File Photo/ Jim Neuger
Elizabeth Moss shows off her gallery in Falmouth this summer.
Updated: December 15, 2021
Falmouth art gallery expands palette with Portland location
Photo / Jim Neuger
Elizabeth Moss Galleries has a new location in Portland, at 100 Fore St.. on the city's East End. The new gallery shares an address with Northeastern University's Roux Institute.
Nearly two decades after opening an art gallery in Falmouth, Elizabeth Moss has added a Portland location, on the city's bustling East End, to her palette.
Elizabeth Moss Galleries is now open for business at 100 Fore St., in a building owned by developer Jonathan Cohen. The gallery shares an address with Northeastern University's Roux Institute, which is subletting space from WEX Inc.
Open to customers by appointment only, the new Portland gallery is just shy of 1,200 square feet. Its inaugural exhibition is 18 works by Lynne Mapp Drexler (1928-1999), a Virginia-born abstract and representational artist who spent many years living and working on Monhegan Island.
Moss told Mainebiz that Drexler was an "obvious choice" for the Portland opening exhibit for her gallery, which she said has always been known for actively exhibiting women artists.
"She is a personal favorite of mine and has been since I met her and saw her paintings on Monhegan in 1991," Moss said. The exhibition is the largest of Drexler's works in Maine since a Portland Museum of Art retrospective in 2008, according to Moss.
Elizabeth Moss Galleries employs a total of seven people at the two locations, including three new hires.
Moss said that while she expects business in Portland to be quiet initially because of winter and ongoing construction in the area, she doesn't anticipate that being the case for long.
"Long term, I expect it will be an incredible location as it it's in the heart of the new East End business district home of WEX, the Roux Institute, Sun Life and Tilson to name a few," she said. "It's also the neighborhood gallery for the Twenty Thames Condominiums and the AC Hotel. Plus, it's a block up from the eastern waterfront. So, I expect it to be busy."
'Culturally vibrant city'
Moss said she is excited to finally be in Portland despite delays due to extenuating circumstances, and expressed gratitude to landlord Jonathan Cohen for connecting her to his contractors, Andrew Sevigny and Jim Casper.
"Although my space is small potatoes compared to Cohen's other development projects both in Portland and Falmouth, I felt valued during the entire process," she said. "It did take a few months longer due to Portland permitting and supply issues with track lighting, but it was to be expected given the building boom in Portland and delays in international shipping."
As for the road ahead, "I am ready to have a lot of fun bringing my vision of collective contemporary art and secondary market art to Portland," Moss said. "Portland is poised to become a deeply interesting and culturally vibrant city as those 'from away' blend and assimilate with the great people of Maine already here."
The expansion comes amid a surge in global art sales during the pandemic, as Mainebiz reported in a cover story earlier this year.
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