Wiscasset Bay Gallery's new show “Modern Life: 20thCentury Art,” will open with a public reception on Thursday, July 9 from 5-7 p.m. The exhibition, running through August 7, will explore the changing face of art in the 20th century as advances in technology and growing urbanization altered the landscape and lifestyles of the modern population. The reception is free and open to the public, and will feature light refreshments.

Featured in the exhibition is John Folinsbee's (American 1892-1972) "Jersey City Ramp," which depicts two silhouetted figures marching through the snow against an industrial backdrop of billowing smoke and warehouses. In this piece, Folinsbee's high-keyed colorful impressionism of the early twentieth century gives way to strong blacks and browns and vigorous brush strokes to reflect the tumultuous times in America during the 1930's.

Contrasting Folinsbee's moody painting is a collection of pastels of Ethel Louise Paddock (American 1887-1975). Paddock captures the growing middle-class at leisure, socializing on the beach under colorful umbrellas. Without the dawn to dusk laboring of their agrarian ancestors, the successful among the modern population pursued pastimes such as golf, tennis, downhill skiing and skating. Rufus Dryer, a New Yorker, who like Paddock studied under Robert Henri, rendered these new citizens at play on the golf course and at country clubs in vivid colors and stylized forms.

Complementing these works are abstractions from mid-century artist, Morris Shulman who, like many of his contemporaries, was escaping New York City's summer heat and retreating to the remote, Monhegan Island. Shulman used the flora and fauna of Monhegan to inspire his energetic, richly developed abstracts in oils and caseins. Cormorant's nests, cathedral woods mushrooms, and wrecked cargo on the island's shoreline inspired many of the abstractions on view in the exhibition.

Other noted American and European artists will be featured in the gallery's major summer exhibition including William Zorach (American, 1887-1966), George Benjamin Luks (American, 1867-1933), Gordon Grant (American, 1875-1962), Marcel Gromaire (French, 1892-1971) and Georges Rouault (French, 1871-1958).

The Wiscasset Bay Gallery is located at 67 Main Street in Wiscasset. It is open daily from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. For more information, call 207-882-7682, or visit www.wiscassetbaygallery.com.