“Sheldon Connections 3” wraps up the Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery’s summer/fall series of multi-artist exhibitions with great effectiveness, utilizing four small exhibitions to display something of the depth and breadth of the Nebraska contemporary art scene.

The artists in the exhibition are both well established and relative newcomers. The work ranges from traditional painting and drawing to digital imagery, installation and performance art.

Here’s a quick look at the four parts of “Sheldon Connections 3”:

“The Alphabet Series” is another step forward for Jake Gillespie, the young Lincoln painter who has become a pivotal figure on the local art scene, co-founding the Tugboat Gallery and working to create innovative exhibitions such as “Sheldon Connections 3” as well as doing his own work.

His show, which fills an entire gallery, is made up of paintings, drawings and projected hand-drawn animation.

 All the paintings save two have the title “Alphabet” followed by a number and then a couple of words and create a narrative of sorts — a sci-fi story that appears to be a struggle between two civilizations but contains imagery and ideas that resonate with current events.

The paintings include a pairing called “Control Room” and “Surveillance,” which depict a man with glasses and high collared shirt, clearly the officer in charge, and a room in which behavior is being monitored. “Battle” puts the fight into motion with a pair of large disembodied heads floating about martial arts fighting between humans and more alienlike creatures.

In the aftermath, comes “Torture and Interrogation” in which bright red and green slashes are introduced into the series’ palette of grays, whites, blues and muted reds and the faces are screaming, and, finally, “Released Hostage,” which reworks an image from a previous Gillespie painting of a Russian cosmonaut into his story.

Like all good art, the series isn’t comic-book style. It’s not exactly clear what’s going on or why or where everything is taking place. But that doesn’t really matter, for the paintings are about painting, particularly Gillespie’s talent for capturing faces in blacks, whites and grays, imagination and, to some measure, political commentary. It’s hard not to read the titles as a commentary on the war in Iraq. But the like the best political art, these pictures aren’t so specific as to become meaningless in a few years.

The drawings in Gillespie’s show are in series, the most compelling of which is “Me as a Monster,” a 26-drawing set that matches 13 black-and-white self-portraits with varying expressions with the same basic image, but covered in red with “hairs” covering the face and turning things spooky.

“InsideOut” is a teacher/student pairing that puts together the work of University of Nebraska-Lincoln art professor Eddie Dominguez and recent UNL MFA graduate Caitlin Applegate to present two very different but highly complimentary views of the body.

Applegate’s work consists of a series of ceramic-based figurative sculptures, some of which are life-sized, some miniature. Her “people” seem despondent, whether simply standing and looking or sitting crosslegged in contemplation. There’s always something a little weird about seeing this kind of realistic sculpture. But that offsetting feeling is evidence of its effectiveness at bringing real emotion and deep meaning to the work.

Dominguez, an internationally known ceramicist, contributes some intertwined ceramic sculptures that could be seen as symbolizing internal body processes. To be honest, they look like Richard Serra gone wild on a small scale to me. But his digital images really resonate with Applegate’s work.

Highly manipulated, often utilizing gold leaf, and with the artist as subject matter, the digital photos are both inquisitive and haunting. In “A Longing Chair,” for example, Dominguez superimposes himself on a small metallic-looking bear, creating a sadly evocative image. Even more troubling, and fitting very well with Applegate’s tone, is “Torn Man,” in which the gold leaf and paper rise off the flat surface and is torn into chunks, creating a disturbing depth.

The third gallery is filled by a pair of exhibitions.

“Rend” is a provocative installation piece by Leslie Iwai that is also performance-based.

Driven by text — the varying definitions of the word “rend” — the piece asks visitors to sit at a desk and tear out sections of newspapers that emotionally affect them. The passages are then transferred to another desk, where Iwai sits and types them onto paper. That paper is then glued to a red felt dress that sits near the desk. Iwai will eventually tear apart the dress to create a heart-shaped image.

Between the two desks are muslin scrims, and hanging between the scrims is the beginning of the heart.

All of this is “explained” by wall text and requires some thought to understand. But it is clear that Iwai is working with deep emotion issues, of tearing apart both in topical and personal terms. She’ll be finishing the piece Friday from 2 to 7 p.m. and Saturday from noon to 5 p.m.

“io” is a series of wood-encased interactive machines created by artist Nolan Treadway in collaboration with Ryan Turner and Lindsey Jonak. It is designed to remove the distance between art and viewer, requiring visitors to touch and manipulate the machines — an absolute no-no with most artwork, especially when it is displayed in a museum.

One of them, from Treadway’s “Moira” series, gives the viewer points for answering questions on a video screen. One requires winding, one moves a small car and the fourth asks the viewer to write a wish on a piece of paper, then grinds it up, spitting out a message on a card at the bottom.

There’s not all that much of purely visual interest in “io,” but its critique of the preciousness of art, the stand-offishness of museums and the passivity of the viewer is unmistakable and very effective.

“Sheldon Connections 3” is on view though next Sunday. If you haven’t made it to Sheldon to see it yet, make sure you stop down. It’s a very good, thought-provoking exhibition that, once again, shows the strength, diversity and contemporary resonance of the local art scene. That was the point of the “Sheldon Connection” series.

Reach L. Kent Wolgamott at 473-7244 or kwolgamott@journalstar.com.