L. Kent Wolgamott: There’s a full plate of September art shows
I’m off on vacation for the first half of September and won’t be writing about any new exhibitions until later in the month. But there’s plenty worth seeing in local galleries and around the region in the next few weeks. So here’s a quick guide to what looks like the highlights of the month.
Gail Kendall, a ceramics professor of art and art history at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, has a show entitled “The Purpose of Labor” that opened last weekend at the Sheldon Museum of Art. It will be on view through Dec. 7.
I saw “The Purpose of Labor” in mid-installation during my last visit to Sheldon and was taken with a wall covered with a grid of small plates. I’ll be writing more about this show before it ends. But I can say it’s worth a visit for the wall of plates alone — a study in variation on the continually captivating grid which, for some reason, also brought to mind the “plate paintings” of Julian Schnabel.
The work in “The Purpose of Labor” is Kendall’s response to Robert Bly’s translation of “The Kabir Book,” ecstatic poems by the Islamic Sufi poet Kabir.
“I have been drawn to the imagery in many of these poems since I learned about them in the mid-1980’s and felt this exhibition would provide me with a wonderful opportunity to create a group of works around a theme,” Kendall says on the Sheldon Web site. This theme is allowing me to expand on recent work as well as consider a series of new vessels.”
She will talk about the exhibition on Sept. 16 at 5:30 p.m. and again on Oct. 5 during Sheldon’s First Friday reception from 5 to 7 p.m.
Weitz paintings at Modern Arts Midwest
“Common Ground,” an exhibition of paintings by Edwin Carter Weitz is on view through Sept. 27 and looks like it, too, will be well worth a look.
Weitz, a Lincoln native and Iowa State graduate in graphic design, is president/creative development at Bailey Lauerman and has spent 20 years promoting some of the nation’s leading brands, including Union Pacific, Disney, the Smithsonian and Pepsi and has had his work published in Communication Arts, Graphics and Print magazines.
He is relatively new to painting, which he says for him is about navigation of space.
“It causes you to move through an environment in ways you normally wouldn’t. Along the way it makes connections, stirs up memories and causes you to feel. That’s why we’re drawn to it,” he says in his artist’s statement.
That navigation of space takes him through familiar intersections and finds him looking at Tastee Inn & Out in his painting “Burger Joint,” one of the images in his exhibition.
Tugboat features ‘Three-Way’ with Forde, Gracie and Holz
Ed Forde, chairman of the UNL Department of Art and Art History, David Gracie, chairman of the Art Department at Nebraska Wesleyan University, and Aaron Holz, UNL painting professor, have teamed up for “Three-Way,” an exhibition on view through Sept. 30 at Tugboat Gallery.
The subject matter of the show includes “wrestlers, cows, blobs and more.” All three work two-dimensionally, using oil paint, sumi ink and mixed media.
Tugboat Gallery is at 116 N. 14th St. on the second story above Gomez Art Supply. The gallery is open from noon to 5 p.m. Saturdays and by appointment by calling 477-6200.
‘Green’ quilts at IQSC
The International Quilt Study Center & Museum has opened a new exhibition of contemporary quilts displaying planet-friendly themes. The museum, designed to be ecologically sustainable, has partnered with the manufacturer of Mountain Mist corn-fiber-based quilt batting product to sponsor the “Crafting a Better Planet” competition.
The exhibition includes the competition finalists along with antique quilts from the museum’s collection that show examples of Mountain Mist quilting patterns.
Christo and Jeanne-Claude to lecture in Omaha
Christo and Jeanne-Claude, the pioneering outdoor installation artists who, most recently produced “The Gates” in New York’s Central Park, will deliver one of their always entertaining lectures Sept. 16 at KANEKO in Omaha.
The pair and longtime board members of the Bemis Center for Contemporary Art will talk about “Two Works in Progress— Over the River, Project for the Arkansas River, Colorado and the Mastaba, Project for the United Arab Emirates”
Tickets for the 7 p.m. lecture are $10 for Bemis Center members, $15 for nonmembers and are available at the Bemis Center, 12th and Leavenworth streets in Omaha. For more information, call (402) 341-7130.
Nelson-Atkins to open ‘The Age of Steam’
On Sept. 13, Kansas City’s Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art will open its major fall exhibition “Art in the Age of Steam: Europe, America and the Railway: 1830-1960.”
Featuring more than 100 paintings, prints, drawings and photographs from 64 museums and private collections, “Art in the Age of Steam” is the most wide-ranging exhibition ever assembled of American and European works of art responding to the drama of the railroad.
Reach L. Kent Wolgamott at 473-7244 or kwolgamott@journalstar.com.
Gail Kendall, a ceramics professor of art and art history at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, has a show entitled “The Purpose of Labor” that opened last weekend at the Sheldon Museum of Art. It will be on view through Dec. 7.
I saw “The Purpose of Labor” in mid-installation during my last visit to Sheldon and was taken with a wall covered with a grid of small plates. I’ll be writing more about this show before it ends. But I can say it’s worth a visit for the wall of plates alone — a study in variation on the continually captivating grid which, for some reason, also brought to mind the “plate paintings” of Julian Schnabel.
The work in “The Purpose of Labor” is Kendall’s response to Robert Bly’s translation of “The Kabir Book,” ecstatic poems by the Islamic Sufi poet Kabir.
“I have been drawn to the imagery in many of these poems since I learned about them in the mid-1980’s and felt this exhibition would provide me with a wonderful opportunity to create a group of works around a theme,” Kendall says on the Sheldon Web site. This theme is allowing me to expand on recent work as well as consider a series of new vessels.”
She will talk about the exhibition on Sept. 16 at 5:30 p.m. and again on Oct. 5 during Sheldon’s First Friday reception from 5 to 7 p.m.
Weitz paintings at Modern Arts Midwest
“Common Ground,” an exhibition of paintings by Edwin Carter Weitz is on view through Sept. 27 and looks like it, too, will be well worth a look.
Weitz, a Lincoln native and Iowa State graduate in graphic design, is president/creative development at Bailey Lauerman and has spent 20 years promoting some of the nation’s leading brands, including Union Pacific, Disney, the Smithsonian and Pepsi and has had his work published in Communication Arts, Graphics and Print magazines.
He is relatively new to painting, which he says for him is about navigation of space.
“It causes you to move through an environment in ways you normally wouldn’t. Along the way it makes connections, stirs up memories and causes you to feel. That’s why we’re drawn to it,” he says in his artist’s statement.
That navigation of space takes him through familiar intersections and finds him looking at Tastee Inn & Out in his painting “Burger Joint,” one of the images in his exhibition.
Tugboat features ‘Three-Way’ with Forde, Gracie and Holz
Ed Forde, chairman of the UNL Department of Art and Art History, David Gracie, chairman of the Art Department at Nebraska Wesleyan University, and Aaron Holz, UNL painting professor, have teamed up for “Three-Way,” an exhibition on view through Sept. 30 at Tugboat Gallery.
The subject matter of the show includes “wrestlers, cows, blobs and more.” All three work two-dimensionally, using oil paint, sumi ink and mixed media.
Tugboat Gallery is at 116 N. 14th St. on the second story above Gomez Art Supply. The gallery is open from noon to 5 p.m. Saturdays and by appointment by calling 477-6200.
‘Green’ quilts at IQSC
The International Quilt Study Center & Museum has opened a new exhibition of contemporary quilts displaying planet-friendly themes. The museum, designed to be ecologically sustainable, has partnered with the manufacturer of Mountain Mist corn-fiber-based quilt batting product to sponsor the “Crafting a Better Planet” competition.
The exhibition includes the competition finalists along with antique quilts from the museum’s collection that show examples of Mountain Mist quilting patterns.
Christo and Jeanne-Claude to lecture in Omaha
Christo and Jeanne-Claude, the pioneering outdoor installation artists who, most recently produced “The Gates” in New York’s Central Park, will deliver one of their always entertaining lectures Sept. 16 at KANEKO in Omaha.
The pair and longtime board members of the Bemis Center for Contemporary Art will talk about “Two Works in Progress— Over the River, Project for the Arkansas River, Colorado and the Mastaba, Project for the United Arab Emirates”
Tickets for the 7 p.m. lecture are $10 for Bemis Center members, $15 for nonmembers and are available at the Bemis Center, 12th and Leavenworth streets in Omaha. For more information, call (402) 341-7130.
Nelson-Atkins to open ‘The Age of Steam’
On Sept. 13, Kansas City’s Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art will open its major fall exhibition “Art in the Age of Steam: Europe, America and the Railway: 1830-1960.”
Featuring more than 100 paintings, prints, drawings and photographs from 64 museums and private collections, “Art in the Age of Steam” is the most wide-ranging exhibition ever assembled of American and European works of art responding to the drama of the railroad.
Reach L. Kent Wolgamott at 473-7244 or kwolgamott@journalstar.com.
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