Andrew Reed Gallery is excited to announce Maine in Miami, a group exhibition of ten artists with deep connections to the state. Each of the artists in this exhibition source as inspiration these environs, with the wooded, rural areas or the rocky shoreline nearby frequently informing the works shown. Maine has served as a hub of artistic output from the twentieth century to today, with titans such as Edward Hopper and Andrew Wyeth spending broad swaths of time in the state.

In Lynne Drexler’s Divided Forest (1980), the dark, wooded hues coalesce around more amber-toned bark, which then gives way to verdant greens and a purple-tinged horizon as we work our way up the tree canopy. This important work was painted soon after Drexler moved to Monhegan Island full-time and as her work was transitioning from its purely abstracted fractals to a more representational way of seeing; Divided Forest encapsulates this notable shift in the artist’s oeuvre. The painting is believed to depict Cathedral Woods on Monhegan Island. Yvonne Jacquette’s two aerial studies of the Maine coastline similarly demonstrate the artist’s distinctive perspective. Here, consummate cross-hatching of forms in the foreground – the product of an extensive career – juxtapose calm waters upon which boats traverse.

Similarly to Drexler, Sarah McRae Morton conveys her surroundings through a distinctive lens. Hers bridges the nineteenth century world of Camille Corot and Camille Pissarro with certain hues and narratives which ground the paintings as being by a contemporaneous hand. In The Arc and the Turn, a swirling cacophony suggests kaleidoscopic movement and a sense of dense forest. Horizon line nor vantage are necessarily evident, left to the viewer to resolve. This narrative intrigue again takes hold in McRae Morton’s The Bow and the Marl Bell. Two figures clad in garments of another era are suspended alongside wicker chairs, their wispy forms evocative of a dream.

Across media, certain similarities also abound, as evinced in the trompe l’oeil ripples of Sascha Braunig’s Firebird and the virtuosic ceramic undulations of Kathy Butterly’s Breathe (V). A similar blue hue can be found in both works, as elsewhere in Maine in Miami. Meanwhile, Drexler’s Untitled (Vases) compliments Ann Craven’s own still life, Red Dahlia’s (For the Pink Moon, Cushing) hanging opposite it in the show.

In Jay Stern’s Fencefall, we are presented with a prototypical Rockland scene: an opening in a fence, a chunk fallen, reveals a whole world behind its aperture. Stern presents us with a dichotomy of layered foliage, picket fence and house shingles contrasting with the Doig-ian washes of the dilapidated fence. Ryosuke Kumakura’s meditative Towel paintings exhibited alongside Stern’s Fencefall are a masterclass in trompe l’oeil, with each fiber of the textile rendered as a commensurate brushstroke, and the canvas stretched in a manner to suggest folds as well as faux fraying at the edges. Next to Stern’s Fencefall, Kumakura’s ‘towels’ could well be draped onto the picket fence, a continuation of the conversation.

Maine in Miami also considers the dichotomy of Miami and Maine, at opposite ends of the eastern seaboard. While Maine is a haven for summertime residents, Miami invites snowbirds. The terrain and light of these two locales are considerably different, further enlivened by placing these works of one in the other.

Maine in Miami opens on Saturday, May 30th with a reception from 6-8pm and will be on view through Saturday, July 11th.