The Portland Museum of Art (PMA) Biennial, which opens today, is “intended to highlight artists with meaningful connections to Maine and to enrich the cultural lives of the people of the state.” The 2018 Biennial will be curated by Nat May, the former executive director of SPACE Gallery in Portland, who spent a year visiting artists throughout the state and assembled a team of arts professionals to aid him. They include PMA Judy and Leonard Lauder Director Mark Bessire, artist and Maine Indian Basketmakers Alliance co-founder Theresa Secord, and Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture Co-Director Sarah Workneh.

There are 25 artists in this year’s Biennial, and all but one will be exhibiting at the PMA for the first time ever. They include Gina Adams, Becca Albee, Nancy Andrews, Elise Ansel, Elizabeth Atterbury, Stephen Benenson, Sascha Braunig, Anne Buckwalter, Steve Cayard and David Moses Bridges, Tim Christensen, Jenny McGee  Dougherty, Angela Dufresne, David Driskell, John Harlow, Séan Alonzo Harris, Erin Johnson, Shaun Leonardo, Jonathan Mess, Daniel Minter, Rosamond Purcell, Joshua Reiman and Eric Weeks, Fred Tomah and DM Witman. This is the 10th Biennial exhibition at the PMA and the second Biennial to be organized by an independent curator. This year’s Biennial runs from January 26 to May 30, 2018. Visit the Portland Museum of Art.