Five Hixson-Lied Visiting Artist & Scholar Lectures will take place virtually this month in the School of Art, Art History & Design.
Each lecture is free and open to the public and will be presented via Zoom.
• Street artist and craftivist Jessie Hemmons (ishknits) will present the Hixson-Lied Visiting Artist Lecture on Wednesday, Feb. 24 at 5:30 p.m. Access the lecture at https://unl.zoom.us/j/96482899661.
Hemmons started yarnbombing in 2011, covering urban objects with knitting in downtown Philadelphia. She began making these knitted installations to show the feasibility of using more diverse mediums in street art, thrust passersby out of their everyday urban experience and improve accessibility to art in the community.
Soon taking on the moniker ishknits, she gradually expanded her installations and began taking on a more overtly political tone. She used yarnbombing as a way to shine a light on issues related to feminism, misogyny and interpersonal violence.
• Photographer Tarrah Kajnak will present the Hixson-Lied Visiting Artist Lecture on Wednesday, March 3 at 5:30 p.m. Access the lecture at https://unl.zoom.us/j/92360930703.
Born in Lima, Peru, Kajnak is currently Associate Professor of Art and Director of the Monroe Center for Social Inquiry on Racial Justice at Pitzer College in Claremont, California.
Krajnak is a 2020 Lightwork AIR recipient, and her work "El Jardín De Senderos Que Se Bifurcan" was awarded the 2020 Dorothea Lange-Paul Taylor Prize by the Center for Documentary Studies. A monograph of the project is forthcoming with DAIS books in early 2021.
• An art history panel titled “Serious Play: Radical Publications and Their Histories” will take place on Thursday, March 11 at 5:30 p.m. Access the panel at https://unl.zoom.us/j/91088525799.
The panel will feature Sampada Aranke, Assistant Professor of Art History, School of the Art Institute of Chicago; Alexis Salas, Assistant Professor of Art History, New Mexico State University; Julia Neal, Lecturer in African American Art History, Georgia State University; and Kieran Jack Wilson, photographer and activist in Lincoln.
As paper zines, signage, and print material continue to give form to the current set of global crises, this panel examines the new histories that emerge when we examine distributable print media in terms of crisis and social movements.
• Ceramic artist Deb Schwartzkopf will present the Hixson-Lied Visiting Artist Lecture on Wednesday, March 24 at 5:30 p.m. Access the lecture at https://unl.zoom.us/j/99934128248.
Schwartzkopf is a Seattle-based studio potter making fine porcelain tableware through Rat City Studios. Ceramics Monthly awarded her Ceramic Artist of the Year in 2019.
• Artist Joel Damon will present the Hixson-Lied Visiting Artist Lecture on Wednesday, March 31 at 5:30 p.m. Access the lecture at https://unl.zoom.us/j/93925142986. Damon is co-founder and co-curator of Project Project, an independent, DIY contemporary arts space in South Omaha, Nebraska.
As a designer, Joel makes his money in the corporate setting. He also creates work for all Project Project events as well as local concerts and arts events. In 2018 he co-founded a now national network of volunteers that serves minority communities and businesses across the country through design, photography, editing, and resume building, all free of charge to the clients.
Underwritten by the Hixson-Lied Endowment with additional support from other sources, the series enriches the culture of the state by providing a way for Nebraskans to interact with luminaries in the fields of art, art history and design.
For a full listing of spring lectures, visit https://go.unl.edu/h4sa.
For more information on the series, contact the School of Art, Art History & Design at (402) 472-5522.