Posey (Pamela Moulton), “Wreck Tangle,” salvaged plastic and fishing net, heirloom lace, fiberglass, vintage jewelry, acrylics, on wooden panel. Photo by Kelsey Johnson

The current exhibition at Space, “Envision Resilience: Shifting Tides and Evolving Landscapes” (through April 26) mixes provocation and beauty. Featuring works by seven Maine-based artists that are unabashedly beautiful, it asks us to contemplate the inevitable — rising sea levels due to global warming — though, to its credit, it does not knock us over the head with polemic.

This is not a show for climate change deniers. Its premise rests on the fact that climate change is, indeed, already upon us, and the best we can do is to figure out ways to mitigate greenhouse gases and live with the human resistance to reality that precipitates our current environmental crisis.

We are greeted by “Flock,” an installation of almost 25 birds spray-painted in bright colors by Ben Spalding. It is a charming gathering, yet within the context of the show, we cannot look at them without thinking about the implications global warming is having on marine wildlife, specifically birds like plovers, sea terns, puffins and other species. Their colors are also not naturalistic, possibly implying mutations of species or feathered bodies affected by toxic spills.

lan Ellis, “Seaweed (4),” steel, agar, glycerin, kelp, dulse, Irish moss. Photo by Kelsey Johnson

Set around the gallery are tall (perhaps 8 feet) natural seaweeds — kelp, a red alga called Irish moss, dulse — encased in agar and glycerin and standing on steel poles, all by Ian Ellis. Their presence is elegant and statuesque and emanates a quiet natural grace. They feel like sentinels of some kind, bearing witness to the changing environment while also serving a vital function: converting inorganic carbons into biomass more efficiently and prolifically than other ecosystems. This is why kelp farms are seen as a major possible step in combating climate change.

Jordan Carey, a Bermudan-born designer living in Portland, contributes several small fiber works. His presence here signals another fact that is often glossed over in our discussions of climate change: the disproportionate effects of environmental irresponsibility on people of color. Carey is known for works that depict island life. In a work like “Rubber Tree Man,” when taken at face value, nothing seems amiss. A dandy gent in a Bowler hat walks under the tree of the title.

But, again, context affects how we take this image in. It is made of bamboo, handmade paper and natural indigo dye. Bamboo, like kelp, sequesters massive amounts of carbon, offering another hope for the mitigation of greenhouse gases. Yet Carey’s works here are also loaded with associations that belie their apparent quaintness. Just a few: that fact that seemingly idyllic island nations are surrounded by bleached and dying coral reefs due to the shrinking of the ozone layer, the lack of regulation in these nations that contribute to industrial pollution, and the way these gases concentrate in cities all over the globe where diasporic movements bring people from these countries, exposing them to elevated levels of asthma and other respiratory conditions.

Nor can we ignore that the harvesting of indigo — whose roots and leaves are highly toxic and can cause muscle spasms, paralysis and fatigue — was done by enslaved people at plantations in the Caribbean and the American South. Within this sphere of awareness, what appeared initially as a simple, carefree scene can suddenly seem imperiled, or at least fraught with unforeseen circumstances.

Haley Nannig, “Willard Beach Shacks Pre 1898 Storm,” hand-painted habotai silk. Photo by Kelsey Johnson

Haley Nannig paints beautiful landscapes, many of Maine, on habotai, a kind of sheer silk. Again, superficially, works such as “Maine Fog 2” and “Maine Fog 5” are soft and aesthetically pleasing. But in this case, it is the delicacy of the material itself that suggests how fragile these environments can actually be. “Willard Beach Shacks Pre 1898 Storm” evokes a bygone destructive tempest. But for those of us who witnessed these shacks being carried out to sea just last winter, it is also a reminder that the nature we are altering can be vengeful.

Lokotah Sanborn, “Memory 1,” photomontage on gloss 80 lb paper. Photo by Kelsey Johnson

Penobscot multidisciplinary artist Lokotah Sanborn’s mournful photomontages feel especially poignant in this show. They invoke so much, including — perhaps most vitally — the lost ethos of First Peoples’ connection with the land and its spiritual nature. Inherent in this loss, of course, is the destruction of native lands and communities due to pollution, deforestation and the erecting of damns for industrial purposes, which decimated native fishing practices.

Arguably the most lushly gorgeous pieces in the show are by Posey (Pamela Moulton), a sculptor who creates works like “Wreck Tangle,” which look like encrustations of precious objects from a distance. Close up, however, they reveal their composition, which consists of salvaged plastic and fishing net, heirloom lace, fiberglass, vintage jewelry, and acrylics. Though they are physically sensual objects, what they convey is the vast amount of manmade detritus that lands in our oceans. It’s hard to look at these works and not be reminded that microplastics and nanoplastics have entered Earth’s geological record, or that the so-called Great Pacific Garbage Patch (actually more than one, according to the National Geographic Society) swirls massively in the Northern Pacific.

Michel Droge, “Love Letter from the Abyss #5,” oil on birch panel. Photo by Kelsey Johnson

Michel Droge has long been interested in the oceans and their health. Their paintings here — from their series “Love Letters from the Abyss” — transmit the sense that we are looking at bioluminescent life forms living in the ocean’s depths. But in a back room we can also watch “Beyond Midnight,” a video they wrote and directed that presents footage of these forms (shot by Schmidt Ocean Institute’s Octopus Odyssey ROV team) mixed with words. One passage struck me as reminiscent of the sentiment espoused by great Romantic painters that Nature is invariably more powerful, regenerative and everlasting than human life: “Sometimes I strain to see the invisible,/this air that holds me either way/But what a perfect place to study the unbound/here at the shoreline where you test my limits every day.”

Jorge S. Arango has written about art, design and architecture for over 35 years. He lives in Portland. He can be reached at: jorge@jsarango.com

This column is supported by The Dorothea and Leo Rabkin Foundation.

IF YOU GO

WHAT: “Envision Resilience: Shifting Tides and Evolving Landscapes”
WHERE: SPACE, 538-534 Congress St., Portland
WHEN: Through April 26
HOURS: Noon-6 p.m. Thursday-Friday, noon-4 p.m. Saturday
ADMISSION: Free
INFO: 207-828-5600, space538.org

PORTLAND AND ENVIRONS

Cove Street Arts, 71 Cove St., 207-808-8911, covestreetarts.com “Emergent” (through May 10), Alice Spencer’s prints appear as new life forms, though some also evoke existing organisms such as horseshoe crabs, trees and bushes. They are the result of experimentation, which led to an entirely new way of working, and we can feel their sense of spontaneous generation.

Greenhut Galleries, 146 Middle St., 207-772-2693, greenhutgalleries.com “Maine: The Painted State” (through April 26). The gallery’s biennial landscape show.

Moss Galleries Portland, 100 Fore St., Suite B, Portland, 207-804-0459, elizabethmossgalleries.com “Hunt Slonem: Aflutter” (through April 19). Slonem’s endlessly variable paintings of butterflies, rabbits, toads and parrots.

Moss Galleries Falmouth, 251 Route 1, Falmouth, 207-781-2620, elizabethmossgalleries.com, “Frances Hynes: Playing Notes” and “John Hultberg: Angels Above Fear” (both through May 31).

Notch 8 Gallery, 52 Center St., Portland, 207-358-9433, notch8art.com. “Found & Lost” (through April 19) is a group exhibition featuring the work of Chelsea Ellis, Nate Frost, Sam Giberson, Jordann McKenna and Reed McLean. Next up, “Holden Willard: Pictures of Home” May 16-June 21.

University of New England Art Galleries, 716 Stevens Ave., Portland, 207-602-3000, library.une.edu/art-galleries. “Circle of the Sun” (through June 8), the photo-based work of three Arctic Circle Residency alumni — Justin Levesque, Katie McElearney and Shoshannah White.

ROCKLAND AND ENVIRONS

Caldbeck Gallery, 12 Elm St., 207-594-4935, caldbeck.com “March into April” (through May 20) is a group show of gallery artists.

Center for Maine Contemporary Arts, 21 Winter St., Rockland, 207-701-5005, cmcanow.org. “I Forgot to Remember” (Katarina Weslien), From the Collection of Lord Red” (Kyle Downs), “The Sun, Trying to Disappear” (group photo exhibition curated by Dylan Hausthor), “Fruition” (Allison Cekala + Nate Luce, curated by Meg Hahn) — all through May 4.

Farnsworth Art Museum, 16 Museum St., Rockland, 207-596-6457, farnsworthmuseum.org. “Native Prospects: Indigeneity and Landscape” (through July 6), “Capturing Her Environment: Women Artists, 1870-1930” (through July 20) and Anne Buckwalter: Manors|Momentum 2025” (through Sept. 21).

Interloc Gallery, 153 Main St., Thomaston, interloc.co “Spring Show” (through May 3). Work by Bee Daniel, Fred Gutzeit and Sara Stites.

Triangle Gallery, 8 Elm St., 207-593-8300, gallerytriangle.com “Spring Show II,” work by various gallery artists, and “Bob Richardson: Circle Paintings” (both through April 26).

OTHER LOCATIONS

Bates College Museum of Art, Olin Arts Center, 75 Russell St., Lewiston, 207-786-6158, bates.edu/museum. “Under the Parachute: Senior Thesis Exhibition 2025” (through May 24).

Bowdoin College Museum of Art, 255 Maine St., Brunswick, 207-725-3000, Bowdoin.edu/art-museum. “Reimagining Our Américas: Empathy and Activism Beyond Borders,” “Art, Ecology, and the Resilience of a Maine Island: The Monhegan Wildlands” and “Irreplaceable You: Personhood and Dignity in Art 1980s to Now” (all through June 1). “Poetic Truths: Hawthorne, Longfellow, and American Visual Culture, 1840-1880” (through June 20), sculpture, paintings and prints that respond to the writings of these two American literary icons.

Colby College Museum of Art, 5600 Mayflower Hill, Waterville, 207-859-5600, museum.colby.edu. “Radical Histories: Chicanx Prints from the Smithsonian American Art Museum” and “Into the Wind: American Weathervanes” (through June 8). “Some American Stories” (through Sept. 26), museum collections presented as different topics within the broader narrative American art and history that illustrate a vast diversity of experiences.

Ogunquit Museum of American Art, 543 Shore Rd., Ogunquit, 207-646-4909, ogunquitmuseum.org. “A Sailboat in the Moonlight” (Apr. 18-July 20) kicks off a trio of exhibitions of work by Nicole Wittenberg (the CMCA in Rockland and the Fondation le Corbusier in Paris will have other iterations). This Maine artist’s work draws from and expands and illuminates the entire lineage of plein air painting. “Where the Real Lies” explores fantastical parallel spaces that offer an alternative to the dehumanization, alienation and instability of contemporary life, places that serve as refuges for self-reflection and representation. “Henry Strater’s Ogunquit” is a chronicle of this Louisville, Kentucky-born painter’s lifelong relationship with Maine. (Both Apr. 18-Nov. 16)

The Parsonage Gallery, 8 Elm St., Searsport, parsonagegallery.org “Portal: Heather Lyon” and “3rd Annual Winter Exhibition” (both extended through April 27). Lyon offers an organic, transformative experience of walking through our current reality into something redemptive and hopeful. The winter exhibition presents work by Jennifer Amadeo-Holl, Avy Claire, Nina Jerome, Keri Kimura, Frederick Kuhn, Nathaniel Meyer, Jean Michel, Garry Mitchell, Matthew Russ, Lesia Schor, Kevin Sudeith and Sara Szwajkos.

University of New England Art Galleries, 716 Stevens Ave., Portland, 207-602-3000, library.une.edu/art-galleries. “As Above, So Below” (through May 4). Work of Liz Awalt and C. Michael Lewis.