Kenneth Adkins confronts and responds to socio-psychological questions and afflictions. The movement between frantic and stable is evident in his paintings. One painting may be seen as brooding while others schizophrenic. Through the use of non-traditional materials and methods, his paintings and sculptures document and preserve ideas, observations, and situations of the human condition.
Several bodies of work are produced si
Nebraska...
Nebraska
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Artist Statement
Sculpture is the vehicle through which I believe I can best express the joys and sorrows of the human condition. I have always had an affinity for working in metal, and have developed experience and expertise with various mediums, ranging from fabricated stainless steel to cast bronze. Whether creating an abstract work in steel or a representational figurative sculpture in bronze, it is my hope that the beauty and power of sculpted forms which I find so compelling is conveyed to those who view my work....
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Artist Statement
I like to think of my work as a basis for sparking visual conversations, ones that engage viewers in dialogues about organization amid chaos – and vice versa. I have always been fascinated by life’s inherent dualities: the secure sameness that guides our everyday lives despite the underlying reality that anything – and everything – can change in an instant. Yet this chaos is in itself a constant, an unpredictability we can predict with absolute certainty.
Through my paintings and sculptures I seek to address this duality.
Omaha
Nebraska...
Omaha, Nebraska
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Artist Statement "It's in your hand, your eye, the only way to learn to paint is to paint. What makes an artist isn't necessarily skill or talent, it's something else. A lot of people have a considerable ability to draw or paint but aren't interested in approaching it in a serious or thoughtful way. It's far more important to me to learn to see what is essential and paint from the heart. If the viewer is sensitive they will respond to the emotion you put into it." Artist Bio
Greeley
Colorado...
Greeley, Colorado
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Statement
My father was a gardener and one of his greatest gifts to me was the gift of faith that a seed planted will sprout and grow. Nature, seeds and seed pods have a metaphoric presence in my work, speaking of my father, of life, of potential, and of rebirth.
Sioux City
Iowa...
Sioux City, Iowa
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Artist Statement
I think of my work as formal experiments grounded in pleasure and aesthetics. My approach allows for improvisation and surprises, similar to when I am recording music.
Nebraska...
Nebraska
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Artist Statement
At any given time, I carry around with me an assortment of odd, haptic experiences and visual impressions — how can I forget my near sighted father, sitting in the dark living room without his glasses on, staring at the Christmas tree lights because they were fuzzy, orbs of color; and then him inviting me, his thirteen year old son to take my glasses off so that I also might participate in his seeing — these referents register with me.
Seward
Nebraska...
Seward, Nebraska
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Artist Statement (2008)
“My paintings have been and continue to be influenced by Willem de Kooning, Nathan Olivera and the Bay Area Figurative Movement. Lately I have been looking at Rembrandt and Monet, more in terms of surface technique and less in terms of subject matter. I have come to believe in a kind of alchemy whereby a thought can be transformed from being a mere idea into a complex image. The rendering transforms into something so sophisticated technically that it defies explanation and confounds its own mode of execution....
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LES BRUNING
Omaha, NE
Les Bruning has an extensive career as both artist and mentor, well known for his public art in the Metro and beyond. Les was born in Syracuse, KS and raised in Nebraska. After studying at the Graz Center in Austria, he graduated with a BA in Art from Nebraska Wesleyan University, and in 1970 he earned a MFA in Sculpture from Syracuse University.
Les was a Professor and Chairman of the Art Department at Bellevue University from 1973-2011 and is a founding member of the Hot Shops Art Center in Omaha....
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Artist Statement
As I go through my everyday life, I am drawn to seemingly uninspiring observations and experiences, such as watching a bug walking across a leaf, riding a bike, taking apart a machine to see how it works or pondering a question from my child which I just can not answer. These simple occurrences inspire me to explore these ideas further through art. ...
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b. 1933 - d. 2024
Artist Statement
I am an oil painter. The supports for my work include canvas, paper and masonite because I feel that each surface demands a different approach and yields variation to my work.
Lincoln
Nebraska...
Lincoln, Nebraska
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Artist Statement
Painting: The relentless advancement of technology is one of the defining instincts that sets humans apart. This theme has been a consistent thread in my work, explored through various lenses. In this most recent painted installment of my “Parts” series, I drew inspiration from repair manuals for 1950s and 1960s Caterpillar earth-moving equipment. Beyond the inherent beauty of the source material, these images invite reflection on the deeper meanings they carry....
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Artist Statement
Printmaking and computer animation do have a lot in common. I have made prints since the early 1970’s and worked with computer generated imagery since the mid 1980’s. I find that the overlap of technologies is often the most rewarding area to explore. In gallery situations I often exhibit prints and animations in the same visual space for a more interactive viewing experience....
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Artist Statement
For me painting means being always on the lookout for an image/idea that excites. Sounds straightforward but it’s nothing like a straight line. So many things count: The creamy light of late afternoon; the abstract beauty of marks on the side of a train car; cows standing in silage... I search for a subject or a visual find that I just can’t walk away from. Some condition in nature or a subject grabs hold and I have to try and paint it. Happening upon such circumstances are magical gifts offered to a painter for sure. Moments of grace....
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Artist Statement
My love of art in all its different forms began at an early age. My father, a military officer, was an avid photographer in his off time, and my mother, a gifted oil painter, taught me the finer points of composition, color and design.
I had long been attracted to abstract art, but as a fine art photographer for many years, it seemed I was not to create abstracts, but just enjoy the works of others. I have been a member of the Artists of Northwest Arkansas of Northwest Arkansas since 1991 and watched fellow artists cr
Fayetteville, AR...
Fayetteville, AR
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Artist Statement
As a boy, photographer Larry Ferguson watched his mother plant over 600 olive trees, each barely a foot high, to create a windbreak for the family’s farm in rural Nebraska. Forty years later, those saplings now soar to the sky, and even more indelibly, continue their looming influence over the photographer and his work. Modern Arts Midwest hosted Larry Ferguson: Moved By The Spirits, a solo exhibition of black-and-white photographs in October 2008.
Omaha
Nebraska...
Omaha, Nebraska
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Catherine Ferguson’s work is featured in public and private collections across the region, including major Nebraska museums such as the Sheldon Museum of Art in Lincoln, the Museum of Nebraska Art, the University of Nebraska at Omaha, the Landmarks building, and the Omaha Public Library Main Branch.
Ferguson is particularly well known for installations that are transcendent and transformative, and critics have noted the idealistic and often mythical quality intrinsic to her work....
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Artist Statement
My influences are mid-century jazz, voodoo and a whole lotta pop culture which includes Happy Meal toys and an avalanche of Saturday morning cartoons. I live with my family in a nice little apartment chock full of bizarre curios, fetishes and trinkets, which serve as my advisory council.
Artist Bio
Bishop Frost was born in Texas, grew up in New Orleans, and currently resides in Omaha.
Nebraska...
Nebraska
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Artist Statement
I don't stitch pieces of fabric together, I gather some forgotten territories. This is for me a way to pay homage to the humans from the Upper Paleolithic period, or more precisely to the Magdalenian people who invented the sewing needle.
Although splicing, sewing, today have become ordinary practices, it is nevertheless this brilliant invention that has fostered the expansion of our own species upon the near totality of the planet. That was about 20,000 years ago....
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Artist Statement
Growing up in the street-wise underground of Chicago and in recent years, Omaha, Gennardo has subsisted with occasional side jobs “in search of something great” through his art. He considers himself an abstract expressionist.
Nebraska...
Nebraska
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Artist Statement
My sculptural concepts are conceived from mechanical, aerodynamic, industrial architecture and natural forms. Most sculptures start from sketches which are uploaded to CAD modeling software, altered and then fabricated. I work with carbon steel, stainless steel and aluminum. Surface finishes include grinding, sanding, anodizing natural rust patinas and acrylic urethane painting. My formal education, includes a Bachelor of Technology Degree, and Associate Degrees in Industrial Welding and Nondestructive Testing....
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Artist Statement
My goal is to create images that I find absorbing. By this I mean images that are ambiguous, not predictable, that are able to surprise me, and take on a life of their own. My methodology combines intuition and reflection, and approaches the canvas from all directions.
Literally, I paint then rotate the canvas, then paint again, then rotate again....
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b. 1930 - d. 2020
Peter Hill received his B.A. from Albion College in Avion, MI in 1956, and his M.F.A. in 1958 from the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, MI. Peter showed his work in over sixty juried and invitational exhibitions and more than eighteen one-person shows.
Omaha
Nebraska...
Omaha, Nebraska
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Himmelfarb has made a career of turning two-dimensional space inside-out and topsy-turvy: drawings so dense with imagery they appear to be calligraphy; calligraphic paintings that balance mark and space in an ambiguous dance of push-and-pull; colorful iconic forms that might be pictographs, could be figurative, might be pure abstraction; matrices of nervous line that are layered with residual forms/shapes from earlier paintings sometimes asserting themselves as foreground and sometimes acting as ghosts of paintings past, pentimenti offering quiet testimony to his persistent search for ba...
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Artist Statement
Over the years, I have spent time traveling the highways and country roads that outline the fields and farms of Nebraska and Eastern Colorado. As the years have passed, I have observed fewer open fields under wide skies. They have been interrupted by sprawling subdivisions and cell phone towers. The clean white farm houses, red barns, and silver bins which have provided a beautiful contrast to the green and gold fields are being swallowed up by growing communities.
Kearney
Nebraska...
Kearney, Nebraska
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Artist Statement
I begin with a fascination with optical pattern and its ability to both imply and deny volume. As I play with snippets of patterned papers, beloved and sometimes ominous subjects appear of their own accord. My everyday environment influences this flow of images more than I like to admit.
To offset the regimentation of pattern, I strive for the loose handling of paint. Acrylic is, after all, plastic and I am trying to make plastic seductive, which sometimes seems like a tall order.
Lincoln
Nebraska...
Lincoln, Nebraska
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Artist Statement
The tensions that exist between the natural and the built environments are at the heart of much of my work. Equally important is the notion of the metaphysical dimension of those environmental realities that we engage with on a daily basis. I'm interested in that which is essential and immaterial....
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Artist Statement
My father demonstrated drawing to me as a preschooler. I could only draw circles at the time, but when I made circles which I saw as a face, I was shocked. I was hooked on drawing from then on. I was raised on a farm and I believe my interest in plants, animals, people and water are related to my agricultural upbringing.
Regardless of subject matter, each painting is an abstract puzzle. I constantly repaint paintings until they look logical and the puzzle is solved.
Nebraska...
Nebraska
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Artist Statement
I am a visual scavenger, always on the lookout for the thing that looks like another thing . The patterns in woodgrain look like eyes, mouths, hair, water. The reflection in a teacup looks like a map, a map looks like an anatomical drawing and the anatomical drawing of a spine reminds me of a fern. I collect the images from books, catalogs, internet searches, museum websites and from photos I take on my daily walks.
These bits and pieces form my collages.
Nebraska...
Nebraska
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Artist Statement
Jacqueline Kluver works with the patience and tenacity of a weaver. She is a weaver of paint. In a Zen-like state of layering patches and strokes of color, patterns emerge and in a continued process, dissolve again into new patterns. Over time she layers “painting over painting” intuitively and with obsessive ritual she arrives at her desired destination.
Omaha
Nebraska...
Omaha, Nebraska
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Roberto Kusterle was born in Gorizia (Italy) in 1948.
Since the Seventies he has worked within the field of the Visual Arts, devoting himself to painting and installation works. His interest in photography began in 1988, which has become his primary way to express himself. He lives and works in Gorizia.
visit the artists website here....
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Artist Statement
I use my camera as a tool, like a brush or a pencil; tools are tools, extensions of the user, none more "artistic" than the other. The goal of my art is to turn looking in seeing, a goal common to nearly any art. My seeing typically involves a narrative and a search for direction. The rest is up to the viewer -- to engage seeing.
Artist Bio
Hastings
Nebraska...
Hastings, Nebraska
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Artist Statement
Loveless’s glue paintings present a patterned realm of action and reaction. They involve a wet-on-wet technique that’s been in development for 20 years, yielding an intricate and luminous surface of milky translucence in which richly hued inks and watercolors are suspended....
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Artist Statement
My mission as an artist is to capture and communicate the essence of classic modern architecture and design through stylization and abstraction.
All of my paintings are inspired and informed by the interiors, exteriors and sites of real or imaginary modern buildings.
Nebraska...
Nebraska
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Artist Statement
David McLeod produces medium-sized paintings that explore the limits of visual acuity with near-white surfaces and very low contrast variations across the surface, some involving textures of various illusionary and "real" materials. He also produces "drawings" that explore varieties of mark-making.
Nebraska...
Nebraska
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Artist Statement
I have always loved to draw since I was a child and I just never stopped. My works in graphite and charcoal strive to explore the use of simple material to portray simple subject matter and composition with a borderline eccentric approach to detail. By working in black and grey scale mediums, the absence of color allows for a more stripped down, immediate translation and connection with the viewer and their senses. I use my own photo references for many of my drawings based on sheer time involved with the creation....
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Artist Statement
I am an abstract painter. The imagery and concepts of science, mainly chemistry and biochemistry, influence me. The human body has a continual presence in my work, appearing as a cluster of geometric shapes. Other geometric forms evoke pattern, matrix and environment. Our shared biology has a deep connection to geometric form.
Lincoln
Nebraska...
Lincoln, Nebraska
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Artist Statement
These paintings are both a celebration of color and a study of the way that patterns and disruptions can distort and transform our senses. Color can have a profound effect on us and can take our imagination on a journey through space and time, often to places unknown. I've always dreamed in vivid color, and this series is inspired by lucid dreams or visions that my mind creates when I'm drifting off to sleep. As humans, we tend to crave order and structure.
Nebraska...
Nebraska
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b. 1946 - d. 2024
Artist Statement
Kat Moser explores the potency of the female form and the otherworldly aspects of earth and water through her elegant, ethereal and often enigmatic photographs. By envisioning age-old cultural narratives first experienced in fairy tales, mythology and legends, Moser allows the viewer to revisit mystery and imagination through fresh eyes.
Moser was drawn to photography from the world of fashion.
Colorado...
Colorado
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Stephen Mueller was born in Joliet, IL in 1952. From the ages of 8 to 20 he lived in Switzerland, Germany and Australia. He returned to America in 1972 to attend the John Herron School of Art where he studied with Gary Freeman and received his BFA in 1976....
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Artist Statement
As a painter and sculptor, I draw inspiration from the techniques and crafts of past masters and fuse them with contemporary issues that are important to me. I approach my artwork like an archaeologist in reverse: taking familiar objects from the present and representing them as
Omaha
Nebraska...
Omaha, Nebraska
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Artist Bio
Charles Novich is a painter of representational temperament. Although he produces oil paintings and graphite works, he is known primarily for his watercolors. A basis for art education was obtained at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln with further focused studies from Steve Roberts and John C. Miller. He prefers work on a small scale. His work is popular among private collectors and has been exhibited in national shows from California to Maryland....
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Artist Statement
I am a seventh generation Nebraskan on one side of my family, and the descendant of New England textile mill workers on the other. Sewing is my first creative language, and has been a part of my life from a very young age. Through my work I explore ideas of place, lineage, longing, and belonging. A former textile designer, I love exploring the interplay of different patterns and colors and the push/pull of positive and negative space. My work is influenced by traditional quilt motifs, as well as modern graphic design.
Nebraska...
Nebraska
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Artist Statement
The need to create is certain.
Sioux City
Iowa...
Sioux City, Iowa
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Artist Statement
A painting begins with an emotion whether it comes from a memory, a conversation or the sun and shade fighting over a shiny drainpipe. To me, colors have feelings and shapes have a story to tell.
Nebraska...
Nebraska
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Artist Statement
"Photography as a form of mindful meditation can slow, calm and focus. It asks us to quiet the mind to allow for observation of our surroundings. My subjects exist in everyday shapes, textures, colors, cracks, folds and forgotten spaces. In slowing down, I endeavor to observe and appreciate moments hidden in the small and incidental.
Nebraska...
Nebraska
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Artist Statement
Since about 1977 I've been working on paintings that explore issues related to space, illusion, form and shape. As a child I drew and painted all the time. When I discovered there was such a thing as perspective, I was amazed and fascinated. The idea that one could create illusion of space or depth by following certain basic principles was magic to me.
Lincoln
Nebraska...
Lincoln, Nebraska
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Artist Statement
Impasto painted strokes of bright colors are the framework of artist Shiri Phillips’ abstract artworks. Phillips uses thick strokes of color and places them with precision on canvas, creating a graphic-like or pixelated look. Her art is defined by the deliberate use of upbeat colors to convey an emotional and physical response.
Nebraska...
Nebraska
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Artist Statement
Madness is not something to be romanticized, sought after as genius in mysterious high esteem or paraded around in lofty hijinks. It’s a kind of suffering I only wish upon my worst enemy. Schizophrenia is a mess one can only escape by constructing a philosophy around the pain of an experience denied me by my science, my religion, and my culture. And this is from where the art stems, not from inspiration but out of desperation emanating from a place where if you are not depressed or insane you’re not paying attention. ...
Nebraska
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Artist Statement
My four-year-old daughter is standing at her little easel, she's gripping one of those red Crayola fatties. Sponge Bob Square Pants is blasting from the television. I wonder whatever happened to my cartoon heroes, "Foghorn Leghorn, and, Heckle and Jeckle?" My kid says, "look Pop, a circle!"... Shape.
I flashed back to when I was a kid, drawing whacked out bugs, and flying saucers on Xerox paper with one of those big black magic markers that would gas you out. ......
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Artist Statement
I am an interdisciplinary artist working at will in a wide scope of visual interests, moving within nonobjective and figurative content. It is my practice to manipulate materials, take risks and intuitively improvise within each painting. In essence, it is a daily practice of doing, seeing, learning and thinking.
Nebraska...
Nebraska
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b.1941 - d. 2022
Artist Statement
Recently, I have embarked on a new body of work that I call “painting with paper”. Through the use of hand-made, archival paper on board, these abstract images reflect formations of nature—geological phenomena, landscapes, fissures and strata.
Lincoln
Nebraska...
Lincoln, Nebraska
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Artist Statement
I love the spontaneity of gesture, so connected to impulse and intimacy. I employ light, transparency and spatial movement as I work. Drawing brings to my life a heightened sense of the now.
I am respoinding to inspiration drawn from nature, time and intimacy, feeling the present moment through the work, with the reality that we are alive right this second. The act of drawing is my subject.
Manhattan
Kansas...
Manhattan, Kansas
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Artist Statement
Colin C. Smith’s paintings and sculpture expand the conventions of painting. Beginning with the joys of material, color and the graphic image, Smith’s newest works are aggressive, buoyant and difficult to classify. The wall works reference minimal painting and expressionism, yet their colors and forms are fully contemporary. The floor sculptures are playful and casual, yet their offhandedness belies a rigorous process and intentional mark making. Colin is interested in making works that charge retinal and interior spaces.
Omaha
Nebraska...
Omaha, Nebraska
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Artist Statement Landscape photography for me is an ordering device. The boundaries of the frame organize space and objects. Being at the right place at the right time with the right equipment in the right frame of mind is essential. The photographs which result are documents of the physical landscape, but while the palate is sky, earth and trees, the reason for doing it is to create a visual image of an emotional response to the place where I am.
Lincoln
Nebraska...
Lincoln, Nebraska
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Artist Statement
Drawing is the foundation of all I do. I love the act of drawing and making marks on paper. I have always drawn flowers and plants and continue to keep sketchbooks of garden drawings. I use these drawings in my abstract pastels and paintings on canvas.
Iowa...
Iowa
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Michael Tegland has been been highly recognized for his intricate, meticulously drawn graphite works....
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Artist Statement
“Over the years of my career, I have moved between overt expressions of landscape stimulated by the open spaces of Illinois, Nebraska and eastern Colorado. The abstract works are influenced by personal medit
Nebraska...
Nebraska
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Artist Statement
Inspired from nature, these sculptures represent my interpretation of our natural and ephemeral world and become 3 dimensional paintings. Intuitively I begin a dance with chance and am challenged to manipulate the material in various stages to arrive at my final vision. This vision is to recreate the beauty of nature and suspend it in light.
Process
Jennifer Walker’s process involves tedious multiple castings and layering of pigmented resins.
Missouri...
Missouri
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Artist Statement
I paint and I construct. Both my paintings and assemblages use the metaphor of excavation. My formal education in landscape architecture and classical archaeology provides structure to artistic flights of fancy that always seem to revolve around some form of revelation: The attempt to unearth an object or solve a mystery. Uncovering/Covering. Leaving a Trace, a Vestige,
Ann Arbor, MI...
Ann Arbor, MI
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Artist Statement
For Edwin Carter Weitz, painting is about the navigation of space. "It causes you to move through an environment in ways you normally wouldn't. Along the way it makes connections, stirs up memories and causes you to feel. That's why we're drawn to it," he says. As president of creative services for one of America's most innovative advertising agencies, Weitz uses painting as an alternative outlet.
Nebraska...
Nebraska
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Artist Statement
There is joy in discovery. What can come from time, wood, tools, paint and the elements of art?
Nebraska...
Nebraska
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Bio
Don was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana in 1941. He grew up in Lincoln, NE and in 1959 entered the Universtiy of Nebraska as an art major. At the end of his sophmore year he was awarded a Max Beckmann Scholarship to study painting and sculpture at the Brooklyn Museum Art School. His year in New York was an unforgettable experience for a young art student who had never been in a city bigger than Omaha or further east than Iowa.
Don returned to Lincoln to finish his junior and senior years and received his BFA in painting in 1964....
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Artist Statement
Paintings: My painting method is an exploration of the material properties of paint. Series #58, Chemical Reaction Paintings, explores the various patterns created by the paint with particular interest in reaction-diffusion and morphogenesis patterns. Morphogenesis, the biological process that causes an organism to develop its shape, provides ...
Racing Stripe series 3 of 4
Based on 1965 Shelby Cobra
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