FARMINGTON — The work of visual artist Maggie Libby is featured at the University of Maine at Farmington Art Gallery.

The exhibit is on display through Thursday, March 14.

Libby’s interactive installation, “across references,” speaks to the intersection of geological time, the course of rivers and women’s lives. It features erasable drawings of glacial retreat and the Sandy and Kennebec rivers, interactive portraits, self-portraits and mappings.

Women viewers are invited to mark their presence on the environment as a challenge to the “heroic” (masculine) American landscape tradition.

Libby’s portraits of local Maine women and female international human rights activists who have spent time in central Maine celebrate women’s stewardship of climate change and environmental dialogue. Viewers must struggle to decide whether to interact and change an artwork’s surface, creating a parallel to our behavior in the natural world.

The artist will be in residence at the gallery for several days throughout the show to conduct oral interviews, and offer help with construction of life maps, instruction for self-portrait drawing, and prompts for journaling.

Libby is based in Waterville. An alumna of Colby College, she studied at the New York Studio School and the Vermont Studio School, and in 1987 was awarded the William and Marguerite Zorach Scholarship for an emerging-artist residency at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture.

The UMF Art Gallery hours are noon to 4 p.m. Tuesdays through Sundays, and by appointment. For information or to make an appointment, contact Sarah Maline at maline@maine.edu, call 778-1062 or visit artgalleryumf.org.

The UMF Art Gallery is a teaching gallery dedicated to bringing contemporary art and artists to campus and the regional community. In its focus on innovative and challenging new work, the gallery reinforces the academic vision of the university and the Department of the Visual and Performing Arts in celebrating art as a powerful agent of community and cultural identity. The gallery develops interdisciplinary educational opportunities for students and community and works with local schools to integrate art into their curricula.

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