History and Memory: An Evening with Billy Gerard Frank

Join us as we welcome Billy Gérard Frank to USM for a short film viewing and talkback with the artist during his artist residency at the Osher Map Library and Smith Center for Cartographic Education. We will screen Billy's short film "Palimpsest" (Venice Bienale 2022), and have a discussion with the artist about History, Memory, and the role of the archive in his multimedia practice, especially his recent Indigo Entanglements series.

Date: Wednesday, November 19th, 2025

Location: Performing Arts Center, Crewe Center for the Arts, University of Southern Maine (Portland Campus)

Time: 5:30pm reception, 6pm Film and Discussion [event ends by 7:30pm]

Free and open to the public [parking in garages or lots @$4.15/hour].

Frank's Indigo: Entanglements series is a new and ongoing body of works (multimedia painting incorporating silkscreen, vintage African fabric, newsprint, acrylic, etc.) interrogating the unmitigated drama and tragedy of New World Slavery and Trans-Atlantic slave trade. The Osher Map Library has recently acquired Indigo: Entanglements, No. 6, for their permanent collection, a complex multimedia painting that engages with Maine's role in the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, via maps, documents, and other archival imagery.

Palimpsest: Tales Spun From Sea And Memories narrates overlaying tales; fragments of a life and man: Quobna Ottobah Cugoano, born in the Gold Coast (Ghana) in the Fante village of Agimaque. Cugoano was one the most radical and central African British opponents to have actively engaged in the fight against slavery in the eighteenth century, England. His book Thoughts and Sentiments On The Evil Of Slavery, published in England after he gained his freedom, is one of the most direct criticisms of slavery by a writer of African descent. You can watch the trailer here.

Billy Gérard Frank, born in Grenada, West Indies, is a multimedia artist and filmmaker. His research-driven practices mine personal issues related to race, exile, memory, global politics, and post-colonial and queer decoloniality. Frank challenges conventional narratives and creates counter-histories through his work, which has been showcased in solo and group exhibitions at institutions such as the Brooklyn Museum (2020) and the Butler Institute of American Art. His art is also part of several private collections and institutions, such as the National Academy Museum of Fine Arts and Design, Farnsworth Art Museum, Osher Map Library and Smith Center for Cartographic Education, among others. Frank represented Grenada at the 59th La Biennale di Venezia (2022) and was also part of the collective representing the island at the 58th La Biennale di Venezia (2019), and (2024) Smithsonian Design Triennial. He is a 2024 Creative Capital Awardee and has received numerous grants, including the Ford Foundation Grant for his 2022 La Biennale project.

The Osher Map Library and Smith Center for Cartographic Education is delighted to welcome Billy Gérard Frank as our inaugural Peggy L. Osher Visiting Artist Fellow for 2025.