A base camp is more than your average campground. It’s a launch pad for the expedition. It’s where trails into higher skies begin. This Thursday, in Portland, Maine, twenty emerging local artists will pitch their metaphorical tents, for one night only, at a hip new venue for this city.

Just a minute’s drive off the Peninsula’s East End, 193 Presumpscot Street is an empty beer distribution warehouse that Base Camp organizer Tessa O’Brien describes as a “giant, funky, empty box” of 20,000 square feet. Art will abound between the cement floor and the industrial ceiling fans two dozen feet above. Base Camp intends to share avant-garde work with a community accustomed to a visual arts culture moored at the fifty-ish downtown galleries and museums.

O’Brien says that she and her teammate, 23-year-old Will Sears, hatched the plot for a pop-up exhibition when they realized that Portland harbors boatloads of precocious fresh out of college artists who face steep competition from established creators when vying for the gallery walls. O’Brien and Sears, who count themselves in the young and fresh crowd, will feature their work as they spearhead this effort to wow Portland with its own underground scene.

Sears, a recent graduate of Syracuse University, works in an aesthetic of graffiti, typography, and abstract expressionism – just one sample of the range Base Camp will supply. Using muted tones and natural colors in mediums from spraypaint to charcoal powders, Sears describes his work as “a dialogue between abstract backgrounds and formal characters like letters and figures.” He moved to Portland last November because, unlike other thriving creative cities, this one has a cheap enough cost of living to allow a full studio downtown in his own house. “That's huge being able to work all the time,” said Sears.

O’Brien is a muralist painter with an ambition “to have art be everywhere and accessible and a part of more people’s lives.” Since graduating from Skidmore a few years ago, she has painted murals regularly for major music festivals, including Bonnaroo and Phish shows. O’Brien recently collaborated with Sears and others on spraypainted signboards for the marketplace and foodstalls at this year’s Coachella. Like Sears, she originally moved here because studio space is so affordable. O’Brien admits that five years ago she would never have pursued a vision like Base Camp in Portland, Maine. “Now I have confidence in Portland’s creative community… [Base Camp] is now a legit need, and I know people will come.”

Who else will you find at Base Camp? Check out the photography of Ben Dehaan or the fashion design of AbbyAbby LLC. “You don't see their work in the First Friday Art Walk or downtown galleries,” said O’Brien of the twenty artists who will be trailblazing the scene this Thursday, from 6:30 to 9:30. “I'm not opposed to galleries,” she continued. “They're wonderful. But there needs to be an opportunity to experience art in a different setting.”

The warehouse openness and pioneering atmosphere will segue into an after-party surrounded by the exhibit. Food and drink will accompany danceable soul funk beats by local DJ Kyle Downs. Thankfully, Sears and O’Brien assure that Base Camp is only the beginning of quarterly pop-up shows just as bold.

Tags: arts, community, design, entrepreneurs, fashion, photography, work in portland, workspace