September 2, 2015

National undergraduate art exhibit opens Sept. 4

Phoebe Little, In Her Living Room, oil on canvas, 2014.

Phoebe Little, In Her Living Room, oil on canvas, 2014.

UNL’s fourth annual Nebraska National Undergraduate Juried Art Exhibition opens Sept. 4 in the Eisentrager•Howard Gallery in Richards Hall. A First Friday opening reception is 5 to 7 p.m. Sept. 4.

The exhibit, which is open through Sept. 25, will feature the work of the best undergraduate student artists from across the country. Three media disciplines are featured: sculpture, painting and drawing.

“The idea for this exhibition was two-fold. One, we wanted to bring the best undergraduate art in the country here and put it on display to let students across the country have a good venue for display and to make sure our students would see that work,” said Pete Pinnell, chair and professor of art and art history. “And second, this department is particularly strong in its traditional disciplines (painting/drawing, ceramics sculpture, printmaking, photography, etc.), and we call ourselves that. Having the show be discipline-specific celebrates that at other schools.”

Four Howard Awards of Excellence will be presented: $1,000 Best of Show Drawing, $1,000 Best of Show Painting, $1,000 Best of Show Sculpture and a $1,500 Grand Prize.

Award winners will be announced at 6 p.m. during the First Friday reception.

Exhibit jurors are Ebony Patterson for sculpture and Deborah Zlotsky for painting and drawing.

“We tie this show to our Hixson-Lied Visiting Artist Scholar Program,” Pinnell said. “So we hire two people to be visiting artists and scholars, and they jury the show and judge it. They’ll present workshops for the students.”

Admission to the Eisentrager•Howard Gallery is free and open to the public. Gallery hours are 12:30 to 4:30 p.m. weekdays.

For more information, call 402-472-5522.