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Friday, Dacambw8,1989 Al“tS & ElltCltainmCIlt 9
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Al Schaben/Daiiy Nebraskan
David Fahleson/Daily Nebraskan
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Al Schaben/Daily Nebraskan
UNL students Matt Schnase, upper left, and Dan Fosmer, right, show off their room
decorations on Abel 12. Above, the Sigma Nu Fraternity House illuminates 16th Street.
Lower left, holiday lights decorate this house at 33rd and south streets. Below, this manger
scene can be found at 17th and C streets.
David Fahleaon/Daily Nebraskan
tfegs, kangaroos subjects of exhibition
I By Gretchen Boehr
Senior Reporter
Three Master of Fine Arts cands
Jates explore familiar objects, ani
nals and people through their paint
ings, prints and mixed-media works
iisplayed at the Gallery of the De
partment of Art and Art History.
The MFA exhibition in Richards
Hall includes mixed-media works,
paintings and print-making by Kate
Brooke, Judith Flansburg Burton and
Georgia Johnson.
Burton’s exhibit, entitled “Still
Life as Abstract Structure,’ ’ includes
simplistic mono-prints and still-life
paintings of familiar objects.
In most of the paintings the table
ware, such as a salt or pepper shaker,
uses soft colors to create a thoughtful
and playful mood.
Yet some of her larger works, such
as ‘‘Hello San Antonio,” use dark
colors and evoke dark, brooding
emotion.
But Burton’s mono-prints high
light her exhibition. The roughness
and simplicity of color gives the
prints a certain charm.
In the gallery’s second room, legs
are the subject matter chosen by
Johnson in her mixed media drawings
which capture the power of body
language in communicating feelings
and emotions.
Through differenl isolated poses
of legs, Johnson challenges viewers
to ask whether a cropped view of the
figure is enough to communicate an
idea or altitude.
Differenl textures, colors and po
sitions relate powerful emotions as
well as meek personalities.
From the primness of “Wall
flower” to the innocence of “This
Little Piggy,” Johnson communi
cates human emotions through legs
and feet, which proves to be surpris
ingly honest and revealing.
Each drawing was created by
building and removing layers of oil
pastel and oil paint on paper or can
vas.
The subject matter chosen by the
third artist is reminiscent of her life as
a small child in Nigeria.
Brooke’s exhibition, entitled
“Re-membering,” uses layers of pen
and ink and relief stamps to record
cycles of human memory.
The work includes giraffes, kan
garoos and other animals, which
sometimes looks like something from
an old, prairie schoolhousc or chil
dren’s textbooks of years gone by.
Brooke said she layers images to
suggest an emergence or pattern in
understanding and experience.
As children, Brooke and her
brother played with plastic animal
toys and each animal had its own
function and personality, she said.
According to Brooke, she remembers
this and expands on the notion of
animals with personalities in her
)
i
work.
“Remembering is more of a cur
rent activity that allows material
from the past to play an active part in
the present,” Brooke said.
An intaglio print, “and giraffes
don’t..captures a childlike fasci
nation with animals and their way of
talking to each other.
The MFA Exhibition features a
variety of styles as three artists ex
press themselves through very differ
ent subjects. Brooke and Johnson, in
particular, seem to be saying some
thing about the way people or ani
mals communicate.
The artists’ works will be on dis
play at the gallery until Thursday.
The gallery is open from 9 a.m. to 5
p.m. Monday through Thursday.