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Ashley Bryan / Paula Wilson: Take the World into Your Arms

Location

Space

Dates

A person holds a magnifying glass focusing on a butterfly's wing near a window with a sunset horizon.
A colorful painting of a dense garden with various flowers and foliage in shades of red, pink, yellow, and green.

About the Artists

Ashley Bryan

Paula Wilson

Guest Curator
A curator and scholar specializing in modern and contemporary art, Jennifer R. Gross holds a PhD in art history from the City University of New York and has held curatorial positions at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston; Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut; and the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, Lincoln, Massachusetts. Gross is organizing a forthcoming Mina Loy retrospective exhibition at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art in Brunswick, Maine. The author of numerous exhibition catalogues and articles, she was also the inaugural executive director of the Hauser & Wirth Institute and founding director of the ICA@MECA (Institute of Contemporary Art at Maine College of Art & Design).

Selected Works

Paula Wilson

Collaged and non-figurative depiction of a silhouetted figure looking up at a Grecian inspired vase with a mountainous background.

Paula Wilson

Stained glass pane depicting white lily flowers on top of a gray and yellow background. Image taken at a window with a background view of a desert.

Ashley Bryan

Painting by Ashley Bryan depicting a still life scene of flowers, bottles, vessels, and fruits.

Paula Wilson

Collaged depiction of the back of figure wearing a large skirt facing away from the viewer.

Paula Wilson

Screenprint of a non-figurative scene with a a central figure dangling on a chain with a bird on each shoulder.

Ashley Bryan

Painting of a young boy seated on a blue chair with a yellow background. The boy wears formal attire, which seems to be disheveled.

Ashley Bryan

An assemblage of a central figure juggling.

Installation Views

  • Introductory wall with text and vibrant paintings for the exhibition.
  • Colorful garments displayed on mannequins, a large figurative artwork, and a vitrine with small sculptures.
  • Gallery installation with colorful paintings on white walls, a yellow central partition, and a vitrine of books.
  • Five mannequins in vibrant garments on a platform surrounded by other works of art.
  • Large mixed-media installation anchored on the wall, flanked by colorful paintings and figurative sculptures.
  • Bright yellow wall with framed illustrations, adjacent to sculptures, mannequins, and textile artworks in the gallery space.
  • Gallery view featuring colorful garments on mannequins, vibrant paintings on the walls, and a large dress form under spotlight.

Installation view of Ashley Bryan / Paula Wilson: Take the World into Your Arms, the Colby Museum’s Joan Dignam Schmaltz Gallery of Art at the Paul J. Schupf Art Center, Waterville, Maine, 2023. Photo: Luc Demers

Installation view of Ashley Bryan / Paula Wilson: Take the World into Your Arms, the Colby Museum’s Joan Dignam Schmaltz Gallery of Art at the Paul J. Schupf Art Center, Waterville, Maine, 2023. Photo: Luc Demers

Installation view of Ashley Bryan / Paula Wilson: Take the World into Your Arms, the Colby Museum’s Joan Dignam Schmaltz Gallery of Art at the Paul J. Schupf Art Center, Waterville, Maine, 2023. Photo: Luc Demers

Installation view of Ashley Bryan / Paula Wilson: Take the World into Your Arms, the Colby Museum’s Joan Dignam Schmaltz Gallery of Art at the Paul J. Schupf Art Center, Waterville, Maine, 2023. Photo: Luc Demers

Installation view of Ashley Bryan / Paula Wilson: Take the World into Your Arms, the Colby Museum’s Joan Dignam Schmaltz Gallery of Art at the Paul J. Schupf Art Center, Waterville, Maine, 2023. Photo: Luc Demers

Installation view of Ashley Bryan / Paula Wilson: Take the World into Your Arms, the Colby Museum’s Joan Dignam Schmaltz Gallery of Art at the Paul J. Schupf Art Center, Waterville, Maine, 2023. Photo: Luc Demers

Installation view of Ashley Bryan / Paula Wilson: Take the World into Your Arms, the Colby Museum’s Joan Dignam Schmaltz Gallery of Art at the Paul J. Schupf Art Center, Waterville, Maine, 2023. Photo: Luc Demers