The Institute of Contemporary Art at Maine College of Art & Design Presents
Journey Around My Room
On view from March 3 - April 9, 2023
Henri Paul Broyard, 3140, Acrylic and spray paint on canvas, 48”x48”, 2022.
PORTLAND, ME — January 30, 2023— The Institute of Contemporary Art at Maine College of Art & Design (ICA at MECA&D) is pleased to announce the opening of Journey Around My Room, on view from March 3 - April 9, 2023. A public reception will be held 5–8pm on Friday, March 3, 2023.
Curated by outgoing Director of Exhibitions and Associate Professor Julie Poitras Santos, Journey Around My Room presents the work of seven artists who work in photography, painting, and textile to explore the intimacy of interior spaces.
In 1794, French writer Xavier De Maistre, famously confined to his quarters for participating in a duel, wrote A Journey Around My Room. De Maistre, in playful ruminations about his space, articulated every detail of his daily passage with excitement and attentiveness. For De Maistre, A Journey Around My Room was a way of making new, revitalizing his vision for the everyday, and constructing place through joyful attention.
Taking a cue from De Maistre’s detailed treatise, the exhibition Journey Around My Room proposes that the act of articulating one’s space—be it home or studio, real or invented—is not only an act of attention to the everyday and the construction of place, but also an act of self-construction. Journey Around My Room presents the work of seven artists who characteristically turn their attention to the interior spaces of home and studio, spaces of making and self-invention, spaces of isolation or safety, of relationship and reverie.
“Of critical interest to the works selected for this exhibition are the processes through which they come into being,” notes curator Julie Poitras Santos. “Each work of photography, painting, and textile is carefully constructed; the artists in Journey Around My Room shape their works by acts of assembly, crafting visual spaces through processes of weaving, collage, stagecraft, research, and documentation.”
Artists in the exhibition include: Gideon Bok; Oona Brangam-Snell; Henri Paul Broyard; Anne Buckwalter MFA ’12; Merik Goma; Lori Nix; and Kathleen Gerber.
For more information about the exhibition, please visit the ICA website.
ABOUT THE INSTITUTE OF CONTEMPORARY ART AT MAINE COLLEGE OF ART & DESIGN
The Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA), cultivates engagement and dialogue regarding contemporary visual art practices, aiming to foster discourse regarding the critical conversations of our time, and to enhance understanding of visual culture. Located in stunning galleries in Maine College of Art & Design’s landmark Porteous Building, the ICA presents an exhibition calendar of ambitious work by living artists, operates as a learning laboratory for students, and as a center for public programming regarding contemporary art that engages with the local, national and global art community.
Hosting five exhibitions each year accompanied by a dynamic series of public events and artist talks, the ICA also supports Maine College of Art & Design graduate student exhibitions and events. The ICA is dedicated to working across platforms collaboratively and thinking with others to inspire creative action, reimagine our future, and create compassionate communities together through visual art.
Open Wednesday–Sunday, 11:00pm–5:00pm, and Thursdays until 7PM. The ICA at Maine College of Art & Design is always free.
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ABOUT MAINE COLLEGE OF ART & DESIGN
Maine College of Art & Design (MECA&D) has been activating students of all pursuits to make art, make an impact, and inspire change since its founding as Portland School of Art in 1882. Located in Portland's thriving Arts District, students have access to state-of-the-art facilities, 24-hour-a-day studios, a 10:1 student-to-faculty ratio, and a community-based Artists at Work program—making MECA&D the right-sized school in the right-sized city for every student who wants to make their mark and be seen. MECA&D offers BFA Majors and Minors, Graduate Programs, Continuing Studies, Pre-College, and includes the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies and the Institute for Contemporary Art. Follow us at @mecaart.
MEDIA CONTACT
Alex Koch, Public Relations Specialist
akoch@meca.edu