MAY – AUGUST 2025
Beverly Hallam: Chasing Light celebrates the renowned artist-educator Beverly Hallam (1923–2013), a pioneering realist of national repute and a vital member of the arts community in Ogunquit, Maine. The exhibition includes more than 30 works drawn from the visual archives of Surf Point, a non-profit organization established by Hallam and arts patron Mary-Leigh Smart in their boldly modernist home on the coast of York, Maine.
Beverly Hallam was known for experimentation across mediums, and for seamlessly integrating photography into her painting and printmaking practices to produce the luminous compositions that were her signature. This exhibition explores Hallam’s lifelong use of photography to capture and express the elusive nature of light—no matter the subject, from coastal scenes to floral still lifes to digital abstractions.
Curated by Kristina Durocher for Surf Point, Beverly Hallam: Chasing Light features a selection of Hallam’s artwork spanning more than fifty years, including pieces from the artist’s forays abroad, monotypes, photographs of flower arrangements, large-scale airbrush paintings, and later digital abstractions. The exhibition represents an ongoing partnership between Surf Point and the York Public Library and the second exhibition of Hallam’s work at the YPL, the previous one having taken place in July 2003. Hallam was an active member of the York Public Library Art Committee during her lifetime.
“It is remarkable to trace her artistic development – Hallam was fearless in reinventing herself, and learning new things along the way. She grew as an artist in the 1950s, but it was her trips to Europe that gave her boundless confidence in herself and her vision. After traveling abroad, she quit teaching full time, moved to Maine, and dedicated herself to her art—she never looked back,” writes Durocher.
Beverly Linney Hallam was born in 1923 in Lynn, Massachusetts. She was educated at the Massachusetts College of Art and then taught at Lasell Junior College, where she was chair of the Art Department until 1949. In 1953 she received her M.F.A. at Syracuse University where she wrote her thesis on the use of polyvinyl acetate—the medium that would become known as “acrylic” and which Hallam would pioneer through her painting practice. From 1949 to 1962 Hallam was professor at the Massachusetts College of Art, where she taught painting, drawing, design, and photography. She was particularly well known as a printmaker, and for her large-scale airbrush paintings of flowers.
Inspired by photojournalist Margaret Bourke White (1904-1971), Hallam took up photography in her youth. From her earliest days of developing prints in a makeshift darkroom at home to establishing the first academic studio photography program in Boston at the Massachusetts College of Art, photography remained at the core of Hallam’s approach to art making.
Photography played a crucial role in Hallam’s printmaking, particularly in her monotypes. Having pushed the boundaries of polyvinyl acetate (acrylic) for more than a decade, she developed an innovative printing roller technique in the 1960s. In monotype, Hallam rejected strictly traditional methods, and used photography as a tool to edit, simplify, and distill a subject. She embraced the photograph’s ability to capture fleeting moments but rejected mechanical reproduction in favor of the spontaneity of applying inks to the monotype plate. In both print and painting, photography allowed her to manipulate space, color, and form, to transform ordinary scenes into meditations on the poetics of light.
Hallam’s paintings from the 1950s and her larger-than-life floral still lifes from the 1980s were also informed by her practice of working from photographic slides and prints, and demonstrate the artist’s acute sensitivity to reflective surfaces and luminous colors. From the selection of flowers and their arrangement, to staging and lighting, Hallam organized every compositional element in the studio, and exerted an acute level of control in placing reflective glass surfaces and mirrors to capture the transience of optical phenomena through photography. This was a labor-intensive method of her own devising, involving many stages and a fearless embrace of chance, as she projected her photographs onto canvas and then airbrushed in masked sections. The resulting paintings of flowers bathed in sunlight were stunning in proportion and detail, and rich, hyper-saturated tones rendered with exacting attention to color and atmosphere.
Durocher notes: “Hallam rejected the idea that her paintings were photorealist reproductions. She had blown up her photographs of flowers and didn’t like the results – to her they were just big photographs; she was interested in something else. She used photographs to capture the fleeting essence of a flower so she could paint what it really looked like.”
When the physical demands of her airbrush technique became too great, Hallam’s relentless artistic curiosity led her to explore computer-generated art. She experimented with abstract digital design, crafting layered compositions infused with a luminous chromatic energy. Just as her early work captured light through a lens, her abstract digital images simulated depth, shadows, and highlights.
Beverly Hallam’s work has been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions at museums and galleries around the country. Her work is in the collections of many museums, including the Addison Gallery of American Art, Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Harvard Art Museums, Portland Museum of Art, Rose Art Museum, and Worcester Art Museum among others. Her work is also held in many significant corporate and private collections in the US and Europe. Hallam’s work was a highlight of the recent exhibition, Surf Point Foundation Selects: A More Human Dwelling Place, curated by Myron M. Beasley in collaboration with Surf Point (April-May 2023). Download the Exhibition Catalogue here.
Beverly Hallam: Chasing Light begins to recapture the life and legacy of an artist whose impact has been underrecognized, Surf Point Executive Director Yael Reinharz says. Hallam “in her boldness, originality, and experimental energy, continues to inspire, particularly the contemporary artists who have the opportunity to spend time with her work while participating in the Residency Program at Surf Point. On the occasion of this special exhibition, we are proud to launch the online archive of Hallam’s works in Surf Point’s collection so that people far and wide can view and further research her work.”
About the Curator Kristina Durocher has more than twenty years of experience working in the museum field at both independent and academic art museums. In June 2024 she was appointed to serve as the inaugural director of visual arts at the Fine Arts Center at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She also serves as the president of the Association of Academic Museums and Galleries, a position she has held since 2020. Previously she served as the director and curator of the Museum of Art of the University of New Hampshire from 2011-2024, an institution close to the hearts of Mary-Leigh Smart and Beverly Hallam. Recognized as a leader in the museum field, she was named a fellow of the Getty Leadership Institute in 2017.
PUBLIC PROGRAMS
Surf Point and York Public Library present the following programs to accompany the exhibition Beverly Hallam: Chasing Light. Check www.surfpoint.me for updates.
Opening Reception | Tuesday, May 13, 5 PM at York Public Library
Remarks by the curator, York Public Library, and Surf Point at 5:30 PM.
Public Talk with Art Writer Carl Little | Saturday, June 7, 2 PM at York Public Library
Join Maine-based art critic and author Carl Little for a conversation about Beverly’s history and work. Carl Little’s book, Beverly Hallam: An Odyssey in Art (1998) will be available for purchase at the event for $40.
Live Airbrush Demonstration | Saturday, August 2, 11 AM – 2 PM at Surf Point
Airbrushing demonstration by an illustrious Surf Point alum; stay tuned for more information by visiting the Surf Point website, IG, Facebook and joining the email list.
Beverly Hallam’s online archive of works held in the Surf Point collection is now viewable here.
