Fruition | Allison Cekala + Nate Luce
Curated by Meg Hahn
February 1 – May 4 2025
Fruition brings together the work of Allison Cekala and Nate Luce, two interdisciplinary Midcoast artists and frequent collaborators. Their work plants the seed for self-reflection by showing us the artificial boundaries between art, work, and life; between the profane, humorous, and profound. They blur conventional boundaries and hierarchies to teach us to see the sacred in the humble.
Cekala and Luce have creative practices deeply embedded in the community and move seamlessly between mediums. In addition to being a painter and photographer, Cekala leads The Rockland Observationalists, a community that makes and shares observation-based artwork. Luce is a painter and sculptor who operates Luce Spirits, a distillery and tasting room that functions as a flexible social space and a platform for his creative alchemical experiments. Both are musicians and perform together.
As visual artists, Cekala and Luce are deeply sensitive to material and mark-making. Curved forms appear throughout the exhibition as intimately painted gestures, carved letters in wood, enlarged canvases cut to bodily circumference, or photographs of conical heaps. A variety of textures denote the joy and importance of creativity. For Cekala, translucent washes adjacent to thick gestural strokes indicate thoughtfulness of process and are a record of relinquished control. Luce’s canvases, which evolved from a larger outdoor performance piece shown at the Langlais Art Preserve in the fall of 2024, involve paint, embroidery, and beads—an example of smaller forms becoming part of a larger whole.
Cekala’s and Luce’s work reminds us of the wisdom and humor encountered in the unassuming moments of our environment. Cekala’s ongoing photographic series, American Pile, serves as a record of transient scenes found across the country. Referring to monumental historic pyramids constructed worldwide, the series records the persistence of this famous shape as a visual anthropology across time. Luce’s paintings of toilets (continued nearby at the Rockland Water Pollution Control Department) were created primarily as a tool for meditation. In their deadpan depictions of everyday objects raised to iconic status, Cekala and Luce were inspired by such artists as Henri Matisse, Marcel Duchamp, Ed Ruscha, and Amy Sillman. Rather than solely depicting the object, both series suggest that even the most mundane, ignored, or overlooked parts of our lives can lead to greater insight.
Luce’s tombstone-like sculptures, which reproduce the last words heard at a Zen monastery each night, plead us not to take any moment for granted. Cekala and Luce have developed practices where inner spirit and meditation have expanded to fill every aspect of their work. They ask us to be fully open to internal and external observation. Their work suggests that embracing the beauty and strangeness of our shared world has the potential to summon us to a new sense of awe.
About the artists
Allison Cekala is an interdisciplinary artist, educator, and community organizer living in Warren, Maine. She holds an MFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University, a BA from Bard College in Photography and Environmental Studies, and a teaching certificate through the Bok Center for Teaching and Learning at Harvard University. Cekala’s interests lie primarily at the intersection of visual art, education, and ecology. She has received recognition and support from the MacDowell Colony, the Massachusetts Cultural Council, the Cary Center for Ecosystem Studies, and the Monson Arts Artist in Residence Program, to name a few. Professional highlights include solo shows at the Museum of Science, Boston, and the Volland Foundation, Kansas, screenings at the American Film Institute, the Lisbon International Film Festival, Portugal, and teaching positions at Harvard University, Tufts University, and Montserrat College of Art. Locally, Cekala is known as an avid beekeeper, musician, and co-founder of The Rockland Observationalists.
Nate Luce is a multimedia artist who studied art at Bennington College and religion at Harvard University. Beyond painting, embroidery, and sculpture, his practice extends to music, installation, Zen meditation, and experiments in distillation and rectification. In 2024, he was the first living artist to present a solo exhibition at the Langlais Art Preserve (Cushing, ME); other recent highlights include a solo exhibition at BUOY Gallery (Kittery, ME, 2022), as well as participation in the 2023 CMCA Biennial. Additionally, Nate has completed residencies at Hewnoaks (Lovell, ME, 2021) and the Zen Mountain Monastery (Mt. Tremper, NY, 2024). He currently lives and works in Rockland, ME, where he also oversees the Master Clam Meditation Hall, a space open to all for weekly sitting practice; and operates Luce Spirits, an eccentric and beloved nano-distillery and bar.
About the curator
Meg Hahn is a painter, curator, and arts organizer living in Portland, Maine. She received her BFA in Painting from Maine College of Art & Design. Her work has been exhibited at the Portland Museum of Art, Portland, ME; University of New England Art Gallery, Portland, ME; The Distillery Gallery, Boston, MA; Perimeter Gallery, Belfast, ME; Dunes, Portland, ME; and SOIL, Seattle, WA, among others. She has attended residencies at Surf Point, The Golden Foundation Residency Program, The Vermont Studio Center, Hewnoaks, and the Monhegan Artists’ Residency. She has curated and organized exhibitions with Border Patrol, a curatorial collective she is a co-director of, SPACE, where she is currently the Development and Special Projects Manager, and the Lewis Gallery at the Portland Public Library.
Header image: Nate Luce, Squat Toilet, 2023, 9″ x 12″, Acrylic on panel. Courtesy of the artist.
Footer image: Allison Cekala, Black, Yellow, Green, Pink Landscape, 2024, gouache on paper. Courtesy of the Artist.