Residents in the Bemis Center Regional Exhibition

The LUX Center is proud to announce that our artists in residents Trudy Teijink and Arjan Zazueta got accepted into the Bemis Center for Contemporary Art's Regional Juried Exhibition! This exhibition highlights new talent and perspectives while forming new connections across contemporary art practices within the greater Omaha, Lincoln and Missouri Valley region. The exhibition’s juror, Kate Hackman chose our residents and 34 other artists from 217 submissions. Arjan's piece is featured on the Beamis website and can be viewed here. Trudy is pictured below helping install the exhibition. The exhibition runs from March 18th through April 16th for all those fortunate enough to attend!

Painting AIR Arjan Zazueta

A collection of artist-in-resident Arjan Zazueta's paintings was recently displayed in the LUX Center's gallery. Zazueta was born in California, later in life he moved to the east coast and now he finds himself here with us in the midwest!
            Zazueta majored in sculpture. When graduated he no longer had access to the facilities required for creating sculpture, which encouraged him to explore other mediums of art. During the time he did not have access to a studio, Zazueta created many drawings influenced by thoughts and images of everyday life. His gallery collection was influenced heavily by these drawings and consisted mainly of portraits--some of children, some of adults, one of Frida Kahlo--all of which are positioned within the open, neutral backdrop of blank canvas. His gallery pieces combine his interests in abstract art, drawing, and exploring his cultural identity as a Mexican American. Upon completion of this installation at the LUX, Zazueta intends to create some larger pieces.

            Zazueta began his two-year residency at the LUX in August of 2010. In addition to creating and showing his work during this period, Zazueta taught numerous children and adult classes here at the LUX Center. Zazueta also taught Doane College painting classes, which were held at the LUX Center in addition to his community classes. 

Arjan Zazueta, Mandy & Me Chasing Ghosts Together (2010), Acrylic and ink on canvas, 20 x 16 in.

Ceramics AIR Matthew Dercole

Matthew Dercole opened his show yesterday at the LUX Center’s First Friday opening reception. Dercole is currently our ceramics Artist-In-Resident whose show consisted of the work he has been making since his arrival at the LUX in August 2010. His new sculptural artwork combines fragile porcelain and soft wool felting.  Matt is a sculptural ceramist. He does not create pottery that is used for a specific function in the same way as a mug or a plate. Instead he creates work that has a mainly message driven purpose.

Dercole describes his work as studies of motion. Recurring images in his work are ladders, water spigots, and biological and anatomical forms. The water spigots incorporate the idea of water and its association with life. The ladders, which in one piece extend upwards into nothingness, are intended to mirror the idea that humanity often concerns itself with “moving up,” though towards what is often uncertain or—as Dercole implies through his piece—nonexistent. He describes his work as “a continual process of searching for the relationship between the state of being and the concept of change.”

One of Dercole’s larger pieces was of a young boy holding a dying deer. The porcelain boy was wearing a felted deer hat. In his talk on Friday, Dercole told viewers that growing up in Pennsylvania there were frequently dead deer on the road and that he always found them strangely beautiful. His message behind creating this piece was to remind people to simply appreciate beauty instead of trying to hold on to it, capture it, or become it.

Also included in his show was a felted book, which gallery viewers could touch and flip through. Dercole understands that it is often tempting for viewers to touch artwork, and his interactive book piece gave viewers the opportunity to feel the materials used in his work. Within the book he took the time to do small ink sketches of deer anatomy and write a narrative for each of the nine pieces in his show.

For those who are interested in seeing Dercole’s work, the gallery is open to the public and his show will be up until the end of February. Stop by and take a look!