
A woodcut print collage by Amanda Lilleston. Submitted photo
FARMINGTON — The Emery Community Arts Center on the University of Maine at Farmington campus will launch the spring semester exhibit season with “Holobiont” — a visually stunning exhibit by Maine-based artist and Colby College printmaking professor Amanda Lilleston.
The exhibit opens Thursday, Jan. 30 and runs to March 8 with an opening reception planned for 5-7 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 30 and an artist talk set for 12:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 7, in the Emery Performance Space, Main Street. Events are free and open to the public.
“Holobiont” presents a selection of woodblock prints and sculptural collages by Lilleston. A holobiont is a host organism and its associated organic community that functions as a single ecological unit. Inspired by the interconnected systems of biology and physiology, Lilleston uses woodcut printmaking as a tool to explore the mutuality between the world and the bodies it continually shapes.

Amanda Lilleston Submitted photo
She writes, “I have become acutely aware of my body being part of a larger environment as I navigate living with an autoimmune disorder where the body confuses ‘self’ and ‘non-self.’ I felt an even more porous boundary between myself and others as I ventured into pregnancy and motherhood. Our bodies are open systems that continually interact with the landscapes we inhabit. Humans are host to thousands of microscopic species that live in and on our bodies. Similarly, we live and exist in a working dynamic environment alongside thousands of other species,” according to a news release from the university.
Using drawing, relief carving and printing, Lilleston transforms imagery of the body and landscape into shifting and evolving compositions, investigating the idea of self and what that means in an interconnected environment.
Lilleston is an artist based in Belgrade. She uses woodcut printmaking as a tool to explore human biology and the ecology of her surroundings. She is an assistant professor of art at Colby College.
For more information visit the UMF Emery Community Arts Center website.
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