Ellis-Beauregard Fellows: Wade Kavanaugh + Stephen B. Nguyen

In partnership with the Ellis-Beauregard Foundation, CMCA presents the inaugural exhibition of the 2018 Ellis-Beauregard Fellows—artist team Wade Kavanaugh (Bethel, Maine) and Stephen B. Nguyen (Portland, Maine). Kavanaugh and Nguyen were selected as the first recipients of the Fellowship award through a blind jury process from a pool of more than 200 applicants by jurors Jeffrey Peabody, Vice President and Director, Matthew Marks Gallery, New York City, and Alison de Lima Greene, Isabel Brown Wilson Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas.

Working as collaborators for more than a decade, Kavanaugh and Nguyen have distinguished themselves with an approach to installation work that is highly inventive, immersive and fully in command of their materials. The simplicity of their chosen materials – paper and wood – reminds one how far a finely tuned imagination can take one when engaging with a site.

In accepting the EBF Fellowship, Kavanaugh stated, “Stephen and I are honored to receive this award from the Ellis-Beauregard Foundation. Our collaboration began twelve years ago at The Map Room in Portland and we look forward to the gift of time to create more work in Maine, beginning with the exhibit at CMCA. We’re excited to engage with the new building at the Center for Maine Contemporary Art and grateful to make a project of scale so close to home.”

The award reflects the vision of the Ellis-Beauregard Foundation founders, artists David Ellis and Joan Beauregard, to support artists with the precious gift of time, and to encourage, expand and sustain the courageous and imaginative dialogue that is fundamental to the arts.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website.