Beverly Hallam, "YELRNGS," digital on Schoellershammer 10 Velvet, 5 x 8 in

Bio

Beverly was born in Lynn, Mass. on Nov. 22, 1923, the daughter of Alice Linney Murphy and Edwin Francis Hallam. She graduated from Lynn English High School. During her early years, she studied clarinet and saxophone. In 1945, Hallam received a B.S. Ed. from the Massachusetts College of Art and in that year she received a position at Lasell Junior College (Auburndale, MA) where she was Chairman of the Art Department until 1949. Following coursework at Cranbrook Academy in 1948, she received her M.F.A. from Syracuse University in 1953.

From 1949-1962, Hallam was a professor at the Massachusetts College of Art where she taught Painting, Drawing, and Design. There, she taught the first courses in Photography and Theater Arts, and led students to experiment with avant-garde effects in set painting, costume design, lighting, projection, and taped electronic music. She supervised the Saturday Morning High School Art Classes.

An avid photographer, Ms. Hallam traveled to Europe and compiled many illustrated lectures on art subjects which she gave throughout the country. From the early 1950s, Hallam was one of the earliest artist-adopters in the U.S. of Polyvinyl Acetate—or Acrylic—now ubiquitously recognized as a fine art medium. Known for her large airbrushed flower canvases and for experimental printmaking, Hallam had 45 solo exhibitions in museums and galleries and participated in 280 group shows. Her work is in the permanent collections of many museums and corporations and in private collections in the U.S., Canada, France, Belgium, and Switzerland—including those of the Harvard Art Museums, Farnsworth Art Museum, Ogunquit Museum of American Art and National Museum of Women in the Arts.

Although she taught full time, Hallam never gave up painting. Over the course of a practice that spanned 56 years, she experimented with media and approaches, ever open to new ideas and technical approaches to making. In 1963, Hallam resigned from teaching to live and work full time in Maine, first in Ogunquit and then in York.

Hallam had gallery affiliations in Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Florida, and Maine. Her exhibition history included retrospectives at the Addison Gallery of American Art (1971) and at the Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland (1998). In that same year, Midtown Galleries in New York mounted a large traveling exhibition focused on Hallam’s innovative use of airbrush, and Carl Little’s monograph Beverly Hallam: An Odyssey in Art was published. In 1990, the Evansville Museum of Arts and Science compiled an exhibition in Indiana that toured to five other states. Her work was recognized with several awards, including "Distinguished Alumni Award, Massachusetts College of Art" and "Maine College of Art Award for Achievement as a Visual Artist." The Union of Maine Visual Artists, as part of the Maine Masters Project, featured her brilliant career on film in Beverly Hallam: Artist as Innovator in 2011, directed by Richard Kane.

Hallam maintained an active studio at Surf Point until her death on February 21, 2013. Her papers are held in the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Her legacy includes the conception, with friend and patron Mary-Leigh Smart, of Surf Point Foundation.

Beverly Hallam, "Stack," acrylic on Milbourne paper, 40 x 26 in, 1965

Bio

Beverly was born in Lynn, Mass. on Nov. 22, 1923, the daughter of Alice Linney Murphy and Edwin Francis Hallam. She graduated from Lynn English High School. During her early years, she studied clarinet and saxophone. In 1945, Hallam received a B.S. Ed. from the Massachusetts College of Art and in that year she received a position at Lasell Junior College (Auburndale, MA) where she was Chairman of the Art Department until 1949. Following coursework at Cranbrook Academy in 1948, she received her M.F.A. from Syracuse University in 1953.

From 1949-1962, Hallam was a professor at the Massachusetts College of Art where she taught Painting, Drawing, and Design. There, she taught the first courses in Photography and Theater Arts, and led students to experiment with avant-garde effects in set painting, costume design, lighting, projection, and taped electronic music. She supervised the Saturday Morning High School Art Classes.

An avid photographer, Ms. Hallam traveled to Europe and compiled many illustrated lectures on art subjects which she gave throughout the country. From the early 1950s, Hallam was one of the earliest artist-adopters in the U.S. of Polyvinyl Acetate—or Acrylic—now ubiquitously recognized as a fine art medium. Known for her large airbrushed flower canvases and for experimental printmaking, Hallam had 45 solo exhibitions in museums and galleries and participated in 280 group shows. Her work is in the permanent collections of many museums and corporations and in private collections in the U.S., Canada, France, Belgium, and Switzerland—including those of the Harvard Art Museums, Farnsworth Art Museum, Ogunquit Museum of American Art and National Museum of Women in the Arts.

Although she taught full time, Hallam never gave up painting. Over the course of a practice that spanned 56 years, she experimented with media and approaches, ever open to new ideas and technical approaches to making. In 1963, Hallam resigned from teaching to live and work full time in Maine, first in Ogunquit and then in York.

Hallam had gallery affiliations in Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Florida, and Maine. Her exhibition history included retrospectives at the Addison Gallery of American Art (1971) and at the Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland (1998). In that same year, Midtown Galleries in New York mounted a large traveling exhibition focused on Hallam’s innovative use of airbrush, and Carl Little’s monograph Beverly Hallam: An Odyssey in Art was published. In 1990, the Evansville Museum of Arts and Science compiled an exhibition in Indiana that toured to five other states. Her work was recognized with several awards, including "Distinguished Alumni Award, Massachusetts College of Art" and "Maine College of Art Award for Achievement as a Visual Artist." The Union of Maine Visual Artists, as part of the Maine Masters Project, featured her brilliant career on film in Beverly Hallam: Artist as Innovator in 2011, directed by Richard Kane.

Hallam maintained an active studio at Surf Point until her death on February 21, 2013. Her papers are held in the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Her legacy includes the conception, with friend and patron Mary-Leigh Smart, of Surf Point Foundation.

Beverly Hallam, "White Grapes," acrylic and charcoal on tan paper, 15 x 20 in

Bio

Beverly was born in Lynn, Mass. on Nov. 22, 1923, the daughter of Alice Linney Murphy and Edwin Francis Hallam. She graduated from Lynn English High School. During her early years, she studied clarinet and saxophone. In 1945, Hallam received a B.S. Ed. from the Massachusetts College of Art and in that year she received a position at Lasell Junior College (Auburndale, MA) where she was Chairman of the Art Department until 1949. Following coursework at Cranbrook Academy in 1948, she received her M.F.A. from Syracuse University in 1953.

From 1949-1962, Hallam was a professor at the Massachusetts College of Art where she taught Painting, Drawing, and Design. There, she taught the first courses in Photography and Theater Arts, and led students to experiment with avant-garde effects in set painting, costume design, lighting, projection, and taped electronic music. She supervised the Saturday Morning High School Art Classes.

An avid photographer, Ms. Hallam traveled to Europe and compiled many illustrated lectures on art subjects which she gave throughout the country. From the early 1950s, Hallam was one of the earliest artist-adopters in the U.S. of Polyvinyl Acetate—or Acrylic—now ubiquitously recognized as a fine art medium. Known for her large airbrushed flower canvases and for experimental printmaking, Hallam had 45 solo exhibitions in museums and galleries and participated in 280 group shows. Her work is in the permanent collections of many museums and corporations and in private collections in the U.S., Canada, France, Belgium, and Switzerland—including those of the Harvard Art Museums, Farnsworth Art Museum, Ogunquit Museum of American Art and National Museum of Women in the Arts.

Although she taught full time, Hallam never gave up painting. Over the course of a practice that spanned 56 years, she experimented with media and approaches, ever open to new ideas and technical approaches to making. In 1963, Hallam resigned from teaching to live and work full time in Maine, first in Ogunquit and then in York.

Hallam had gallery affiliations in Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Florida, and Maine. Her exhibition history included retrospectives at the Addison Gallery of American Art (1971) and at the Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland (1998). In that same year, Midtown Galleries in New York mounted a large traveling exhibition focused on Hallam’s innovative use of airbrush, and Carl Little’s monograph Beverly Hallam: An Odyssey in Art was published. In 1990, the Evansville Museum of Arts and Science compiled an exhibition in Indiana that toured to five other states. Her work was recognized with several awards, including "Distinguished Alumni Award, Massachusetts College of Art" and "Maine College of Art Award for Achievement as a Visual Artist." The Union of Maine Visual Artists, as part of the Maine Masters Project, featured her brilliant career on film in Beverly Hallam: Artist as Innovator in 2011, directed by Richard Kane.

Hallam maintained an active studio at Surf Point until her death on February 21, 2013. Her papers are held in the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Her legacy includes the conception, with friend and patron Mary-Leigh Smart, of Surf Point Foundation.

Beverly Hallam, "OCHOCO," digital on watercolor paper, 6 x 5 in, 2002

Bio

Beverly was born in Lynn, Mass. on Nov. 22, 1923, the daughter of Alice Linney Murphy and Edwin Francis Hallam. She graduated from Lynn English High School. During her early years, she studied clarinet and saxophone. In 1945, Hallam received a B.S. Ed. from the Massachusetts College of Art and in that year she received a position at Lasell Junior College (Auburndale, MA) where she was Chairman of the Art Department until 1949. Following coursework at Cranbrook Academy in 1948, she received her M.F.A. from Syracuse University in 1953.

From 1949-1962, Hallam was a professor at the Massachusetts College of Art where she taught Painting, Drawing, and Design. There, she taught the first courses in Photography and Theater Arts, and led students to experiment with avant-garde effects in set painting, costume design, lighting, projection, and taped electronic music. She supervised the Saturday Morning High School Art Classes.

An avid photographer, Ms. Hallam traveled to Europe and compiled many illustrated lectures on art subjects which she gave throughout the country. From the early 1950s, Hallam was one of the earliest artist-adopters in the U.S. of Polyvinyl Acetate—or Acrylic—now ubiquitously recognized as a fine art medium. Known for her large airbrushed flower canvases and for experimental printmaking, Hallam had 45 solo exhibitions in museums and galleries and participated in 280 group shows. Her work is in the permanent collections of many museums and corporations and in private collections in the U.S., Canada, France, Belgium, and Switzerland—including those of the Harvard Art Museums, Farnsworth Art Museum, Ogunquit Museum of American Art and National Museum of Women in the Arts.

Although she taught full time, Hallam never gave up painting. Over the course of a practice that spanned 56 years, she experimented with media and approaches, ever open to new ideas and technical approaches to making. In 1963, Hallam resigned from teaching to live and work full time in Maine, first in Ogunquit and then in York.

Hallam had gallery affiliations in Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Florida, and Maine. Her exhibition history included retrospectives at the Addison Gallery of American Art (1971) and at the Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland (1998). In that same year, Midtown Galleries in New York mounted a large traveling exhibition focused on Hallam’s innovative use of airbrush, and Carl Little’s monograph Beverly Hallam: An Odyssey in Art was published. In 1990, the Evansville Museum of Arts and Science compiled an exhibition in Indiana that toured to five other states. Her work was recognized with several awards, including "Distinguished Alumni Award, Massachusetts College of Art" and "Maine College of Art Award for Achievement as a Visual Artist." The Union of Maine Visual Artists, as part of the Maine Masters Project, featured her brilliant career on film in Beverly Hallam: Artist as Innovator in 2011, directed by Richard Kane.

Hallam maintained an active studio at Surf Point until her death on February 21, 2013. Her papers are held in the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Her legacy includes the conception, with friend and patron Mary-Leigh Smart, of Surf Point Foundation.

Beverly Hallam, "Nefritti II," digital image, 13.75 x 13.25 in

Bio

Beverly was born in Lynn, Mass. on Nov. 22, 1923, the daughter of Alice Linney Murphy and Edwin Francis Hallam. She graduated from Lynn English High School. During her early years, she studied clarinet and saxophone. In 1945, Hallam received a B.S. Ed. from the Massachusetts College of Art and in that year she received a position at Lasell Junior College (Auburndale, MA) where she was Chairman of the Art Department until 1949. Following coursework at Cranbrook Academy in 1948, she received her M.F.A. from Syracuse University in 1953.

From 1949-1962, Hallam was a professor at the Massachusetts College of Art where she taught Painting, Drawing, and Design. There, she taught the first courses in Photography and Theater Arts, and led students to experiment with avant-garde effects in set painting, costume design, lighting, projection, and taped electronic music. She supervised the Saturday Morning High School Art Classes.

An avid photographer, Ms. Hallam traveled to Europe and compiled many illustrated lectures on art subjects which she gave throughout the country. From the early 1950s, Hallam was one of the earliest artist-adopters in the U.S. of Polyvinyl Acetate—or Acrylic—now ubiquitously recognized as a fine art medium. Known for her large airbrushed flower canvases and for experimental printmaking, Hallam had 45 solo exhibitions in museums and galleries and participated in 280 group shows. Her work is in the permanent collections of many museums and corporations and in private collections in the U.S., Canada, France, Belgium, and Switzerland—including those of the Harvard Art Museums, Farnsworth Art Museum, Ogunquit Museum of American Art and National Museum of Women in the Arts.

Although she taught full time, Hallam never gave up painting. Over the course of a practice that spanned 56 years, she experimented with media and approaches, ever open to new ideas and technical approaches to making. In 1963, Hallam resigned from teaching to live and work full time in Maine, first in Ogunquit and then in York.

Hallam had gallery affiliations in Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Florida, and Maine. Her exhibition history included retrospectives at the Addison Gallery of American Art (1971) and at the Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland (1998). In that same year, Midtown Galleries in New York mounted a large traveling exhibition focused on Hallam’s innovative use of airbrush, and Carl Little’s monograph Beverly Hallam: An Odyssey in Art was published. In 1990, the Evansville Museum of Arts and Science compiled an exhibition in Indiana that toured to five other states. Her work was recognized with several awards, including "Distinguished Alumni Award, Massachusetts College of Art" and "Maine College of Art Award for Achievement as a Visual Artist." The Union of Maine Visual Artists, as part of the Maine Masters Project, featured her brilliant career on film in Beverly Hallam: Artist as Innovator in 2011, directed by Richard Kane.

Hallam maintained an active studio at Surf Point until her death on February 21, 2013. Her papers are held in the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Her legacy includes the conception, with friend and patron Mary-Leigh Smart, of Surf Point Foundation.

Beverly Hallam, "PEAT REPEAT," digital on Epson Luster, 6 x 6 in, 2001

Bio

Beverly was born in Lynn, Mass. on Nov. 22, 1923, the daughter of Alice Linney Murphy and Edwin Francis Hallam. She graduated from Lynn English High School. During her early years, she studied clarinet and saxophone. In 1945, Hallam received a B.S. Ed. from the Massachusetts College of Art and in that year she received a position at Lasell Junior College (Auburndale, MA) where she was Chairman of the Art Department until 1949. Following coursework at Cranbrook Academy in 1948, she received her M.F.A. from Syracuse University in 1953.

From 1949-1962, Hallam was a professor at the Massachusetts College of Art where she taught Painting, Drawing, and Design. There, she taught the first courses in Photography and Theater Arts, and led students to experiment with avant-garde effects in set painting, costume design, lighting, projection, and taped electronic music. She supervised the Saturday Morning High School Art Classes.

An avid photographer, Ms. Hallam traveled to Europe and compiled many illustrated lectures on art subjects which she gave throughout the country. From the early 1950s, Hallam was one of the earliest artist-adopters in the U.S. of Polyvinyl Acetate—or Acrylic—now ubiquitously recognized as a fine art medium. Known for her large airbrushed flower canvases and for experimental printmaking, Hallam had 45 solo exhibitions in museums and galleries and participated in 280 group shows. Her work is in the permanent collections of many museums and corporations and in private collections in the U.S., Canada, France, Belgium, and Switzerland—including those of the Harvard Art Museums, Farnsworth Art Museum, Ogunquit Museum of American Art and National Museum of Women in the Arts.

Although she taught full time, Hallam never gave up painting. Over the course of a practice that spanned 56 years, she experimented with media and approaches, ever open to new ideas and technical approaches to making. In 1963, Hallam resigned from teaching to live and work full time in Maine, first in Ogunquit and then in York.

Hallam had gallery affiliations in Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Florida, and Maine. Her exhibition history included retrospectives at the Addison Gallery of American Art (1971) and at the Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland (1998). In that same year, Midtown Galleries in New York mounted a large traveling exhibition focused on Hallam’s innovative use of airbrush, and Carl Little’s monograph Beverly Hallam: An Odyssey in Art was published. In 1990, the Evansville Museum of Arts and Science compiled an exhibition in Indiana that toured to five other states. Her work was recognized with several awards, including "Distinguished Alumni Award, Massachusetts College of Art" and "Maine College of Art Award for Achievement as a Visual Artist." The Union of Maine Visual Artists, as part of the Maine Masters Project, featured her brilliant career on film in Beverly Hallam: Artist as Innovator in 2011, directed by Richard Kane.

Hallam maintained an active studio at Surf Point until her death on February 21, 2013. Her papers are held in the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Her legacy includes the conception, with friend and patron Mary-Leigh Smart, of Surf Point Foundation.

Beverly Hallam, "Malaga," mica talc and tissue on masonite, 48 x 30 in, 1962

Bio

Beverly was born in Lynn, Mass. on Nov. 22, 1923, the daughter of Alice Linney Murphy and Edwin Francis Hallam. She graduated from Lynn English High School. During her early years, she studied clarinet and saxophone. In 1945, Hallam received a B.S. Ed. from the Massachusetts College of Art and in that year she received a position at Lasell Junior College (Auburndale, MA) where she was Chairman of the Art Department until 1949. Following coursework at Cranbrook Academy in 1948, she received her M.F.A. from Syracuse University in 1953.

From 1949-1962, Hallam was a professor at the Massachusetts College of Art where she taught Painting, Drawing, and Design. There, she taught the first courses in Photography and Theater Arts, and led students to experiment with avant-garde effects in set painting, costume design, lighting, projection, and taped electronic music. She supervised the Saturday Morning High School Art Classes.

An avid photographer, Ms. Hallam traveled to Europe and compiled many illustrated lectures on art subjects which she gave throughout the country. From the early 1950s, Hallam was one of the earliest artist-adopters in the U.S. of Polyvinyl Acetate—or Acrylic—now ubiquitously recognized as a fine art medium. Known for her large airbrushed flower canvases and for experimental printmaking, Hallam had 45 solo exhibitions in museums and galleries and participated in 280 group shows. Her work is in the permanent collections of many museums and corporations and in private collections in the U.S., Canada, France, Belgium, and Switzerland—including those of the Harvard Art Museums, Farnsworth Art Museum, Ogunquit Museum of American Art and National Museum of Women in the Arts.

Although she taught full time, Hallam never gave up painting. Over the course of a practice that spanned 56 years, she experimented with media and approaches, ever open to new ideas and technical approaches to making. In 1963, Hallam resigned from teaching to live and work full time in Maine, first in Ogunquit and then in York.

Hallam had gallery affiliations in Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Florida, and Maine. Her exhibition history included retrospectives at the Addison Gallery of American Art (1971) and at the Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland (1998). In that same year, Midtown Galleries in New York mounted a large traveling exhibition focused on Hallam’s innovative use of airbrush, and Carl Little’s monograph Beverly Hallam: An Odyssey in Art was published. In 1990, the Evansville Museum of Arts and Science compiled an exhibition in Indiana that toured to five other states. Her work was recognized with several awards, including "Distinguished Alumni Award, Massachusetts College of Art" and "Maine College of Art Award for Achievement as a Visual Artist." The Union of Maine Visual Artists, as part of the Maine Masters Project, featured her brilliant career on film in Beverly Hallam: Artist as Innovator in 2011, directed by Richard Kane.

Hallam maintained an active studio at Surf Point until her death on February 21, 2013. Her papers are held in the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Her legacy includes the conception, with friend and patron Mary-Leigh Smart, of Surf Point Foundation.

Beverly Hallam, "Curtain Call," oil monotype, hand printed collage on synthetic paper, 30 x 40 in

Bio

Beverly was born in Lynn, Mass. on Nov. 22, 1923, the daughter of Alice Linney Murphy and Edwin Francis Hallam. She graduated from Lynn English High School. During her early years, she studied clarinet and saxophone. In 1945, Hallam received a B.S. Ed. from the Massachusetts College of Art and in that year she received a position at Lasell Junior College (Auburndale, MA) where she was Chairman of the Art Department until 1949. Following coursework at Cranbrook Academy in 1948, she received her M.F.A. from Syracuse University in 1953.

From 1949-1962, Hallam was a professor at the Massachusetts College of Art where she taught Painting, Drawing, and Design. There, she taught the first courses in Photography and Theater Arts, and led students to experiment with avant-garde effects in set painting, costume design, lighting, projection, and taped electronic music. She supervised the Saturday Morning High School Art Classes.

An avid photographer, Ms. Hallam traveled to Europe and compiled many illustrated lectures on art subjects which she gave throughout the country. From the early 1950s, Hallam was one of the earliest artist-adopters in the U.S. of Polyvinyl Acetate—or Acrylic—now ubiquitously recognized as a fine art medium. Known for her large airbrushed flower canvases and for experimental printmaking, Hallam had 45 solo exhibitions in museums and galleries and participated in 280 group shows. Her work is in the permanent collections of many museums and corporations and in private collections in the U.S., Canada, France, Belgium, and Switzerland—including those of the Harvard Art Museums, Farnsworth Art Museum, Ogunquit Museum of American Art and National Museum of Women in the Arts.

Although she taught full time, Hallam never gave up painting. Over the course of a practice that spanned 56 years, she experimented with media and approaches, ever open to new ideas and technical approaches to making. In 1963, Hallam resigned from teaching to live and work full time in Maine, first in Ogunquit and then in York.

Hallam had gallery affiliations in Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Florida, and Maine. Her exhibition history included retrospectives at the Addison Gallery of American Art (1971) and at the Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland (1998). In that same year, Midtown Galleries in New York mounted a large traveling exhibition focused on Hallam’s innovative use of airbrush, and Carl Little’s monograph Beverly Hallam: An Odyssey in Art was published. In 1990, the Evansville Museum of Arts and Science compiled an exhibition in Indiana that toured to five other states. Her work was recognized with several awards, including "Distinguished Alumni Award, Massachusetts College of Art" and "Maine College of Art Award for Achievement as a Visual Artist." The Union of Maine Visual Artists, as part of the Maine Masters Project, featured her brilliant career on film in Beverly Hallam: Artist as Innovator in 2011, directed by Richard Kane.

Hallam maintained an active studio at Surf Point until her death on February 21, 2013. Her papers are held in the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Her legacy includes the conception, with friend and patron Mary-Leigh Smart, of Surf Point Foundation.

Bryan Graf, "Surf Point," archival pigment print on Ilford lustre paper, 11 x 8.5 in, $250

Artist Statement

This photo was made from the view outside my studio facing the Atlantic Ocean while an Artist-in-Residence at Surf Point in 2019. I suspended a transparency photogram that resembled the ocean tide over part of the sliding glass door, and would photograph through it when the ocean light and tide blended through the material.

Edition: 50

Created: 2019

Bio

Bryan Graf received an MFA from Yale University in 2008 and a BFA from the Art Institute of Boston in 2005. His work has been exhibited internationally; most recently at Atlanta Contemporary, where his solo exhibition, Landlines, is on view through December 22, 2019. Graf was a 2016 recipient of the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant. His work has been featured and reviewed in numerous publications, including The New York Times, The New Yorker, Harpers, Blind Spot, Details, Fanoon Center for Printmedia Research, among others. He has published four books: Wildlife Analysis (Conveyor, 2013); Moving Across the Interior (ICA@MECA, 2014); Prismatic Tracks (Conveyor, 2014); and Debris of The Days (Conveyor 2017). His photographs and books are held in the public collections of The Museum of Modern Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Portland Museum of Art, Yale’s Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, The Victoria and Albert Museum, Harvard University, and the Tokyo Institute of Photography.

Tessa Greene O'Brien "Surf Point Chair," oil on linen, 21 x 17 in, $2,500

Artist Statement

I view painting as a framework through which I can deepen my understanding of my life and of the world around me. My painting practice prompts me to look slowly and closely at the details of the places I inhabit, and to give attention to the energy and characteristics of the people around me. While I root my practice in observation & storytelling, I often look towards abstract painting processes, freely borrowing techniques such as pouring, staining, dying, and scraping to achieve my visual aims. I consider myself a lifelong student on the history of painting, always leaving room in the studio for play, experimentation, and discovery.

Currently I am working primarily in oil, and alternating between traditional oil ground preparations on linen and a starting surface of colorful dyed canvas. Each technique presents unique ways to amplify light and color, and I am interested in how a strong sense of light and color have the potential to create an emotional experience for the viewer by adding a layer of storytelling to otherwise mundane depictions of daily life. The moments that I choose to paint are familiar to me, diaristic snapshots imbued with a color-induced layer of mystery or magic. I recall how places appear in dreams or memory, with spotty details, hazy blurs, or sharp contrast, and ask myself how I might make the paint act as such.

My paintings range in scale from postcard sized to large-scale murals, and these dramatic scale shifts affect my approach to painting-making. By regularly changing the studio parameters for myself, I strive to keep discovering new ways to connect with the viewer and to satisfy my own eyeballs. I am perpetually interested in the possibilities of paint as a medium of communication, contemplation, and invention.

Created: 2022

Attribution: Courtesy Dowling Walsh Gallery

Bio

Tessa Greene O’Brien is a Maine-based artist with a multi-faceted painting practice, working in a variety of mediums and scales that range from architectural exterior murals to postcard-sized watercolor painting. She is perpetually interested in the possibilities of paint, and a lifelong student of art history. O'Brien paints moments of her life from memory & from observation as loose colors-capes, always turning an eye towards light and shadow.

O’Brien has shown throughout the United States, including solo exhibitions at Dowling Walsh Gallery and Elizabeth Moss Galleries, and has attended residencies & fellowships at the Lunder Institute, Surf Point Foundation, the Tides Institute, Monson Arts, Open Studio Residency at Haystack, Hewnoaks, Vermont Studio Center, Joseph A Fiore Art Center, and the Stephen Pace House residency. Her practice has received support through grants including the St Boltophs Emerging Artist Grant, Ellis Beauregaurd Travel Grant, Maine Arts Commissions Project Grant, The Joseph A. Fiore Painting Prize, Kindling Fund Grant through SPACE Gallery, and a Professional Development Grant through Maine College of Art. She is a co-director of Able Baker Contemporary Gallery, and lives in South Portland, ME.

Caleb Cole, "Don't Let the Sun," archival pigment print, collage from found photographs, 19 x 13 in, $1,800

Artist Statement

Beyond the Here and Now (2020 - )

The collages in Beyond the Here and Now are made from collected vernacular photographs, primarily from the 1980s and 90s, brought together for chance encounters as a means of thinking about a lineage of queer culture while resisting a singular progressive genealogy. The search for these items is a kind of cruising, that desire entwined with the resulting work, and taking objects home to tend to them is an expression of extended witnessing and devotion. My work acknowledges the impossibility and undesirability of returning to the past, and instead experiences the act of looking backward as a way to imagine beyond the present to new queer futures.

Edition: 2/10

Created: 2021

Attribution: Courtesy Gallery Kayafas

Bio

Caleb Cole is a Midwest-born, Boston-based artist whose work addresses the opportunities and difficulties of queer belonging, as well as aims to be a link in the creation of that tradition, no matter how fragile or ephemeral or impossible its connections. They were an inaugural resident at Surf Point Residency and have received an Artadia Boston Finalist Award, Hearst 8x10 Biennial Award, 3 Magenta Flash Forward Foundation Fellowships, and 2 Photolucida Critical Mass Finalist Awards, among other distinctions. Their work is in a variety of permanent collections including the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, The Davis Museum, Newport Art Museum, and Leslie Lohman Museum of Art. They teach at Boston College and Clark University and are represented by Gallery Kayafas, Boston.

iliana emilia García, "Sittings at Surf Point I," monoprint on paper, 30 x 22 in, $1,200

Artist Statement

At the core of my work is a poetic and emotional examination of the history of objects. I explore the value we assign to what we own from the places we come from and that which we keep through life’s journeys and crossroads. In my installations and paintings, there is an emphasis on the recurrence of objects telling evolving stories of resilience, and memory. I visually document things that may trigger and build up memory. I search for linkages of objects to places and emotions to convert them into storytellers in their own right. The presence of domestic objects, such as the chair, allows me to delve deeper into ancestral processes of survival, legacy, as well as dynamics between generations and places. The chair and text become instruments to relate to tradition, visual history as storytelling, remembrance, and commitment. I articulate the objects to recollect, preserve and reveal memory while reflecting on our basic need for emotional comfort. On canvas and in installations, my compositions emanate mappings of ancestry and personal history. They speak of human movements, migration, and constant evolution. They offer piles of stories to add to our present and create a chain of events, documentation, and intergenerational dynamics. They make us aware of the pockets of resilience among trauma and grief, and solidarity amid injustices. I may not change history, but I learn from it as the past of a present.

Bio

Born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, 1970

iliana emilia García is a painter, printmaker, and installation artist who works in big format drawings on canvas and paper, and escalating installations depicting her most iconic symbol: the chair. Her work often explores concepts of emotional history, collective and ancestral memory, and intimacy. A co-founder of the Dominican York Proyecto GRÁFICA, she holds an AAS from Altos de Chavón School of Design, a BFA from Parsons School of Design | The New School, and an MA from The Graduate Center, CUNY. García has been featured in solo and duo exhibitions at the Art Museum of the Americas, Taller Boricua, Hostos Community College, New York and others. She has participated in the IV Caribbean Biennial, Trienal Poli/Gráfica de San Juan, Latin American Biennial in New York, and international fairs. Her work is included in the permanent collections of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, El Museo del Barrio, The Blanton Museum of Art, Texas, El Museo de Arte Moderno in Santo Domingo, and others.

An edited monograph on her work, "iliana emilia Garcia: the reason/ the word / the object," was published in 2020 by the Art Museum of the Americas, and edited by Olga U.Herrera, Phd. Her artist's papers can be found at the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

She currently lives in Brooklyn, NY.

Dennis RedMoon Darkeem, "Thanksgiving," mixed media photography, collage on canvas, 40 x 36 in, $9,696.69

Artist Statement

I am inspired to create artwork based on the familiar objects that I view through my daily travels. I discover elements in existing architecture and among everyday items found within the home. I ultimately set out to express a meaningful story about events in my life and those found with the communities I work. I utilize different media in the creation of my work. This allows for great versatility and a rich viewer experience as the eye uncovers the multiple layers that often characterize mixed media art.

Bio

Mr. Dennis RedMoon Darkeem is Bronx born and raised. He is of Yamassee Creek-Seminole Native American and African American descent. Darkeem has been an Artist and Art educator for over ten years working in the DOE, Private and Charter schools in the South Bronx and Harlem. He has been the head Art teacher at South Bronx Early College Academy for 4 years, and received his Bachelor’s in Fine Arts and his Master’s in Art Direction from Pratt Institute. Over the years, Darkeem has become a prominent contemporary artist and art educator in the Bronx. He’s been an Artist in Residence with many art organizations like Wave Hill, the Laundromat Project, The Point, Bronx Children’s Museum, I.C.P, and Jamaica Arts Center. Dennis has exhibited his work at the Bronx Museum of the Arts, Brooklyn Museum of the Arts, La Mama Theater, The MoMA, Bronx Art Space, Rush Gallery, The Judaic Museum of Art, and Smack Mellon, and has received fellowships and scholarships from the NYSFA, NYC Teachers Foundation, Marko Roth scholarship, and Price Waterhouse Fellowship award. Dennis is also the creator and founder of Bronx Artist Day, RedMoon Bronx Soaps and Teas, and The RedMoon Arts Movement Inc, an organization that brings Art and Art resources to young people of the South Bronx and the tri-state area, and supplies young people with the skills necessary to be their own boss. Dennis believes in the philosophy “Art is Power”. Art is a tool, used to inform, engage, inspire, educate, embrace and celebrate one’s uniqueness. When one is open to Arts one is open to the world.

Cole Caswell, "Surf Point Glow. Plate SPF788," pigment print from glass plate negative, 20 x 16 in, $850

Artist Statement

My sense of home is tethered to an island off the coast of Maine. A landscape often battered by wind, drenched in waves, and enveloped in fog. The coastline of Maine has always felt like a mystical place for me, dotted by marshes, lagoons, and islands. Romantic and full of history, this place where sea meets land is going to change in dramatic ways as our planet’s climate continues to warm. Predicted sea level rise is already affecting the coastline and by the end of the century the places described in these images will be underwater or changed beyond recognition. Reclaimed by the ocean. My use of the wet-plate collodion process allows me to hand make each of these images while on location. The resulting glass-plate negatives are an accumulation of what it is like to be in a place – a tribute to a landscape that will be consumed by water and the rising ocean. The artifacts and unique marks within the hand poured negatives intrigue me. As chance-based additions they visually suggest the faltering of our contemporary world. Maybe visions from memory, a dream, or a fleeting glimpse of what is at stake as our climate changes the places we hold sacred.

Bio

Cole Caswell researches the remnants and patterns in our landscape that reflect contemporary strategies of survival. Through strata of observation, technology, subjectivity, and his surroundings, Caswell investigates geography and its impact on our perceived ability to survive. He uses traditional, historic and digital photographic media to investigate our present condition. Working and living in a nomadic format Cole travels throughout the country exploring our ability to subsist within the contemporary environment. His studio is located on Peaks Island off the coast of Maine.

Matt Bodett, "flowerttt," oil and charcoal on clay board, 20 x 16 in, $2,000

Artist Statement

As an artist I disrupt the historical and material connections between Madness, privilege, and confinement. This disruption is based on the diagnosis I was given in 2005 – schizoaffective disorder. Since that time I have dedicated my artistic output to exploring Madness in an array of media.

Bio

Born and raised in Idaho, Bodett received his MFA from Boise State University in 2011. Seeking to dedicate himself more fully to a studio practice he moved to Chicago in 2013. Since that time he has begun performing and exhibiting nationally and internationally. Bodett has created performance art work which has been exhibited at the Freud Museum in London, the No Limits Festival in Berlin, the Poetry Foundation, Steppenwolf Theater, and various other cultural institutions.

Bodett has been a 3Arts and Bodies of Work Fellow, a resident at MacDowell, an incubator artist at High Concept Laboratories, and has received numerous grants and awards. He currently teaches at Loyola University Chicago, serves on the advisory board for the Institute for Therapy Through the Arts, and is on the Artist’s council for 3Arts Chicago.

In the summer of 2022 Bodett opened PRESS HERE: Center for Mad Culture with the intent of showcasing the cultural contributions of mad folx and further disrupting the social stigmas regarding their experiences.

Bryana Bibbs, "11.16.22," handwoven shells, feather, phyllite, pine back, hand-spun hand-plied wool and ramie 14 x 11 in $1,200

Artist Statement

Telling stories of trauma and mental health is not always easy, based on the stigmas in our society, which is how it became a central motivation in my practice. There are parallels between the slow navigation of personal experiences and the rhythmic textile techniques of hand-carding, hand-spinning, and handweaving, both of which are a form of transformative repetition. While working between traditional and experimental processes, my large-scale pieces navigate past experiences in what I consider to be "chapters." Whereas small-scale works are similar to journaling, channeling day-to-day observations.

With ongoing tactility and material investigation, the works inspire an internal space that is externalized through the play of intricacy, color, and form, often inspired by the fluidity of mark-making and tone associated with painting. As I want my works to speak to people, their display—especially in juxtaposing scale and texture—invites intuitive engagement and consideration of the viewers' own physical and conceptual association within the pieces. As an extension of this intention, I also create environments for people to express their experiences. Through building community, artworks, and conversations together, I hope to support others in creating transparency around their stories of trauma and work towards ending the stigma.

Bio

Bryana Bibbs (b. 1991) is a Chicago-based artist who works at the intersection of textiles, painting, and community-based practices. Bibbs earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts with an emphasis in Fiber and Material Studies at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She is the founder of “The We Were Never Alone Project - A Weaving Workshop for Victims and Survivors of Domestic Violence” and serves on the Surface Design Association’s Education Committee.

Recent exhibitions include Power Trip, ARC Gallery, Chicago, IL (2020); Evanston Art Center Faculty Exhibition, Evanston Art Center, Evanston, IL (2020); Intrinsic Color, The Wayback, Chicago, IL (2021); HATCH: I Sense Something Has Changed, Chicago Artists Coalition, Chicago, IL (2021); Cotton: Raw Material & Precious Metaphor, Room482, Brooklyn, NY (2021) Fluffy Crimes #6, Fluffy Crimes, Chicago, IL (2022); Black Creativity Exhibition, Museum of Science & Industry, Chicago, IL (2022); Art of Surface, Robert T. Wright Community Gallery of Art, Grayslake, IL (2022), Embedded, Praxis Fiber Workshop, Cleveland, OH (2022); Layer, Mark, Repeat, Chicago Artists Coalition, Chicago, IL (2022); (un)disclosed, 1100 Florence, Evanston, IL (2022); Carrying the Thread, The Merchandise Mart - Chicago Textile Week (2022); In the Fray, Bolivar Art Gallery, Lexington, KY (2022); In Good Hands, Purple Window Gallery, Chicago, IL (2022); ANTHEM-X curated by Jared Owens, Malin Gallery, Miami, FL (2022) .

Recent awards and residencies include the Chicago Artists Coalition HATCH Residency (2021/22); The Lunder Institute for American Art Residential Fellowship, Waterville, ME (2022); Surf Point Foundation Artist Residency, York, ME (2022); Winter Pentaculum at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, Gatlinburg, TN (2023).

Recent commissions include The Art Institute of Chicago and The Design Museum of Chicago. Collections include Delta Airlines, Inc. and various private collections.

Dalia Amara, "Nylon Stocking," dye sublimation on aluminum, 24 x 16 in, $1,200

Artist Statement

I created this image while at the Surf Point Foundation Artist Residency in Maine in February 2022. I had the opportunity to connect deeply and wonderfully with my fellow artists in residence, the amazing Surf Point Foundation staff, and gracious local residents of Maine but I also had the chance to let my mind wander in the isolated natural beauty of the house’s location with the ocean on one side, and the forest on the other. In this image, I incorporated old bricks that had been collected by prior residents and left near the house. I loved the metaphor of these stones that were once bricks from Maine’s manufacturing past that have been reshaped by the ocean over time and washed upon the shore.

My work is heavily influenced by my interest in science-fiction, and the codes of femininity in printed beauty advertisements from my childhood and adolescence. With the push to virtual connectedness, constant interactions with screens, and at one point our fear of touching things at the height of the pandemic, I can imagine a science-fiction dystopian future where touch and textures outside of screens and consoles become almost illicit and fetishistic as we isolate in safety from harsh changes to the outside environment.

Bio

Dalia Amara is an American-Jordanian visual artist working in photography, video, performance, and sculpture. Dalia was raised in the USA, Jordan, Egypt, Qatar, and UAE. She received her Master of Fine Arts in Photography, Video, and Related Media from the School of Visual Arts in New York, and her Bachelor of Fine Arts from Columbia College Chicago.

Her work is influenced by the cultural whiplash she experienced in her childhood and adolescence moving back and forth between the Midwest (USA) and the Middle East. She felt like an alien observer, attempting but failing to fully assimilate. She uses this feeling of the familiar but alien to question societal ideals, and how they are at times in opposition to the individual self. She is concerned with
examining our relationships with power, desire, beauty, domesticity, femininity, and mortality.

Dalia has exhibited, screened, and lectured in the USA, Canada, and online at White Columns, Gallery 44, Selena Gallery, MOUNTAIN, and Tiger Strikes Asteroid. Her work has been written about or featured in The New Yorker, Observer, Artnet News, The Art Newspaper, Hyperallergic, and Pre-cog Magazine. She participated in the Surf Point Foundation Artist Residency in York, Maine. Dalia is a member of Tiger Strikes Asteroid in New York.

Karen Adrienne, "Pop, Pop, Poppies," monotype, 19 x 27 in, $925

Artist Statement

For the past 15 years I have been inspired by ecosystems with a focus on the continuum of water and sky. I began these explorations at a time when I was developing a new printmaking technique that integrated the properties of folding and printing simultaneously. During my residency at the Surf Point Foundation the folded works were difficult without a press. So, while I was at Surf Point I developed an off press silkscreen printmaking technique using powdered graphite, transparent base and seaweed. The resulting monotype series, printed on silver joss paper entitled “Surf Point”, reflected my daily morning observations of the seaside surf and sky.

While at Surf Point I was also inspired by the book Beverly Hallam: An Odyssey in Art given to residents upon arrival. As I read this engaging book by Carl Little, I was most inspired by Beverley Hallam’s floral images and experimental energy. Experimentation has long been a key component of my own print work. I felt that some of my ensuing monotypes were infused with a new color palette inspired by her monotypes. My color infused “Pop, Pop, Poppies” is an example of this inspiration and my gratitude to Beverly and my experience at Surf Point.

Bio

While I am working it is hard to separate labor, emotions and intentions. And then there is chance. This, like in life, can be the directional force and impetus for more conscious decisions. Some decisions, like observation, seem imperative and others are more spontaneous.

My prints are conceptually and physically embedded in reciprocity. They are built by the mutual relationship of concealing and revealing, plan and chance. As I investigate properties of nature with marks and inky flats of color, I explore properties of paper by folding with the pressure of the press. Layers are built upon until I have captured a momentary balance of chance with a fugitive experience of nature. It’s about chance and the urge to capture a moment and the vision of that experience.

In these perilous times when all of us are burdened by palpable loss in the world, feeling both angry and anxious, I insist on portraying the beauty of nature, its mystery and vibrancy. It’s as though I’m conducting the song of the earth with color. My printmaking process moves me slowly and repeatedly through light and darks, and a spectrum of complicated emotions. Perhaps the antidote in art for this sense of loss is a search for, and insistence on the sublime.