BIDDEFORD — The first of a two-part drawing exhibition opens Sept. 28 at Engine in Biddeford.

Engine will host the opening of “Drawing I: The Everyday,” which is the first part of a two-part exhibition curated by Deborah Whitney, curator/gallerist formerly of Whitney Artworks in Portland. Opening festivities run from 5 to 8 p.m. Friday, Sept. 28, during the season-finale of Biddeford+Saco ArtWalk.

The exhibition will run through Oct. 20 and will be followed by “Drawing II: The Other Day,” which open from 5 to 7 p.m. Oct. 26 and runs through Nov. 24. Gallery hours are 1 to 6 p.m. Wednesday through Friday and 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays.

According to Tammy Ackerman, executive director of Engine, the two shows together will investigate the range that drawing can be, the materials, the presentation, the complexity and the simplicity.

She said that in The Everyday, Judith Allen-Efstathiou has made a banner of lace drawn out of the binary holes of computer paper, in The Other Day, Ling-Wen Tsai has made a series of panels which communicate words hand drawn from binary code in sumi ink. It is these juxtapositions that help to illustrate the kinds of ideas that drawing may incorporate.

• Drawing I: The Every Day will feature works by Terrence Brett, Sabrina Small, Brian Lynch, Paul Ridyard, Alex Sax, Nicola Saunderson, Tanja Kunz, Melinda Barnes, Judith Allen-Efstathiou, and Deborah Whitney.

“The Everyday is a collection of works, some made with traditional materials and some not, with subject matter and concepts that are familiar to us, perhaps even surround us, yet are presented in a more compelling way,” said Curator Deborah Whitney. “Thinking about this notion of the everyday, I am incorporating that familiarity with the elements which drawing may convey–beauty, functionality, irony — with an emphasis on economy and simplicity.”

• Drawing II: The Other Day will feature works by Terrence Brett, Clint Fulkerson, Deborah Randall, Ling-Wen Tsai, Bridget Spaeth, Noriko Sakanishi, Avy Claire, Kate Beck, and Grace DeGennaro.

“The Other Day, will be a collection of works that are more about abstract concepts, less recognizable imagery with an emphasis on pattern and color. I am thinking about it as music — with big and small notes … a sort of different view of life,” Whiteney said. “Terrance Brett is working on a conceptual piece in which he is responding to a piece of music that he heard years ago and which stayed with him. Please excuse the pun, but, I am riffing on that idea of the connection of our visual and aural senses. I have always envisioned the installation of artwork in a space as music, and this is the first time that I have endeavored to intentionally construct a show around this notion of vision and sound.”

The exhibition raises interesting creative questions.

“It now raises a new set of dialogues where we are asked to question our own understanding and our relationships with familiar everyday objects,” said Artist Terrence Brett. “There is an accepted ignorance around the everyday object, we never question their existence, their uses and the part they play in our everyday lives. To fully appreciate and perhaps to understand their relevance we need to step back and view the object while suspending all our preconceived concepts of what they mean to us.”

For more information, contact Ackerman at director@feedtheengine.org or call 229-3560.