Artist in Residence Elizabeth Katt will be working at Constellation Studios this summer to continue her performance/action, “an accounting” begun in 2020. By hand, she meticulously documents each death due to coronavirus in the United States – one tally for each life lost, according to data from Worldometer and Columbia University. The piece’s significance is apparent as heaps of adding machine tape attest to COVID-19’s toll. Since starting the piece Katt’s silent labor has used 43 rolls of tape and will be continuing as she aims to document losses to date. Katt says out loud the number of lives lost to COVID-19 per day as it is recorded by her tally marks. It is her way of coming to terms with the inconceivable losses the US has suffered – breaking down the number 615,679 into small, manageable chunks. It drives home the fact that these losses were incremental and cumulative, each day filled with preventable death.
Katt will be at the studio 1-5 each Tuesday and Thursday, June 22 – end of July.
Katt is a current MFA graduate student at the University of
Maryland College Park, and she received her BFA from the UNL School of Art, Art
History & Design in 2016.
Katt will be at the studio 1-5 each Tuesday and Thursday,
June 22 – end of July.
Constellation Studios presents the new prints of Isaiah Jones, who imagines an ordinary domestic dialogue as an extraordinary sequence of etchings with text-as-image. In these prints, her hand lettered phrases could be spoken or thought by anyone, with the effect of shouts and whispers, as threads of dialogue repeat and spiral into graphic recombinations, as words are redacted, erased, and layered as if echoing memory and visualizing sentences in space. The narrative allows for relationships to grow, then deteriorate, emphatic declarations become misunderstandings, exploring and voicing inner expressions of desire and anxiety.
Jones
created her prints through the etching process, which uses acid to bite into a
copper plate. Areas are preserved with
acid resistant grounds while open areas are allowed to etch below the surface,
which is where the image is developed.
During printing, the plate holds the ink in the etched textured areas,
while the unetched areas are wiped clean.
The plate and paper are run through the press under great pressure to
cause the transfer of ink to the paper.
Additionally, Jones further worked the plate by using tools to burnish
or scrap the image away, leaving a “history” of what was once there, while new
areas were also etched into the plate, for a sense of layering and continual
evolution. The print is the record of
her actions, allowing the storytelling to “hang in the air”. Jones’ print series has a sense of urgency as
the quantity of impressions alone demonstrates a “give and take” of flowing
ideas and importance of communication.
Isaiah
Jones is a Lincoln artist and recent graduate of UNL with an MFA degree. Jones
was raised in the mountains of western North Carolina, and earned her BFA in
Printmaking from the Savannah College of Art and Design in Atlanta, Georgia, in
2015. She has exhibited her work locally
and served as the master printer to guest artists in Lincoln, Atlanta and
Savannah. Jones utilizes traditional printmaking, language, and storytelling to
create individual prints and large-scale installations.
Gallery Talk May 4, 5:30- 6:30, Instagram LIVE, and at the gallery
Constellation
Studios
presents a focused exhibition of the woodcut prints of studio member Anne Burton. Created recently for a major commission for
the Children’s Hospital and Medical Center in Omaha, these works on paper use a
quilt-like form to contain microscopic details of cells, hidden insects and
plants of Nebraska, a kaleidoscope of color transitions, while all resonating
with joy. Anne interprets her own cares
as a parent into a healing experience, that recognize the complexities and
vulnerabilities that we all share.
She
states:
A prism is a form that can both clarify and
distort. Light that travels through a prism bends to become visible as colors.
The invisible is made visible because of this interaction. The light itself is
not different, however the way we see it is transformed. As we all emerge from
a time of self-reflection and sorrow, this work reflects on how the shared
experience of collective hardship might lead us to change. We seem to have a
moment where we have the potential to radically change our relationship to the
world and one another.
This body of work began before the pandemic
as an exploration of my younger son’s illness and surgery after inhaling a rare
form of bacteria while playing in the dirt. That experience made me intensely
aware of the fragility of human health and how greatly it can be impacted by a
single random event. Through researching domestic ecosystems, I became
cognizant of just how much human health can be impacted by the destruction and
manipulation of the natural world. On a larger scale, and now seen through the
shared experience of a global pandemic, this work is an exploration of how we
all live in a delicate balance with the natural world. My son had his surgery at CHMC three years
ago, and time has helped to bend those difficult experiences back towards
beauty.
Originally
from Virginia Beach, VA, Anne now lives in Lincoln, NE with her husband and two
young sons. She is a full-time faculty member in the Art department at
Metropolitan Community College in Omaha and the ARTS program coordinator. She
teaches Printmaking, 2D Design and Drawing. She holds a BA in studio art from
the University of Richmond and an MFA in Printmaking from the University of
Nebraska-Lincoln. Anne has held residencies at Vermont Studio Center, the
Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts and the Cable Factory in Helsinki,
Finland. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, most
recently in the Duoro Print Biennial, Portugal, The Boston Printmakers North
American Biennial, the Lawrence Arts Center, and the Awagami Miniature Print
Exhibition, Japan.
This
exhibition presents the power of letters impressed into paper to print text for
posters, prints, bookworks, and broadsides.
These works are drawn from the Constellation Studios collection and
includes poetry, images, and timely assertions, as beautifully crafted objects,
or ephemera from events or announcements.
These are captivating for the graphic nature and physical dimension of
the printing, hand-produced by a variety of artists and designers.
For 500
years, from Gutenberg to the 1960’s, movable type of metal and wood held sway,
yet printing technologies evolved to offset lithography and digital processes,
which are more commercially prevalent now.
This left space for the renaissance of letterpress today, as artists and
designers use the “reclaimed” metal and wood type and vintage presses for
quality and hands-on directness. Now
this historic printing technology moves into the 21st Century as artists
strive to maintain and preserve the cultural legacy of fine press printing
while advancing it as a living art form, becoming self-publishers that embody
the power of the press, literally.
The
exhibition is curated by Kyle Nobles, assistant at Constellation Studios.
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.
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.
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:
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 seriesLeft foreground: Roger Rigorth’s carved oars Left background: Tana Kellner’s monoprints Right: Miguel Rivera’s printsL: Tana Kellner Middle: Miguel Rivera R: Leslie Jean BartL: Leslie Jean Bart’s photo series R: Karen Kunc, artist book and printsL: Karen Kunc R: Nancy Friedemann-Sánchez’s woodcut printL: Kristin Casaletto’s drawings Middle: Cheryl Goldsleger’s prints R: Ayisa Abraham’s photo seriesL: Ayisha Abraham Middle: Tara Sabharwal’s print series R: Veer Munshi’s photo installationL: Veer Munshi R: Oria Simonini’s watercolor paintingsL: Francisco Souto’s drawing Middle: Larry Millard’s batons R: Jamie Ho’s photographsRoger Rigorth’s oars floating across the spaceL: Cheryl Goldsleger R: Ayisa Abraham
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.
This will serve to keep and share memories of Kenny Walton and his art, and selections of his beautiful glass pieces will be available for purchase as supply allows. The store will be refreshed at times, so please keep checking back.
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.
