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Home - Art
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Easy Being Green - |
How green artists are trying to save the earth
by Sally Deskins
Climate change is a hot media and water-cooler topic. Reminders to keep our world in good condition appear everywhere. We’re bombarded.
Worldwide, artists approach environmental issues in subtle yet visually moving ways: they use unlikely materials, transform trash into art, play with the ecosystem and take on big, serious issues like climate change, sustainability and global warming.
In Omaha, artists push environmental buttons, too. They’ve created a range of pieces: dancing plastic bags, solar powered and natural-material installations, wholly sustainable sculpture gardens. They don’t plan to stop, either.
David Corbin, University of Nebraska-Omaha Public Health Professor, played in an environmentally themed performance last year, choreographed by his wife, Josie Metal-Corbin, former director of UNO’s Moving Company. Since then, he’s performed his own green-inspired productions, including the popular YouTube videos “Bagdaddy” and “Bag Monster” where Corbin dances while clothed completely in plastic bags.
“I try to use humor rather than preaching to get across my environmental messages,” Corbin said, “In ‘Bag Monster,’ I suggest that our society needs plastic surgery; we need to remove our addiction to plastic bags.”
Corbin also conducted a “tongue-in-cheek anthem” entitled “Global Worming.” It poked fun at those who don’t believe in the movement. During a Pep Bowl event at UNO this year, he draped plastic bags as a performance piece to spread awareness. At 62, Corbin said he’s only anxious for his next big project.
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Mixed Media - |
*With it being so wretchedly hot outside as of late, spending time in air conditioning has been one of my priorities. I spent two nights this past weekend in the sanctuary that is the Bemis Underground: one to hear David Matysiak premiere the sound result of his Telephono project and another checking out Kidrobot Munny dolls created by a handful of local artists. Both events were fun, and though it was rather steamy in the Bemis Underground, everyone seemed to be having a good time. I came away from the Telephono project with one of 250 handmade music collections, which include a bunch of records in hand-screened sleeves and a CD that I can’t stop spinning in both my ipod and in my car. The Munny Show was packed, and I want to especially send a shout out to my friend and day job co-worker Peter Morris, who created a MUNNY doll for the show. Morris has a pretty sweet collection of MUNNY creations on his Facebook page, and (I just learned this) he won the official Kidrobot Mini Munny Custom Contest with one of his designs. Pretty sweet.
*I’m writing regular posts at my art blog, weekfiftytwo.blogspot.com and I hope Reader readers check it out. If you have ideas that would make good blog posts, leave a comment on the site, or send me an email at mixedmedia@thereader.com.
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Near Beard - |
Artist Jake Gillespie
conquers beards, politics
by Natalie Linstrom
Simplifying the complex is something Lincoln artist Jake Gillespie has been doing since childhood.
At age 11, he was reading the newspaper and Time magazine.
During his sixth, seventh and eighth grade years, he drew editorial cartoons for The Ralston Reporter in Ralston, Neb.
His favorite topics? The Bush presidency and Bill Clinton’s election.
At the time, his father was on the Ralston City Council, and he took his son to Press Club events. That early experience with politics influences Gillespie and his work even today.
“I was learning how to take very serious things like the Berlin wall coming down or the first Gulf War and make them clever or funny to explain them in a different way,” Gillespie said, though he now realizes he was probably too young to truly grasp the complexity of the subjects of his drawings.
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Summer Smorgasbord - |
Bemis gets its summer on with eclectic slate of performances/exhibits
by Lindsay Trapnell
“Won’t be long until summer time is through,” warn The Beach Boys on their album Endless Summer. Despite the lack of sand and surfers in Nebraska, the Bemis Center aims to protract and enrich Omaha’s season of rays with its “exhibition-in-motion” of the same name.
A hodgepodge of events including film, performance, architecture, dance and discussion, Endless Summer is the first series curated by recent Bemis addition Hesse McGraw.
“The goal is to energize the exhibition space throughout summer and generate as much activity as possible,” McGraw said.
The series continues July 19 and 20 when Midwest architects gather to discuss progressive architecture in the region. The event, co-sponsored by Design Alliance Omaha, will consist of discussion on day one with day two offering a rare opportunity to tour the Min | Day designed Okoboji House in West Okoboji, Iowa.
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Be My Guest - |
Lincoln’s Tugboat Gallery kicks off series of guest-curated shows
by Natalie Linstrom
Mystery, an opportunity to be part of something larger than oneself and the change artists want to see in the world, are at the heart of what’s happening at Lincoln’s Tugboat Gallery.
Owners Peggy Gomez and Jake Gillespie aim to make the space dynamic and inclusive with the first in a series of guest curators who will put together shows beginning in July.
Lincoln artist Caitlin Applegate curates the first show, called Personal Histories, before she leaves the city to take on a teaching position at the State University of New York in Cortland, New York.
Gomez said she wants to keep Tugboat on the edge, and avoid predictability. Guest curators shake things up.
“It hands over the reigns to someone else,” Gomez said. “We get to be surprised and see what they do.” |
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Foundation for Creativity - |
Bellows legacy to live on in mentorship-based studio/center for visual arts
by Leo Adam Biga
When renowned Omaha visual artist Kent Bellows died suddenly in 2005, his family didn’t know what to do with his studio, where remnants of his career and life were everywhere.
The studio was stuffed with eclectic stashes of books and CDs, mosaics of cutout images, wall scribbling, monster figures, art supplies and his signature parka hanging on a hook. Bellow lived and worked there for 16 years. The two-story studio itself, at 33rd and Leavenworth, became a multi-planed art piece. It’s survived as tableaux of his stilled creativity, not unlike one of the wall sets he built for his hyper-realistic work.
Bellows’ family knew the circa-1915 brick building contained artifacts that should be preserved. The site, formerly the Mermaid Lounge, was imbued with the legacy of someone who encouraged others, especially young visual artists and musicians. Family and friends deliberated how best to honor his memory. |
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Mixed Media - |
I had a few days in New York over the long weekend and spent a ton of time with my friend Brad in art museums. Here are the highlights:
I had a long list of museums, but limited time, so we chose two museums and three shows: The Guggenheim’s Louise Bourgeois retrospective and the Brooklyn Museum’s shows: Ghada Amir’s Love Has No End , the Takishi Murakami show.
It was an art filled trip. I loved the Bourgeois show. Brad and I started at the top of the Guggenheim spiral and moved down — starting at most recent work and moving to the earliest — but were glad we did. It proved intriguing to look at the work, and then read the wall labels. What was most interesting? Feeling evoked by the art often corresponded closely with the artist’s intent.
I’d never been to the Brooklyn Museum, but the building is imposing, and we chose it because its three shows sounded exciting. |
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Natural Women - |
by Sarah Baker
The quote reprinted on the announcement for Renee Hoover and Lynn Piper’s ongoing show at the White Crane Gallery perfectly captures what the two artists have in common.
“Art is born of the observation and investigation of nature,” Cicero said. The art these two create personifies that assertion, and does it in two singular ways.
Hoover has moved into a new body of solo work and done it well. The pieces at White Crane, located in the Old Market Passageway, build on themes she is known for: birds, flowers and imagery that conjure the Mexican holiday Day of the Dead. |
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Telephone Line - |
David Matysiak ... music maniac?
by Sally Deskins
David Matysiak began song five on his new album Telephono by simply swelling an organ. He called the song “Losing Toes” and the composition’s adventure, key to Matsyiak’s Telephono art and music project, began there.
Matysiak, who finished a stint as musician-in-residence at the Bemis Center for Contemporary Art earlier this summer, emailed “Losing Toes” to former Black Lips guitarist Jack Hines in New York for Hines to re-interpret the song. Hines said that, in contemplating the piece, he listened to classical music; and when he was about to dive in, the classical record began skipping. Hines decided it sounded right with “Losing Toes,” so the sound of the skipping record joined Matysiak’s original riff. |
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Openings - |
If you want to mix your holiday brew with some art, the Hot Shops Art Center is the perfect place to do it this weekend. The Hot Shops’ Liquid Arts Festival, slated for July 5, 4-10 p.m., includes a home brew contest. Bring your beer, wine or cider to the center the day before the event if you want to be included. Two shows open at the center July 5: Ryan Globe: Black and White Photography and Expressions in Fiber. Globe’s opening is from 5-8 p.m. and the fiber opening is from 6-9 p.m. The center is located at 1301 Nicholas St. 342.6452
— Sarah Baker |
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Let's Get Festival - |
Bemis Center celebrates artistry from process
to product
by Sarah Baker
Mark Masuoka spends a lot of time thinking about creativity.
He’s worked hard to put creativity at the heart of the Bemis Center, where he’s been the director for five years, and it’s at the heart of the newest, big Bemis event set to begin Thursday night.
The Bemis Creativity Festival has been months in the making, and it’s the center’s first foray into such a diverse, multi-day event.
Behind the Creativity Festival is another exploration Masuoka wants viewers to be aware of: process.
“Most of the time, audiences see the end product. They see a person performing on a stage or a gallery full of work,” he said. “That’s what’s expected.”
Masuoka hopes to provide viewers with product in the Creativity Festival but also to reveal something of the artists’ process through panel discussions with several artists.
The laundry list of performers is diverse, and it’s not just about visual art. Opening day includes the opening of art shows, but also an architectural installation, audio presentation, flute concert, a percussion performance and some organic jazz.
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Mixed Media - |
* One of the great asides of business travel is the free evenings that leave time for solo exploration. Last week, I found myself in Pittsburgh and thanks to my friend Julie Wright (formerly of Omaha’s Bemis Center) I got to the city’s best neighborhoods and coolest art spots during my five-day trip.
Future Tenant is a small gallery located smack dab in the center of the Pittsburgh Cultural District, a slice of downtown full of good bars and restaurants, theaters and galleries. The gallery, a project of Carnegie Mellon University’s Institute for the Management of Creative Enterprises, shows alternative art and is staffed by Carnegie Mellon students. I saw the City High Art Show featuring some engaging work from local high school students. During my stay, the space played host to a film screening, live theater, a concert and a poetry reading. I wanted to check out a second gallery, called Space, but a show wasn’t up, which was too bad. The spaces excited me; they made a perfect case for engaging viewers by doing more than just hanging art on the wall and calling it good.
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Natural Light - |
Photographer Tony Bonacci captures sound with a lens
by Tim McMahan
If you follow Omaha’s celebrated indie music scene, chances are you’ve seen photographer Tony Bonacci’s work.
Bonacci is quietly becoming a go-to guy for some of the scene’s most important musicians, including Saddle Creek Records acts Mayday, Criteria and the long-lost duo Azure Ray.
A collection of 30 of Bonacci’s portraits, titled Mach Shau! The Photography of Tony Bonacci, featuring 15 rock subjects and 15 non-rock, is on display at the trendy Nomad Lounge in the Old Market. Among the images are Mayday’s Ted Stevens working an exercycle, Orenda Fink in tribal face paint, Tilly and the Wall pounding out a tune on piano and Baby Walrus hidden in a field of cattails.
One of the most striking photos is a black-and-white portrait of Tomato a Day’s Brian Poloncic, sitting on the front stoop of his South Omaha home while his faithful German Shepherd looks on. The photo was used as the inner-sleeve artwork for Tomato a Day’s most recent album, The Moon Is Green.
Among the non-rock portraits (though you’ll recognize a few local musicians among them) is a quirky photograph of Bonacci’s neighbor smoking a cigarette with lipstick smeared across his lips.
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Top Five - |
Editor’s note: This week we begin a monthly series called “Top Five” where members of Omaha’s arts community share their top five inspirations of the moment with our readers.
David Helm is a professor in the University of Nebraska at Omaha’s Department of Art and Art History. He has exhibited large-scale installations in New York, Brooklyn, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Cincinnati and Chicago. His large-scale work “Plant Life” was installed in front of the Qwest Center Omaha in 2006.
1. I am continually fascinated by discarded technologies, particularly those where I can observe how a device operates. I’m amazed by windmills, waterwheels, aqueducts and hydraulics, all of which are simultaneously obvious and ingenious forms of power. The Romans developed phenomenal devices using these technologies. I find medical devices from the Civil War era to be beautiful; crude yet decisive. The steam engine and other machines developed during the Industrial Revolution using gears, pistons, pulleys and conveyors combine ingenuity with beauty. Leonardo Da Vinci’s drawings of inventions and Picabia’s mechanical paintings span the beautiful ways in which artists have captured a similar intrigue.
2. Since my undergraduate field-study in Nepal where I lived in an adobe house, in which the water buffalo, the kitchen and the dinner area all shared the same space, I’ve been interested in vernacular architecture. The Nepali people, as any population living in an extreme climate with limited resources, were tremendously resourceful. The sod houses of the Nebraska prairie strike me the same way, an interesting defense against the harsh climate of the plains.
3. Several years ago I started researching terrariums. I came across some information on Victorian Terrariums, including one by the architect Joseph Paxton emulating the Crystal Palace in London. I am a fan of the Victorian era and find the culture to be creative, obsessive and perverse. I love their architecture, their penchant to cultivate and collect and above all, their desire to build detailed and elaborate design into every aspect of their culture.
4. There is no substitute for good restorations. The General Crook House and the General Dodge House are excellent restorations filled with information about lifestyles from the 19th century. When I travel, I’m generally more interested in visiting an eccentric house like Henry Mercer’s Fonthill in Buck’s County, Penn., than an art museum. I’m currently involved in restoring a farm built in 1780 into my dream studio.
5. Buckminster Fuller was a childhood friend of my grandfather and the best man at his wedding. As a child my siblings and I heard endless stories of “Uncle Buckys” idiosyncrasies. My mother claims to have ridden in the Dymaxion car (a fuel efficient, fast vehicle Fuller designed in 1933.) I have been deeply enthused by his philosophy of responsible design. His work maintained a slightly absurd edge, pushing the limits of his inventions. His fascination with simplicity and conservation continue to be environmental and economic guides. It’s no wonder that his work is resurfacing for further consideration.
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Kickstart My Art - |
New directors lead to new ways of seeing
Editor’s note: Three of the area’s largest art organizations all have new leadership. This week, we give readers a peek into their plans.
by Sally Deskins
Jorge Daniel Veneciano aims to reflect the continuously changing nature of our culture by expanding the definition of American art at the Sheldon Art Museum, where he becomes director July 1.
“The art world has exploded national boundaries, and we have to make sense of that trend for what is a traditional American art collection at Sheldon,” Veneciano said. “I want to see the Sheldon as a national leader in developing new ways of presenting and studying American art.”
While broadening such artistic boundaries, Veneciano, who comes to Lincoln after a ten-year stint at Paul Robeson Galleries on the Rutgers University campus in Newark, NJ, also wants to develop new audiences: families with children, students and Omahans.
He’d like to explore the role of the arts for high school students and provide outreach education for under recognized audiences, like people in hospitals or detention centers. He also plans partnerships with University of Nebraska-Lincoln departments, whether philosophy, physics or biology, to weigh in on the world of resources contemporary artists are using. |
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Gallery of Dreams - |
Best friends partner to pursue passions in two-man exhibit
by Patricia Sindelar
The latest show at RNG Gallery, In Pursuit of a Dream, is aptly named.
Pursuit features two young artists — Alexander Comminos and Iggy Sumnik. They are Jun Kaneko’s apprentices, and they’re best friends, said Rob Gilmer, curator and owner of RNG Gallery. Though they’ve exhibited separately at the Bemis Center for Contemporary Art, this is their first two-man show. Their work has a common thread in their artwork: texture.
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Impermanent Consumption - |
Urban art makes viewers want, “More, now!”
by Lindsay Trapnell
While not necessarily intended by its creators, street art makes a strong point about impermanence: One day your tag or mural is up, the next day it might be gone, beauty or value notwithstanding.
Jeff King’s art hangs within the Benson’s Pulp Gallery, but still confronts the fact that nothing lasts forever. The street-inspired, graffiti-laden paintings of King’s Better On My Off Day are layered with paint, text, and even paper. Nothing was considered so sacred that it couldn’t be painted over. King’s brush strokes are broad and unrefined, giving the paintings a rough, almost unfinished quality. They feel alive rather than preserved.
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Openings - |
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Sheldon Museum of Art, 12th and R, Lincoln (402.472.2461) — Peace, Love and the Psychedelic Sixties opens June 6, with a reception from 5-7 p.m. Work from the museum’s permanent collection gives viewers a glimpse into a season of change in American history. The three-part show explores the art, music and films that shaped the tumultuous era (The Mary Riepma Ross Film Theater is working in tandem with Sheldon on the movies, which begin showing July 17.) Of note are a portfolio of works that explore the Vietnam War era and a collection of music posters celebrating the likes of the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix and the Rolling Stones. Continues through August 3. |
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Alphabet Soup - |
New Bemis exhibit uses host of
symbols to tackle concepts of memory
by Sarah Baker
I ate a piece of paper today.
I did it while walking through the new show, A Series of Symbols and Interpretations, at the Bemis Underground.
An artist made me do it.
The paper had words on it that read, “You’re leaving,” (which I wasn’t just yet). Most of the work in this show plays with words, making the job of writing about the work even more difficult.
Emerging artists Monica Yoo and Dan Lowe — Lowe just graduated the University of Nebraska at Omaha and Yoo graduates this year — joined forces for this show. It deals with the oft-tackled idea of memory, but in a way that doesn’t feel old or already done. They’ve reverted to using the Bemis Underground space in the fashion of many artists during its: going away from the traditional idea of a “white box” gallery, and aiming to transform the cavernous space into something different. For this show it becomes a movie theater of sorts, with video projections and televisions making up the bulk of the work, and walls becoming huge screens.
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Mixed Media - |
I fell in love with art when I was 16. I went to my first gallery opening and I went to New York. Then it was done.
One of my high school friends was the granddaughter of Bob and the late Roberta Rogers, so that’s how I found myself in Gallery 72 on the night of my first opening, a night when I usually would have been either sitting in the stands at a football game or eating Hot Tamales at a west Omaha movie theater.
My infatuation was immediate. The scene is still fresh in my mind. The second floor loft’s kitchen counter covered with pot luck goodies, smartly dressed people mingling and talking. Most of all, I remember the ceiling-to-floor art in the apartment, hung in a way I’d never seen, in a jumble of sizes and shapes. The space was full. |
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