A family-friendly, creative exhibit of environmental art spanning more than a football field in length. Open to the public free of charge.
Rock Row: Inside, Outside The Box converts six 20-foot-long shipping containers and surrounding grounds into a colossal palette for 10 renowned Maine environmental artists. Each artist was given free reign to utilize the interior and/or exterior of the box, without limit. The end-result is an eruptive collective of three-dimensional and two-dimensional artistry that can be viewed up close, in person, or while driving by in a vehicle.
Rock Row: Inside, Outside The Box marks the beginning of Rock Row’s commitment to bring the wonders of art to everyday life at the 110-acre, $600 million Rock Row development in Portland, Maine…while fully unleashing and exposing the world-class talent of Maine artists.
Art map
Located behind the Market Basket at Rock Row, off of Larrabee Road in Westbrook.
Artists
No. 1
Amy Stacey Curtis
an interactive installation involving guests arranging small cubes, and taking some cubes home
Amy Stacey Curtis has been making interactive installation art since 1998. After completing an 18-year project—nine solo-biennial exhibits of large-in-scope interactive works throughout nine Maine mill spaces—Curtis suffered a severe brain injury and disabilities caused by Lyme Disease. Curtis continues to present interactive concepts with help from assistants and volunteers. Curtis works from Lyman, Maine.
My participants are my collaborators. As each participant effects each work in their own way, I try to convey we are part of a whole, part of the all. We affect everyone and everything, while everyone and everything affects us, no matter how small or fleeting the impact.
No. 2
Jenny McGee Dougherty
multi-color mural
Jenny McGee Dougherty is a visual artist and designer based in Portland, Maine. Her work is influenced by her surroundings, with an interest in the places where nature and repetitive human action unconsciously collaborate. Through painting, she seeks to draw attention to subtleties in our collective landscape that can serve as metaphor for existence. The practice of noticing informs her visual vocabulary and the archive of patterns, colors and shapes that she employs to translate these findings in the hope that viewers will see her work in their surroundings, paying more attention to the undiscovered beauty in their everyday lives.
No. 3
Kayte Demont
concept sketch of underwater made out of fabric and textiles, interactive with sound
Kayte was born and raised in Maine, spent the last decade living in Boston, Los Angeles, Denver and Austin, and is now back in Maine. Kayte’s early years were spent in a dance studio or on a stage, with the majority of her training and education focused on performing arts and classical studio art. After graduating from Gettysburg College with a degree in English and a concentration in Studio Art, she created the blog Mass Musings (2012-2020) as a central place of inspiration for creative individuals. Kayte now works as a full-time artist and freelance stylist as well as a freelance brand strategist and photographer.
No. 4
Mike Rich
MULTI-COLOR MURAL
Mike Rich been an artist ever since he could hold a crayon. He was introduced to spray paint at a young age via breakdancing and the book Subway Art. At age 11, he started doing graffiti in and around his neighborhood in Portland, Maine. His love for both art and aerosol murals continue to this day. He is a carpenter by trade and an artist by heart.
No. 5
Jesse Salisbury
rock sculpture
Jesse’s current work and area of exploration is influenced by the natural world, including the way water wears away stone over time, the beauty and texture of a curved split stone and the visual power of balanced weight on a large scale. Jesse views his art practice as environmental because he is creating environments and sculptural landscapes out of long lasting natural materials that he hopes will engage the viewer in the beauty, character and innovation possible from common local materials.
No. 6
Will Sears
multi-color mural
Will Sears makes drawings, murals, collages and painted wood assemblages inspired by his observations of letterforms, textiles and architectural forms such as roof lines, tile work, fences and drains. These rigid, systematic structures become the fixed framework within which Sears composes more indefinite formal explorations. Sears received his BFA in Painting from Syracuse University. He exhibits nationally and his work is held in several private collections. He has attended residencies at Hewnaoks, The Quimby Colony, and Vermont Studio Center where he was awarded a Wolf Kahn & Emily Mason Painting Fellowship. Sears received a project grant from Maine Arts Commission, and was awarded a Kindling Fund Grant for a Mural Initiative that he co-founded with Partner Tessa O’Brien.
No. 7
Aaron T. Stephan
free-standing sculpture
Aaron T Stephan presents a wry look at the world around him – focusing on the complex web of information carried by everyday materials and objects. His work has been featured at Locust Projects, DeCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, Samson Projects, The Portland Museum of Art, John Michael Kohler Art Center, California Center for the Arts, Farnsworth Art Museum, Weitz Center at Carlton College, ICA at MECA, DUMBO Center for the Arts, Troy Arts Center, University of Maine Museum of Art, Quint Contemporary and Albany Airport Gallery amongst others.
Stephan has completed public commissions across the U.S. including Boston, MA, Denver, CO, Manchester NH, Lubbock, TX, Salt Lake City, UT, Nashville, TN, Indianapolis, IN, San Diego, CA, and Portland, ME.
No. 8
Clint Fulkerson
mural utilizing wavy lines
Clint Fulkerson lives in Gorham, Maine. He has a BFA in Metals from MassArt but has been primarily a 2D artist since 2005. Clint’s work is inspired by network systems and natural formations at microscopic and cosmic scales. His hand-drawn murals are made with paint markers, utilizing a hierarchical, emergent logic of geometric design. Clint’s work has been featured in many galleries across the US, including Schema Projects in Brooklyn, the Center for Maine Contemporary Art and The Portland Museum of Art.
No. 9
Tessa Greene O’Brien
multi-color mural
Maine-based artist Tessa G. O’Brien makes paintings that reference light, play with architectural space and revel in color. Using a variety of mediums and techniques to convey a sense of atmosphere and place, O’Brien paints found compositions with observed and invented color. She received her MFA from Maine College of Art, her BS from Skidmore College and is represented by Dowling Walsh Gallery.
No. 10
Wade Kavanaugh & Stephen B. Nguyen
wood sculpture
Wade Kavanaugh and Stephen B. Nguyen, based in Bethel and Portland, Maine, have collaborated since 2005. They continue making work together because their collaborative process has given them a platform to articulate the collective processing of what they see and to continually re-question visual foundations such as memory, perception and imagination. The process of questioning at the root of their collaboration has encouraged experimentation and play that might otherwise not exist in their individual artistic practices.
Photo by Dave Clough Photography
Rock Row: Inside, Outside The Box is located behind the Market Basket at Rock Row, off of Larrabee Road in Westbrook.
The exhibit is open to the public free of charge, with free parking available in front of Market Basket and in the lot adjacent to the artwork. The exhibit is scheduled to be available through October.