“As We Are” at the Portland Museum of Art features 14 emerging arts with connections to Maine. Read about their work in their own words with an excerpt from their artist statements.

“Yoplait,” 2024, acrylic, denim, cotton, corduroy, silk, and wool, 84 x 91 inches. Private Collection. © Rachel Gloria Adams. Image courtesy Petegorsky/Gipe Photo

Rachel Gloria Adams is a multidisciplinary artist living in Portland. “I am constantly bouncing back and forth between sewing shapes and painting them. I find that I sew what I can’t paint and paint what I can’t sew.”

Elana Adler (United States, born 1986), “Can a Pile Be Sideways?”, 2024, aluminum and epoxy clay, 25 x 25 x 18 inches. Elana Adler. © Elana Adler. Image courtesy Petegorsky/Gipe Photo

Elana Adler is a multidisciplinary artist born in Michigan and currently based in Portland. She also teaches at the Maine College of Art & Design. “I use the grid as a tactical mapping system and a geometric configuration inherited from the past. It is a constant variable that is continually translated and transformed.”

Maya Tihtiyas Attean (Penobscot, born 1994), “Becoming a ghost of myself,” 2023, archival inkjet print, 32 x 40 inches. Maya Tihtiyas Attean. © Maya Tihtiyas Attean. Image courtesy the artist

Maya Tihtiyas Attean is a Wabanaki artist living and working in Portland. “Through the lens of Wabanaki history and culture, my work unveils strands of forgotten stories in what is now known as ‘Maine.’ The intergenerational trauma etched into the landscape finds echoes in my creations, which emphasize the enduring scars embedded in both the earth and bodies.”

Oscar Chacon (United States, born 1984), “The Waiting,” 2021, Xylene image transfer, colored pencil, graphite pencil, and soft pastel on paper, 30 x 22 inches. Oscar Chacon. © Oscar Chacon. Image courtesy the artist

Oscar Chacon is a Texas-based artist who earned his MFA from MECA&D. “My current practice centers around an exploration of identity – particularly gender and sexuality – through drawing and collage.”

James Parker Foley (United States, born 1993), “Divers Approaching Infinite Density,” 2023, oil on linen, 72 x 60 inches. Courtesy of Sarah Bouchard Gallery. © James Parker Foley. Image courtesy the artist

James Parker Foley grew up in New Hampshire and now works in Portland. He earned his MFA at the Maine College of Art in 2020. “My paintings are set within the world of my mind: a spare, utopian iteration of the Maine coast. The recent works are predominantly blue and set at night – I find this creates a lucid, expansive space. In this world, water and sky might be interchangeable.”

Meg Hahn (United States, born 1995), “Cut Out Shadows 1,” 2024, oil on panel, 14 5/8 x 11 1/2 inches. Meg Hahn. © Meg Hahn. Image courtesy Petegorsky/Gipe Photo

Meg Hahn is an artist and arts organizer in Portland. “More recently, I have composed my work by layering color, building forms through collaging geometric shapes, and constructing imagined shadows and lighting. I like to use a range of hues within the same color family to create an invitation to look more closely and slowly.”

Dylan Hausthor (United States, born 1993), “barbed wire on a stick,” 2024, archival pigment print, 40 x 32 inches. Dylan Hausthor. © Dylan Hausthor. Image courtesy the artist

Dylan Hausthor is based on an island off the coast of Maine. “I’m interested in photography as a medium of hybridity and nuance – weavings of myth filled with tangents and nuances, treading the lines between investigative journalism, disinformation, performance, acts of obsession, and self-conscious manipulation.”

Jenny Ibsen (United States (born China), born 1996), “#1 Bun,” 2024, terracotta, underglaze, glaze, and luster, 17 1/2 x 8 x 3 7/8 inches. Jenny Ibsen. © Jenny Ibsen. Image courtesy Petegorsky/Gipe Photo

Jenny Ibsen is an artist, restaurant worker and organizer based in Portland. “These ceramics explore the technical relationships between texture, form, and color, while conceptually, my work explores ideas of sustenance and care, labor, and play.”

Hector Nevarez Magaña (United States, born 1994), “norway center no. 7,” 2024, gelatin silver print, image: 6 x 9 inches; sheet: 11 x 14 inches. Hector Nevarez Magaña. © Hector Nevarez Magaña. Image courtesy the artist

Hector Nevarez Magaña is a Mexican American photographer living and working in Portland. “My photographs perform like poems; short bursts of mundanity interlaced with residue of instance from romance, remembrance, faith, and death.”

Tessa Greene O’Brien (United States, born 1982), Bayview Market & Takeout, 2024, oil on linen, 14 x 11 x 1 1/4 inches. Tessa Greene O’Brien. © Tessa Greene O’Brien. Image courtesy Petegorsky/Gipe Photo

Tessa Greene O’Brien is an artist and curator based in South Portland. “My practice is centered around themes of love, perception, and a sense of place. I make autobiographical paintings using imagery from personal snapshots and family photos from my rural Maine childhood.”

Brian Smith (United States, born 1994), “Gay Bar,” 2024, vintage glass, plastic, and stone beads, chatons, gemstones, foam, adhesive, and pigment, 30 x 24 x 10 inches. Brian Smith. © Brian Smith. Image courtesy Brian Smith

Brian Smith is a Portland-based artist. “I create sculptures, paintings, and drawings conceptualizing a future reality in which humans adapt and migrate (back) to the seas that land creatures evolved from, to survive the climate catastrophe and rising waters.”

Jay Stern (United States, born 1991), “Green House and Table,” 2023, oil on canvas, 40 x 45 inches. Courtesy of the artist and Grant Wahlquist Gallery, Maine. © Jay Stern. Image courtesy the artist

Jay Stern lives and works in the Midcoast. “There’s a power in the quotidian nature of my subject matter. I hope the work will fulfill a similar function to that of portraiture, in that the evidence of a human life or experience is clearly present.”

Anna Valenti (United States, born 1991), “Woven Vessel,” 2024, hemp fiber clay and glaze, 17 x 11 x 11 inches. Anna Valenti. © Anna Valenti. Image courtesy the artist

Anna Valenti holds an MFA from MECA&D and currently works in Colorado. “Using fiber clay and hemplime blocks to build architectural installations, my work centers around gathering spaces that cultivate connection. I draw inspiration from structures of support associated with courtyards, such as trellises, pergolas, and woven vessels.”

Holden Willard (United States, born 1999), “The Bathers (When We Were Kids),” 2024, oil on burlap, 75 x 45 inches. Holden Willard. © Holden Willard. Image courtesy Kat Miller

Holden Willard is a painter based in Portland. “I’m mainly striving towards creating a dialogue between the past, present, and future, be it through the lens of family, friends, or the environment. In my mind, these are essential devices that I utilize to create a coming-of-age narrative in Maine.”