Portland photographer wants to open gallery inside shipping container
by Bob Keyes
Portland Press Herald
April 18, 2016
"A Portland photographer whose work explores the intersection of art and commerce wants to open a temporary art gallery inside a shipping container like the ones that travel by boat between Portland and Iceland. Justin Levesque, 29, is seeking city permission for a temporary art installation in Congress Square in late September and early October that will coincide with the international Arctic Council conference in Portland.
The container-gallery would feature Levesque’s photographs of the Portland waterfront and the international workers who labor there. Levesque traveled from Portland to Iceland on the MV Selfoss last September, a guest of the Icelandic shipping company Eimskip, which has headquarters in Portland.
He documented his journey, and became friends with the Icelandic workers for whom the Maine-to-Iceland circuit is a regular work routine. The exhibition, “ICELANDx207: Container,” is part of Levesque’s yearlong project to tell the story behind Iceland’s role in the Maine economy, create portraits of Icelanders who work in Maine and document life on the Portland waterfront."