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Everyday Devotions: Gifts from the Alex Katz Foundation and Beyond

Location

Space

Dates

A pencil and crayon drawing of the comic strip character Nancy, wearing a helmet or bonnet with a red bow, affixed to a white background. The drawing is on a piece of notebook paper and secured with clear tape and staples. Below the image, handwritten in pencil, are the words: "IF NANCY WAS A DRAWING BY LARRY RIVERS." A faint signature and year, "BRAINARD-72," are visible in the bottom right corner.
A collage of various paper clippings. Prominent elements include a yellow chick on the left, a section of a map or diagram with green, yellow, and red color blocks overlaying a drawing of a soda can, a black-and-white drawing of a cowboy with a star badge and a large hat, and a cutout of a woman's legs and feet wearing dark heels in the top right corner. The bottom of the collage features a decorative pink and white pattern.

Through their incorporation of everyday materials—from scraps of paper to photographs to fragments of fabric—the works on view reveal the medium of collage to be inherently approachable and open-ended. Whether deliberate compositions or arrived at through chance accumulations, the works demonstrate collage’s boundless creative potential.

Everyday Devotions: Gifts from the Alex Katz Foundation and Beyond is curated by Kiko Aebi, Katz Curator, and Kendall DeBoer, Assistant Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art. The exhibition title is borrowed from Richard Deming's essay, Everyday Devotions: The Art of Joe Brainard (2008).

Artists

Alex Katz at Colby College Museum of Art

The Colby Museum is home to the largest number of works by Katz of any institution, with nearly nine hundred paintings, drawings, and prints, primarily gifted by the artist. A rotating selection is continuously on view in the Paul J. Schupf Wing for the Works of Alex Katz on the Colby campus, one of the only museum spaces in the country devoted solely to the work of a single living artist. Since 2004, Katz has also extended support to other visual artists through the Alex Katz Foundation, donating nearly five hundred outstanding artworks to the Colby Museum. 

Selected Works

Sally Egbert

An abstract painting featuring a background wash of soft purples and greys. Various shapes are layered on top, including a cluster of pink, red, and purple watercolor-like shapes in the upper right. A dominant orange shape is centered within a large black irregular circle. Splatters of black and white paint, thin dark lines resembling branches, and smaller turquoise, white, and purple shapes are distributed across the composition.

John Newman

A small abstract sculpture with a light purple base and an arching superstructure of bright lime green, fuzzy, wire-like material. The green structure flares out like a fan or a feather plume and terminates in a small piece of light blue material. The sculpture sits on a white surface against a plain white background.

Rafael Ferrer

Dana Schutz

Installation Views

  • An installation view showing a white wall with several small framed works. In the foreground, a tall, thin neon-yellow and lavender sculpture stands on a white pedestal.
  • Close-up of a white wall featuring two framed abstract collages alongside a larger, brightly colored painting with blue, green, and orange geometric shapes and black dots.
  • A white gallery wall featuring three small framed works on paper. To the right, a large circular wall sculpture made of concentric rings of neutral-toned fabric.
  • A wide shot of the gallery showing various small framed works on a white wall. The composition leads the eye toward a distant white pedestal holding a colorful, spindly sculpture.
  • A long perspective of the gallery showing a series of small artworks on the left wall, leading toward a brightly lit area with a sculpture and a large blue and red mural.
  • Gallery view of a long white wall with several small framed artworks and a colorful quilt. A doorway at the end leads to another gallery space with a large circular fabric sculpture.
  • Gallery view featuring a white wall on the left with eight small framed works on paper arranged in two rows. In the background, textile sculptures hang on a far wall.
  • Full view of a blue accent wall with a diagonal top edge. The exhibition title and introductory text are printed in black on the left, next to a small framed artwork.
  • An open gallery space with white walls and track lighting. On the right wall, a large, tan, coiled fabric sculpture and a vertical, knotted textile work are displayed.
  • A corner view of the gallery featuring three framed works on paper and a small, dark, textured wall-mounted sculpture. A blue accent wall is visible in the background.
  • A bright blue and rust-red accent wall featuring the exhibition title "everyday devotions." To the left, a small, spindly neon-yellow and purple sculpture sits on a white pedestal.
  • Detail view of a white wall with three framed works on paper and one small, dark, rectangular mixed-media work mounted directly to the wall.
  • Angled view of a white wall showcasing a colorful, rectangular fabric work with red, blue, and black patterned sections, alongside other small framed artworks.
  • A wide-angle view of a long gallery wall featuring several small, framed mixed-media works and a three-dimensional dark mask-like object. A colorful quilt hangs further down the wall.
  • Close-up of a white gallery wall featuring three small framed works on paper. To the right, a square abstract painting with overlapping blue, green, and orange shapes, black circles, and yellow lines.
  • View from a doorway showing a white gallery wall with two narrow floating shelves holding various art books. To the right, a rust-orange wall features a large photograph of a studio.
  • A corner view of the gallery where a blue wall meets a rust-orange wall. Various photographs of interior studio spaces and artists at work are displayed across both colored surfaces.
  • Installation view of a gallery with light wood floors and blue walls. Large-scale black-and-white and color photographs of artist studios are mounted directly to the blue wall.

Installation view of Everyday Devotions: Gifts from the Alex Katz Foundation and Beyond, Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, Maine 2026. Photo: Bret Woodard

Installation view of Everyday Devotions: Gifts from the Alex Katz Foundation and Beyond, Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, Maine 2026. Photo: Bret Woodard

Installation view of Everyday Devotions: Gifts from the Alex Katz Foundation and Beyond, Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, Maine 2026. Photo: Bret Woodard

Installation view of Everyday Devotions: Gifts from the Alex Katz Foundation and Beyond, Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, Maine 2026. Photo: Bret Woodard

Installation view of Everyday Devotions: Gifts from the Alex Katz Foundation and Beyond, Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, Maine 2026. Photo: Bret Woodard

Installation view of Everyday Devotions: Gifts from the Alex Katz Foundation and Beyond, Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, Maine 2026. Photo: Bret Woodard

Installation view of Everyday Devotions: Gifts from the Alex Katz Foundation and Beyond, Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, Maine 2026. Photo: Bret Woodard

Installation view of Everyday Devotions: Gifts from the Alex Katz Foundation and Beyond, Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, Maine 2026. Photo: Bret Woodard

Installation view of Everyday Devotions: Gifts from the Alex Katz Foundation and Beyond, Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, Maine 2026. Photo: Bret Woodard

Installation view of Everyday Devotions: Gifts from the Alex Katz Foundation and Beyond, Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, Maine 2026. Photo: Bret Woodard

Installation view of Everyday Devotions: Gifts from the Alex Katz Foundation and Beyond, Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, Maine 2026. Photo: Bret Woodard

Installation view of Everyday Devotions: Gifts from the Alex Katz Foundation and Beyond, Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, Maine 2026. Photo: Bret Woodard

Installation view of Everyday Devotions: Gifts from the Alex Katz Foundation and Beyond, Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, Maine 2026. Photo: Bret Woodard

Installation view of Everyday Devotions: Gifts from the Alex Katz Foundation and Beyond, Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, Maine 2026. Photo: Bret Woodard

Installation view of Everyday Devotions: Gifts from the Alex Katz Foundation and Beyond, Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, Maine 2026. Photo: Bret Woodard

Installation view of Everyday Devotions: Gifts from the Alex Katz Foundation and Beyond, Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, Maine 2026. Photo: Bret Woodard

Installation view of Everyday Devotions: Gifts from the Alex Katz Foundation and Beyond, Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, Maine 2026. Photo: Bret Woodard

Installation view of Everyday Devotions: Gifts from the Alex Katz Foundation and Beyond, Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, Maine 2026. Photo: Bret Woodard