THAT THIRD THING

About the Exhibition

“That third thing” convened performing and visual artists who have chosen to work within abstract strategies. The gallery installation juxtaposed materially-based work of nine contemporary visual artists curated by Bridget Spaeth and an improvisational music program developed and produced by Titus Abbott.

Within abstract syntax are the roots of our humanity; objectively neutral as a system, yet (as with this gathering) every artist and performer brings their own intent to bear. It was the curator’s intent to create the opportunity for reflection, experience, and the benefits of the peripheral and scanning gaze, while the creative collaboration and spontaneous composition of the musicians unfold.

In truth, “that third thing” refers to no “thing” at all, but to a quality of relationship established by the individual artists within their own bodies of work. As the musicians established a base for improvisation and collaboration in time, their work performed a similar craft. As audience, our experience becomes yet another refrain of this “third thing”: object, subject and the event of our perceptions.

Experimental in nature, this project stemmed from a curiosity about unexpected experiences and/or connections between these abstract forms, which share their roots and resonance within the mind.

About the Curators 

Bridget Spaeth is a painter, showing at destination galleries for contemporary art in Portland, ME. Her work has been included in the juried Center for Maine Contemporary Art Biennial four times since 2006. In recent years, she has shown in Brooklyn, NY and in Zen centers across the country. Born in New York, NY, she first came to Maine as an undergraduate at Bowdoin College. She has lived in Boston, Portland and New York since, returning to Maine with her husband Titus Abbott and their son Julian 15 years ago.

Titus Abbott is saxophonist and composer who brings a very personal approach to improvised music. Over the past 25 years Titus has presented music that, although steeped in the history of jazz, pushes the limits and finds a place of unique expression. His groups Delawareness, The Titus Abbott Collective and the Happenstance Quintet have performed at venues and festivals in the US, Canada and Europe. Notable collaborators include pianists Frank Carlberg, Curtis Clark, Mary Anne Driscoll, Mike Effenberger - drummers Luther Gray, Noel Brennan, RJ Miller – bassists George Koller, Jim Lyden, Pascal Niggenkemper, Ross Gallagher and the late Oud master Al Gardner.