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Home - Art
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Mentor Spotlight
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Bellows Center artist mentors show at
Creighton’s Lied Gallery
by Sarah Baker Hansen
For the artist mentors working with Omaha teenagers at the Kent Bellows Studio and Center for Visual Arts, an exhibit is more than a chance to show some work.
Panoptic, on display at the Creighton Lied Art Gallery, will prove one important fact to the students in the program: These artists are the real deal.
The group showing includes lots of strong, well-known Omaha artists. Many are regularly part of large group shows and, in many cases, big solo shows are the norm. But when they’re hanging out with a student or group of students one-on-one, those dynamics change.
Students develop their own course of study in the Bellows programs, and spend up to 20 hours a month working directly with a mentor, building knowledge with the goal of a successful career in the arts. Weston Thomson, education manager for the Bellows Studio, said even though students aren’t showing in Panoptic, it’s still a big deal for the program.
“The students expect to see something dynamic,” Thomson said. “Any time the faculty get together as a collective, the group makes a powerful statement.”
Thomson said this show plays a role in the program, as an example for students, who will put on their own group show at the end of the semester.
Panoptic is an apt title. Thomson, who also curated the show, said he chose the architectural term, which is defined as “including everything visible in one view,” because the show lets the viewer see many views from one starting point.
The show opens with four strong works from Omaha artist Wanda Ewing. No matter how many times one sees her Bougie magazine covers, they never lose strength. Here she shows a selection of five, some that she’s shown at the University of Nebraska at Omaha Gallery.
Omaha artist Joey Lynch also shows work viewers may have seen. His piece “R.T.” was displayed this year at Lincoln’s Tugboat Gallery. The two other pieces he shows depart from his usual style; both titled “Key,” they’re done on raggedly, torn pieces of wallpaper, screen-printed, then top-coated until they reach a high, shellacked gloss. It’s an exciting new direction for a familiar artist.
Becca Herskovitz’s pieces — “in her memory everything was almost beautiful” and “but now I know we are the same” — are captivating. The pieces, on plywood, show lightly rendered telephone wires amid a loose collage of Polaroid photographs and leaves. Caolán O’Loughlin showed a series of serene landscapes, where huge skies set off tiny slivers of land. I especially liked the piece on wood.
Bill Hoover shows four newer works, two with religious themes and one abstract piece; all embrace his well-known folk art style. Claudia Alvarez’s “El Modo de Nico” also feels familiar, with the artist using the subject she’s most known for — children.
Matt Jones showed a series of interesting, textural pieces that he said, in his artist’s statement, reflected the prairie and an interest in surface. I could see those derivatives. The pieces use lots of elements, including plaster, cracked linen laminate, metallic leaf and polychrome, to achieve a finish that is both rough and smooth, seeming natural and man-made all at the same time. I’d like to see more of his work.
Panoptic, the Kent Bellows Studio and Center for Visual Arts Mentor Show, continues through Dec. 12. The Lied Gallery is located on the Creighton University campus at 2500 California Plaza. For more information, visit finearts.creighton.edu or email liedartgallery@creighton.edu.
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