Annie Larmon

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Memories from a year in art shows

Fine lines
It was a year when the best shows weren't often the most memorable, and the most memorable weren't often the best.
By NICHOLAS SCHROEDER | December 21, 2011

Review: Two promising young artists at Corey Daniels Gallery

Solid engagement
One of the joys of a Maine summer is discovering great shows in unlikely places.
By NICHOLAS SCHROEDER | June 01, 2011

Touring the PMA's Biennial

The Phoenix's art writers discuss the pros and cons of the year's biggest show
The Portland Museum of Art 2011 Biennial features 65 works from 47 artists in an effort to showcase the best from today's local art scene.
By ANNIE LARMON AND NICHOLAS SCHROEDER | April 13, 2011

Something borrowed

Beth Lipman and Kirsten Hassenfeld at MECA's ICA
"Bride" stands tall as the leading lady at the Institute of Contemporary Art's current two-woman exhibit "A Meticulous Ferment," a five-tiered pastry of sculpture glittering with as much opulence, self-importance, and fragility as the title might suggest.
By ANNIE LARMON | June 29, 2010

Endless inquiry

Ghostly shapes and images at 37-A Gallery
Mikael Kennedy’s portraits of his maunderings through the American landscape harness a transcendental concurrence of vastness and intimacy.
By ANNIE LARMON | June 09, 2010

Moving forward

The CMCA Biennial balances past and present
The Center for Maine Contemporary Art is back in full swing after an unexpected winter hiatus.
By ANNIE LARMON | June 01, 2010

Toys are us

Randy Regier’s alternative histories at Whitney Art Works
Stepping into Randy Regier’s occupation of Whitney Art Works is like entering a parallel-universe 1950s FAO Schwartz showroom gone awry.
By ANNIE LARMON | May 12, 2010

An expanding world

Americans look at European modernism
Housed in two galleries at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art, “Methods for Modernism: Form and Color in American Art, 1900 to 1925” presents a healthy survey of works by artists featured in the two most definitive venues for introducing European modernism to America.
By ANNIE LARMON | May 05, 2010

Printing matters

Vinalhaven Press artifacts at June Fitzpatrick
An aged poster hangs framed in Patricia Nick’s apartment bearing a handwritten mantra. In faded blue marker, the author scripted “An original print is NOT a reproduction. It is an original work of art conceived and drawn or cut on the plate, block or stone by the artist, the printing of which is either done by him or under his direction or supervision.”
By ANNIE LARMON | April 14, 2010

Infrastructure bias

Exploring humans + landscapes at Colby
“Experimental Geography” surveys the recent work of 19 international contemporary artists and artist collectives seeking to provide new frameworks for understanding various aspects of human interaction with the environment.
By ANNIE LARMON | April 07, 2010

Re-structuring

A Frederick Lynch introspective at the PMA
Three large oil paintings overwhelm the lobby at the Portland Museum of Art, introducing the show "Division and Discovery: Recent Works by Frederick Lynch," a beautiful and meditative collection found on the fourth floor of the museum.
By ANNIE LARMON | March 17, 2010

Self design

William Pope.L is very present at 37-A
"The Process Show" is neither a recreation of Pope.L's studio, nor an explanation of his practice; rather, its aim is to be a portrait of the artist's headspace.
By ANNIE LARMON | March 10, 2010

Interplay

The ICA’s concept-driven show
Caitlin Berrigan’s 2009 video Transfer is simple and elemental.
By ANNIE LARMON | February 17, 2010

We heart these people

Meet Portland's most influential
We all know Portland is a busy, exciting place to live. It takes a lot of people's amazing energy to keep it going, though. Who's doing the moving and the shaking?
By JEFF INGLIS | February 10, 2010

Community building

Mayo Street Arts opens the doors
"This is the vestibule," Blainor McGough says, gesturing at the entryway as she welcomes me into the former St. Ansgar's church on Mayo Street. She then explains that the purpose of the vestibule was to heighten people's experience as they enter the church, preparing for worship.
By ANNIE LARMON | February 10, 2010

By | January 01, 0001

Site-specificity

37-A Gallery opens with Hannah Barnes
Wharf Street is quickly becoming a hotbed for the esoterically minded. Building on early pioneers such as clothier Rogues Gallery and smart seafood at Street and Company, the original waterfront is being bolstered with the recent opening of Brook There, Brook DeLorme's sustainable-clothing design studio and shop, and 37-A Gallery, opened in a conjoined space.
By ANNIE LARMON | January 20, 2010

What is this place?

Participatory performance art at Whitney Art Works
Bertolt Brecht asks, "In the dark times, will there also be singing? Yes," he answers, "there will be singing. About the dark times."
By ANNIE LARMON | January 13, 2010

Hope and energy

Looking ahead to Maine's art scene in 2010
As we launch into the next decade with a collapsing economy and apocalyptic themes bleeding into every facet of culture, it's particularly hard to be optimistic about the arts, as yes, they are often the first to go.
By ANNIE LARMON | December 30, 2009

Jack of all trades

Ken Greenleaf moves from the word to the walls
Ken Greenleaf is a pretty familiar name around here. His byline has accompanied art reviews for this paper and others dating back to the late '70s. Among other things, I have heard him touted as an "authority on modernism."
By ANNIE LARMON | December 16, 2009

Hot for teacher

MECA faculty re-imagine the natural world and play with nostalgia
MECA faculty re-imagine the natural world and play with nostalgia
By ANNIE LARMON | December 02, 2009

Deep cuts

Kara Walker's emotional film at Bowdoin College Museum of Art
The beauty of Kara Walker's silhouettes lies in their concurrent brutality and daintiness, and in her unabashed exploration cutting to the meat of the black-and-white binary in American contemporary culture.
By ANNIE LARMON | November 24, 2009

Behind the walls

Museum L-A synthesizes history and art
Museum L-A is sequestered in the far end of the Bates Mill Complex in downtown Lewiston, with a bold red and yellow awning announcing its presence and trumping its otherwise unassuming facade, which might otherwise be lost in the sea of industrial brick and concrete.
By ANNIE LARMON | November 04, 2009

They’re crafty

A bright three-person show at ICON
While each of the artists exhibiting at ICON this month is stylistically distinct and refined, the relationships between the work of Joe Kievitt, Meghan Brady, and Andrea Sulzer provide a welcome cohesion, and a unique peek into the practice of three individual artists who have a dialogue outside the gallery.
By ANNIE LARMON | October 28, 2009

Plotting experience

Kendra Ferguson and Noa Warren at June Fitzpatrick
Kendra Ferguson and Noa Warren are deftly paired at June Fitzpatrick’s Congress Street gallery this month, as an established and emerging artist each compulsive explore the subjective and human potential of minimalism.
By ANNIE LARMON | October 14, 2009

A mill grows in Biddeford

Six artists wax hyper-real at the North Dam Mill
'We're responding every step of the way to our environment. And to each other.'
By ANNIE LARMON | September 30, 2009

Topographic musings

MECA's second Alumni Biennial
"Aggregate" is Maine College of Art's second themed Alumni Biennial at the Institute of Contemporary Art, showing work chosen by a jury from among recent work by BFA and MFA graduates. While the artists represent a range of mediums, graduating class ('97 to '08), and experience, the integrity of the selected works is consistently impressive.
By ANNIE LARMON | September 09, 2009

Revisionist whims

Karen Lewis purges her obsession at the CMCA in Rockport
The story of Johann Christian Woyzeck goes like this: A German man born into poverty in the late 18th century tries his hand in several professions. Handicapped by a schizophrenia unrecognized by most at the time, he eventually becomes a soldier.
By ANNIE LARMON | September 02, 2009

Found, and created

Rebecca FitzPatrick and Owen F. Smith illustrate the present
While aesthetically there is little to compare between Rebecca FitzPatrick's "Thread" show and "Multiples" by Owen F. Smith, together on view at Whitney Art Works this month, both artists appropriate found materials, are impressively prolific, and identify with a post- or anti-war movement of the previous century.
By ANNIE LARMON | August 12, 2009

Everybody poops

Greta Bank talks priorities and realities
Recently selected as one of 17 regional artists to exhibit at the DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park's Biennial in January 2010 (alongside fellow Mainer Randy Regier), and awarded a grant from the Maine Arts Commission in support of her interactive sculpture "The Cashmere Iron Maiden," Greta Bank is struggling to find studio time on top of being a mother of two.
By ANNIE LARMON | July 29, 2009