As Bowdoin’s Visual Arts professors wrap up an exciting first year of teaching in the new Edwards Center for Art and Dance, they can also celebrate a year of remarkable achievement in their individual artistic pursuits as painters, sculptors, printmakers, and photographers:
“Edge” (left) and “Ocean” by Mark Wethli, 2013. Flashé acrylic on woven Jaipur paper, 13 x 10 inches.
A. LeRoy Greason Professor of Art Mark Wethli curated the inaugural show of The Curator Gallery in New York City this spring after being approached by the gallery’s founder, former Time Inc. chairman and CEO Ann Moore. His exhibition was titled “Second Nature” and included work by Bowdoin Sculptor-in Residence John Bisbee. This spring Wethli also had a solo show in New York’s The Painting Center.
New Blooms exhibition by John Bisbee, Shelburne Museum.
Bisbee had his own solo exhibition this spring, “New Blooms” at Vermont’s Shelburne Museum, showcasing his series of floral-inspired works crafted from 12-inch nails.
“Echolocation” by Carrie Scanga, 2013. Bronze and monotype on paper, 7 x 6 x 16 feet.
Assistant Professor of Art Carrie Scanga, Bowdoin’s printmaker extraordinaire, was selected from 900 applicants to have her work shown in the 2013 Portland Museum of Art Biennial: Piece Work, on view from October 2013 through January 2014.
Known for her expansive installations containing thousands of pieces of printed and folded paper, Scanga took on a new medium for the Biennial show: she cast a bronze sculpture of a boat, based on the “party boats” she saw on summer nights when she lived on Portland’s Eastern Promenade. The bronze vessel floats in a sea of printed, cut and folded paper with a backdrop of a moonlit sky.
“Blue Hill” by James Mullen, 2012. Oil on canvas, 20 x 60 inches.
The Phoenix Gallery in New York City named Associate Professor of Art James Mullen as 2013-2014 Fellowship Award Winner in a national competition juried by Guyanese artist Carl E. Hazlewood. The award included an associate gallery membership as well as a solo exhibition of Mullen’s works displayed in the gallery last summer.
“Overlooking the Savannah River and I-20 Bridge, Aiken County, SC” by Michael Kolster, 2014. Ambrotype, 7 3/8 x 9 3/16 inches.
After winning a 2013 Guggenheim for his photography project “Take Me to the River,” Associate Professor of Art Michael Kolster has been traveling around the country with his old-fashioned camera setup, taking ambrotypes of rivers that have troubled ecological pasts. (Filling in as professor of photography at Bowdoin during Kolster’s absence is the distinguished photographer Accra Shepp.)
