Abstract Botanica: Works by Lauren Kussro & Rochelle Toner

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February 2 – March 31, 2018

This invitational exhibition brings together the unusual forms and inventions that flourish in the outpourings of etchings, drawings, collages of Rochelle Toner, and similarly, in the etchings, screen prints, cut and sewn works of Lauren Kussro.   Both create imaginative worlds and forms that seem to grow from streams of impulse and inspiration, from nature, beauty, abundance, and evolutionary change. Toner’s abstractions grow from her mature visual voice, honed throughout a productive career as an educator and artist in Philadelphia.    Kussro, working in Houston, is an emerging artist and a new force that explodes the print form and questions the “how and where” printing can happen. Both artists exhibit a graphic instinct and naturally address “why to print” that bridges generations.

Rockie Toner is Professor Emeritus Tyler School of Art/Temple University.   She earned her MFA from University of Illinois, Urbana, and BA from University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls.   She has exhibited extensively, including A Survey of Contemporary Prints, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC; Colorprint USA, Museu of Texas Tech University, Lubbock; Arte Della Stapa, Grafiche Originali, il Quadrato Di Omega, Rome, Italy.   She received the 2010 Printmaker Emertius Award, recognizing her art and career from the Southern Graphics Council International, the largest organization of print artists in the world.

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Images by Toner: left:  Pegit, drawing.    right: Seed Exchange, etching

Lauren Kussro is Assistant Professor at University of Houston Clear Lake.   She received her MFA from University of Tennessee, and BFA from Indiana University-Herron School of Art and Design, Indianapolis.

Recent exhibitions include: Solo show The Reef, at 500x Gallery, Dallas; Metamorphosis, IU Kokomo Art Gallery, Indiana; Atlanta Print Biennial, Kai Llin Art, Atlanta, GA.

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Images by Kussro:  left:  Lush Tangle, intaglio & thread;  right:  Reef, screenprint, thread, beads

Artist in Residence Ayaka Nakamura

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Artist in Residence Aya Nakamura has been in the studio throughout November, working on a  huge painting/drawing on canvas, and enjoyed have the wall and space!   Aya is from Tokyo, Japan, and enjoyed the quiet pace and light in Nebraska.   She also worked on woodcuts combined with painting, and dived into learning about oil-base ink for woodcut methods (the image below is of her woodcut in the drying rack, so an unusual perspective here).  Her works in animation are featured in the programing on Thursdays and Fridays at the CUBE Art Project of Lincoln, in the Haymarket Railyard.  This is our giant outdoor digital projection site, and the art series are by artists from all over the world.   https://www.cubelincoln.com/

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Screen Shot 2017-12-11 at 4.12.57 PM

So great to have Aya here, and thank you for joining the Constellation Studios community.

Facets: on etching

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First Friday, January 5, 6 – 8pm

Through January 31

View a spectrum of etching techniques and mixed media prints by Karen Kunc.   Deeply bitten aquatints from her grad school thesis, compare to embossed color line etchings and woodcuts on waxed papers, and to recent mezzotints and small etchings.   All such intaglio techniques capture textures and information “below the surface” of the plate, where the ink is trapped when the plate surface is wiped, and then ink is transferred to paper under pressure through the press.   Each work fits into Kunc’s overarching interest to how lines and gestures are translated and transformed through various printed qualities.   Here her innovative approaches combine  her experience with all print media, her development of personalized vocabulary of color, and challenge scale and detail.

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Picture here are (top)Blue Gem, etching & woodcut on waxed paper, 2003;

(lower) Treatyse, artist book of etching, polymer relief, letterpress on handmade watermarked paper, 2017.

Our Skyline Exhibition

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October 28 – November 30

First Friday Reception, November 3, 6-8pm

Constellation Studios presents Our Skyline, a creative project and exhibition, of hand carved linoleum block prints by over 28 community artists and 20 UNL students.   The prints were created in respond to the historic linoleum block print by noted Nebraska art teacher Gladys Lux created in the 1930’s of the Lincoln skyline with the state capitol building under construction. This print is featured in the exhibition on loan from the Lux family. This creative project is an Official Event of the Nebraska Sesquicentennial, and celebrates 150 years of statehood.

Our Skyline participants were inspired with a myriad of art and design approaches: views of our state capitol, downtown, distant viewpoints of Lincoln, urban construction, iconic Nebraska landmarks, rural settings and structures, our open skies, nature silhouettes of trees, grasses, the prairie, and conceptual ideas. Participants took part in two printing sessions to carve and print with assistants to run blocks and paper through the presses during the sessions. For many this was their first time creating a print, with “printing magic” transforming their mark-making into a striking graphic statement.

48 Artists:

Nora Abdel Monem, Christie Asuoha, Joel Anderson, Anissa Bensen, Abby Birkel, Jeri Brainard , Kristin Brooks, Anne Burton, Keith Buswell, Austin Carstens, Dana Clements , Haley Collins, Sally Cox, Erin Cross, Samantha Evans, Lynette Fast, David Fowler, Amy Groff, Abigail Groth, Justin Groth, Amanda Guenther, Mary Guenther, Emily Heater, Madeline Hinrichs, Michele Hrbek, Kristina Insingo, Brynna James, Carolyn Johnson, Megan Kemptar, Hannah Klemme, Karen Kunc, Rise Lange, Yoojeong Lee, Mariah Livingston, Lisa Mills, Brookely Nitsch, Gail Ogden, Lindsey Pinkerton, Diane Reece, Emily Reiman, Jessica Reiter, Jackie Rogers, Rachel Saniuk, Yria Santos-Torres, Kate Speicher, Kristin Vorderstrasse, Emma Ward Jamaica Wilson

Lux_Capitol_Print  Print by Gladys Lux, 1936

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PR!NT LNK Print Sale

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First Friday, December 1, 6 – 9pm

Saturday, December 2, 10am – 3pm

 

Discover the world of the print with woodcuts, linoleum prints, etchings, intaglios, mezzotints, lithographs, screen prints, digital prints, monoprints, letterpress.

For collecting & gifting. Featuring local print artists and students! PrintLNKlogo

Artists:

Anissa Bensen , Anne Burton, Keith Buswell, Hannah Demma, Amanda Durig, Madelyne Hansen, Kat Hedges, Brynna James, Karen Kunc, Erika Larson, Yoojeong Lee, Hannah Maakestad, Emily Mazur-Mickells, Pecos Pryor, Nicholas Sheldon, Danley Walkington, Stephanie Wright

Migrations! Collaborative Stamping Project by UNL Print Students. And Works on Paper by Sukha Worob

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September 22 – October 21

Constellation Studios, Lincoln, NE

Reception Friday, September 22, 6-8pm

Meet the Artists!

Ghosts in the Noise - post collaborationZamenhof's Trials - mid installation

Migrations is a huge gallery installation printed by handcast rubber stamps and ink of iconic images created by UNL students, inspired by Visiting Artist Suhka Worob.   The possibility to carve and cast one’s own rubber stamps enables unique icons for repeat printing and layers to accumulate and evolve.   The students did the stamping and printing on the large gallery wall, creating patterning and concepts of mass migrations – of birds, insects, herds, people, and the conveyances that transport the many individuals that make up the whole.

Worob will present his own print works on paper in a concurrent exhibition.   He has developed this innovative casting process and DIY attitude to create with stamping and rollers for large scale printing impact of a myriad of symbols and signs.

Artist Statement: “My work is created using hand-cast rubber rollers covered in raised dots. The rollers are inked up using cyan, yellow, magenta and black. The dots and colors reference the building blocks of printed ephemera. During printing, patterns and images begin to emerge out of the random color relationships and dot placements. The resulting color relationships and images ask the viewer and participating creator to examine their interest in seeking deeper meaning and context for what is, at its core, just random chance.”

On View: Recent Projects & Reef Installation

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Reef is a multi-layered print installation in which printed patterns from woodblocks merge in radiant atmospheres of color. Printed onto translucent Japanese papers, the images seem to accumulate like colonies of microscopic corals, schools of floating plankton, and reference the largest single structure built by living organisms on earth, the endangered Great Barrier Reef.

Also on view are new artist books and prints by Karen Kunc.

 

 

Color Woodcut Workshop – Great success!

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Thank you everyone for joining in with such good spirit of work, sharing, intensity and experimentation.   It was fun and challenging to steer the energy and questions…..a great learning experience for all!  Here are some of the works and students!

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Artists in Residence Marnix Everart & Veronique Van Remoortel

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Marnix & Veronique came from Ghent, Belgium for a two week residency at Constellation Studios.   Marnix developed his copperplate etchings with non-toxic BIG ground and acrylic aquatint for a new print series that suggests science-like instructions and images.   While Veronique developed her own cut paper image sources from design magazines to create meticulous and humorous collages.   They enjoyed summertime and fireworks in Lincoln, and their time for a creative retreat.   So great to have you here and look for your return soon so we can continue our conversations!

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Kunc solo show [ARTSPACE], Oklahoma City

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Waves of Riches is a beautiful installation that includes prints, and books, and the installation of a large, layered paper multi-print work.   Here are some photos to capture the sense of the installation, thanks to photographer Ann Sherman.   On view May 18 – July 15, 2017.

 

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details from Unfolding the Map

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Here are some nice details from the exhibition Unfolding the Map.   What a beautiful show, and so honored to have these works at the studio!

Behl Dawson

Diana Behl                                                                    Sage Dawson

Doyle Jepson

 

Tallmadge Doyle                                                      Jill Jepson

Maury Nishimura

Nichole Maury                                                        Emma Nishimura

Plank

Carrie Ann Plank