The Bollard Bulletin for July 26, 2025
Lean times call for Lean Meats! And fabulous theatrical productions! And this week's visual arts listings!
Highlights
Fun indie-punk show at Blue Portland Maine (650 Congress St.) headlined by Portland “Crusaders of the Web” Lean Meats, with Raif Crunch, For Sure For Sure, and Lolabelle at 8 p.m. Tix: $15 (21+).
Murder By Death plays broody and intense country music in that Nick Cave Gothic vein so popular with directors of hyper-violent streaming series. Laura Jane Grace (formerly Against Me! singer Tom Gabel) opens at the State Theatre (609 Congress St., Portland) at 7 p.m. Tix: $40 (all ages).
Maine State Music Theatre’s extravagant musical production based on the gender-bending 1982 comedy Tootsie has just begun its run at the Pickard Theater (1 Bath Rd., Brunswick). Tonight’s performance is at 7:30 p.m. Tix: $97-$158. Continues through July 12.
The PortFringe Festival of outside-the-box theatrical productions continues this week, and among the highlights is Sam Atwood’s show, Eyes Out: Fifty Shades of Blind, described as “adventures in disability, transition, resistance, and optimism told through comedy, storytelling, and movement.” It’s at Portland Stage’s Studio Theater (25 Forest Ave.) at 7 p.m., and a final performance takes place there this Saturday at 5:30 p.m. Tix: $16.
Maine writer Geoffrey Wolff discusses his fast-paced black comedy about characters caught in the corruption of Rhode Island’s capital, Providence, with acclaimed TV comedy writer Ian Maxine-Graham (The Simpsons, SNL) at Longfellow Books (1 Monument Way, Portland) at 6 p.m. Free.
Visual Arts
Art House Picture Frames The Painted Ladies of Maine: A Celebration of Women's Artistic Voices, a group show of work in various media, shows through July 31 during business hours. 61 Pleasant St., Portland. 221-3443. View more at addisonwoolley.com.
Bates College Museum of Art Ralph Steadman: And Another Thing shows through Oct. 11. Olin Arts Center, 75 Russell St., Lewiston. Hours: Mon.-Sat. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. 786-6158. bates.edu/museum.
Belleflower Brewing Co. Shape & Form: EMERGE Artists in Residence 2024-25 Cohort, work by Running With Scissors Art Studios, shows through July 27. 66 Cove St., Portland. Hours: noon-8 p.m. daily. belleflowerbeer.com.
Bowdoin College Museum of Art
• Poetic Truths: Hawthorne, Longfellow, and American Visual Culture, 1840-1880 shows through July 20
• Hello, Stranger: Artist as Subject in Photographic Portraits since 1900 shows through Aug. 10
• Painted Time: Moons, paintings by Ann Craven co-created with curators, shows through Aug. 17
• Flora et Fauna: Nature in Ancient Mediterranean Art and Culture shows through March 7, 2026
Free admission. Hours: Tues., Wed., Fri. & Sat. 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Thurs. 10 a.m.-8:30 p.m., Sun. 1 p.m.-5 p.m. 245 Maine St., Brunswick. 725-3275. bowdoin.edu.
Casco Bay Artisans Featured work by Gene Barbera, Christina Davis, Z.L. Feng,
Wes Hunting and Erika Manning shows through July 16. Hours: Mon., Thurs. and Sun. 11 a.m.-5 p.m., Fri. and Sat. 11 a.m.-7 p.m. 68 Commercial St., Portland. 536-1577. cascobayartisans.com.
Casco Bay Frames & Gallery The 27th Annual Employee Art Show is on view through August. 295 Forest Ave., Portland. Hours: Mon.-Fri. 10 a.m.-6 p.m., Sat. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. 774-1260. cascobayframes.com.
Center for Maine Contemporary Art
• the shape of memory, sculpture and installation by Carlie Trosclair, shows through Sept. 7
• Leaf Litter, composite sculpture by Elizabeth Atterbury, shows through Sept. 7
• Cheek to Cheek, paintings by Nicole Wittenberg, shows through Sept. 14
Hours: Mon.-Sat. 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Sun. noon-5 p.m. Admission: $10 ($8 students and seniors, under 18 free). 21 Winter St., Rockland. 701-5005. cmcanow.org.
Colby Museum of Art
• Love Your Langlais: A Community Curates shows through Oct. 20
• Hors-champs, a video installation by Stan Douglas, shows through Aug. 24
• Alex Katz: Repititions, paintings by Katz, shows through March 29, 2026
• Some American Stories, works from the museum’s Lunder Wing, shows through Sept. 26, 2026
Free admission. Hours: Tues., Wed., Fri. & Sat. 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Thurs. 10 a.m.-9 p.m., Sun. noon-5 p.m. 5600 Mayflower Hill, Waterville. 859-5600. colby.edu.
Cove Street Arts
• Frayed Edges, paintings by Jeff Bye, shows through July 12
• Liminality, paintings by David Barnes, Lydia M. Kinney, Nicholas Anthony Mancini and Catherine Scala, shows through July 19
• What Stays, paintings by Annie Anderson, shows through July 19
• Phenomena, photography by Adam Ekberg and Sarah Szwajkos, shows through Aug. 9
• Three Curiosities, paintings by Ed Valentine, shows through Aug. 16
• Passing Through, assemblage by Kitty Wales, shows through Aug. 16
Hours: Tues.-Fri. 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m., Sat. 10 a,m,-5 p.m. 71 Cove St., Portland. 808-8911. covestreetarts.com.
Farnsworth Art Museum
• Native Prospects: Indignity and Landscape, paintings by Thomas Cole and work by indigenous artists, shows through July 6
• Capturing Her Environment: Women Artists, 1870-1930, shows through July 20
• Manors, paintings and murals by Anne Buckwalter, shows through Sept. 21
• Home Places: Andrew Wyeth in Chadds Ford, paintings and watercolors by Wyeth, shows through Oct. 19
• Re-Indigenizing Sacred Landscapes: From the Wigwam at Catawamkeag, shows through Jan. 4
• Ann Craven: Painted Time (2020-2024) shows through Jan. 4
Hours: Wed.-Sun. 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Admission: $20 ($18 seniors, $10 students, under 16 free). 16 Museum St., Rockland. 596-6457. farnsworthmuseum.org.
George Marshall Store Gallery Cosmic Things, a group exhibition, shows through July 13. Hours: Thurs. and Fri. 10 a.m.-4 p.m., Sat. and Sun. 11 a.m.-5 p.m. 140 Lindsay Rd., York. 351-8200. georgemarshallstoregallery.com.
Greenhut Galleries Hands at 10 and 2, paintings by Matt Blackwell, shows through June 28. Hours: Tues.-Fri. 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m., Sat. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. 146 Middle St., Portland. 772-2693. greenhutgalleries.com.
LA Arts Gallery Showing Skin, experimental sculptural paintings by Libby Sipe, shows through July 10. Hours: Tues.-Thurs. 9:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m., Fri. noon-6 p.m. 168 Lisbon St., Lewiston. 782-7228. laarts.org.
LongWoods Preserve One Less Travelled, work by 23 artists placed amid 54 acres of farmland and forest, shows through May 15, 2027. Hours: ongoing. 76 LongWoods Rd., Cumberland Center. wanderatlongwoods.com.
Maine Jewish Museum
• Turbulence, Fragility, Resilience, paintings by Joanne Tarlin
• no one leaves home unless, paintings based on archival architectural plans of Berlin buildings occupied by Jews and persecuted artists of the 1930s, by Emily Haas
• Being There and Everywhere, photographs by Ron Faris
• YAYA, paintings by Tigist Yoseph Ron
All on view through June 26. Hours: Mon., Wed.-Fri. and Sun. noon-4 p.m. Free admission. 267 Congress St., Portland. 773-2339. mainejewishmuseum.org.
Maine Historical Society
• Lapsed Time: Portland in the 1980s, photographs by David Etnier, shows through Dec. 31
• Of Note: Maine Sheet Music shows through July 28
• Notorious: Maine Crime in the Public Eye, 1690-1940, photographs, prints and other historic materials, shows through Dec. 31
Hours: Tues.-Sat. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Admission: $10 ($5 kids 6-17). 489 Congress St., Portland. 774-1822. mainehistory.org.
Maine Museum of Photographic Arts The New Abstraction, a group show of abstract photography, shows through July 26. Hours: Tues., Thurs.-Sat. 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Donations encouraged. 15 Middle St., Portland. 808-8919. mainemuseumofphotographicarts.com.
Mayo Street Arts Imposing Figures, work by Pepper O’Hara and Greg Jamie, shows through June 30. 10 Mayo St., Portland. 879-4629. mayostreetarts.org.
Merrymeeting Arts Center STUFF, drawings and other work by The Artist Doug Chess, shows through June 28. Hours: Sat. 10 a.m.-2 p.m. 9 Main Street., Bowdoinham. merrymeetingartscenter.org.
Moss Galleries Falmouth Gallery (251 Rte. 1; 781-2620): Beate Wheeler’s Abstract Rhythms: 1960s on 10th Street, paintings by Wheeler, and Between Our Worlds, paintings by David Rankin and Claire Seidl, show through Aug. 9. Portland Gallery (100 Fore St., 804-0459): Dialogical Narratives, paintings and works on paper by Samira Abbassy, shows through June 27 through Aug. 30. Hours: Tues.-Sat. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. (both locations). elizabethgmossgalleries.com.
Nadra Clark Gallery Summer Drift, work by Anne Stuer, Jen MacDonald, Lucille Holt-Sottery and David Allen, shows through Aug. 15 by appointment. 256 U.S. Rte. 1, Scarborough. 332-1659. nadraclarkgallery.com.
Ocean House Gallery Cairns in Ink, new work by Jeff Badger, shows through July 18. Hours: Tues.-Sat. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. 93 Ocean St., South Portland. 956-1988. oceanhousegallery.com.
Ogunquit Museum of American Art
• A Sailboat in the Moonlight, paintings by Nicole Wittenberg, shows through July 20
• Where the Real Lies, work by 19 contemporary artists, shows through Nov. 16
• Henry Strater’s Ogunquit, local landscape paintings by Strater, shows through Nov. 16
Hours: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. daily. Admission: $15 ($13 seniors, students and vets, kids under 12 free). 543 Shore Rd., Ogunquit. 646-4909. ogunquitmuseum.org.
Portland Museum of Art
• Skin Deep, photograms by Jo Sandman, shows through Aug. 17
• Painting Energy: The Alex Katz Foundation Collection at the Portland Museum of Art shows through Sept. 14
• Spotlight: Ann Craven, paintings by Craven, shows through Sept. 14
• Passages in American Art, works from the museum collection, is ongoing.
Hours: Tues.-Sun. 10 a.m.-6 p.m. (Fri. 10 a.m.-8 p.m.). Admission: $20 ($18 seniors and students; under 21 free). 7 Congress Square. 775-6148. portlandmuseum.org.
Portland Public Library Washed Away, work by members of the Union of Maine Visual Artists, curated by Carl Little, shows through June 21. Hours: Mon., Fri. & Sat. 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Tues.-Thurs. 10 a.m.-6 p.m. 5 Monument Square. 871-1700. portlandlibrary.com.
Richard Boyd Art Gallery Works in Watercolor, by Randy Eckard and Richard H. Eyster, shows through June 28. Hours: Fri.-Sun. 11 a.m.-3 p.m. 15 Epps St., Peaks Island. 712-1097. richardboydpottery.com.