November 12th, 2009

FARMINGTON, ME (November 12, 2009)--University of Maine at Farmington is
proud to present "HORIZON: Poetics of the Post-Heroic Landscape," a UMF Art
Gallery exhibit of original works by Jennilie Brewster and Honour Mack. The
show will open with an artist presentation at 4 p.m., followed by a
reception from 5-7 p.m., on Thursday, Nov. 19, 2009. The gallery events are
free and open to the public. The exhibit will run from Thursday, Nov. 19 to
Tuesday, Dec. 15.

The works of Brewster and Mack offer insight into the ways in which
contemporary worldviews, driven by the threat of climate change and our
need to prevent further damage to our fragile planet, have transformed the
idea of "landscape" in the visual arts. The exhibition presents the works
as complex formal inventions and as statements of philosophy. They embody
an evolving sense of social consciousness and its relationship to nature--a
relationship in which "nature" is less permanent, less majestic and more
poignantly vulnerable than ever before.

Brewster's vast and glutted installations are composed entirely of refuse,
avalanches of trash and detritus that coalesce into strangely powerful
"landscapes," sometimes large enough to dwarf the viewer. And yet, for all
their looming splendor, they quickly come apart before our very eyes,
revealing themselves to be artful constructions of rejected and useless
materials--the very stuff we produce and discard at a staggering rate.

Mack's diminutive and elegant paintings--small enough to fit between the
pages of a book--are as spare a suggestion of "landscape" as one could
imagine. Referencing both Hudson River School coloration and the
straightforward minimalism of high Modernism, these tiny paintings are
resonant in their modesty and lyrical in their admission that the world no
longer has room for the grand gesture, or for the wasteful notion of the
artist as hero.

Elizabeth Olbert, director of the UMF Art Gallery, says UMF students will
be involved at every level of the visionary exhibit's installation.
"Students get to get their hands dirty and collaborate on the curatorial
process from the ground up," said Olbert. "It's a great learning process as
they see the installation go from white gallery walls to the artist's
unique vision. It really humanizes art for the students, and besides that,
it's a lot of fun."

Brewster's work has been shown in galleries across the country. She has
been a visiting artist at the University of Nevada, Reno and Keene State
College and a resident at the UCROSS Foundation in Wyoming and the Bemis
Center for Contemporary Arts in Nebraska. She received her Master of Fine
Art from Bard College.

Mack has exhibited her work extensively throughout New England and across
the country. She has been a resident at the Vermont Studio Colony and at
Chautauqua Institution in New York and a visiting artist at colleges on
both the east and west coast. She is currently a professor of painting and
drawing at Maine College of Art in Portland, Maine. She received her MFA
from Yale University School of Art.

The gallery is located at 246 Maine St., Farmington. It is open from noon
to 4 p.m., Tuesday through Sunday, during the UMF academic year and by
appointment. For more information, or to make special arrangements, please
call 207-778-7002, or email Elizabeth Olbert, director of the UMF Art
Gallery, at elizabeth.olbert@maine.edu.

More about the UMF Art Gallery

The UMF Art Gallery is a nonprofit professional art space dedicated to
bringing contemporary art and artists to campus and the regional community.
In its dedication to new art, the gallery reinforces the vision of the UMF
Department of Sound, Performance, and Visual Inquiry in celebrating art as
a powerful agent of social and cultural change, and artists as generators
of community and cultural identity. The gallery works with local schools to
integrate arts programming into their curricula and opens its space to
community events and gatherings.


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Media Contact: Elizabeth Olbert, director of the UMF Art Gallery, at
207-778-7002, or elizabeth.olbert@maine.edu.

EDITOR'S NOTE: You will find photo at:
http://www.umf.maine.edu/campus/docs/RP090-018.jpg

Photo Credit: Submitted photo

Photo Caption: All Along the Line, 2009, by Jennilie Brewster