Night Gallery in collaboration with DUNES is pleased to present The Wrong Sea, an exhibition featuring work by Sachiko Akiyama, Jared Buckhiester, Cathleen Clarke, Lynne Mapp Drexler, Marley Freeman, Jerrell Gibbs, Bambou Gili, Dylan Hausthor, Danielle Mckinney, Jesse Mockrin, Catalina Ouyang, Eric Palgon, Lily Stockman, Owen Westberg and Coco Young. The Wrong Sea will be on view from August 3 - October 5, 2024 at DUNES, Portland, ME.
The Wrong Sea, installation view, DUNES, Portland, Maine.
Marley Freeman, Ice Glistens, 2023
Catalina Ouyang, untitled, 2018
The Wrong Sea, installation view, DUNES, Portland, Maine.
Jerrell Gibbs, Dear Summer, 2024
The Wrong Sea, installation view, DUNES, Portland, Maine.
Coco Young, The Messenger, 2024
The Wrong Sea, installation view, DUNES, Portland, Maine.
This collaboration was motivated by the two galleries’ mutual desire to celebrate Maine’s place within art history. Beginning in the late 1800s, Maine became known for its artist communities, including Ogunquit, Haystacks and Skowhegan among others. Many of their founding artists studied in Europe; they brought back to the States a romanticized vision of the pastoral and an emphatic rejection of modern life. These artists were deeply influenced by the Barbizon and post-impressionist painters who sought unmanicured nature as a subject. And so the lush forests and jagged coasts to the north of New York and Boston became in many ways the American Fontainebleau, attracting Edward Hopper, Frederic Edwin Church, Robert Henri, Margaret Jordan Patterson and countless subsequent followers to the landscape.
Jesse Mockrin, Titivate, 2022
The Wrong Sea, installation view, DUNES, Portland, Maine.
Eric Palgon, Untitled, 2024
The Wrong Sea, installation view, DUNES, Portland, Maine.
Jared Buckhiester, Man Devouring a Rainbow, 2021
The Wrong Sea, installation view, DUNES, Portland, Maine.
The Wrong Sea, installation view, DUNES, Portland, Maine.
Lily Stockman, Cranberry Oyster, 2024
Throughout The Wrong Sea contemporary artists from both gallery programs echo the sentiments of this history. Sachiko Akiyama, Bambou Gili, Jerrell Gibbs and Danielle Mckinney depict personal reflection in communion with the natural world. Jesse Mockrin and Coco Young both look to and recontextualize works of the western canon. The paintings of Lily Stockman and Owen Westberg are shaped by the land that surrounds them. Each artist forgoes the search for something “new,” looking instead to the past for a better understanding of their worlds.
Sachiko Akiyama, Carried, 2013
Sachiko Akiyama, Carried, detail, 2013
The Wrong Sea, installation view, DUNES, Portland, Maine.
Bambou Gili, Window Quail, 2024
Owen Westberg, Amber Cup, 2024
The Wrong Sea, installation view, DUNES, Portland, Maine.
Danielle Mckinney, Cortex, 2024
The Wrong Sea, installation view, DUNES, Portland, Maine.
Dylan Hausthor, fsh, 2024
