Abby Shahn

Don’t Know Which Way to Turn, Quadriptych

Don’t Know Which Way to Turn, Quadriptych

I have lived in rural Maine for many years. This fact seems crucial to me in trying to describe who I am and what my art is all about. I feel that the isolation from the “art world” and from current trends in art has had both good and bad effects. On one hand, I’m more than glad to be free of the dictates of style and of the marketplace. I like my ideas to develop at their own pace. I love growing my garden, tending my fires, picking wild mushrooms, etc., etc.

At the same time, I feel fortunate to be part of a loose group of artists scattered around in the boondocks who have evolved in many different ways, sometimes overlapping with current ideas floating around the “big city”, sometimes veering off in crazy and unexpected directions. The artists that I’ve come to know here have been a constant source of inspiration to me.

On the other hand, I used to live in NYC. So I have some idea about what I’m missing by choosing to live here. I’m sure that if I still lived in the city, I would be inspired by much of the art being done there.

Much of my art is inspired by political events, but it’s not political art is the sense of trying to move people into action. I think of myself more as a witness.

Mythology has always been a subject for painters. I’ve come to think of the news as our contemporary mythology. (That doesn’t mean that it isn’t the truth.) It comprises a set of stories that are culturally shared by most of us.

Thus, if I name an abstract painting “Katrina”, I have offered a reference point, a point of entry. Hopefully, my abstract expressions and impressions will then have greater meaning for people. I hope to leave behind me some record of how it felt to have lived through these times. I hope to “bear witness”.

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

  • 2018 Railroad Square Cinema “Ghosts”             

  • 2017  Central Maine Artists Gallery Skowhegan Maine             

  • 2009-2010   Stadler Gallery, Kingfield Maine             

  • 2006 June Fitzpatrick, Portland              

  • 2003 Paintings, Caldbeck Gallery Rockland Maine            

  • 2002  New Work- Oil Paintings, Aucocisco Gallery  Portland Maine             

  • 2002  Abby Shahn, Chase Freedman Gallery, West  Hartford  Conn             

  • 2002  Two Friends, Unity College Unity Maine             

  • 2000   Current Events, Maine Coast Artists, Rockport Maine

GROUP EXHIBITIONS              

  • 2017  “America Now”  Holocaust Center UMA  and Portland Public Library              

  • 2016  “Residue” UMF Farmington              

  • 2014  Ghosts 3.. Mayo Street Arts, Portland Maine              

  • 2013  “Maine Women Pioneers 111 Worldview” UNE Portland Maine              

  • 2013   Ghosts  Two….Common Street Gallery….Waterville Maine              

  • 2013  Ghosts ….a show about faces….UMF Farmington Maine              

  • 2011   Worlds-Seen and Foreseen  Skowhegan, Maine

  • 2010  Found Photos and Poetry, Waterfall Arts Belfast, Maine             

  • 2006-2016  Davistown Museum, Liberty,  Maine             

  • 2003-4 Three Monkeys art Collective “Domestic Insecurity” Waterville, and Fitchburg Mass           

  •  2002  “Bound”  Artist’s Books   Holland Tunnel Gallery, Brooklyn, N.Y.             

  • 2000   Two artists,  Aucocisco Gallery Portland Maine

COLLECTIONS                                                      

  • Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, ME                                  

  • Walker Art Museum, Bowdoin College, Brunswick, ME                                  

  • Farnsworth Museum, Rockland, ME                                  

  • The Portland Museum of Art, Portland, ME                                   

  • New Jersey State Museum

OTHER ACTIVITIES              

  • 2018  “Ghosts” produced a book with poems by Mark Melnicove paintings by Abby Shahn      

  • 2013  Organized and participated in three group shows about faces              

  • 2011   Organized and Participated in a show of Worlds in empty shop windows in downtown Skowhegan Maine              

  • 2011-2012  Organized  “Empty Walls and Windows” Waterfall Arts, Belfast Main             

  • 1988–2008  Disc Jockey, “Sounds All Round the World,” WMHB, 90.5 FM, Waterville              

  • 1987-2008    participant annual July 4th  play,  West Athens  Maine

TEACHING POSITIONS/RESIDENCIES             

  • 1999–2004  Nonresident Faculty Adviser, Maine College of Art Masters’ Program, Portland, ME (four times)               

  • 1987   Maine College of Art             

  • 1986   Mural Project, University of Southern Maine, Portland              

  • 1987–1989  Thomaston State Prison, Thomaston, ME

John Danos