Art Walk LA to kick off season honoring Lewiston artist Marsden Hartley

LEWISTON — LA Arts will kick off Art Walk LA 2019 on Friday, May 31, with a celebration of new public art at 155 Lisbon St. that honors modernist artist and Lewiston native Marsden Hartley. In a ribbon-cutting ceremony just prior to the first art walk of the season, Hartley Block developer the Szanton Co. will unveil two Hartley-inspired mosaics on the building’s facade.

“We want to both honor Marsden Hartley, who had a studio on this site in his early years, and create a distinctive ‘sense of place’ for his namesake building,” said Nathan Szanton, president, Szanton Co., in a news release earlier this year.

Among the artists exhibiting at the May 31 Art Walk LA, Jeff Jacques will show Marsden Hartley-inspired works at Hardy, Wolf & Downing’s 186 Lisbon St. space. Art lovers can visit Hartley’s “Shady Brook, Maine” 1907 oil-on-canvas and Robert Indiana’s “The Hartley Elegies: The Berlin Series, KVF X” 1991 serigraph, both on permanent view at the Lewiston Public Library, 200 Lisbon St. Also along the festive walk, visitors can stop in Dufresne Plaza to hear traditional Cuban dance music performed by Portland-based band Primo Cubano.

Art Walk LA turns the downtown into a bustling arts district on the final Friday of each month, from May through October, from 5 to 8 p.m., converting outdoor plazas, sidewalks and more than 20 businesses and storefronts into lively art galleries and performance spaces. Artists, artisans and performers are encouraged to participate by registering at http://www.laarts.org/artwalk/register/.

For more information, visit www.laarts.org.