Frank will speak and show his short film as part of the annual DiMatteo Lecture series
The University of Southern Maine’s Osher Map Library and Smith Center for Cartographic Education will host acclaimed artist and filmmaker Billy Gerard Frank on Friday, February 7, from 5:30 p.m. to 7: 30 p.m. at Hannaford Hall on USM’s Portland Campus. As part of the annual DiMatteo Lecture series, the evening will include a lecture by Frank, film screening, and discussion.
Frank will discuss his “Indigo: Entanglements” series of paintings and show his 2022 Venice Biennale short film, “Palimpsest: Tales Spun from the Sea and Memory.” This will be the film’s New England premiere.
“As a historic collection focused on engaged and hands-on teaching and learning at the K-12 and collegiate levels, we strive to make the Osher Map Library and Smith Center for Cartographic Education’s diverse cartographic materials relevant to contemporary audiences,” said Dr. Libby Bischof, Executive Director of the Osher Map Library and Smith Center for Cartographic Education. “Billy Gerard Frank’s creative approach to incorporating archival materials, including maps, into his contemporary artworks is both refreshing and exciting, and helps us to tell new stories about the transatlantic world and Maine and New England’s connection to the global slave trade.”
The evening will also celebrate the Osher Map Library’s recent acquisition of “Indigo: Entanglements, No. 6” for its permanent collection. Using maps, documents, and other archival imagery, the complex multimedia piece engages with Maine’s role in the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. It is currently on display in Osher’s exhibition: “New to Us: Recent Acquisitions, 2019-2024,” which runs until February 18.
“It is a tremendous honor to have “Indigo: Entanglements No. 6” acquired by the Osher Map Library — a meaningful recognition of the vital narratives this series explores,” Frank said. “I am equally thrilled to deliver the annual DiMatteo Lecture, where I will share the journey of this series, which began in Maine at Wolfe Editions, as well as my own artistic journey. Maine holds a special place in my heart, connected through its rich seafaring traditions that resonate deeply with my work and its themes, and Petite Martinique, the Grenada sister island I am from.”
Frank is a multimedia artist and filmmaker whose research-driven practices mine personal issues related to race, exile, memory, global politics, and post-colonial and queer decoloniality. Frank challenges conventional narratives and creates counter-histories through his work, which has been showcased in solo and group exhibitions at institutions such as the Brooklyn Museum and the Butler Institute of American Art. His art is also part of several private collections and institutions, such as the National Academy Museum of Fine Arts and Design, Farnsworth Art Museum, Osher Map Library and Smith Center for Cartographic Education. He is a 2024 Creative Capital Awardee and has received numerous grants, including the Ford Foundation Grant for his 2022 La Biennale project. Frank will be the map library’s inaugural Peggy L. Osher Visiting Artist Fellow in the spring of 2025.
This year’s DiMatteo Lecture will begin with a reception at 5:30. Frank’s presentation will begin at 6 p.m. This event is free and open to the public. Registration is requested.
Support for this event is generously co-sponsored by Indigo Art Alliance and Moss Galleries.