UNE art exhibit pairs medical and anatomical drawings with artistic representations of the human body

image of artwork from "The House of the Soul"

The University of New England’s Portland Campus Art Gallery will present its spring exhibition, “The House of the Soul,” from February 21 to June 14. An opening reception, which is free and open to the public, will be held at the gallery on February 21, from 5 to 7 p.m.

Curated by Gallery and Exhibitions Director Hilary Irons, “The House of the Soul” is a wide-ranging exhibition that presents a unique look at medical and anatomical drawing in dialogue with artwork focusing on the human body in a more extended sense. Viewers from diverse intellectual fields will be confronted with the divergent and sometimes contradictory communicative aims of each visual artifact. “The inclusion of intelligent contemporary work dealing with representations of the body’s physical form allows a deeper and more abstract reading of the scientific drawings, while, in turn, the scientific drawings highlight the power of conceptual idiosyncrasy in the contemporary work,” said Irons.

The ten artists represented in the exhibit span a range of approaches, from direct, highly-articulated medical illustration, to conceptually-oriented space-based constructions.  According to Irons, the artists’ explorations “open a window into the diverse uses of figurative interpretation.”

The featured artists are as follows:

  • Anoushé Shojae-Chagorvand
  • Baxter Koziol
  • Ben Spalding
  • Bianca Beck
  • Evelyn Kok
  • Gretchen Halpert
  • Oran Suta
  • Philip Brou
  • Reggie Burrows Hodges
  • Stephen Burt

UNE’s Portland Campus Art Gallery is located at 716 Stevens Avenue. It is open 12 to 8 p.m. daily (12 to 10 p.m. for the UNE Community). Daily hours are 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. For more information, contact Gallery and Exhibitions Director Hilary Irons by email or phone (207-221-4449). 

"Lung Sections," pen and ink on paper, c. 1947; by Evelyn Kok
"Lung Sections," pen and ink on paper, c. 1947; by Evelyn Kok