Skirting the Line presents the work of five contemporary painters whose work hovers on the line between abstraction and representation. Employing different techniques to create new forms of landscape, still life and the figure, each artist has a unique but cohesive visual language exploring the idea of what it means to portray a subject by looking at the interplay between abstraction and representation. Each reinvigorates painting today through energetic personal expression.

Artists included in the exhibition are Meghan Brady, Inka Essenhigh, Tracy Miller, Anne Neely, and Hannah Secord Wade.

Meghan Brady received her BA from Smith College and her MFA from Boston University. She was a 2019 and 2017 recipient of an Ellis Beauregard Foundation Grant, a 2018 Hewnoaks Summer Fellowship, and a 2019 MacDowell Colony Fellowship. Her work was recently featured in a solo exhibition, Reversible Roles at the University of Maine Museum of Art, Bangor, ME. Other recent exhibitions include Steel House Projects, Rockland, ME; Perimeter Gallery, Belfast, ME; Portland Museum of Art, Portland, ME; Steven Harvey Fine Art Projects, NYC; Mrs., Maspeth, NY; and Tiger Strikes Asteroid, Brooklyn, NY, which received a mention by The New York Times. Brady lives and works in Camden, ME.

Inka Essenhigh received her BFA from Columbus College of Art & Design and her MFA from School of Visual Arts, NYC. Her work has been shown in numerous solo and group exhibitions throughout the country and internationally, including recently at the Susquehanna Art Museum, Harrisburg, PA; Kavi Gupta Gallery, Chicago, IL; Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art, Virginia Beach, VA; Jacob Lewis Gallery, NYC; Columbus College of Art & Design, Canzani Center, Columbus, OH; Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, Japan; and Pace Prints, NYC. Her work is included in the permanent collections of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY; Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO; Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami, FL; Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA; Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA; Tate Modern, London, England; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY. Essenhigh lives and works in St. George, ME, and New York City.

Tracy Miller was born in Storm Lake, IA, and studied at the University of Iowa, the University of California at Berkeley, and Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. Her work has been included in nine solo shows and more than fifty group shows throughout the U.S., including a solo exhibition at the American University Museum in 2013. She is the recipient of a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, three Pollock-Krasner Awards, an Elizabeth Foundation Award, a Marie Walsh Sharpe Art Foundation Grant, and an American Academy of Arts and Letters purchase prize. Miller lives and works in Brooklyn, NY, and spends summers in Harrington, ME.

Anne Neely received her BA from Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA. She has been awarded residencies at the Millay Colony for the Arts, the Ballinglen Arts Foundation, and the Cill Rialaig Arts Center. Her work has recently been featured in a solo exhibition at CUE Art Foundation, NYC, curated by Sarah Sze; and a solo exhibition, Water Stories at the Museum of Science, Boston. Other recent exhibitions include Cove Street Arts, Portland, ME, and Lohin Geduld Gallery, NYC, as well as numerous additional venues throughout the U.S. Her work can be found in the collections of the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA; The Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY; The Davis Museum, Wellesley, MA; The Rose Art Museum, Waltham, MA; The deCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, Lincoln, MA; The Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, ME; Grunwald Center for Graphic Art, UCLA; The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA; The National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; The Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC; and The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY. She splits her time between home and studios in Jonesport, ME, and Boston, MA.

Hannah Secord Wade received her MA Fine Art from Chelsea College, London, and her BA from Hampshire College, Amherst, MA. She has been a resident at the Arteles Creative Center, Open Wabi, and The Sam and Adele Golden Foundation. Her work has been featured in various publications including Boooooooom!, Design Crush, and Style for Mankind. She has exhibited in London and Paris, and throughout the United States, recently in solo exhibitions at Gallery 49 in Portland, ME and Northern Daughters in Vergennes, VT and selected exhibitions at Buoy Gallery, Kittery, ME, Public Space One, Iowa City, IA, and the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London. She lives and works in Woolwich, ME.

Events

Tuesday Talk | Discussing the Line: Artists on the Border of Abstraction, July 21, 5:30pm

Press

See the CMCA’s Latest Shows from the Comfort of Home by Will Grunewald, Downeast Magazine, June 2020
Female painters boldly defy definition in timely show at CMCA by Bob Keyes, Portland Press Herald, March 15, 2020

Exhibition Catalog

Header image: Tracy Miller, Double Bubble (detail), 2016, oil on canvas, 60 x 60,” Courtesy of the artist and Mrs., Maspeth, NY

Click on the orange dots in the virtual tour for an audio guide or listen to the compete guide below.