Six artists will be presenting Hixson-Lied Visiting Artist & Scholar lectures this spring in the University of Nebraska–Lincoln’s School of Art, Art History & Design, including three in February.
The School of Art, Art History & Design’s Hixson-Lied Visiting Artist & Scholar Lecture Series brings notable artists, scholars and designers to Nebraska each semester to enhance the education of students.
Each lecture takes place at 5:30 p.m. in Richards Hall Rm. 15. The lectures are free and open to the public.
Opening the fall series is photographer Andrea Modica, who will present her lecture on Feb. 6.
Modica was born in New York City and lives in Philadelphia, where she works as a photographer and teaches at Drexel University. She is a Guggenheim Fellow, a Fulbright Scholar and the recipient of a Knight Award.
Her books include “Treadwell” (Chronicle), “Minor League” (Smithsonian Press), “Barbara” (Nazraeli), “Human Being” (Nazraeli), “Fountain” (Stinehour Editions) and most recently, “As We Wait” (L’Artiere), now in its second edition. Her most recent monograph is a collection of portraits of Mummer Wenches, titled “January 1” (L’Artiere). Upcoming is a book of photographs made at a horse clinic in Italy, titled “Clinica Equina Bagnarola” (Tis Books).
Her photographs have been featured in many magazines, including the New York Times Magazine, the New Yorker, Newsweek and American Photo.
Papermaker and artist Shannon Brock presents her lecture on Feb. 13.
Brock is art director of Carriage House Paper, founder of Gaptoothed Studio in Brooklyn, New York, and president and skater for Gotham Girls Roller Derby.
She formed her first sheet of paper in 1990 and has spent the past 28 years developing her techniques and finding new ways to manipulate plant fibers. She has taught papermaking throughout the U.S. and Australia and her pulp paintings and sculptural work are exhibited nationally and internationally.
Ceramist Virgil Ortiz will present his lecture Feb. 27.
One of the most innovative potters of his time, Ortiz moves Pueblo pottery into a new era combining art, décor, fashion, video and film.
Ortiz keeps Cochiti pottery traditions alive, but transforms them into a contemporary vision that embraces his Pueblo history and culture and merges it with apocalyptic themes, science fiction and his own storytelling. Ortiz’s exquisite works have been exhibited in museum collections around the world.
The remaining lectures in the series are:
• March 13: Leo G. Mazow, art history. Mazow is the Louise B. and J. Harwood Cochrane Curator of American Art at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.
• April 11: Mary Pardo, art history. Pardo is an associate professor in the Department of Art and Art History at the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill. She specializes in Italian Renaissance art and art criticism.
• April 25: Alexander Ross, painting. Ross is represented by David Nolan Gallery in New York. His awards include a Guggenheim Fellowship; a Louis Comfort Tiffany Award; an Art Production Fund Fellowship; Residency at the Musée Claude Monet in Giverny, France; and an Artist Fellowship Grant from the Tesuque Foundation.
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. Each visiting artist or scholar spends one to three days on campus to meet with classes, participate in critiques and give demonstrations.
For more information on the series, contact the School of Art, Art History & Design at (402) 472-5522 or e-mail schoolaahd@unl.edu.