Paper Fiber: Shaped & Formed

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January 8 – February 27

January 8 – Second Friday opening

Veda M. Rives Aukerman & Meda R. Rives Smith, Normal, Illinois

Tom Lang, St. Louis, Missouri

Jill Powers, Boulder, Colorado

Constellation Studios joins in the city-wide FiberFest featuring an exhibition of unusual works made from various paper fibers: abaca (banana leaf), kozo bark (related to the mulberry tree), and pigmented cotton.   Artists invent new ways to form the fibers from casting sheets for collage effects, to wet binding translucent layers, and hand beating to expand the fiber for shaping.

Veda & Meda present Magnolia, a BookEnviron installation, sparking an experiential journey to seek an intangible connection to that which is beyond.   Tom’s works are never-before-shown handmade paper collages, for the “jamais vu”, from French, meaning “never seen” phenomenon of experiencing a situation that one recognizes, but that, nonetheless, seems very unfamiliar.  Jill is exhibiting unique artists books with pages of webbed kozo fiber, that carries the message of ecology and changes to the environment.

Veda M. Rives Aukerman and Meda R. Rives Smith are artists and identical twin sisters who pursue interests in printmaking, handmade paper, artists’ books, and BookEnvirons; creating artworks both independently and collaboratively.  Veda is Interim Director of Normal Editions Workshop (NEW) in the Wonsook Kim School of Art at Illinois State University, Normal, Illinois. Meda has been a member of the art faculty at Illinois State University and Heartland Community College in Normal, Illinois; and at Eureka College in Eureka, Illinois.   Both artists have exhibited widely throughout the U.S. and internationally.

Tom Lang is Professor in the Department of Art, Design, and Art History at Webster University. He earned an M.A. in Aesthetics and an MFA in printmaking from Ohio State University. He studied with S.W.Hayter and Krishna Reddy at “Atelier 17” in Paris.  His interest in papermaking came from a workshop with Garner Tullis, which lead to his own long-term study of the history and techniques of hand-papermaking.  His work has been exhibited throughout the U.S. and in Europe.

Jill Powers creates sculptural, and installation art with unusual natural materials. Her primary art material is an inner bark, which she has developed as a contemporary art medium.   Jill teaches in the Visual Art Department at Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado. A graduate of Tyler School of Art, Jill has shown her work internationally, and her work is in private, corporate, and museum collections. 

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Holiday Show & Sale 2020

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Installation views of Karen Kunc prints and Kenny Walton Glass, plus some unusual and beautiful studio items including leather bound books, small boxes, note cards, blank books and artist books. See the “salon style” installation of Karen’s demonstration prints from her years of teaching printmaking courses and workshops….fun and loose experiments in lithography, etching, screenprint, and woodcut.

Contact 403-438-0049 or karen@constellation-studios.net

for information on any item for pricing and availability, as things change quickly.


Mural Update & Refresh

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This October saw the completion of the mural repair and refresh with a new grand design! All is meant to integrate and compliment with colorful new imagery and themes. Check it out….impossible to miss this as an entry to downtown Lincoln!

Here are sequence shots of the new section, and the repairs done up high on the scaffold:

Installation Views of inBEtween

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The inBEtween exhibition is a touring group show, planned to promote unity in response to our divisive time.   Artists in the group are responsible for taking the show in their location, therefore bringing it to a wider audience, and to include local artists and community.   In this way the message can keep reframing itself in a new and relevant context.

This show has been presented in 2019 at the Gertrude Herbert Institute of Art, Augusta, Georgia, and in 2020 at Studios Inc. Kansas City, Missouri, and Constellation Studios, Lincoln, Nebraska.    Alternative shows and works were shown also in Germany and India.   Exhibitions and venues are being planned through 2021 and 2022.

Artists in the show

From Germany: nomadic sculptor Roger Rigorth’s installation of thin, fragile oars, Barbara Beisinhoff’s prints address air, water, earth, and Sabine Stange’s photographs on perceptual transience.

From America: Tana Kellner’s monoprints on the US Bill of Rights and immigration, Cheryl Goldsleger’s prints of migration maps, Miguel Rivera’s overlapped drawings derived from his Mexican American roots, Leslie Jean Bart’s photographs of Haitian American identity discord through photos of people in water, Karen Kunc’s woodcuts on rural urban migration, Larry Millard’s batons referencing entry permits, and Kristin Casaletto’s prints of community existence.

From India: Ayisa Abraham’s film of the life of a Nepali migrant living in Bangalore, Veer Munshi’s installation on his return to his exiled home in Kashmir, and Tara Sabharwal’s collaged silkscreen prints of refugees on boats encountering the ‘other’.

Local guest artists: Jamie Ho’s photo documentary of her Chinese family history at the threshold of erasure, Francisco Souto’s metaphoric drawings of social collapse in Venezuela, Nancy Friedemann-Sánchez’s folkloric print of colonial artifacts from Columbia, and Oria Simonini’s watercolors of migrant experience from her Guatemalan roots.

    Left: Barbara Beisinhoff’s etchings Right: Sabine Stange’s photo series
    Left foreground: Roger Rigorth’s carved oars Left background: Tana Kellner’s monoprints Right: Miguel Rivera’s prints
    L: Tana Kellner Middle: Miguel Rivera R: Leslie Jean Bart
    L: Leslie Jean Bart’s photo series R: Karen Kunc, artist book and prints
    L: Karen Kunc R: Nancy Friedemann-Sánchez’s woodcut print
    L: Kristin Casaletto’s drawings Middle: Cheryl Goldsleger’s prints R: Ayisa Abraham’s photo series
    L: Ayisha Abraham Middle: Tara Sabharwal’s print series R: Veer Munshi’s photo installation
    L: Veer Munshi R: Oria Simonini’s watercolor paintings
    L: Francisco Souto’s drawing Middle: Larry Millard’s batons R: Jamie Ho’s photographs
    Roger Rigorth’s oars floating across the space
    L: Cheryl Goldsleger R: Ayisa Abraham

    inBEtween

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    Curated by Tara Sabharwal, NYC

    Artists from Germany, India, USA

    October 2 – November 20, 2020

    First Friday Reception October 2, 6-8pm

    Observing distancing & masks required

    The present moment is all we ever know.  It is the vital space in between what we have been and where we could be heading.  It is always right there, our opportunity for change.   inBEtween draws attention to our inherently open sense of self, honoring the process of self-examination and transformation.

     – Tara Sabharwal, curator.   In collaboration with David Gann.

    This exhibition examines questions around inter-sectionality, displacement and otherness, through the work of artists from Germany, US and India, along with local guest artists.   Curated by NYC based artist Tara Sabharwal, the show is part of an international travelling project with an emphasis on involving community and generating dialog.

    In inhabiting different spaces, one encounters conflicting points of view, which work within the political/social/racial group but become suddenly inflammatory outside it.   Often, we are not even aware of this, as we are, after all, an intrinsic part of cultural traditions and languages that have hierarchies, prejudices and privileges built into them.   This show aims to foster dialog by experiencing diverse points of view and sharing our own.

    The need for listening to each other is urgent.  Artists live within communities as natural outsiders, forming their own borderless intersections.   Could artists present a fresh approach, through their art, where reason and verbal structures fail?

    Artists in the show

    From Germany: nomadic sculptor Roger Rigorth’s installation of thin, fragile oars, Barbara Beisinhoff’s artist books on the poetry of Jewish poet and holocaust victim Gertrude Kolmar, and Sabine Stange’s photographs on perceptual transience.

    From America: Tana Kellner’s monoprints on the US Bill of Rights and immigration, Cheryl Goldsleger’s prints of migration maps, Miguel Rivera’s overlapped drawings derived from his Mexican American roots, Leslie Jean Bart’s photographs of Haitian American identity discord through photos of people in water, Karen Kunc’s woodcuts on rural urban migration, Larry Millard’s batons referencing entry permits, and Kristin Casaletto’s prints of community existence.

    From India: Ayisa Abraham’s film of the life of a Nepali migrant living in Bangalore, Veer Munshi’s installation on his return to his exiled home in Kashmir, and Tara Sabharwal’s collaged silkscreen prints of refugees on boats encountering the ‘other’.

    Local guest artists: Jamie Ho’s photo documentary of her Chinese family history at the threshold of erasure, Francisco Souto’s metaphoric drawings of social collapse in Venezuela, Nancy Friedemann-Sánchez’s folkloric print of colonial artifacts from Columbia, and Oria Simonini’s watercolors of migrant experience from her Guatemalan roots.

    Kenny Walton Hand Blown Glass Exhibition

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    April 8 – 25, 2020

    Artist Kenny Walton (1947-2019) was an integral part of the dream of Constellation Studios, as husband and helpmate to owner/director Karen Kunc. He worked hard on their acreage near Avoca, Nebraska, building his studio, working intensely to blow glass, landscaping the gardens and arbors of fruit trees, and cooking exotic meals.

    Kenny studied at Ohio State University, and Columbus College of Art & Design.  Through 1990 to 2007, Kenny exhibited his hand-blown glass at juried arts and craft fairs around the country and region, winning many awards.  His work was included in New Glass Review at the Corning Museum of Glass in 1995.  He had solo exhibitions of his glass in Nagoya, Japan, Ohio Craft Museum, and the Haydon Art Center in Lincoln. He received two Nebraska Arts Council Individual Artist Fellowships in 1994 & 1995, and a Mid-America Arts Alliance/National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in 1995.  He lectured on his glass in Finland, Poland, Hawaii and throughout the Midwest.

    “He is very aware of living things and living cycles – the undercurrent of his work. He is steadily and quietly entranced by nature, its intricacies and fullness, and his work exudes this….. He has the ability (and innate desire) to successfully have his head, his eye, and his heart work together and then flow outwards from his hand to work and tool glass until it reflects, in its abstracted form, the beauty of life, essentially.”

    Teliza V. Rodriguez, Curator, Museum of Nebraska Art. 2007

    It is with immense pride that we show his amazing hand blown glass as a legacy of beauty, craftsmanship, and inspiration.  This exhibition honors his indomitable spirit, humor, intellect, energy and skills with “field expediency” (fixes with duct tape & wire!).   His glass art brings solace for us all.

    LJS Kenny Walton

    Visit KennyWaltonGlass.com https://www.kennywaltonglass.com/ for information, memorial, and store.

    Nine Nebraskans Public Art Installation

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    Nine artists from the region were invited to design and carve their own large woodblock for printing impressions at Constellation Studios, which took place in May with one-by-one printing sessions at the studio.   The 9 large 24” x 36” black and white prints will make a composite Artwork that will be wheat-pasted around Lincoln.    The presentation will be 108” tall x 72” wide. Sites include: Lux Art Center, Constellation Studios, The Hub Cafe, The Mill Haymarket, Bennett Martin Library, Bethany Library, Woods Park Bath House, Joyo Theater, Goldenrod Pastries. #NineNebraskaArtists

    Artists include:

    Byron Anway, Lincoln

    Ryan Crotty, Auburn

    Nancy Friedemann- -Sánchez, Lincoln   

    Gerardo Meza, Lincoln 

    Nathan Murray, Lincoln   

    Kyle Nobles, Lincoln

    Sarah Rowe, Omaha

    Bart Vargas, Omaha  

    Kat Wiese, Lincoln 

    The Artwork is a temporary installation, with the paper prints attached with wheat starch (wallpaper) paste to the wall surface. The installation will be affected by weather and moisture, lasting for approximately 2 months, and will be allowed to change, as part of the ephemeral nature of the materials, the climate conditions, and time.

    Nine different sites are planned, and will present engagement for different viewing audiences and experiences, plus create a recurrent connection throughout the city.

    These woodblock prints are unusually striking for the strong contrast of dark and light, the captured energy of the carving marks, and the variety of images and symbols that convey timely messages and layers of meaning.

    A culminating event will be steamroller printing of these blocks for the Lux Art Center Festival in August.   Other artists are invited to join with additional carved woodblocks for the steamroller printing activity.   Watch for more info.

    This community-wide print event is a facet of this summer’s collaborative exhibition Surface Impressions:  International Print Exhibition, and highlights the relief printing process.    The exhibition is held jointly at Constellation Studios and Lux Art Center.  

    https://www.surfaceimpressions.art/

    • Sarah Rowe
    • Ryan Crotty
    • Nathan Murray
    • Kyle Nobles
    • Kat Wiese
    • Gerardo Meza
    • Byron Anway
    • Bart Vargas

       

    Surface Impressions: International Print Show

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    June 5th – August 28th   2020

    Juror:  Mark Pascale
    Janet and Craig Duchossois Curator of Prints and Drawings, The Art Institute of Chicago

    co-organized by Constellation Studios and Lux Art Center

    • First Friday August 7, 5 – 8pm

    • Upcoming! Steamroller printing of Nine Nebraskans woodblocks, August 15, 1-4pm, Lux Art Center

    Surface Impressions intends to connect artists and audiences to the 21st century language of relief printmaking as a viable engagement for today.

    The exhibition includes 75 works from 67 national and international artists, with a selection at both Constellation Studios and Lux Art Center galleries.   All the prints use relief-printing processes of woodcut, linoleum block, wood engraving, letterpress, and new technologies including laser cutting.

    There is a distinctive graphic nature to prints made from carved surfaces as the energy of carving with gouges and burins is readily apparent.  This action is transformed by pressure and ink onto paper which reveals light “opened up” from the solid surface.  Artists are endlessly inventive with how the surface is changed, as well as with their innovations for printing from blocks, from essential black and white, to multiple layers of color and carving stages, to how the printing happens with presses or by hand.   Relief prints use available materials for protest and actions, exist on large scale for impact, capture impressions of wood growth, and show intimate carved details on the end-grain of wood. 

    This inaugural biennial of relief prints here in the center of America showcases artists from around the country and abroad, all selected from an open call for entries.  The works on exhibition focus on the role of the relief print as a means of cultural critique and exploration, of this ancient process but newly invigorated discipline as it is practiced and defined by today’s artists.

    https://www.surfaceimpressions.art/exhibition

    Josh Winkler: The Big Trees

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    March 6 – 28, 2020

    First Friday Reception March 6, 6:00-8:00pm

    Using prints and adventure, Josh Winkler sparks content and connections that address environmental and cultural tragedies of the past and to engage the high stakes of the present.   This exhibition features a remnant of the great redwood trees of Calaveras county created with “endurance-level” hand printing on site.  Winkler has hiked the Chilkoot Trail, infamous during the Klondike Gold Rush at the turn of the century, and was an artist-in-resident in Dawson City in the Yukon, influencing panoramic print series of forest fires, highway travel, and reflections on the “collective path”.  Winkler is Assistant Professor of printmaking at Minnesota State University Mankato.   He received his MFA from the University of Minnesota, and BFA from Ball State University.  


    Paper Pulp & Beyond

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    January 24 – February 28, 2020

    Special Reception Thursday, January 23, 7-8pm

    Papermaking demos – First Friday Feb 7, 6-8pm

    Artists:

    Kathy Cartier, Lincoln, NE

    Melissa Harshman, Athens, Georgia

    Nancy Mintz, Berkeley, CA

    Bridget O’Malley, Minneapolis. MN

    Amy Sands, Minneapolis. MN

    Considering the special properties of humble paper fibers, artists explore cotton, abaca (banana leaf), flax, kozo and gampi (inner bark fibers) creating works beyond typical handmade sheets.     This exhibition celebrates the many qualities of various fibers – translucency, fluidity, lightweight, strength, malleability, as these natural materials transform into delicate veils, fantastic dimensional structures, pulp drawings and layered constructions.  Through the processes of hydration, beating, forming, and drying these fibers create unusual effects and interactions.

    Artist in Residence Aleksander Wozniak

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    Aleksander (Olek) was here through all of September 2019. Olek comes from Szczytno, Poland, and he is head of printmaking at the Institute of Fine Arts at the University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn, Poland. While at Constellation Studios he was a guest at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln School of Art, Art History & Design, lecturing on his work, and teaching a mokuhanga workshop to students. He presented his work in a solo exhibition at Constellation Studios. While in residence he carved and printed two large woodblock prints, and created hundreds of sketches of the people and environs of Lincoln. His obsessive stream-of-conscious drawing practice prepares his memory and hand for the translation that happens with carving the block and capturing the spontaneous gesture.

    Here are images of his process, and exhibition, and with students.