“Dana Warp Bridge 5,” by Caren-Marie Michel

Now on display in the Atrium Art Gallery at USM’s Lewiston-Auburn campus is an exhibit of paintings, photographs, prints, and sculpture by 27 Maine artists called “Industrial Maine: Our Other Landscape.”

An opening reception will take place on Thursday, March 22, from 6 to 8 p.m. and the exhibit will be on display through June 1. Both the opening reception and exhibit are open to the public free of charge.

Painter Janice L. Moore is the guest curator for the exhibition. Moore has a longtime interest in Maine’s industrial landscapes and how they have shaped communities, both physically and culturally, over time. Her paintings focus on working factories, abandoned work sites, and repurposed structures throughout the state. She describes industrial landscapes as “the architecture of our usefulness.”

Moore believes that, in Maine, “we often reference our idealized natural state of forests, mountains, and coastline, but there is another overlooked landscape that tells an important truth about our culture, our history, and our potential.”

A year ago, Moore reached out to the arts community to find others who share her affinity for industrial structures. The resulting exhibit includes realistic and abstract works, from the highly detailed to the lyrical and poetic.

Moore has been awarded a grant from the Maine Arts Commission to pursue her project “Structures and Patterns: The Remnants of Our Work,” which took place last fall at Museum L-A in Lewiston, located in the repurposed Bates textile mill. Industrial Maine: Our Other Landscape has allowed Moore to advance this conversation and include perspectives from artists around the state.

The exhibition will include works by Mark Barnette (Portland), Stephanie Berry (Durham), Chris Beneman (Scarborough), Susan Bennett (Auburn), Crystal Cawley (Portland), Dan Dowd (Phippsburg), Bruce Habowski (Waterville), Nina Jerome (Bangor), Samantha Jones (Orono), Kate Katomski (Portland), Carol Liscovitz (Brunswick), Mike Maron (South Portland), Allison McKeen (Gardiner), Caren-Marie Michel (Portland), Leslie Miller (Deer Isle), Janice L. Moore (Freeport), DiTa Ondek (Tenants Harbor), Dennis Pinette (Belfast), John Ripton (Kennebunkport), Roland Salazar Rose (Biddeford), Bronwyn Sale (Brunswick), Gail Skudera, Matthew Smolinsky (Orono), Anne Strout (Falmouth), James B. Taylor (Portland), Deb Vendetti (Rockport), and Laura Waller (Rockland).

The Atrium Art Gallery is located at USM’s Lewiston-Auburn campus at 51 Westminster Street in Lewiston. Free and open to the public, gallery hours are Monday through Thursday from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. The gallery will be closed on Patriot’s Day and Memorial Day.

For more information, email jlmooreart@gmail.com or see https://usm.maine.edu/atriumgallery.