December 2022

Tugboat Gallery Proudly Presents “Cha Cha Cha Cha Cha” featuring 5 badass young women – Nancy Nguyen, Maria Guiza Beltran, Chloe Iossi, Caitlin Hoppe and MiMi Yu opening First Friday December 2nd from 7-10 with DJ ol moanin – closing on December 30th. David Jester, Alyssa Kobza, and Kristen Martincic opening First Friday November 4th from 7-10 – with DJ ol’ monin – closing on December 30th.

All 5 women are recent graduates from the University of Nebraska at Lincoln who all work with inventive 2-dimensional imagery involving still-life, nature, figures and pop culture.

Nancy Nguyen

I create realistic paintings and drawings of still-lifes that contain objects I find personal, nostalgic, symbolic, and intriguing. Using mediums like oil paint, graphite, and charcoal, I create compositions that give these objects value, beauty, and everlasting significance.

These objects come from many sources: my personal belongings, my childhood home, thrift stores, and nature. Personal objects are objects that make up my identity, culture, personality, and important events of my life. Such objects may include trinkets, pins, jewelry, keychains, splints, and more. Objects from my childhood home bring up feelings of nostalgia. Whenever I look back on these objects, I remember all the fun memories I had with my family and friends. Such objects include toys, hair products, and school awards. Objects that I find in thrift stores are intricately designed and mysterious. I like setting them up in compositions that give them hidden symbols and meanings. And finally, objects found in nature. These objects include leaves, branches, broken glass, litter, and more. These objects are intriguing in how they have vastly different textures that seem to mesh really well together.

With my eye for realism and the stimulating need to always challenge myself in painting and drawing, I examine these objects on a personal and in-depth level, in hopes that viewers can see how important, meaningful, and beautiful these objects from many locations can be.

Jingming “Mimi” Yu

Jingming “Mimi” Yu is a Northeastern Chinese-American artist born and based locally in Lincoln, Nebraska, and an undergraduate Sociology student at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Her work explores the effects and themes of generational trauma and isolation through playful surrealism. Mimi is inspired by the figurative paintings of Zhang Xiaogang and the sketches left by the former home owner of the second house she lived in, hoping to emulate that combination of disconnected distortion and attachment in her art.

Maria Guiza Beltran

Maria Guiza Beltran is an artist and designer born in Guanajuato Mexico who currently resides in Lincoln Nebraska. She received her BA in Fine Art (December 2021) and Graphic Design (May 2022) with a minor in Mathematics at the University of Nebraska Lincoln. Beltran works both traditionally and digitally, focusing on themes about her family, nature, and emotion. Her paintings and drawings are based in realism with a mixture of surrealism. Beltrans work has been exhibited at the Eisentrager-Howard Gallery (2021), the Scholastics Art Awards Exhibition (2017), Doing the Arts Exhibition at Nebraska Wesleyan University (2017), First Friday at Bennett Martin Public Library (2017).

Caitlin Hoppe

My work explores images that are reflections of our world’s past and a vision of what the future could be. I create works on paper of uncanny inventive landscapes using ink, watercolor, and gouache.

Chloe Isossi

“Using intergenerational pop and contemporary culture, my work combines improbable but believable experiences. Blending elements of realism and surrealism in a system of painted collage, I construct atypical but convincing environments that include advertisement and fashion. I incorporate beauty from all eras, often intermingling mid-20th century “Americana” advertisements with contemporary aesthetics. I use subtle humor throughout my paintings and allow it to blend into my artistic influences in order to subvert or enhance the original messaging. I am challenged by the unbelievable and unthinkable, and approach painting in a way that makes it feel routine.”