Visiting Artists Program

Each year, six visiting artists and scholars, one of whom is the long term artist-in-residence, from international, national, and regional locations greatly enhance the USM Art program. During their stay, the artists and scholars engage in activities ranging from student art critiques, demonstrations, art exhibitions and lectures. (Check the Exhibitions and Events link for the current list of upcoming lectures.) Past visiting artists and scholars include Steven Badgett of SIMPARCH, John Beardsley, Jennillie Brewster, George Smith, Barbara Sullivan, Mel Chin and Nina Katchadourian.

Lecture Series Videos:

Nina Katchadourian
Visiting Artist talks about her work in an hour long lecture and discussion at the University of Southern Maine Lecture Series in the Visual Arts.
September 23, 2011   http://youtu.be/JsheKbMHDxk

Robert R. Riley Part I
Visiting Scholar discusses contemporary multimedia art at the University of Southern Maine Lecture Series in the Visual Arts.
October 21, 2011  http://youtu.be/PwmGzyGZrzA

Robert R. Riley  Part II                                                                                                                     Visiting Scholar discusses moving image media at the University of Southern Maine Lecture Series in the Visual Arts.
November 4, 2011  http://youtu.be/2hQJlvNU1G0

Jesseca Ferguson
Artist in Residence talks about her work in an hour long lecture and discussion at the University of Southern Maine Lecture Series in the Arts.
March 16, 2012   http://youtu.be/ngdMYcW_hok

Rory Golden
Visiting artist talks about his multi-layered figurative art in an hour long lecture at the University of Southern Maine Lecture Series in the Visual Arts.
April 20, 2012  http://youtu.be/yCYHk8T4Wcw

Andrea Sulzer
Visiting Artist talks about her new ("and not so new") work. Discussions on particular pieces that were displayed in the University's Portland campus Area Gallery from September 4 - October 16, 2012, as well as past creations, help the artist explain her process and motives.

smudge studio
smudge is a Brooklyn-based collaboration between Jamie Kruse, an artist, designer and independent scholar, and Elizabeth Ellsworth, an artist and Professor of Media Studies at the New School, New York. Portland's shoreline is considered in an exhibiton that addresses the landscape as event - as a continuous streaming of forces, configurations, and undoings. Zuihitsu is on display at the Area Gallery on the Portland Campus from Oct. 24-Dec. 9.

Astrid Bowlby 
For over a decade, Bowlby has steadily gained recognition for her room-sized fantasy landscapes composed of thousands of hand-cut simplified ink drawings on paper. This exhibition's sweeping embrace represents new shifts for the artist. Bowlby received her M.F.A. from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia, where she is currently a visiting critic and represented by Gallery Joe. Bowlby has shown extensively in Maine, the United States, and abroad. Recent exhibitions include VOLTA, Basel, Switzerland; Vacationland, Bogart Salon, Brooklyn, NY; and Calm, Cool, Collected, Danese, New York, NY. Bowlby has received a Pew Fellowship in the Arts and numerous other awards. Her work is included in the collections of the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the New York Public Library, among others. This participatory installation invites visitors to stroll through unfurled rolls of paper filled with black ink drawings of paper clips, chewed gum, balloons, flowers, and everything else visitors request Bowlby to draw. Originally from Maine, Bowlby received her B.F.A. from USM and is currently an Artist-in-Residence in the Art Department.