Bio

Gail Spaien is an American artist and educator based in Maine. Her studio practice centers around the idea that a painting is a site of connection; an object which transmits emotion from one person to another. She is of a lineage of artists who think craft and beauty shape and build a more relational world.

Spaien has been the recipient of numerous fellowships including the Ucross Foundation (2024), Varda Artist Residency Program, Djerassi Foundation Resident Artists Program, Millay Colony for the Arts and Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. She has received grant funding from the Lillian Orlowsky and William Freed Foundation, the Maine Arts Commission, and the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation. Spaien’s solo exhibitions include Taymour Grahne Projects, London; Ogunquit Museum of American Art, Ogunquit, ME; Nancy Margolis Gallery, NY; Ellen Miller Gallery, Boston, MA; Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, ME; Group exhibitions include Taymour Grahne Projects, London; Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Rockland, ME; studio e, Seattle, WA; Provincetown Art Association and Museum, Provincetown, MA; University of New Hampshire Museum, Durham, NH; Institute of Contemporary Art, Portland, ME; Portland Museum of Art, Portland, ME; and the DeCordova Museum, Lincoln, MA. Spaien received her MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute and BFA from University of Southern Maine. After thirty years as faculty at the Maine College of Art and Design she is now full-time in the studio.

photo credit: Debbie Keynote
Ucross, Wyoming