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Gail Spaien lives in South Portland, Maine. She earned her B.F.A. from the University of Southern Maine and her M.F.A. from the San Francisco Art Institute. Spaien has received numerous fellowships including the Ucross Foundation; Varda Artist Residency Program; Millay Colony for the Arts; the Djerassi Foundation Resident Artists Program; and the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture.
Over four decades, Spaien’s work has been exhibited nationwide and abroad, including Taymour Grahne Projects (London); Vardan Gallery (Los Angeles, CA); the DeCordova Sculpture Park and Museum (Lincoln, MA); Provincetown Art Association and Museum (Provincetown, MA); Crocker Art Museum (Sacramento, CA); the Portland Museum of Art (Portland, ME); Ogunquit Museum of American Art (Ogunquit, ME); and Colby College Museum of Art (Waterville, Maine). After thirty years as faculty at the Maine College of Art and Design she is now full-time in the studio.
[…] Gail Spaien spoke to us about her exhibit of new paintings, which is on view at Nancy Margolis Gallery until July 19. Throughout her career, Spaien has held onto the words of one of her undergraduate professors during the mid-1970s, who said, “The grid is a meditation.” For years, she didn’t understand this and, as a young student, certainly did not grasp the concept of minimalism. Fast forward to now – the work in her current show uses the grid as both a stable force and the idea of infinity in her representational works. To learn more, listen to the complete interview. […]