FARMINGTON — The Emery Community Arts Center on the University of Maine at Farmington campus is excited to launch the spring semester exhibit season with “Holobiont ”— a visually stunning exhibit by Maine-based artist and Colby College printmaking professor Amanda Lilleston.
The exhibit opens Thursday, Jan. 30 and runs to March 8. An opening reception takes place Thursday, Jan. 30 from 5-7 p.m. Lilleston will present an artist talk in the Emery Performance Space on Friday, Feb. 7, at 12:30 p.m. Events are free and open to the public.
“Holobiont” presents a selection of woodblock prints and sculptural collages by Lilleston. A holobiont is a host organism and its associated organic community that functions as a single ecological unit. Inspired by the interconnected systems of biology and physiology, Lilleston uses woodcut printmaking as a tool to explore the mutuality between the world and the bodies it continually shapes.
She writes, “I have become acutely aware of my body being part of a larger environment as I navigate living with an autoimmune disorder where the body confuses ‘self’ and ‘non-self.’ I felt an even more porous boundary between myself and others as I ventured into pregnancy and motherhood. Our bodies are open systems that continually interact with the landscapes we inhabit. Humans are host to thousands of microscopic species that live in and on our bodies. Similarly, we live and exist in a working dynamic environment alongside thousands of other species.”
Using drawing, relief carving, and printing, Lilleston transforms imagery of the body and landscape into shifting and evolving compositions, investigating the idea of self and what that means in an interconnected environment.
Lilleston is an artist based in Belgrade. She uses woodcut printmaking as a tool to explore human biology and the ecology of her surroundings. Lilleston has exhibited her work both nationally and internationally including the International Triennial Colour in Graphic Arts in Torún, Poland; Boston Printmakers North American Print Biennial; the Atlanta Print Biennial; the Zillman Art Museum and upcoming participation in the DI CARTA / PAPERMADE 6th edition: International Contemporary Art Biennale at the Museo Civico Palazzo Fogazzaro in Schio, Italy.
She is an assistant professor of art at Colby College.
The Emery Community Arts Center is an innovative, experimental venue for the arts in Western Maine. It features an exciting 2,500-square-foot, 109-seat multipurpose performance space with dynamic vertical foldaway doors that open onto an outdoor performance area and a 1,600-square-foot Flex-Space gallery for traditional exhibits, new media and performance art. A dramatic interior corridor offers additional exhibition space and connects the center with the UMF Alumni Theater.
The Emery Arts Center gallery is located on Academy Street (between Main and High Street) in downtown Farmington. The gallery is open Monday to Friday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Saturday 12-6 p.m. Closed Sundays and holidays. Please check Emery’s website for updates at https://wpsites.maine.edu/emerycommunityartscenter/.
For more information contact Ann Bartges, director of UMF Emery Community Arts Center, at [email protected] or 207-778-7461.
