Artists search for ‘Oh, wow’

BANGOR — Four featured artists are sharing the University of Maine Museum of Art gallery from Jan. 15 to April 3. Megan Chase, Gerry Stecca, Gerald Immonen and David Isenhour’s works range in medium from traditional watercolor and acrylic to automobile paint and clothespins. The focus on painting and sculpture represents the museum’s well-rounded challenge to the viewer.

“Resonant Places,” by Chase, “Simple Complexity,” by Stecca, “Burnt Cove,” by Immonen and “Bio-Permutation,” by Isenhour show what the UMMA is known for — modern art.

George Kinghorn, director and curator of the UMMA, describes the museum’s reputation as being “able to fill that niche” — a Maine art museum with an emphasis on modern and contemporary art.

Kinghorn cited the Portland Museum of Art, Colby College Museum of Art and Bowdoin College Museum of Art as being cultural, artistic destinations. He wants the same for the UMMA.

“It really can be a destination,” Kinghorn said. “Our attendance has increased by over 50 percent.”

Kinghorn attributes last year’s attendance to the museum’s efforts — increasing visibility and better programming. All visitors to the museum enter at no cost courtesy of an ongoing three-year Machias Savings Bank gift.

“We have been really working on getting the museum’s name and our programs throughout New England,” Kinghorn said.

The UMMA has been an important part of the University of Maine for 64 years and was founded by Vincent Hartgen, an art faculty member, according to Kinghorn.

“The museum has been fully functional here in downtown for over six years,” he added of the location change from campus to downtown Bangor.

Kinghorn came to Maine after nine years as deputy director, director and chief curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Jacksonville, Fla.

“I’m really enjoying Maine and the university,” he said. “My area of expertise is art since 1945, which is wonderful because the bulk of the museum’s collection falls within that particular area.”

According to Kinghorn, the museum has many modern and contemporary works in paper and photography. They have some works that fall outside of that category, but the majority of the works are post-WWII era.

Venezuelan-born artist Stecca uses clothespins — or whatever scrap material he can buy off of the local recycling center. His works typify what the museum looks for.

Kinghorn and Stecca met in 2008 at the Art Basel Festival in Miami Beach, Fla. — sister festival to Switzerland’s prestigious Art Basel, a collection of international artistic highlights, including film, music, architectures and design.

“It was one of those things, being in the right place at the right time,” Stecca said.

Kinghorn said he spotted Stecca’s girlfriend sporting a tube dress and clutch made of clothespins. Each year, in the spirit of Art Basel Miami Beach, Stecca makes a dress and purse matching his girlfriend’s shoes.

“We were running around and having a good time,” said Stecca, describing his first meeting with Kinghorn.

Kinghorn and Stecca have been in contact ever since the dress encounter.

Originally a painter, Stecca ventured toward installation art in order to avoid boredom.

“Lucky for me it keeps me interested,” said Stecca, who has three works exhibited in Simple Complexity.

Boasting over 10,000 clothespins, Stecca’s “Stalagmites,” “Untitled” and “Mermaid’s Tails” command the viewer in an interactive manner.

Stecca described his works as constructed with a “different original kind of material, but larger and interactive so you can touch them and walk through them, so it’s part of the experience.”

“This work here, the artist says, makes kind of a reference to marine life,” Kinghorn said. “I really adore this piece. I love the way the work integrates with the wall, yet extends the wall onto the floor, so it has that interesting tension.”

Kinghorn enjoys the individualized associations visitors take away from Stecca’s work, sharing what one viewer described “Mermaid’s Tails” as a stylized deep sea diver, large flippers all but dripping onto the floor.

“Taking the everyday, commonplace object and just by the sheer scale, he brings all these things together, making it the monumental,” he said. He added that Stecca worked onsite, responding to the available space, as most installation artists do.

“I like working backwards,” Stecca said. “Once you show me a space, the ideas start pouring in.” Stecca said that he rarely knows what his exact finished project will look like.

“I don’t know how long it takes, I do them in sections,” he said of his sculptures. “They’re like Legos — I just make a bunch of stuff and I put them together. Sometimes they have a purpose … like in the case of the show, they all started randomly.”

Creative problem-solving is necessary with his trial-and-error approach. Sometimes Stecca will combine two or more pieces seemingly without purpose, in order to improve and further a combined piece.

He described a previous exhibit in Seattle where his stalactite-like installation hung from the gallery’s ceiling. Floppy and requiring both a support system as well as a building permit due to earthquake threats, the installation was in mild peril for the exhibit’s entirety. Stecca was inspired to transform his piece — pointing it in the opposite direction to his current installation.

“It helped me so much to fight gravity, which is not my friend,” said Stecca in regard to “Stalagmites.”

Stecca encourages tactile interaction with his works, describing his wire, clothespin and conduit constructions as fabric-like — soft, flexible and ever-changing.

What Stecca wants from his viewers is surprise.

“The honest truth is that I want to hear people say, ‘Oh, wow!’”

UMMA’s next move to attract community interest and the ‘Oh, wow!’ factor is to introduce special programming for UMaine students. According to Kinghorn, the museum is working closely with the UMaine art department in order to host two student nights. Tentative scheduling would include one event during each 2010 semester.

CORRECTION:
An earlier version of this article identified George Kinghorn as George Kingston in the lead photo cutline.

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