Internationally acclaimed Houlton photographer is releasing new book

BY KATHLEEN PHALEN TOMASELLI

BANGOR DAILY NEWS

Houlton photographer Lawrence Hardy was a Lights Out Gallery featured artist in January. Credit: Kathleen Phalen Tomaselli / Houlton Pioneer Times

HOULTON, Maine — Just three weeks after ending nearly a decade of heroin use, Lawrence Hardy picked up his smartphone and started chasing the light instead of his next fix.

Now the self-taught Houlton photographer, who has been featured in galleries around the globe, will soon publish “Zen Xan,” his most serious and intimate work to date. Taken over the course of a year in Aroostook County, this series of black-and-white photographs — obscure visual representations of his long battle with opioid addiction, panic attacks, depression and anxiety — ultimately represents hope, he said.

Read more about Lawrence's journey and how he was introduced to Lights Out Gallery here.

Read the Article

Lights Out Gallery renovates in Norway, innovates art scene

The nonprofit Lights Out Gallery is launching a multi-tiered project for a visual and performing arts center on Tannery Street in Norway.

BY NICOLE CARTER

ADVERTISER DEMOCRAT

"NORWAY — Lights Out Gallery and Lights Out Consulting will soon unveil a major renovation in its multi-step plan to transform 10 Tannery Street from a dilapidated manufacturing warehouse to a centerpiece of Norway’s arts scene. The crew and their army of volunteers have toiled to reinforce and rebuild the building’s ancient foundation are putting the finishing touches on the second-floor dance and performance studio."

Read the full article for more information about Lights Out's new home here.

Read the Article

Art review: Norway gallery channels energy into Brunswick pop-up

Lights Out is showing the work of four artists in '3' at the Frank Brockman Gallery.

BY JORGE S. ARANGO

Portland Press Herald

The lively opening of Lights Out Gallery’s “3,” a pop-up show at the Frank Brockman Gallery in Brunswick. Photo by Ezra Churchill

"I don’t recall ever being to an opening quite like the one that heralded “3,” the pop-up show put on by Norway-based Lights Out Gallery at the third-floor Frank Brockman Gallery in Brunswick (through April 2). I was very familiar with the work of two of the four artists in the show (Lynn Duryea and Oliver Solmitz), and found the work of the other two (Lynne Barr and Mark Little) wonderful and surprising.

But what differentiated this opening from others was its energy, which felt particularly enthusiastic and fresh in a youthful sort of way. This can be attributed to the infectious ebullience of Lights Out’s founders – Daniel Sipe, Karle Woods and Reed McClean – and its ripple effects on everyone in the room.

Lights Out started in 2019 to, according to its mission, “connect artists and their circles to a broader community” and to “show emerging and established artists alongside one another to encourage conversation, collaboration, and camaraderie.” In other words, Lights Out is unselfishly not about them; it’s about the artists.

Their first show was at Sipe’s apartment, where the lights went out when the exhibit opened, hence the organization’s name. Last February, the trio purchased the old 13,000-square-foot Tubbs Snowshoes factory in Norway, which they hope will eventually accommodate a bevy of small businesses, local organizations, artists, makers and educators.

Lights Out got through the pandemic by filming artists in their studios (their website is a treasure trove of these videos) and, once gathering in person was OK again, doing pop-up shows in scrappy venues like an abandoned redemption center. You get the picture. Their determination and their positivity permeated the gallery.

And guess what? The art on display is pretty fabulous too..."

Read the full article, including reviews of each exhibiting artists' work here.

Read the Article