Art gallery
Our galleries have a rotating schedule with a variety of exhibits of contemporary works, historical themes, art faculty and student work, local artists and selections from the permanent collection.
The Art Gallery at the University of Maine at Machias is the center for the visual arts in the Down East area.
In 1972, the John C. and Norma B. Marin Foundation donated the works of John Marin, Lyonel Feininger, Reuben Tam, William Zorach, Paul Jenkins, Oscar Bleumner, and William Kienbusch to the Art Gallery’s permanent collection. Since then, the gallery has acquired for its collection contemporary works from a number of American artists including: Hunt Slonem, Robert Indiana, Daphne Cummings and Dennis Pinnette, as well as local artists who work in a variety of media including paintings, prints, watercolors, photography and sculpture.
We also sponsor shows supporting our Machias Bay area’s cultural identity, including a number of exhibits about the petroglyphs surrounding Machias Bay. This includes a comprehensive petroglyph surface prints collection made by the Hedden family and on loan from them, and petroglyph surface casts made under the direction of Donald Soctomah, Passamaquoddy tribal historian. Also in our collection are baskets made by the Passamaquoddy, Penobscot and MicMac tribal artisans.
For more information please contact:
Bernie Vinzani
Professor of Book Arts and Art
Director of the Book Arts Studio
Director of the Art Galleries and Gallery for the Book
current show, gallery I
“Childhood Paintings and Current Work,” by Sharon Yates, will run through December 20, 2025.
Yates, originally from Rochester, New York, began painting at age 5 with minimal direction at the Rochester Memorial Art Gallery using water-based pigments. In college, abstract figuration in oils was her concentration until graduate school, when she switched to painting and drawing directly from nature — work she still does today.
Yates received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Syracuse University and a Master of Fine Arts from Tulane University. She taught at the Maryland Institute College of Art, the University of Louisville and the University of Maine. She has also been a visiting artist at the Glasgow School of Art, Scotland, the Studio Arts Centers International (SACI) program in Italy and George Washington University, where she was Smith Distinguished Visiting Artist.
Her paintings have been exhibited nationally and won her several honors and awards, including the Prix de Rome, the Ingram Merrill Foundation Grant, the Ludwig Vogelstein Foundation Fellowship and the Shatalov Award from the National Academy of Design in New York City, where she is an academician member. She lives and works in Lubec.
Fall Gallery Hours: Monday – Friday 1:00 – 4:00 p.m.
Current Show, Gallery ii
A World of Paper, a show planned by the museum class is put together from the paper collection of Professor Bernie Vinzani. The show contains examples of “pre-paper” items such as papyrus, parchment, bai-lan, and tapa, early papermaking techniques, fibers used for paper, papermaking in the Eastern and Western tradition, artwork using paper, items of historical significance, and a “trinket cube” with many odd uses of paper rarely seen.
Questions?
Email bvinzani@maine.edu