“Blue Eye Girl,” by Annie Lee-Zimerle (2019, acrylic on canvas) Submitted photo
Two exhibitions will be on display to begin the year at the UMF Emery Community Arts Center.
“Pellucid Puddles,” by Brian Zimerle (2018, glazed ceramic) Submitted photo
“I don’t like gardening, but I do it anyway, mostly for my neighbors,” an exhibition of paintings, ceramics, book arts and works on paper by Annie Lee Zimerle and Brian Zimerle, will be on display in the Flex Space Gallery from Thursday, Sept. 7, through Thursday, Nov. 2. An artist talk will be held at 1 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 20.
“The Elliot Schwartz Memorial Practice Rooms Project,” a large sound installation by retired UMF music professor Philip Carlsen and sound engineer Steve Drown, will be on display in the ramp area and will run from Friday, Sept. 1, through Saturday, Sept. 30. The soundscape is active at 11:30 a.m. and 4 p.m.
The public is invited to a free joint opening reception from 5-7 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 7.
In their new multi-media exhibition, “I don’t like gardening, but I do it anyway, mostly for my neighbors,” Annie Lee and Brian Zimerle consider the act of gardening as engaging an intention of domesticity, from the literal domestication of wild flora to the more common ideal of making a home a home.
“The Elliott Schwartz Memorial Practice Rooms Project,” a tribute to one of Maine’s leading composers and teachers, was conceived and directed by Philip Carlsen, in his role as head of the Back Cove Contemporary Music Festival at the Portland Conservatory. In 2020, the concert at the conservatory featured eight pianists as they played the spread-out ensemble pieces, about five minutes each, that had been written especially for the occasion by nine different composers. The recording engineer Steve Drown, along with his associate Noah Cole, recorded the event with a complicated setup of twelve microphones, a big mixer and lots of cables. It is with that multi-track recording, played back through widely separated speakers, that Drown and the Emery Center staff aim to recreate the original sonic experience in Emery’s large public space.
About the artists
Annie Lee-Zimerle is a visual artist with a background in printmaking, book arts, painting and drawing. Her work is often narrative based and a reflection of her thoughts on domesticity and the mundaneness of culture. Born in South Korea and raised in the Midwest, Lee-Zimerle received a BFA and MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Lee-Zimerle’s work has been exhibited nationally and internationally in museums and galleries and is in numerous private and public collections. Her recent residencies and fellowships include Cleveland Institute of Art and the Studios at MASS MoCA. She was also featured on The Art Show on PBS. Lee-Zimerle is currently an Associate Professor of Art and Faculty Director of the Kate Cheney Chappell Center for Book Arts at University of Southern Maine.
Brian Zimerle is a ceramist and sculptor who lives and works in Falmouth, Maine. He has taught at various universities and is currently an adjunct at the University of Southern Maine, teaching sculpture and ceramics. He was previously the lead mountmaker at the Penn Museum whose collection has significant influence on his work. He draws inspiration from the science, history, or memory of objects from the human built environment. His process is centered on replication but fully embraces generation loss; whether that loss is from the transmutation of material or the filter of his memory. His work is often the physical diminished replica, leaving an object that bears little semblance to the original yet retains a charged presence. He has shown regionally and nationally, including the Springfield Museum of Art, the Zanesville Museum of art, the ISAC at the University of Chicago, and many other galleries and institutions.
Philip Carlsen taught music at UMF for 33 years, retiring in 2015. He has received fellowships or commissions from the National Endowment for the Arts, Maine Arts Commission, National Institute of Arts and Letters, and American Composers Alliance, as well as a residency at the MacDowell Colony. His music has been performed at Kennedy Center, New York’s Town Hall, and the Summergarden Series of the Museum of Modern Art, as well as at national conferences of the College Music Society and the Society of Composers.
Steve Drown has been an independent recording engineer for the last 21 years and a professional musician for nearly 30. He has a Bachelor of Music degree in music production and engineering from Berklee College of Music and works as an engineer at The Studio, which provides state‐of‐the‐art recording, digital editing and more in downtown Portland.
The Emery Arts Center gallery is located on Academy Street in downtown Farmington on the University of Maine at Farmington campus. Fall open hours are Monday-Friday, 12 p.m.-4 p.m. and Saturday, 12 p.m.-6.p.m. Closed on Sundays, holidays and university breaks.
For more information contact Ann Bartges, director of UMF Emery Community Arts Center at ann.bartges@maine.edu or 207-778-7461.
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