The University of Nebraska–Lincoln’s School of Art, Art History and Design’s Hixson-Lied Visiting Artist and Scholar Lecture Series brings notable artists, scholars and designers to Nebraska each semester to enhance the education of students.
The next lecture in the series will be presented by graphic designer William Cordova at 5:30 p.m. Sept. 6 in Richards Hall, Room 15. Cordova’s lecture is free and open to the public.
Cordova was born in Lima, Peru, and moved to Miami, Florida, at an early age. He graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Art Institute of Chicago and later earned a Master of Fine Arts from Yale University.
His practice is focused on reconciling ideas of displacement and transition through ephemeral residue and vernacular architecture that continually shifts, shaping what could be described as our contemporary situation. He sees vernacular architecture as a symbol of necessity and resilience and a form of invoking a presence.
In recent years, Cordova has been documenting former spaces of the Black Panther Party chapter locations.
In June he won the Orlando Museum of Art Florida Prize in Contemporary Art.
The remaining lectures in the series this fall include:
• Rob Forbes, ceramics, Sept. 13 – Forbes has been a ceramic artist, professor, author, publisher, photographer and business entrepreneur. He is best known as the Founder of Design Within Reach and PUBLIC Bikes. DWR pioneered many changes that have become mainstream today: internet retailing of modern design, design blogging, transparent pricing and a focus on designers themselves as much as on their products. Forbes recently authored “See for Yourself,” a visual study and search for beauty in our everyday world.
• Sukha Worob, printmaking, Sept. 20 – Worob grew up in a small community in the high desert landscape of Prescott, Arizona. Worob’s work explores contemporary approaches to the printmaking multiple through works on paper as well as installation and interactive works. His work is primarily driven by his history in communal living and observation of the potential of humanity when set upon a common goal.
• Robert Mahoney, art criticism, Oct. 4 – Mahoney is a veteran art critic from New York. Through Arts magazine, Flash Art, Art and Antiques, Art in America, New Art Examiner, Sculpture, TIME OUT New York, Artnet online and numerous other publications, Mahoney provided weekly and monthly coverage of the New York art scene for 20 years. He also served as public information officer for Queens Museum of Art from 1994-1999. Mahoney is currently managing his blog, working on a book, “Exposures: 50 Works of Art that Changed My Life,” and writing for Flatlanders, a critical dialogue for Nebraska’s contemporary visual arts.
• Eva Isaksen, printmaking, Oct. 11 – Isaksen was born and raised north of the Arctic Circle in Bodø, Norway. She moved to Seattle after earning her master’s degree. Isaksen’s work is inspired by the landscape in Norway and the United States Northwest. She works with printmaking and collage, using thin handmade papers from Nepal that she mono prints using pressed plants, seeds, yarns, fabric and stencils creating complex and multi-layered compositions to investigate nuances in nature. Her work contains organic forms and represents cycles, seasons, land, water, order, rhythm, growth, life and regeneration.
• Emily Godbey, art history, Oct. 19 – Godbey is associate professor at Iowa State University. Her primary body of work deals with the ideas of tragedy and mourning. Her book project “Recreating Astonishment: Disaster’s Delightful Horrors and Terrible Pleasures” explores the commercialization of disaster through images within modern formats such as postcards, movies and amusement parks. Godbey is also working on projects dealing with communication at the turn of the century via postcards and visuality and World’s Fairs.
• Bonna Wescoat, art history, Nov. 8 – Wescoat is the Samuel Candler Dobbs professor of art history at Emory University. Her research interests are ancient Greek art and architecture, particularly sacred architecture, and digital modeling to investigate the interaction of landscape, architecture and ritual experience. Her work now centers on the Sanctuary of the Great Gods on Samothrace, where she has directed excavations.
• Linda Lopez and Cristina Córdova, ceramics, Nov. 14 – Lopez has exhibited her work in New Zealand and throughout the United States including Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art; Robischon Gallery; Long Beach Museum of Art; The Clay Studio; and the Jane Hartsook Gallery at Greenwich House Pottery. She has been an artist in residence at The Clay Studio and the Archie Bray Foundation. Lopez received the Lighton International Artist Exchange Program Grant to be an artist in residence at C.R.E.T.A. Rome Residency Program. She is represented by Mindy Solomon Gallery. Córdova lives and works in Penland, North Carolina. She has taught at Penland School of Crafts, Haystack Mountain School, Santa Fe Clay, Mudfire, Odyssey Center for Ceramics and Anderson Ranch, among others. She founded Travel Arte, an ongoing platform that provides educational experiences within the ceramics medium while immersing students in the creative culture of a specific setting.
The visiting artist or scholar spends one to three days on campus to meet with classes, participate in critiques and give demonstrations. Each lecture in the series is free and open to the public and will take place at 5:30 p.m. in Richards Hall, Room 15.
To learn more about the series, contact the School of Art, Art History and Design at 402-472-5522 or email saahd@unl.edu.
