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June 5th - October 25th, 2026

Opening reception Friday, June 5th, 4-7pm

 

Another Shore looks at issues surrounding climate migration, political disruption, and how even a simple act of relocation is an act of upheaval and faith. Artists include Portsmouth artist Sachiko Akiyama, whose carved wood sculptures evoke voyages and transformation; New York sculptor M. Annenberg, who looks at the human impacts of a warming planet, and Maine painter Flynn Donovan, who migrated to the US from Ecuador and whose work thematizes metamorphosis. The exhibition will also include text by author Anne Marie Mukankusi, a survivor of the Rwandan genocide, who is now based in Maine.

 

In a time of uncertainty, the impulse to find safe harbor is more pressing than ever.

 

Sachiko Akiyama, a wood sculptor and professor of art at the University of New Hampshire, is the recipient of a Piscataqua Region Artist Advancement Grant, and was recently the subject of a solo exhibition, You Were Always the Ocean, at the Center For Maine Contemporary Art.  "Moving between representation and abstraction, the work uses symbolism to think about migration in a broad way—including animal migration, physical journeys, and the internal changes people go through over the course of their lives", Akiyama says about her work.

 

M. Annenberg, an artist working across media in New York, whose work probes the human impact of a warming planet. “Asheville, North Carolina was supposed to be a safe place to live” comments Annenberg. “How did a town flood, 2000 feet above sea level? Simply, 15 inches of rain in 2 days overwhelmed the rivers.  Even in New York City, subways flooded after Tropical Storm Eva, because the pumps failed. We are all vulnerable now.” Annenberg's work in Another Shore includes sculptures and photographic documentation.

 

Flynn Donovan is an artist and award-winning documentary filmmaker, based in South Berwick, Maine.  His work has long focussed on the intersection of humans' connection with the land, and the passage of time.  Born in Ecuador, Donovan migrated to the US in 1960.   “To me, migration of feelings and thoughts and experiences is influenced by extreme awareness of precious time on earth,” he says. 

 

Anne Marie Mukankusi's 2018 memoir, Terrorized in Rwanda, Saved by Grace, was written under the pen name Anamalyia.  After living through the Rwandan genocide against the Tutsi ethnic group as a teenager in 1994, Mukankusi emigrated to New Hampshire.  Her memoir deals with the traumatic year she spent staying alive in Rwanda, but also the love she holds for her family and country of origin.  "There were times I wondered if I would ever experience heartfelt laughter again.  I remembered my beloved country Rwanda with its beautiful blue sky and green hills...My village was perfect.  Though its people were poor, they didn't know any other life, so we shared what we had.  You don't often desire what is unknown to you".  

 

 

The exhibition will be accompanied by a talk by M. Annenberg at the Maine Jewish Museum in Portland, upcoming in August: 

Artist Talk: "What Don’t We Know and Why Don’t We Know It?"

Maine Jewish Museum, 267 Congress Street, Portland ME 04101 

Thursday, August 13th - 5:30 - 6:30 pm

 

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