Farmington university center to launch ‘Tidelines’ exhibit Jan. 26

The Emery Community Arts Center is set to launch its spring semester season with “Tidelines,” an exhibit by North Carolina-based artist Katie St. Clair. Shown is St. Clair’s “Terra-lume.” Submitted photo

The Emery Community Arts Center on the University of Maine at Farmington campus is set to launch its spring semester season with “Tidelines,” an exhibit by North Carolina-based artist Katie St. Clair.

The exhibit is on display Thursday, Jan. 26 to Thursday, March 9 in the Emery Flex Space Gallery on Main Street. It is free and open to the public.

An artist talk is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. March 9, in the Emery Performance Space on Academy Street and will be followed by a closing reception with the artist set for 5:30-7 p.m. in the Flex Space Gallery.

St. Clair created this new series of large paintings and prints during recent “off-grid” residences on two coastal islands: Haida Gwaii, located in the northwestern reaches of Canada, and the Burren, a rocky landscape on the west coast of Ireland. Deeply inspired by the landscape, St. Clair’s art practice and research explores color and form as well as the interconnectivity of ecosystems within a specific environment, according to a news release from UMF.

Katie St. Clair Submitted photo

“These paintings act as documentation of an environment–the result of natural observations and the altering effects over time of such factors as moisture, heat, wind, and movement,” St. Clair writes. “The paintings capture indefinable moments in the landscape between light and shadow, the gap between lichen and stone, or the intertidal water and land.”

St. Clair is an assistant professor of art at Davidson College in North Carolina. Her work has been widely exhibited at museums and galleries, including the Burren College of Art, Ireland; Museum of Contemporary Art, Detroit, Michigan; and the Zhou B. Art Center, Chicago, Illinois.

She has received many honors and awards, including Best in Show, Annual Alumni Exhibition, University of Michigan, and the 2019 Young Affiliates of the Mint Choice Award for her work in Coined in the South, Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte, North Carolina.

The gallery is open 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday-Friday, and noon-6 p.m. Saturday. It is closed Sundays and holidays.

For more information, contact Ann Bartges, director of UMF Emery Community Arts Center, at ann.bartges@maine.edu or 207-778-7461.