Northeastern light: Toshiko Mori designs a shiny new building for CMCA
The town of Rockland in Maine welcomes a glittering addition to its cultural landscape this month. Just last week, the Center for Maine Contemporary Art inaugurated a new building designed by the architect Toshiko Mori – a vision of glass that makes the most of Maine’s northeastern light.
Originally located in the neighbouring town of Rockport, and founded in 1952, the CMCA's new home places it in walking distance of other local institutions, such as the Farnsworth Art Museum and the Wyeth Center. It also marks the first permanent home for the organisation, which was staffed by volunteers and migrated during the first 15 years of its existence. The new 11,500 sq ft building provides more than 5,500 sq ft of exhibition space, with a spacious central courtyard, visible from all three galleries and vice versa. The building will also house a classroom and gift shop to ensure all visitors have a well-rounded experience.
CMCA director Suzette McAvoy says, ‘By creating an architecturally significant space in the heart of Rockland’s downtown arts district, CMCA will empower itself, more than ever before, to pursue its core mission of showcasing well-known and emerging Maine artists while taking Maine contemporary art to a new and elevated level.’
The new building opens with three solo exhibitions by the artists Jonathan Borofsky, Alex Katz and Rollin Leonard, who all have connections to Maine. Katz’s small scale oil paintings and Leonard’s photographic and video works are offset by a site-specific, figurative installation by Borofsky, which graces the courtyard, to prove that Maine’s art scene has very much to offer indeed.
INFORMATION
The CMCA's inaugural exhibitions are on view until 12 August. For more information, visit the Center for Maine Contemporary Art's website
Photography: Jonathan Laurence
ADDRESS
Center for Maine Contemporary Art
21 Winter Street
Rockland
Maine, ME 04841
Wallpaper* Newsletter
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox.
Pei-Ru Keh is a former US Editor at Wallpaper*. Born and raised in Singapore, she has been a New Yorker since 2013. Pei-Ru held various titles at Wallpaper* between 2007 and 2023. She reports on design, tech, art, architecture, fashion, beauty and lifestyle happenings in the United States, both in print and digitally. Pei-Ru took a key role in championing diversity and representation within Wallpaper's content pillars, actively seeking out stories that reflect a wide range of perspectives. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two children, and is currently learning how to drive.
-
Hella Jongerius’ ‘Angry Animals’ take a humorous and poignant bite out of the climate crisis
At Salon 94 in New York, Hella Jongerius presents animal ceramics, ‘Bead Tables’ and experimental ‘Textile Studies’ – three series that challenge traditional ideas about function, craft, and narrative
By Ali Morris Published
-
A photographic study of a family hi-fi store is a vivid portrait of a small business
Fashion photographer Nik Hartley looked behind the scenes at Wilkinson’s Hi-Fi, a longstanding part of its Lancashire community.
By Jonathan Bell Published
-
The Contestant: inside the dark and exploitative beginnings of reality TV
Clair Titley’s The Contestant examines a sensationalist moment in TV history, before Big Brother meant reality became an accepted part of popular culture
By Billie Walker Published
-
‘Gas Tank City’, a new monograph by Andrew Holmes, is a photorealist eye on the American West
‘Gas Tank City’ chronicles the artist’s journey across truck-stop America, creating meticulous drawings of fleeting moments
By Jonathan Bell Published
-
Intimacy, violence and the uncanny: Joanna Piotrowska in Philadelphia
Artist and photographer Joanna Piotrowska stages surreal scenes at the Institute of Contemporary Art at the University of Pennsylvania
By Hannah Silver Published
-
First look: Sphere’s new exterior artwork draws on a need for human connection
Wallpaper* talks to Tom Hingston about his latest large-scale project – designing for the Exosphere
By Charlotte Gunn Published
-
Marc Hom reframes traditional portraiture in Cooperstown, NY
‘Marc Hom: Re-Framed’ has taken over the grounds of the Fenimore Art Museum, Cooperstown, planting Samuel L Jackson, Gwyneth Paltrow and more ‘personalities of the world’ into the landscape
By Hannah Hutchings-Georgiou Published
-
Alexander May, founder of LA studio Sized, on the joys of creative polymathy
Creative director Alexander May tells us of the multidisciplinary approach that drives his LA studio Sized and its offspring, a 5,000 sq ft event space and an exhibition series
By Hannah Silver Published
-
50 of America’s top creatives, photographed by Inez & Vinoodh
Photographed exclusively for Wallpaper* by Inez & Vinoodh, we present a portfolio of 50 creatives driving the current discourse on American culture and its dynamic evolution
By Dan Howarth Published
-
Nona Faustine confronts the past in New York
Artist Nona Faustine reframes New York's colonial past in an exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum
By Hannah Silver Published
-
How the west won: Ivan McClellan is amplifying the intrepid beauty of Black cowboy culture
In his new book, 'Eight Seconds: Black Cowboy Culture', Ivan McClellan draws us into the world of Black rodeo. Wallpaper* meets the photographer ahead of his Juneteenth Rodeo
By Tracy Kawalik Published