Portrait exhibit on display at Emery Community Arts Center June 13-22

“Abraham Lincoln” by Robert Shetterly

FARMINGTON - A portrait exhibit featuring the work of noted artist Robert Shetterly and photographer Ann Arbor is on display in the Emery Community Arts Center on the UMF campus from June 13-22. Shetterly’s paintings are exhibited in the ECAC’s Flex-Space Gallery and Arbor’s photographs and items from her collection are on view throughout the building. An opening reception is being held from 5-7 p.m., Wednesday, June 13. The show is free and open to the public.

Shetterly’s exhibit, “Americans Who Tell the Truth,” includes selected portraits from his traveling exhibit of the same name. This non-partisan series of works seeks to remind people of the dignity, courage and importance of some of America’s truth tellers and to create dialogue that will help the viewer determine which truths they value most as citizens in a democracy.

An artist, illustrator and activist, Shetterly moved to Maine in 1970 and became proficient in printmaking, painting and illustration. His work has been featured in Audubon Adventures—the National Audubon Society’s newspaper for children, in the Maine Times newspaper’s editorial page drawings and in more than 30 books.

The recipient of an honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters from UMF in 2011, he graduated in 1969 from Harvard College with a degree in English literature.

Arbor’s installation, “Coming Together: Ambassadors of Light,” includes a dozen photographic portraits by Arbor of Chinese artists, including representatives of the two most famous peasant painting schools—Jinshan near Shanghai and Huxian near Xi’an. Matched with these portraits are examples of the peasant artists’ woodcuts and paintings from a collection gathered during the past decade and exhibited widely, including at the Maine State House and in The Blaine House, the official residence of the Governor of Maine.

A gifted teacher, poet and award-winning photographer, she lives and works in Farmington, where, she and her husband, John Rosenwald, have brought their love of poetry and passion for international culture to Western Maine. Arbor received an honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters from UMF in 2009.

The Emery Community Arts Center is located on Academy Street between Merrill Hall and Alumni Theater, and is open every day from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.