Portland Museum of Art

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Tanja Hollander takes Facebook to the PMA

Friend quest
If you've been buzzing about "Are You Really My Friend?" the new installation of Facebook-inspired portraits by local photographer and Bakery Photo Collective founder Tanja Alexia Hollander, you're not alone.
By NICHOLAS SCHROEDER | February 08, 2012

A peek at Portland art shows in 2012

Radicals and friends
Degas and the PORTLAND MUSEUM OF ART headline the news for early next year. We're so used to Degas and his point of view it's easy to overlook what a difficult and radical artist he really was.
By KEN GREENLEAF | December 28, 2011

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

The Portland Museum of Art shows an exhibit of Shaker crafting skill

Honoring simplicity
There's something fundamentally American about this very enjoyable show of Shaker work at the Portland Museum of Art.
By KEN GREENLEAF | November 02, 2011

Photos: ''Gather Up the Pieces: The Andrews Shaker Collection'' at the Portland Museum of Art

Through February 5, 2012
The Portland Museum of Art hosts “Gather Up the Pieces: The Andrews Shaker Collection’’ through February 5, 2012.
By PHOENIX STAFF | November 02, 2011

Review: Museum Café

Sampling the artistic institution's take on food
In the long transition by which medieval mysticism gave way to modern rationality and bureaucratic efficiency, the placement of clocks on church steeples was a profound milestone.
By BRIAN DUFF | October 05, 2011

Statewide exhibit series winds down; are photos next up?

Drawing conclusions
The fall months of 2011 have much to share for contemporary art lovers.
By NICHOLAS SCHROEDER | September 14, 2011

Review: PMA show highlights Marin's modernist excellence

Meeting a master
For the first half of the 20th century John Marin (1870-1953) was considered one of the foremost American modernist painters, and this fine show of some 50 of his later works at the Portland Museum of Art gives us a good idea why.
By KEN GREENLEAF | July 13, 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

Review: The Elephant In the Living Room

Documentary investigates the suburban animal kingdom
There are more tigers in Texas than in India, according to Michael Webber's award-wining documentary, The Elephant In the Living Room , which plays next weekend at Movies at the Museum at the Portland Museum of Art.
By DEIRDRE FULTON | April 13, 2011

A look at Portland's graffiti history

City walls
Back in the early '90s, Eli Cayer had just finished art school in Boston and headed to Maine, where he continued creating street art.
By JEFF INGLIS | April 05, 2011

Review: 'European Drawings' at the Portland Museum of Art

Historic drawings sketch the way to greater art
"European Drawings" is the Portland Museum of Art's contribution to "Where to Draw the Line: the Maine Drawing Project," a year-long series of historical and contemporary drawing exhibitions at 16 Maine galleries and art institutions.
By NICHOLAS SCHROEDER | March 30, 2011

Review: A two-artist show at Aucocisco explores the human form

Work of body
Like a sort of late-winter Frankenstein, Aucocisco's "Corporeal" exhibition is assembled from work both new and old from two distinct artists in their prime, each offering a grand centerpiece and detailed thematic series in a thoughtful investigation of the artistic body.
By NICHOLAS SCHROEDER | February 23, 2011

A Rackstraw Downes retrospective at the PMA

Conceptual reality
The first thing you notice about the Rackstraw Downes exhibit at the Portland Museum of Art is how abstract these paintings are.
By KEN GREENLEAF | January 19, 2011

Odd year ahead for museums and galleries

2011 brings the Biennial and much more
Remember, for every droopy tarp stalactite that makes it into a museum lobby installation, there are dozens of similar (and similarly impressive) creatures that never leave a studio wall.
By NICHOLAS SCHROEDER | December 29, 2010

The year in Portland's art scene

'In'-stallations
For lovers of spectacle, 2010 offered a lot of feasts. A fine collection of installations and site-specific works graced the greater city in 2010, challenging our perceptions and changing our surroundings.
By NICHOLAS SCHROEDER | December 22, 2010

Jenny Holzer's projections remake buildings

Big words
Jenny Holzer is not an architect, but in 2004, when she projected those words onto the stone facade of the Hotel Pennsylvania in Manhattan's Times Square, the historic building acquired a character it had never before seen.
By NICHOLAS SCHROEDER | December 01, 2010

Review: Dancin' just thinkin' about it

Our fifth annual short-film festival really moves
Whether it was hilariously gruesome female assassins or the soft-touch smiles of a family enjoying daily life, the fifth annual Portland Phoenix Maine Short Film Festival spanned genres well. We had roller-skating, pantomiming, art-creating, cannibalistic ladies, and, if you’ll pardon the cliché, Everything In Between.
By PORTLAND PHOENIX STAFF | November 24, 2010

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Cinematic excess

Matthew Barney's seven-hour Cremaster Cycle descends in the Portland Museum of Art
Eight years after its completion, The Cremaster Cycle , Matthew Barney's interminable multi-media opus, continues to befuddle and intrigue audiences.
By ANNIE LARMON | November 10, 2010

Art review: 'Trompe L'oeil: False Documents & Other Illusions'

Closer inspection
In the art of deception lies the potential to destabilize perceptions of reality, if only momentarily.
By ANNIE LARMON | November 03, 2010

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Fall Art Preview: Rising to the challenge

Museums, galleries, and artists ready for fall shows
Last weekend’s Block Party was a charming and invigorating celebration of Portland’s art community. The interactive evening, spearheaded by SPACE Gallery, set an ambitious standard for what’s to come on the art front rounding out this year.
By ANNIE LARMON | September 15, 2010

Fall Film Preview: Underground big-screen shows

The local film scene revs up for fall
One of the happiest and most unexpected developments in local arts culture over the past year has been the subtle yet persistent proliferation of DIY and/or locally-oriented movie nights in the area.
By CHRISTOPHER GRAY | September 15, 2010

Block Party celebrates, consumes the Arts District on Saturday

Square roots
The first time SPACE Gallery closed off a chunk of Congress Street, in 2005, they filled it with sod grass and turned it into an urban lawn. The second, a year later, inflated plastic structures dotted the Arts District. This Saturday — in theme, in spirit, and in execution — they do it again by throwing a good old fashioned Block Party.
By CHRISTOPHER GRAY | September 08, 2010

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Out of this world

Found objects and items rise into new life in Anna Hepler's solo show at the Portland Museum of Art
"The Great Haul" plunges from the 22-foot-high clerestory of the Portland Museum of Art's entryway, a tear-dropped fishnet that resolves just before it touches the ground.
By ANNIE LARMON | July 28, 2010

Homer's home

The PMA shows the Maine coastal artist at work
A hundred years after his death, Winslow Homer is still making waves.
By NICHOLAS SCHROEDER | June 16, 2010

Rain check

When bad weather strikes, just go indoors!
We have just the thing to cure your summer-vacation blues: Maine, from the inside.
By ANDREW STEINBEISER | June 16, 2010