ON VIEW
April 22 – 29
+ May 12 – 20
EXHIBITION OPENINGS
Friday, April 21, 5 – 7 pm
+ Thursday, May 11, 5 – 7 pm
April 22 – 29
+ May 12 – 20
EXHIBITION OPENINGS
Friday, April 21, 5 – 7 pm
+ Thursday, May 11, 5 – 7 pm
@grace.makes
gracehager.com
Grace
Grace Hager (b. 1993, Los Angeles, CA) is a Portland, Maine-based painter. In 2015, she received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting with a Minor in Art History from the Maine College of Art & Design. In 2021, she returned to Portland and MECA&D to pursue her Master of Fine Arts. Her work locates the natural world as a realm of possibility: a source of transformative encounters that generate awe, positioning the magical within the observable world. She comes from a family of scientists which has influenced her love of the natural world and fascination with how things work.
Sunset Seeking: Psychedelic Color and Light in the Landscape: My work locates the natural world as a realm of possibility: a source of transformative encounters that generate feeling and awe, positioning the magical within the observable. A psychedelic experience of prismatic light and spectral color, similar to the light and color of a sunset, creates feelings of awe. In my current paintings and ceramics, I am focusing on creating a sense of glowing color and shimmering light, similar to the many hues of a sunset or light reflected off the surface of the ocean. Like the atmosphere reflecting and refracting light during the sunset, I seek to create work that visually mimics a prism — breaking light into all its reflected colors. An experience of oscillating color as light and light as color is psychedelic and recalls the awe and aesthetics of sixties psychedelia. Developing a psychedelic use of prismatic light and spectral, ‘rainbow’ coloring is my visual strategy to give form to feelings of awe within a painted landscape or figurative natural subject. Finding (or making) awe and beauty encourages further awareness of the beautiful and awe-some, which acts as an antidote for anxieties of the contemporary moment to reinforce a feeling that life is good and worth living.
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gracehager.com
Grace
Hager
Grace Hager (b. 1993, Los Angeles, CA) is a Portland, Maine-based painter. In 2015, she received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting with a Minor in Art History from the Maine College of Art & Design. In 2021, she returned to Portland and MECA&D to pursue her Master of Fine Arts. Her work locates the natural world as a realm of possibility: a source of transformative encounters that generate awe, positioning the magical within the observable world. She comes from a family of scientists which has influenced her love of the natural world and fascination with how things work.
Sunset Seeking: Psychedelic Color and Light in the Landscape: My work locates the natural world as a realm of possibility: a source of transformative encounters that generate feeling and awe, positioning the magical within the observable. A psychedelic experience of prismatic light and spectral color, similar to the light and color of a sunset, creates feelings of awe. In my current paintings and ceramics, I am focusing on creating a sense of glowing color and shimmering light, similar to the many hues of a sunset or light reflected off the surface of the ocean. Like the atmosphere reflecting and refracting light during the sunset, I seek to create work that visually mimics a prism — breaking light into all its reflected colors. An experience of oscillating color as light and light as color is psychedelic and recalls the awe and aesthetics of sixties psychedelia. Developing a psychedelic use of prismatic light and spectral, ‘rainbow’ coloring is my visual strategy to give form to feelings of awe within a painted landscape or figurative natural subject. Finding (or making) awe and beauty encourages further awareness of the beautiful and awe-some, which acts as an antidote for anxieties of the contemporary moment to reinforce a feeling that life is good and worth living.
The MFA Thesis Exhibitions for the Class of 2023 are interdisciplinary shows that incorporate a range of making practices unified by the overwhelming concerns these students have for their environment, their communities, their families, and their own well-being. With an emphasis on the personal, and at times the anecdotal, these 21 artists make a variety of contributions in the form of ceramics, garments, furniture, installations, paintings, photographs, poems, prints, sculptures, and videos. The nature of their work and research demonstrates the caliber and cultural relevance of our program.
2023 MFA artists (April 22 – 29)
Corinne Colpitts, Deanna Jacome, Marlena Faxon, Jordann McKenna, Allison Overpeck, Maya Parry, Phoebe Snyder, Richard Takita, Michael Tilbury, Ryan Wight
2023 MFA artists (May 12 – 20)
McKenna Bishop, Maeve Doolan, Grace Hager, Mattie Hinkley, Rebecca Laws, James Meyer, Ted Moore, Steffany Ojeda, Connor Pirruccello-McClellan, Deborah Santoro, Anthony Surratt
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Corinne Colpitts, Deanna Jacome, Marlena Faxon, Jordann McKenna, Allison Overpeck, Maya Parry, Phoebe Snyder, Richard Takita, Michael Tilbury, Ryan Wight
2023 MFA artists (May 12 – 20)
McKenna Bishop, Maeve Doolan, Grace Hager, Mattie Hinkley, Rebecca Laws, James Meyer, Ted Moore, Steffany Ojeda, Connor Pirruccello-McClellan, Deborah Santoro, Anthony Surratt
Institute of Contemporary Art
at Maine College of Art & Design
522 Congress St.Portland, ME 04101
Gallery Hours:
Wed–Sun, 11:00am–5:00pm,
Thursday, 11:00am–7:00pm