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Biddeford, Maine

Art Gallery in Biddeford presents Alphabet City: Art, Culture, and Letterforms

Artwork with various forms of languages depicted
On left: Kifah Abdulla, "Love Sick," acrylic on paper 2021 (detail); on right, Jamra Patel, "Kigelia," Typeface.

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The University of New England Art Gallery at the Ketchum Library in Biddeford is pleased to present "Alphabet City: Art, Culture, and Letterforms." The exhibit, open to the public as well as the UNE Community, features the work of a painter and graphic design team, both working with the forms of letters to create new expressive modalities. 

The show, which runs from Oct. 8, 2021 through Jan. 7, 2022, touches on issues of language, representation, and identity, while posing questions about how our writing carries meaning across a variety of forms.

Painter Kifah Abdulla’s work merges Modernist abstraction with Arabic calligraphy, bringing script into a place of expression. The design collaborations of Mark Jamra and Neil Patel, of Jamra Patel, use clarity and elegance to make African alphabets accessible and precise. The power of written communication spans a wide range in this show, from the beautifully obscured to the balanced and pure.

The UNE Art Galleries are free and open to the public. Gallery hours are 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily. At this time, masks are required indoors on UNE’s campuses regardless of vaccination status. For UNE’s latest COVID-19 protocols, visit the UNE Onward website.

While there is no formal reception for this exhibit, appointments may be made with Gallery Director Hilary Irons as well as the artists. For more information, contact Hilary Irons at hirons@une.edu.

About the University of New England

The University of New England is Maine’s largest independent university, with two beautiful coastal campuses in Maine, a one-of-a-kind study abroad campus in Tangier, Morocco, and an array of flexible, accredited online degrees. In an uncommonly welcoming and supportive community, we offer hands-on learning, empowering students to make a positive impact in a world full of challenges. The state’s top provider of health professionals, we are home to Maine’s only medical college, Maine’s only dental college, a variety of other interprofessionally aligned health care degree programs, as well as nationally recognized programs for marine science degrees, natural and social sciences degrees, arts and humanities degrees, and business degrees.