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New Exhibit Celebrates Maureen McCabe's 40 Years at Connecticut College

McCabe created 2010's "Cannon" on a game board.
McCabe created 2010's "Cannon" on a game board.

NEW LONDON, Conn. - Connecticut College presents "Swan Song," an exhibition of works by Maureen McCabe, the Joanne Toor Cummings '50 Professor of Studio Art, in advance of her retirement at the end of the academic year. "Swan Song" is on display through March 4, 2011, at the college's Cummings Arts Center, with an artist talk scheduled for 4:15 p.m. on Feb. 23, followed by a reception from 5 to 6 p.m. McCabe has been teaching at the college for 40 years and is one of its longest-tenured professors. She is a well-known artist who has exhibited her mixed media assemblages and boxed collages in museums and galleries across the world.

"Swan Song" will feature examples of her art from each of the four decades she has taught at Connecticut College. The pieces are made up of disparate materials - including drawn images, toys, prints, coins, tokens, cards and countless varieties of found objects - that are woven into complex narratives of ancient mythology, Celtic history and popular American culture. The exhibition catalogue for her 2005 show at the Vose Galleries in Boston read, "McCabe's work falls into a category of 20th century assemblage art that at once challenges the traditional conception of representational art while at the same time offering new possibilities for defining realism."

Reflecting on her experiences at Connecticut College, McCabe said, "My teaching at the college has been like a giant collage/ assemblage with multiple, changing parts - newly enrolling students, evolving curriculum and varied lectures and activities, all of which have informed my art and life. In fact, if you change the 'e' to an 'a' in college, you have collage!" Written recollections and art images from some of her former students will be included on an "Alumni Wall" within the exhibition.



February 3, 2011