Julian Dashper exhibit opens Jan. 14 at Sheldon Art Gallery

"Midwestern Unlike You and Me: New Zealand's Julian Dashper," which explores 25 years of the artist's concept-based art, opens Jan. 14 at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery. The exhibition, co-curated by Christopher Cook of the Sioux City Art Center and David Raskin of The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, will be at the Sheldon through March 26.

The exhibition's focus is the creative process: How an artist uses ideas, traditions and limitations to produce original art. Born in New Zealand in 1960, Dashper was deeply influenced by art produced in New York in the late-1950s and 1960s. But distance made his interaction with American art difficult, and he makes the filter of reproductions and fragments through which he experienced American art a subject of his art.

Dashper employs a variety of media (painting, sculpture, photography, video, ready-made objects and sound) in his art, which reflects a modest, pared-down aesthetic that encourages viewers to have a contemplative art experience. In some instances, such as a phone ringing unanswered in a basement phone booth, there is no art object at all, only the viewer's imagination that becomes an object of reflection.

Dashper has maintained a prolific, international art career since the early 1980s, having participated in over 100 solo exhibitions worldwide, but only twice previously in the United States. His art is in the collections of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney, Australia, the Ludwig Forum fur Internationale Kunst in Aachen, Germany, and Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam.

This exhibition opened last year at the Sioux City Art Center in Sioux City, Iowa, and after leaving the Sheldon it will travel to the Ulrich Museum of Art at Wichita (Kan.) State University.

In addition to a gallery guide, an illustrated exhibition catalogue will be available in the Sheldon Museum Store. The public is invited to a panel discussion about the exhibition, beginning at 4 p.m. Jan. 13. Sheldon curator Dan Siedell will discuss the Dashper exhibition in his "Let's Talk Art" lecture, which is open to the public at 2 p.m. Jan. 15.

"Midwestern Unlike You and Me" is made possible with support from the Nebraska Art Association and Nebraska Arts Council.

The Philip Johnson-designed Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery houses a permanent collection of more than 13,000 objects focusing on American art. The Sheldon, located at 12th and R streets on the UNL City Campus, is open to the public Tuesday through Sunday. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Friday, and noon to 5 p.m. on Sunday. Admission is free. For information or to arrange a tour, please call (402) 472-2461. Additional information is available on the Museum Web site, www.sheldon.unl.edu.

The link below is to a color JPEG image of a piece from "Midwestern Unlike You and Me," "Untitled, drumhead."

CONTACT: Tom White, Public Relations Manager, Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery, (402) 472-1197