Hannah Secord Wade (b. 1981), received her Master of Fine Art (MA) from Chelsea College of Arts, London, and her BA Fine Art from Hampshire College, Amherst. She has been a resident at the Arteles Creative Center (Finland), Open Wabi (Ohio), and The Sam and Adele Golden Foundation (New York). In 2020, her painting, Dog Fountain, was selected by Alex Katz for donation to the permanent collection of the Portland Museum of Art, courtesy of the Alex Katz Foundation. In 2022, the Farnsworth Art Museum acquired her painting, Underground, for inclusion in their permanent collection. Her work has been shown in London and Paris, and throughout the United States. She lives and works in Maine.

Artist Statement

“My work depicts a continuous cycle of containment and release, in a series of failed attempts to gain control. Using landscape as a primary focus, the process begins with a gathering of plants, animals, and everyday objects. These elements are pushed into piles, stuffed into containers, or guarded by beings. As the works progress, these collections are slowly washed away, and later rebuilt. Each piece depicts an action, as land is moved and shifted, contained and then cleansed. 

The gathering period is an effort to organize my surroundings, and create a sense of stability. The cleansing phase is an acknowledgement of the futility of this attempt, and clears space for the process to begin again. I view my work as representation being eaten by abstraction, as objects are defined and obscured, formed and erased.”

SELECT Exhibitions

• Farnsworth at 75: New Voices from Maine in American Art, Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, ME, 2023

• Summer Under, Dowling Walsh Gallery, Rockland, ME, 2022

• A Fresh Greeting Is Heard, The Institute of Contemporary Art, Portland, ME, 2022

• Selections from the Alex Katz Foundation, Portland Museum of Art, Portland, ME, 2021

• Skirting the Line: Painting Between Abstraction and Representation, Center for Maine Contemporary Art, 2020

• Swamplands, Northern Daughters Gallery, Vergennes, VT, 2021

• Balcony Wash, Buoy Gallery, Kittery, ME, 2020

• Grrreetings, Gallery 49, Portland, ME, 2019

• Everything All Together, Northern Daughters Gallery, Vergennes, VT, 2018

COLLECTIONS

• Portland Museum of Art, permanent collection, courtesy of Alex Katz and the Alex Katz Foundation, Portland, ME

• Farnsworth Art Museum, permanent collection, Rockland, ME