Alison Hildreth

After graduating from Vassar College with a B.A. in Art History, Alison Hildreth worked in New York and went to night school at the Art Students League and the National Academy of Art. She moved to Maine and continued her studies in Studio Art graduating from the Maine College of Art in 1976. Since that time Alison has had several studios in Portland and now is located at the Bakery Studios at 61 Pleasant Street. Her practice includes mixed media drawing, painting, printmaking, and installation work.

She incorporates ideas from research in cartography, astronomy, environmental studies, history, philosophy, and literature as a launching pad into her work, but many of her ideas come from walking and daydreaming.

Alison taught as a non-resident studio instructor for MFA programs at MECA, Vermont College, and Lesley College in Boston and as part of the Continuing Studies Program at MECA.

She has been a member of Portland Public Art Committee. She is involved in the re-envisioning of Congress Square as a public space for the city and sits on the committee to select Sarah Sze to create a work for the park. She is a partner in owning and running the Bakery studio building. She has received honorary degrees from MECA and IDSVA.

Alison has exhibited in the United States and abroad. Her work is included in many permanent collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of art, the Brooklyn Museum, the Farnsworth Art Museum and the New York and Boston Public Libraries.

Statement:

It is curious that I started off intending to do a series of paintings exploring the meanderings of fungi and instead I ended up in the cosmos. Maybe because they are both concerned with how interconnectedness affects outcomes, much like the butterfly effect. In their relative ways they are both immense and unmapped. How can we begin to locate ourselves in the vastness and indifference of the Universe?

I have been waiting for years to see a UFO or a spaceship land, would it carry a very advanced type of life (or aliens as we call them) on board? Since they come probably from the same chemical mix as we do, I think they would be somewhat like us, these fellow space travelers. What would they think about our treatment of our blue planet, and the consequences of our choices? Are they also leaving a desecrated planet and searching for a new home? I want to have a chance to ask them.

In looking back at our little blue planet, rotating in this immense space, how are we to think about the choices we have made? How have they affected the fabric of an intricate and connected environment?

EDUCATION

1976 B.F.A., Portland School of Art, Portland, ME
1956-57 National Academy of Art, New York City, NY
1955-56 Art Students League, New York City, NY
1955 B.A., Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY

SELECTED PERMANENT INSTALLATIONS

2013 “The Feathered Hand,” Portland Public Library, Portland, ME
2007 “Longlines,” Diversified Communications, Portland, ME

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2018-9 “Flight,” Speedwell projects, Portland, ME
2015 “Disappearance,” New Era Gallery, Vinalhaven, ME
2011 “The Feathered Hand,” The Art Gallery at the University of New England, Westbrook, ME
2008 “Alison Hildreth: Forthrights and Meanders,” June Fitzpatrick Gallery, Portland ME
2005 June Fitzpatrick Gallery, Portland, ME
2005 Center For Maine Contemporary Art, Rockport, ME
2003 University of Maine, Farmington, ME
2003 June Fitzpatrick Gallery, Portland, ME
2002 Farnsworth Museum, Rockland, ME
2000 June Fitzpatrick Gallery, Portland, ME

SELECTED COLLECTIONS

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
New York Public Library, New York, NY
Portland Public Library, Portland, Maine
Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, NY
Portland Museum of Art, Portland, ME
Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, ME
Bates College Museum, Lewiston, ME
Farnsworth Museum, Rockland, ME
Elizabeth Noyce Collection, Portland Museum of Art, Portland, ME
Walker Museum, Bowdoin College, Brunswick, ME
Boston Public Library, Boston, MA

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2021 Cove Street Arts, Portland, ME
2020 Group Show, New Era Gallery, Vinalhaven, ME
2019 “Darkness and the Light,” Institute of Contemporary Art at MECA, Portland, ME
2018 “Late Summer,” New Era Gallery, Vinalhaven, ME
2017 “Go Where the Map Takes You,” Osher Map Library, Portland, ME
2016 “Best of Portland,” Creative Portland, Portland, ME
2016 Speedwell projects, Portland, ME
2014 “Cartographies: Mapping Intersections and Counterpoints,” Zayed University, United Arab Emirates
2014 “Peace through Friendship,” Tetra Projects, June Fitzpatrick Gallery, Portland, ME
2014 “Sea Smoke,” The Lewis Gallery, Portland Public Library, Portland, ME
2014 “Maine Northern Skies: Clear Light,” L.C. Bates Museum, Hinckley, ME
2013 “Piece Work,” Portland Museum of Art, Biennial, Portland, ME
2013 “Maine Women Pioneers III,” Payson Gallery, University of New England, ME
2013 “The Gift of the Glacier,” L.C. Bates Museum, Hinckley, ME
2012 “thINK,” Sawyer Center for Fine and Performing Arts, Colby-Sawyer College, New London, NH
2013 “Pressing On 2,” June Fitzpatrick Gallery, Portland, ME
2013 “Vertical Repose,” Panepinto Gallery, Jersey City, NJ
2013 “Portes: An International Exhibition of Maine Artists in Greece,” SPACE Gallery, Portland, ME and the Public Theater in Mytilene, Greece
2012 “Visual Poetry,” The Lewis Gallery, Portland Public Library, Portland, ME
2012 “An Artful Life: A Waynflete Alumni Exhibit,” Waynflete School, Portland, ME
2011 “Drawing the Line #11,” June Fitzpatrick Gallery, Portland, ME
2011 “Cartographies: Mapping Intersections and Counterpoints,” Melbourne, Australia
2011 “Emerging Dis/order,” Olin Arts Center, Bates College, Lewiston, ME and University of Maine, Farmington
2011 “Summer Show,” New Era Gallery, Vinalhaven, ME
2011 “Art Encounters Preservation,” Site Specific Show at the Wentworth Coolidge Mansion, Portsmouth, NH
2011 “Printmakers Art,” Courthouse Gallery, Ellsworth, ME
2011 “Summer Exhibition,” New Era Gallery, Vinalhaven, ME
2011 “Gallery Artists,” Jonathan Frost Gallery, Rockland, ME
2011 “Contemporaries: The Artists of La Napoule Foundation,” Ogunquit Museum of American Art, Ogunquit, ME