You are invited to two special events exploring the life and work of American self-taught painter Jon Serl: Jon Serl: Life Is a Dance, an intimate exhibition at the foundation’s gallery, from Nov. 2 to Jan. 15, and In Search of Jon Serl, a public lecture by art historian, author, and curator Susan C. Larsen at Mechanics’ Hall on Thursday, Nov. 12.

Jon Serl (c. 1898-1993) lived a quiet life in rural California, surrounded by his visionary paintings, chickens, and chihuahuas. Playful, curious, and fiercely true to himself, Serl filled his work with social commentary and fearless self-examination, exploring themes of spirituality, politics, gender, sexuality, and death. Weightless, ethereal figures move across his canvases in a kind of celestial dance. 

The intimate exhibition at the Rabkin gallery, co-curated by Larsen and Rabkin Curator Danielle Yovino, gathers 12 paintings, as well as rarely seen letters, photographs, documents, and other archival materials that illuminate the artist’s creative practice. The paintings are drawn from Larsen’s personal collection alongside artworks owned by the foundation and collected by Dorothea and Leo Rabkin, who were among Serl's earliest champions. 

At a moment of renewed national interest in Serl, Larsen’s lecture will provide a rare, firsthand account of the artist’s life and work rooted in the decadeslong friendship that shaped Larsen’s singular understanding of both. Through countless interviews and close study of his work, Larsen pieced together much of Serl’s storied life, while her late husband, photographer Lauri Robert Martin, documented the artist in an extraordinary body of photographs. Larsen’s years of scholarship have made her one of the earliest and most influential interpreters of Serl's work.

“Thoreau and Whitman were Jon Serl’s favorite writers,” says Larsen, the Rabkin Foundation’s emeritus executive director, who will draw on a forthcoming memoir about Serl for her lecture. “Jon’s art also embodies the transcendental American spirit:  fearlessly honest yet gentle—loving and free.”

 In one of the many interviews Larsen recorded with Serl, the artist reflected on his work and how people might receive it: “This business of becoming a personality in a world of madness isn’t a simple thing. People who have never seen a Jon Serl painting will be surprised. The paintings will make an awful lot of people happy, and an awful lot of people mad. They will confuse people. Good! Change is good.”

EVENT SCHEDULE & DETAILS

Jon Serl: Life Is a Dance exhibition
Dates: Nov. 2 to Jan. 15
The Rabkin Foundation, 13 Brown St., Portland, Maine

The exhibition can be viewed by appointment by contacting Danielle Yovino at dfrye@rabkinfoundation.org

Reception and In Search of Jon Serl lecture by Susan C. Larsen

Date: Thursday, Nov. 12
Reception: 5 p.m.
The Rabkin Foundation, 13 Brown St., Portland, Maine
Lecture: 6:30 p.m. (Doors open at 6:30 p.m.)
Mechanics’ Hall, 519 Congress St., Portland, Maine

Admission to the reception and lecture is free. Advanced reservation is required. Links to both events can be found here.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Susan C. Larsen is the founding and emeritus executive director of the Dorothea and Leo Rabkin Foundation, where she developed the Rabkin Prize for excellence in arts writing and established the foundation’s Portland headquarters and gallery. She met Dorothea and Leo Rabkin in 1972 while conducting doctoral research at Northwestern University on the American Abstract Artists group, beginning a lifelong friendship.

Dr. Larsen served as a professor of art history at the University of Southern California (1975–1996), curator of the permanent collection at the Whitney Museum of American Art (1988–1991), and chief curator of the Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland, Maine. She also has served as a regional collector for the Smithsonian Institution’s Archives of American Art and is the author of numerous books, articles, and museum catalogues. She lives in South Portland.

ABOUT JON SERL
Jon Serl (c. 1898-1993) is a celebrated self-taught American painter who lived a self-determined and vivid life, creating expressive paintings full of ethereal figures and social commentary. He fearlessly explored a breadth of human experiences and interactions in his theatrical paintings. He lived a storied life, growing up in a family of entertainers and later working as a voiceover actor, gardener, firefighter, and cook. In the 1940s, he moved to Lake Elsinore, Calif., where he turned a small home into a world to explore his imagination. 

Serl, who remained mostly on the margins of the art world during his lifetime, has been reconsidered in recent presentations, including a 2024 exhibition at the David Zwirner gallery in New York featuring the artist’s work alongside that of contemporary painters influenced by him; a 2026 exhibition at the Orange County Museum of Art, the site of Serl’s first museum shows in 1981; and a recreation of Serl’s California studio by Shrine gallery at the Outsider Art Fair in New York earlier this year. His work is also held in several museum collections, including the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C.; the American Folk Art Museum in New York; the High Museum of Art in Atlanta; and the Milwaukee Art Museum. 

Please join Critical Minded, the Ford Foundation, and the Dorothea and Leo Rabkin Foundation for an online convening on the state of independent arts and culture journalism. We will present learnings from a new report, “Support for Arts and Culture Journalism.” Based on a survey of 141 independent US publications that cover arts and culture, the report explores the impact of recent funding shifts and free-speech pressures. This presentation will be followed by a panel discussion with publishers sharing their experiences and insights on how to keep arts and culture journalism vibrant, relevant, and sustainable. We will also announce the public release of the survey data to encourage further research and insights. Come learn with us about the challenges facing cultural coverage and how we can continue to advocate and build support for it into the future.

Presenter
Dr. Lucy March, Morgan State University

Dr. March is an independent researcher and Postdoctoral Affairs Coordinator at Morgan State University. Previously, she was a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania. She received her PhD in Media and Communication from Temple University in 2024. 

Panelists
Tempestt Hazel, Sixty Inches from Center

Tempestt Hazel is a curator, writer, and co-founder of Sixty Inches From Center, a collective of writers, artists, archivists, memory workers and arts workers who publish and produce collaborative projects in the Great Lakes and Great Plains region. Her work with Sixty is rooted in advocacy for the creative health and livelihoods of arts workers, restorative cultural infrastructures, and co-creating regional support networks in the Midwest. She's served as the facilitator for the Chicago Critic’s Table at the University of Chicago (created by Adrienne Brown), a member of  the Joan Mitchell Foundation’s Creating Future Memory convening and legacy council, and an advisory board member of the Archives of American Art Journal. Tempestt is a recipient of the 2025 Rabkin Prize for arts writers and the 2019 J. Franklin Jameson Archival Advocacy Award from the Society of American Archivists for her work in Black legacy preservation and artist archives.

Jameson Johnson, Boston Art Review

Jameson Johnson is a writer, curator, and community organizer based in Boston. She is the founder and executive director at Boston Art Review, an online and print publication founded in 2017 committed to facilitating discourse around contemporary art across New England. Her writing has also appeared in Artsy, Artnet, Upstate Diary, and the Boston Globe among others.

Ken Schneck, Buckeye Flame
Dr. Ken Schneck (he/him) is the editor of The Buckeye Flame, Ohio’s LGBTQ+ newsroom. For this work, he was honored with the Sarah Pettit Memorial Award for National LGBTQ+ Journalist of the Year. He is the author of “Seriously, What Am I Doing Here? The Adventures of a Wondering and Wandering Gay Jew” and three LGBTQ+ Ohio history books. Schneck spent 25 years working in higher education, including 10 years as a dean of students and 13 years as a tenured professor of education. He is a graduate of the Executive Program in News Innovation and Leadership at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at the City University of New York.

Respondents
Kemi Adeyemi, The Black Embodiments Studio
Camille Bacon, Jupiter Magazine
Katherine Lee, Portland Press Herald
Shannon Lee, The Amp
Lisa Snowden, Baltimore Beat

Moderator
Daniel Reid, Getty Foundation

Closing Reflection
Jackie Clay, Mellon Foundation

Join fellow arts writers for a quiet, collaborative retreat and a guided tour of the iconic Mary Nohl House, preserved by the John Michael Kohler Arts Center (JMKAC).

This gathering offers space to reflect on our writing practices alongside peers in the Midwest. Attendees will also have a rare opportunity to explore Mary Nohl’s legendary artist-built environment firsthand.

Organized in partnership with the Rabkin Foundation and JMKAC, this retreat is part of a nationwide series of intimate, regional meetups honoring the 10th anniversary of the Rabkin Prize.

NOTE: We reached capacity for this event. Please reach out to cindy@rabkinfoundation.org to be placed on our waiting list.

About the John Michael Kohler Arts Center & the Mary Nohl House

Established in 1967, the John Michael Kohler Arts Center (JMKAC) focuses on preserving artist-built environments, championing self-taught creators, and supporting contemporary art. Among its major preservation efforts is the Mary Nohl House in Fox Point, Wis., lifelong home and site-specific environment of artist Mary Nohl (1914–2001), characterized by original sculptures, custom architectural details, and expressive ornamentation. Learn more at jmkac.org.