Assembly 2026:
Dusk in the Dawnland
FEATURED ARTISTS: Summer J. Hart, Michael Takeo Magruder, Jan Piribeck, Brian Smith, and Marina Yacoe
GUEST CURATOR: Aaron Rosen
Dusk in the Dawnland brings together five diverse contemporary artists with deep connections to Maine, specifically to the state’s coast and the scenic Penobscot Bay. These artists work in sculpture, textiles, video, and photography, utilizing materials that range from found objects to cutting edge technology. They approach their work with a sense of experimentation and resourcefulness that speaks to both Maine’s past and its future.
Penobscot Bay occupies an iconic slice of the Maine coast, with hundreds of islands and more than a thousand miles of rugged, granite coastline. For the Wabanaki, the People of the Dawnland, the region has been a site and subject of creative expression for centuries, including art forms still practiced today. In the nineteenth century, the Maine coast became one of America’s most celebrated destinations for painters, including Winslow Homer, followed in the twentieth century by artists such as Andrew Wyeth and Fairfield Porter. Today, Maine artists are not only extending this deep tradition of environmentally-attuned art, they are discovering that the changes and challenges present in Penobscot Bay offer a microcosm of those faced all along America’s eastern seaboard, and well beyond.
The Penobscot Bay once bore witness to the largest naval battle of the Revolutionary War, the Penobscot Expedition of 1779, the worst American naval defeat prior to Pearl Harbor. Now, the bay faces a struggle of a different sort. The Gulf of Maine is warming three times faster than the global ocean average, placing Penobscot Bay on the front line of the climate catastrophe. Extreme weather events and rising sea levels are leading to coastal erosion and inundation, decimating historic waterfronts. Meanwhile, ocean acidification is ravaging shell-building species, and Maine’s signature lobster industry is threatening to disappear. Together, the artists of Dusk in the Dawnland offer searching, complex, yet ultimately hopeful views of the state’s future in a climate-changed world.
ABOUT THE CURATOR
Aaron Rosen, PhD is a writer, curator, and non-profit leader, respected internationally for his work in the public humanities, interfaith dialogue, and the arts. He is Executive Director of The Clemente Course in the Humanities, a national non-profit delivering transformative, free college courses to underserved communities.
Dr. Rosen is also Visiting Professor of Sacred Traditions & the Arts at King’s College London, where he taught previously. He served as Director of the Henry Luce III Center for the Arts and Religion in Washington, DC and began his career as a fellow at Yale, Oxford, and Columbia Universities. He received his PhD from the University of Cambridge.
Rosen has curated dozens of exhibitions and is founding director of the not-for-profit Parsonage Gallery in Maine. He is the author or editor of thirteen books, including Spiritual Traces, Brushes with Faith, What Would Jesus See?, and Art & Religion in the 21st Century.
ABOUT ASSEMBLY 2026
Dusk in the Dawnland is curated by Aaron Rosen and takes place as part of Assembly 2026, MoCA Arlington’s national biennial exhibition. With an eye towards the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America, MoCA Arlington’s 2026 biennial comprises four separate, concurrent exhibitions. Each exhibition is curated by an independent curator and grounded in a specific geography within the regions that made up the original thirteen colonies. This curatorial framework provides a new lens for exploring current material and conceptual trends within contemporary art while highlighting artists and curatorial voices from across the United States.
Assembly 2026 is organized by Blair Murphy, MoCA Arlington Senior Curator + Director of Exhibitions and is generously supported by an anonymous donor.
RELATED EXHIBITIONS
Assembly 2026: New South, Ground Truth
Assembly 2026: Common Wealth
Assembly 2026: to eat out their substance
RELATED PROGRAMS
Art After Hours
Saturday / October 3 / 5pm-8pm
EXHIBITION CATALOG
View the Assembly 2026 catalog
