Thea/Thean Hart (they/them) is an interdisciplinary artist and rural organizer in the unceded ancestral territory of the Wabanaki people, raised in the Western Maine foothills and currently living in Midcoast Maine. Hart’s work spans landscape drawing and painting, local earthworks and interactive sculpture, and poem and song inspired by the living world and the folk traditions of their ancestors.
Thean’s work is made in service of the connections between rural people and our human and beyond-human communities, our landscapes and histories, the force of creativity, and global movements for liberation. Thea is a graduate of Alfred University’s School of Art & Design and their art has been featured throughout Maine and across the Northeast. Alongside their creative practice, they spend their time outdoors and work locally in movements for climate justice, housing justice, and cooperative development.
Education
2019 B.F.A. Art & Design, Alfred University School of Art & Design at NYSCC, Alfred, NY
Writing
2024 Forward: Silvering Toward Invisible, Lights Out Gallery, Speedwell Projects, Portland, ME
Lectures
2024 Guest Artist Series, First-Year 3D Fundamentals, Montserrat College of Art, Feb. 26
Exhibitions (*solo and two-person)
2024 Wild Light, Hewnoaks, Lights Out Gallery, Lovell, ME
NYSCC at Alfred University Alumni in Maine, Salt Pond Studio, Friendship, ME
2023 Follow the Light, Rhode Island Watercolor Society, Pawtucket, RI
Unbound, 82Parris, Portland, ME
Little Sparks, Lights Out Gallery, Norway, ME
Earth, Water, Sky, River Arts, Damariscotta, ME
Reveals, Munka Studio, Lewiston, ME
Queer Art, Rainbow Arts Collective, Equality Community Center, Portland, ME
2019 *Hope Here, Shepard’s Farm Preserve, Norway, ME
Sacred & Profane, Battery Steele, Peaks Island, ME
The Black Dahlia, Munjoy Hill, Portland, ME
*Surface Tension, Scholes Library, Alumni Artist Feature, Alfred, NY
*You’ll Understand When You’re Older, Harder Hall, Alfred, NY
*Kite Flying, TSI/Harland Snodgrass Gallery, Alfred, NY
2018 Visibility, Queering Space: Alfred, Robert C. Turner Gallery, Alfred, NY
Open Screening, Holmes Auditorium, Alfred, NY
Junior Video Features, TSI/Harland Snodgrass Gallery, Alfred, NY
2017 *Fabric of Time, Robert C. Turner Gallery, Alfred, NY
2015 Dexterity, Robert C. Turner Gallery, Alfred, NY
Professional Experience
2023 Production Assistant, Evening Star, Reed McLean, Paris, ME, Oct.
TA, Studio Based Learning, Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Deer Isle, ME, Sept.
2020-2022 Artist & Gallery Assistant, Don Best Wood Art, Norway, ME
2022- Youth Arts Mentor, Norway, ME
2018- Graphic Designer, Thea J Hart, ME & NY
Awards & Residencies
2017 Artist in Residence, Fieldstones, Medusa, NY, July
Dance Performance
2019 Welcome to the Gala, Colleen (Culley) Wahl, Miller Performing Arts Center, Alfred, NY
Ripe, Ariel Fitzsimmons, Miller Performing Arts Center, Alfred, NY
Catalyst, Emma Hildebrandt, Davis Memorial Carillon, Alfred, NY
2018 The Spiral, Reed McLean, Miller Performing Arts Center, Alfred, NY
Mothers, Reed McLean, Alfred University Observatory, Alfred, NY