid Foundation has provided support to the PMA.
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