In Nebraska, fall means football as Big Red action dominates the headlines. But the arts community has its game plan ready for Any Given Saturday, as galleries and museums fill their rosters with promising talent. What follows are those shows available at press time.
Kaneko kicks off its annual Soirée celebration with another solo exhibition centered around the sculptors whose works grace the Gene Leahy Mall. “Linda Fleming: Experimenta De Vacuo Spatio” (Sept. 29-Feb. 2) provides a retrospective of sculpture, drawing and wall works that trace her 56-year career. Working from studios in the mountain west, Fleming creates open, latticework sculptures that are as much air as material, diagraming invisible physical forces from the atomic to the atmospheric. https://thekaneko.org/
The Bemis Center continues its fall rituals with its annual “Benefit Art Auction,” whose offerings are on view beginning October 13, culminating with its ever-popular fundraising event on the evening of October 27. They’ll return to their regular exhibition schedule with two shows (Dec. (https://caborealestateservices.com/) 7-Apr. 14): “Neo-Custodians: Woven Narratives of Heritage, Cultural Memory, and Belonging” showcases the work of artists whose practices are informed by African textiles and the cultural, social and political threads woven into their contemporary contexts. Concurrently, the solo show “Paolo Arao: Reverberations” features the Filipino-American artist’s recent geometric abstractions in sewn paintings, weaving and site-specific installations. https://www.bemiscenter.org/
Keeping with tradition, Gallery 1516 kicks off the next installment of the “Nebraska Biennial” (Sept. 8-Dec. TBD). Artists affiliated with the state will be represented by works in nearly every art form, with juror’s awards given to those works deemed most excellent in their medium. The last “Biennial” featured over 100 artists, so expect a crowd-pleasing array of home state talent. https://www.gallery1516.org/opening-2
The drawing and sculpture show “New Work by Amaryllis R. Flowers” at the Union for Contemporary Art (Sept. 16-Dec. 2) turns iconic symbol sets on their ear. Inspired by visual systems of communication ranging from cartoons to Egyptian scrolls, from Caribbean Surrealisms to alchemical diagrams, Flowers upends customary ways of describing the world as well as traditional boundaries of taste and fine art media. https://www.u-ca.org/
Creighton University’s Lied Art Gallery continues its collaboration with its Medical Humanities program with its first offering of the semester, “Positive Exposure: Change How You See, See How You Change” photographic exhibition featuring the work of Rick Guidotti (Sept. 8-Oct. 6). Inspired to create life-affirming images of individuals suffering genetic disorders, Guidotti founded the Positive Exposure organization to help address stigma and exclusion based on appearance. Following that show, the gallery presents “Emily Stokes: Printmaking” (Oct. 20-Nov. 19). A recent addition to CU’s art faculty, Stokes combines screenprinting with other print or painted media, including a series of hand-constructed accordion-fold books, that humorously explore tensions between the new and the familiar. https://www.facebook.com/CreightonUniversityLiedArtGallery
MCC will highlight the print-based installations of Mary Claire Becker, Assistant Professor at Oklahoma State University (Sept. 14-Oct. 10). Becker takes cues from idyllic images of wilderness, whether filtered through Victorian or Instagram lenses, and re-presents them in dimensional wallpapers and sprawling installations, creating fascinating but fetishized landscapes and dream images of nature. www.mccneb.edu/gallery
Downtown galleries have vibrant offerings scheduled. The Fred Simon Gallery will present a collection of Folk Art (Sept. 9-Nov. 29), followed by a solo look at Lincoln artist Santiago Cal (Dec. 8-Jan 31). The Garden of the Zodiac Gallery welcomes the return of perennial favorite Humberto Chavez Mayol (Oct. 6-Dec. 3), who will continue a series of engagements with Omaha’s South 24th Street community. www.facebook.com/TheGardenOfTheZodiac
On the South Side, Vinton Street offerings honor a mix of new and familiar faces. “Tom Majeski: Prints and Constructions” (Sept. 8-Oct. 7) honors the work of this longtime area artist who influenced the printmaking community not only through his own pursuit of monotypes and dimensional print constructions, but also through his role as art professor at UNO, where he established a long-running print workshop that brought in many nationally recognized and regional artists to deepen the student experience. Another retired talent from UNO is book, letterpress and handmade paper artist Bonnie O’Connell, who will be showing “Prints, Books & Paper with Works From Her Collection” (Nov. 10-Dec. 23). www.rbrg.org
Baader-Meinhof Gallery, still luxuriating in its new space, brings in the work of Los Angeles artist Patrick Carroll (Sept. 8-Oct. 22). His show will appeal to the literati and “knitterati” alike, featuring text-based handknit textiles that are stretched and framed. His “picture-poem-paintings” play with “what it means to be permanently under tension.” https://www.baader-meinhof.org/
Indie stalwart Project Project has a full slate of monthly shows. “Patty Talbert: Black Joy” (opening Sept. 8) begins the season with new acrylic paintings on wood that combine her interests in batik-inspired geometric design, word play and expressing positivity. Alex Myers (opening Oct. 13) adds Virtual Reality technology to the Build-A-Bear experience. “Undeniable,” (opening Nov. 10) features a group show of artists associated with Angel Guardians, Inc., an organization that promotes creative engagement for individuals across all spectrums of ability. Finally, textile artist Wendy Weiss teams up with sound sculptor Jay Kreimer on “Cow Parts,” (opening Dec. 8), riffing on the gallery’s roots as a butcher shop. www.projectprojectomaha.com
Generator Space welcomes the Unceded Artist Collective, featuring Native American artists Nathaniel Ruleaux, Mi’oux Stabler, and Jennie Wilson. Their exhibition (Sept. 8-Oct. 20) explores indigenous land use and regenerative agriculture practices tied to a Landback initiative at Carter Lake, as well as a new indigenous garden project at Joslyn Castle. “NEURODIFFERENCIA,” a collaborative show with neuro-atypical artists Ben Nollete, Sener, and Alba Magaña, combines sound installation, painting, and virtual performances in collaboration with other neurodivergent people (Nov. 10-Dec. 15). www.amplifyarts.org/exhibitions-current
Benson shines bright this fall as well. Petshop’s schedule begins with Gloria Ceren (Sept. 1-Oct. 27), a multidisciplinary artist who employs a variety of media as a way of embodying her hybridized identity. “Evan Marnell: I’M TRYING, I PROMISE I AM” reveals the artist’s humanity by baring his struggles to find housing, healing and happiness (Oct. 6-Nov. 24). The portraits comprising “Brad Marr: The Tourist” spring from the premise that humans are tourists on earth (Nov. 3-Dec. 29). www.facebook.com/bensonpetshop
After its annual Youth Art exhibition in September, BFF Gallery will feature “Joan Sangimino: Stand,” conceived in response to the recent Supreme Court ruling on Roe v. Wade (Oct. 6-27). Over at MaMO, printmaker Jessie Fischer will begin a residency in September, culminating in a public opening (Oct. 6). She will be followed by Seah, a multidisciplinary artist who aims to create a safe space to direct rage about violence done to the human body (opening Nov. 3). www.bffomaha.org/gallery
Maple Street Construct opens its fall exhibition on September 1, featuring summer residency program artist Lara Schoorl. A creative writer based in Amsterdam and Los Angeles, Schoorl will present a mail/copy art publication edited during her residency as well as three-dimensional essays, a form of writing in space with which she’s been experimenting. Lastly, Benson newcomer Ming Toy Gallery has announced “La Femme Fantastique” featuring the work of Shelby and Josh Audiss (Oct. 6-28) and the “RABBIT! RABBIT! Invitational,” celebrating the Chinese year of the rabbit and introducing artists touching on such themes as luck, mercy and peace (Dec. 1-29). https://www.facebook.com/maplestconstruct and https://www.facebook.com/mingtoygallery