The 2012 Exhibition Schedule

An exciting collaboration between the Maine Museum of Photographic Arts and the Ogunquit Museum of American Art, Light, Motion, Sound 2012 shines a spotlight on contemporary Maine artists. This exhibition features dozens of Maine photographers working in various contemporary media, including film, still photography, and video graphics. The exhibition features work by:

• Caleb Charland    Portland
• Elke Morris          Lewiston
• Barbara Goodbody    Cumberland
• Jonathan Laurence   Rockland
• Luc Demers               Falmouth
• Raphael Diluzio         Portland
• Todd Watts           Blanchard
• Amy  Stacey Curtis        Lyman
• Mat Thorne         Rockport
• Tad Beck         Vinalhaven
• Noah Krell           Hollis
• Maggie Foskett      Camden
• Mark Ketzler         Kennebunkport
• Dan Dowd         Brunswick
• John Paul Caponigro      Cushing
• Scott Peterman       Hollis

The mission of the Maine Museum of Photographic Arts is to inspire, engage and educate men, women, and children through the exhibition, preservation, and collection of photography, film, videography, installations, and the entire spectrum of new media. Learn more about MMPA at their website.

This exhibition will feature highlights from the Permanent Collection. Begun in 1953 at the opening of the Ogunquit Museum of American Art, the Permanent Collection of the Museum has developed into a premier collection of American Modernism. The collection was started by Henry Strater, who was the founder, benefactor, and first Director of the Museum. Strater served as Director of the Museum for 34 years, during which he amassed an impressive collection of the art of his time.

Henry Strater is best known for his portraits of the nude figure and landscapes of the Maine coast. Strater was also a fine portrait painter. This exhibition will examine the art of his portraiture from the unknown sitter, family portraits and the famous Hemingway portraits.

Peggy Bacon is internationally known as a painter and printmaker who created caricatures and portraits of famous men and women in the arts, and political commentary in the arts and the nation. She was also author of many children’s books. She summered for many years in Ogunquit and eventually settled permanently in Cape Porpoise, Maine. Lesser known are her portraits of family life and the handmade crafts she created for her family. This exhibition will feature art of Ogunquit, books with hand drawn portraits in the front pages that she gave as gifts, hand-made dolls, and woven rugs. Art from the Museum’s Permanent Collection and private family collections will be on exhibit.

Internationally known artist Will Barnet, who turned 100 in 2011, will be featured in a one-man exhibition. Known as a master printmaker, Barnet had great success as an abstractionist early in his career. Later, he turned to themes of family life and found equal success.

The OMAA is well-known for its collection of American Modernism, but is lesser known for its work by contemporary masters such as Wolf Kahn, Eric Aho, Gene Davis and Steven Hawley. The exhibition features lesser known and seldom seen works from the Museum’s contemporary collection.

Hal Carney’s enigmatic portrait of Robert Laurent, Isabella Howland’s caricatures of Henry Strater (entitled "Henry Satyr"), and John Laurent’s Pony Cart by Bernard Karfiol, will be featured along with portraits by many art colony artists. Many of these have never been seen on exhibit.

As a pioneer in the Mail Art Movement in the 1970s, Carlo Pittore contributed to over 1,000 exhibitions. Pittore was active in New York in the 1970s and ‘80s but eventually moved to Maine where he started the Union of Maine Visual Artists and upon his death in 2005, the Carlo Pittore Foundation for the Figurative Arts. The OMAA was a recipient of one of Pittore’s paintings from the Foundation in 2009. The exhibition will feature mail art accumulated or made by Pittore over the past 3 decades.