Light Prints: Cyanotypes by Erin Cross, Matel Rokke, Toan Vuong

October 4 – November 9, 2019

First Friday Reception October 4, 6-8pm

Closing Gallery Event Tuesday November 5,  7-8pm

Light Prints explores the natural intersection of prints and photography as a means to record “outside” information onto paper.   Light-sensitive coatings onto paper are exposed with objects or transparencies blocking ultraviolet light leaving a silhouette image that seems to “capture” the moment and the ghost of the object.   These artists have used this historic process to record collected objects, the shift of time, and the nostalgia of memorabilia.    Cyanotypes are known for the rich Prussian blue of the iron-based inorganic colorant, the first synthetic pigment, and used for blueprints, and in Japanese woodblock prints, suggesting mystery and transience.

Erin Cross is Professor of Art at Doane University in Crete, Nebraska.   She received her MFA in Visual Studies from Norfolk State University and her BFA from Old Dominion University.    She focuses on the visual intrigue of shape and the memory of its movements in mixed media compositions incorporating found objects as a narrative agent, gathered in the Canadian Maritime while in residence.

Toan Vuong is an adjunct lecturer at UNL and Nebraska Wesleyan University.   He earned his MFA from Tyler School of Art Temple University, studying in Rome and Philadelphia.    He received his BFA in Studio Art and a BA in French Modern Language from UNL.   His works are an accumulation of parts, marks, particles and repetitions, until an image emerges.  In this way a record is held, through incremental interventions, as a way to make sense of the world.

Matel Rokke is co-owner of Tsuru Boutique in Lincoln.   She earned her MFA in Photography from Harford Art School, and her BFA at UNL.   She has also taught at Metro Community College Omaha, Southeast Community College Lincoln, Dana College, Lux Art Center and UNL.  Personal experiences and items from generations past have recurring roles in her art, and pose questions about identity, importance, desire, and worthiness of a memory.