In Balance/Imbalance
Welcome Words – Véronique Plesch, Professor, Colby College
Welcome to the 2023 summer exhibition of the L.C. Bates Museum. For the 14th time, two Colby college students were selected to curate this show and we are delighted, after a three-year hiatus due to COVID, to be able to have an in-person show, although we have retained a virtual component. This year’s theme, In Balance/Imbalance, is the occasion for collaboration between the L.C. Bates Museum with the Maine Arts Journal and the Union of Maine Visual Artists. In Balance/Imbalance will be the theme for the journal’s summer issue, out on 1 July, and for an exhibition at the Portland gallery of the Union of Maine Visual Artists (Portland Media Center, 516 Congress Street) in July.
Viewing the Exhibition
To view each artist’s submission alongside their statement, click on the names of the artists listed below. To return to the gallery, click the “return to gallery” button at the bottom of the page. To view all of the works in the exhibition, scroll down below the list of artists.
To navigate the gallery, click on the images to view a larger image. Navigate between works in the gallery by clicking the arrow buttons on the right and left sides of the images. To close the gallery and return to this page, click the small X button in the upper right corner of the screen.
In Balance/Imbalance
Life is about balance. Far from being static, balance in nature is achieved through dynamic processes. Balance involves circulation, exchange, regulation, and negotiation; it also involves diversity and creativity. Balance is also fundamentally fragile and its disruption can have effects both positive—think about pearls, the result of an uninvited particle (in fact, it’s referred to as an irritant!), or ponds created by a beaver dam—and negative, threatening ecosystems and living organisms.
List of Artists
2023 Exhibition Curators
From left to right: Véronique Plesch, Anna Jaubert, and Zehra Gundogdu.
Anna Jaubert is a Questbridge scholar at Colby College, class of 2025. She is from Jackson, Mississippi. Double-majoring in Art History and American Studies with a minor in Francophone Studies, Anna has embraced the opportunities of a liberal arts education. Her experience working with museums is inspired by her desire to contribute to community-oriented learning. She is also interning at the education department of the Colby College Museum of Art.
Zehra Gundogdu is an international student at Colby College, class of 2025, double majoring in Art History and Computer Science. Zehra grew up in Istanbul, Turkey. Her interest in Art History was kindled in the summer of 2021, when she participated in the Pioneer Academics Research Program (her paper “The Role of Iconoclasm in Medieval Byzantine Art” was published in Pioneer Research Journal 2021). She is also a Pulver Science Scholar at Colby and enjoys developing software.
Véronique Plesch is Professor of Art History and Chair of the Art Department at Colby College. Born in Argentina and raised in Switzerland, she holds advanced degrees from the University of Geneva in Art History and Medieval French Literature and from Princeton University, where she received her Ph.D. in Art History in 1994, the year she joined Colby’s faculty. Her scholarship deals with late medieval and Renaissance visual arts and theater, early modern graffiti, and contemporary art, with a steady focus on word and image studies. She is one of the editors of the Maine Arts Journal: UMVA Quarterly, to which she regularly contributes articles. She has been supervising student curators for the L.C. Bates’s summer exhibition since 2009.