Tanja Hollander has some pretty stout company.

The Maine photographer has a solo show at the Portland Museum of Art opening in February, joining the likes of Edgar Degas and a host of world-famous photographers whose work will be shown at the museum this winter.

Additional Photos

Greg Gorman’s “Andy Warhol (1931-1987)” will be part of the “Making Faces” exhibit opening Jan. 14 at PMA. Photos courtesy of Portland Museum of Art

Image of chair tape from “Gather Up the Fragments: The Andrews Shaker Collection.” on view at the Portland Museum of Art through Feb. 5.

“Before the Races,” a color lithograph by Edgar Degas, is part of the “Edgar Degas: The Private Impressionist” show that will replace “Gather Up the Fragments.” The Degas exhibition includes more than 70 drawings, prints, pastels and photographs, as well as several sculptures.

Tanja Hollander’s “June Fitzpatrick, Portland, Maine,” is an archival pigment print that will be part of Hollander’s “Are You Really My Friend?” show at the Portland Museum. The show, which is part of the museum’s Circa series exploring contemporary art, examines the question of friendship in the Facebook age. The Maine photographer traveled around the world to visit and photograph her 600-plus Facebook friends. Images from the project will hang in the show, which ends in mid-June.

• The big first-floor show of the season, opening in mid-February, is dedicated to Edgar Degas and his works on paper. “Edgar Degas: The Private Impressionist” marks the first time the museum has taken a comprehensive look at the 19th-century French master.

The exhibition includes more than 70 drawings, prints, pastels and photographs, as well as several sculptures. The show will attempt to explore the oeuvre of one of the most complex artists in history.

The Degas show replaces the current primary exhibition at the museum, “Gather Up the Fragments: The Andrews Shaker Collection.” The Shaker show is on view through Feb. 5, and tells the story of the avid collectors of Shaker art, Faith and Edward Deming Andrews. For 40 years beginning in the 1920s, the Andrews snatched up Shaker objects. This exhibition includes more than 200 objects, and features the work of Shaker communities in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and New York.

• Opening on Jan. 14 on the museum’s second floor is “Making Faces: Photographic Portraits of Actors and Artists.” The show is up through April 8.

The museum recently acquired two portfolios by Berenice Abbott and Robert Doisneau, which were filled with portraits of famous artists and actors. This exhibition of 35 works examines the way in which appearance, poses and props help define the public perception of an artist’s work.

Other photographers whose works will be on view include Philippe Halsman, with images of notable early television personalities such as Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, Imogene Coca, and Jackie Gleason; and Barbara Morgan, whose photographs of the choreographer Martha Graham capture the essence of modern dance.

The exhibition also will feature portraits of Maine’s leading artists including Andrew Wyeth, Stephen Etnier, Louise Nevelson, Robert Indiana, Brett Bigbee and Dozier Bell. This show will be in the museum’s third-floor galleries.

• And finally, beginning Feb. 4, Tanja Alexia Hollander gets her first solo show at the PMA, “Are You Really My Friend?” This fourth-floor show, which is part of the museum’s ongoing Circa series exploring contemporary art in Maine and beyond, examines the question of friendship in the Facebook age. Hollander bypasses cyberspace by traveling around the world to visit and photograph her 600-plus Facebook friends.

This is a multi-dimensional project. Hollander photographs her Facebook friends, prints images on paper and exhibits the prints on gallery walls. Hollander’s process will be explored by encouraging interaction through visitor comments and an ever-changing installation of portraits through the run of the exhibition, which ends in mid-June.

Staff Writer Bob Keyes can be contacted at 791-6457 or:

bkeyes@pressherald.com

Twitter: pphbkeyes

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