Two shows are soon coming to an end, one next weekend in Portland and the other two weeks from now in Wiscasset. Just for its beguiling charm alone, it would be a pity for “Kitty Wales: Drift” at Speedwell Contemporary (through June 1) to pass you by. The gallery is extending hours to offer folks more time to see it during its last week.
You have a bit more time to get to the Midcoast to see “Generations: The Legacy of Mentors” at Maine Art Gallery (through June 9). TELLING STORIES The through-line in the sculptural work of Belfast-based Kitty Wales – whether it springs from studying reef sharks in the Bahamas, feral goats in Scotland or creating the wall sculptures featured in “Drift” – is narrative. Wales works with repurposed and discarded materials, which automatically imbue her sculptures with a sense of time and memory, of things that have lived a life of purpose and meaning, and that may also have circuitous connections to other things (the environment, our sense of our past, even to human figures we might not perceive when we first look at them).
The work at Speedwell arises from travels to Mexico, where Wales encountered ancient Mayan and Aztec codices. These pictograms chronicled bloodlines, sacred rituals, agricultural practices, daily events and more, all within a palette of colors that made an impression on Wales. They were narrative in the sense that they told stories of everyday life, and they also made connections to pantheistic beliefs of Meso.
