Maine Jewish Museum,
267 Congress Street, Portland, Maine 04101
Artist talk, Tuesday, May 3, at 4 pm Reception 5 – 7 pm.
As a painter, installation artist, curator and climate activist, based in NYC and Maine,
M. Annenberg investigates the black holes of American journalism.
The exhibit, News/ Not News, consists of paintings and three dimensional wall pieces. The subject is our media and its declining quality over the past twenty years. Has the two minute sound bite failed the American people? She not only casts a critical eye at news corporations and how marketing needs trump truth, but she also holds the public responsible for allowing itself to be manipulated and duped by the vagaries of popular culture. Hard news is not only diminished bur suppressed and with it, Annenberg insists, our democracy is in peril.
“Annenberg uses sardonic wit and irony to update iconic works of art by artists such as Grant Wood, Edward Hopper, Tom Wesselman, and Gerhard Richter. Even if the viewer is not aware of the specific references to current events (post 9/11) in these paintings and wall installations, there is a palpable sense of loss and foreboding in spite of the often candy-colored pop
palate. These are not worlds in which we want to live.” – Kate Somers, curator, Bernstein Gallery, Princeton University.
When she was represented by Flomenhaft Gallery, she organized a panel there with Dr. Gavin Schmidt, Director of NASA, Goddard Institute for Space Studies, entitled, Art, Activism and Global Warming. Her paintings are in the permanent collections of museums in Lithuania, Israel, England and the USA. The BBC included her artwork in the documentary, The Private Life of a Masterpiece: The Third of May. She was named by Origin Magazine as one of America’s Top Creatives in 2015.
Annenberg’s recent artwork deconstructs the under reporting of five major climate studies –
The Emissions Gap Report, 2019, the Hindu Kush Himalaya Assessment, The National Climate Assessment, the Paris Climate Treaty, and the UN’s 5th IPCC Report.
She recently curated the exhibit, Earth on the Edge, 2021, in New York City.
All images copyright of the artist, unless otherwise noted; reproduction not allowed without express permission
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