Feb. 7th, 2020
7-10PM w/DJ ol’ Moaner’
116 N 14th. Lincoln, NE.
Above Gomez Art Supply
Tugboat Proudly Presents:
“Unsterile”
featuring Allison Baker and Emma Krenzer opening First Friday February 7th from 7-10 with DJ ol’ moanin’ – closing on February 29th.
Allison Baker and Emma Krenzer in “Unsterile” present the unseen or un-examined. In Baker’s sculptural praxis (specifically, the abject) she reveals what our previously considered “safe” and “sterile” domestic spaces, objects, and bodies really are: Semi-monstrous organic communities, of which “we” are only one tiny, post-human part. Krenzer’s work explores the concealed aspects of domestic spaces both materially and conceptually. She exposes the hidden by exploring themes such as the body, sexuality, and femininity through depictions of private spaces infused with these motifs.
Jan. 3rd, 2020
7-10PM w/DJ ol’ Moaner’
116 N 14th. Lincoln, NE.
Above Gomez Art Supply
Closing Feb. 1st.
Tugboat Proudly Presents:
“Earthbound Riddles”
featuring Erin Cross and Anne Dovali opening on January 3rd from 7-10 with DJ ol moanin – closing on February 1st.
“Earthbound Riddles” is a show dedicated to the artists’ intimate
exchange with the landscapes they visit and inhabit. Collecting debris
from and documentation of these environments Erin Cross and Anne
Dovali combine organic materials, forms and ideas with industrially
manufactured studio supplies to recreate, remember and better
understand their relationship to these spaces. Assemblages,
paintings, sculpture and video are utilized in the exhibition to ask
how, in an industrialized western society that often values culture
over nature, do we find solace and engage with the natural world in a
way that is meaningful and respectful?
Nov. 1st, 2019
7-10PM w/DJ ol’ Moaner’
116 N 14th. Lincoln, NE.
Above Gomez Art Supply
Closing Nov. 30th
Tugboat Proudly Presents:
“Beneath the Skin”
featuring Amanda Durig and Kyle Nobles opening First Friday November 1st from 7-10 with DJ ol’ moaner – closing on November 30th.
“Beneath the Skin’ is a collaborative effort of two Printmaking friends that investigates organic containment using plant life, lawn chairs and garbage bins. Amanda Durig and Kyle Nobles will have drawings and prints, some jointly and individually made.
Amanda Durig I adopt imagery from the natural world, science textbooks and my own imagination to create an alternative world of creatures playing upon the formal qualities of the media I am working with. My drawings, while colorful and chaotic, open a window into this imaginary world full of creatures. My black and white prints are a step removed, more specimen-like; a record of my field note observations of these living beings.
Kyle Nobles
“Kyle Nobles is a recent MFA graduate from UNL and currently works there as a lecturer and office assistant. Nobles makes drawings using graphite and gesso that address concepts of childhood and shifting identity over time.”
Dec. 6th, 2019
7-10PM w/DJ ol’ Moaner’
116 N 14th. Lincoln, NE.
Above Gomez Art Supply
Closing Dec. 28th
Tugboat Proudly Presents:
“Let It Rest”
featuring Courtney Kuehn and Pha Nguyen opening First Friday December 6th with DJ ol moanin from 7-10 closing on December 28th.
“Let It Rest” may look soft and ephemeral but when you look closer the dirty under belly reveals tension and layers of anxiety built up using charcoal and oil paint.
Courtney Kuehn The drawings are charcoal on paper. They portray how I am dealing with issues of anxiety and lack of self-confidence. I think of them as a self-portrait that expresses how I’m feeling or how my anxiety restrains me. The purpose of the string or line in the compositions is to expand the comfortableness and to further communicate the suppression of a mental illness.
Sept. 6th, 2019
7-10PM w/DJ ol’ Moaner’
116 N 14th. Lincoln, NE.
Above Gomez Art Supply
Closing Sept. 28th
Tugboat Proudly Presents:
“Virginia Creeper”
featuring Madeline Hinrichs, Danley Walkington, Ly Nguyen, Mariah Livingston and Stephanie Wright opening First Friday September 6th from 7-10 with DJ ol’ moaner – closing on September 28th.
This 5 woman show explores beauty in all its strange forms ranging from ambiguous body parts to what we surround ourselves with to the simplicity of a stick or seed pod to animals we want to protect.
Mariah Livingston I always felt protected as a kid, in contrary to events and awareness that have surfaced as an adult. I made this piece when reminiscing about what my ideal safe place would look like in my childhood.
Stephanie Wright
My work describes emotional experience through human and non-human characters. In my drawings and prints, I play with perceived human and animal identities, picturing them as inseparable forces interacting with each other constantly through daily life. My fascination with nature and society’s varied relationship with it becomes a platform for my empathy, apathy and anxiety for the human experience. Through a sort of appropriation of non-human figures, I describe emotional isolation within the human ego.
Danley Walkington
As an artist I create work that is predominately black and white with pops of color through my work. I use this method to emphasize emotions and memories that I am feeling, while not overpowering the remaining content. Currently I am rendering my work with graphite and colored pencils to create.
Ly Nguyen
I find beauty in human body parts close-up, as if they are about to turn into something else while wanting to share the intimacies. Using a self-made technique that employs multiple layers of shadings and overlapping, the segments are gradually built revealing the images of areas that could be anywhere on the body.
Madeline Hinrichs
I am interested in exploring the interiors of domestic spaces and how decoration and adornment transition one space to another. Using oil on canvas, these interiors form an original narrative and exists in part as a portrait of its inhabitants.
Sept. 6th, 2019
7-10PM w/DJ ol’ Moaner’
116 N 14th. Lincoln, NE.
Above Gomez Art Supply
Closing Sept. 28th
Tugboat Proudly Presents:
“(as)symmetry”
featuring Camille Hawbaker Voorhees and Keith Buswell opening First Friday October 4th from 7-10 with DJ ol’ moaner – closing on October 26th.
(as)symmetry explores the balance of weight and line using etchings and drawings. A quiet elegance will greet you but with closer inspection the viewer will process unity, community and chaos.
Keith Boswell My prints compare flora with the artifices of being human in both logic and ideas of community. Mostly etchings, this body of work relates to the concept of unity by singling out the tree within the forest, promoting both unity and a sense of shared ideals. We can each be our own entity while at the same sustaining one another.
Camille Hawbaker Voorhees
These drawings are made with ink, thread and paper. Each image is drawn with one line that is made spontaneously, exploring line weight and complexity to create a sense of harmony, balance, and meditative space.
August 2nd, 2019
7-10PM w/DJ ol’ Moanin’
116 N 14th. Lincoln, NE.
Above Gomez Art Supply
Closing August 31st
Tugboat Proudly Presents:
“Fan Box Five”
featuring Eve Lanik, Angel Geller, Daffnie Realpe, Lindsey Weber Riskowski and April White.
“Fan Box Five” is an all woman show exploring fear, temporal power, mortality and the crushing weight of constant change with imagery ranging from hyper realism to surrealism.
Eve Lanik: I work in various mediums including collage, digital
art, plaster cast, and found objects; I like to connect these mediums to create installations. Terms such as “the abject” which has to do with humans instinctual fear of things to do with the human body that are typically seen as repulsive, and “momento mori” which translates to “remember your mortality” are implemented throughout my work in that it has a lot to do with the fears I have of my own body and how fragile it is. I often use myself as the subject in my work in hopes to foster a more direct connection with the viewer.
April White is a Kentucky born mixed media artist with a primary focus on acrylic paint. She looks for inspiration in early 90’s kitsch and textile design and uses this to create modernized tapestries of color with disconnected playful imagery symbolizing spontaneity and a constant state of change.
Daffnie Realpe:
Manipulating paint within each layer—from tones to anatomy—in order to create a human face is therapeutic. The arrangement of the paintings in a large circle with people, pets, and my walker helps to alleviate the sense of isolation and loneliness.
Lindsey Weber Riskowski creates surreal mixed media artworks focusing on her fears, memories, and the way memories change over time. Her newest series “American Job Story” chronicles her experience as an older millennial in the work place, from cleaning out the euthanasia rooms at an animal research lab to making gold teeth at a dental lab.
June 7th, 2019
7-10PM w/DJ ol’ Moanin’
116 N 14th. Lincoln, NE.
Above Gomez Art Supply
Closing June 28
Tugboat Proudly Presents:
“Metamorphosis”
A group show featuring Douglas Degges, Luke Firle, and Liza Wimbish
“Metamorphosis” is the journey three artists take to embrace the authenticity inside themselves. Douglas Degges, Luke Firle, and Liza Wimbish navigate personal and artistic identity through mixed media and painting by experimenting with style and medium in search of novelty within their art practice and self discovery.
Douglas Degges is an artist and educator currently based in Chicago where he teaches as a Visiting Assistant Professor in Painting and Drawing at North Central College. His work has been exhibited in various group and solo exhibitions throughout the United States and abroad. Most recently his work was exhibited at Night Light Gallery in Chicago, IL, Vanderbilt University and Zeitgeist Gallery in Nashville, TN, The Yellow Door Gallery in Des Moines, IA, The Factory in Seattle, WA, Organ Kritischer Kunst in Berlin, Germany, and Galleria Huuto in Helsinki, Finland. He was also recently an artist-in-residence at the Josef & Anni Albers Foundation during summer 2018. Douglas received his BA in Studio Art from Rhodes College in Memphis, TN and his MA and MFA from the University of Iowa.
Luke Firle is a multi-disciplinary artist hailing from Hematite, Missouri, and is current located within the greater St. Louis, Missouri area. After receiving his Associate of Arts at Jefferson College, he moved to Kansas City where he studied painting at the Kansas City Art Institute and successfully graduated with a Bachelor in Fine Arts in 2002. Upon graduation Luke was featured locally in Kansas City, Missouri, often in both group and solo shows, as well as regionally and nationally. From 2013-2015, he taught at Missouri Western State University. In August 2015 he moved to North Carolina to pursue a Master of Fine Arts degree at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, which he completed in spring of 2017. After a short stint in Utah he moved back to the St. Louis area to teach at Jefferson College where he is currently an adjunct instructor.
Liza Wimbish is an artist born in Richmond, VA focusing primarily in photography and mixed media work. Wimbish has been recognized by the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers and the National YoungArts Foundation. Her work has been exhibited nationally in Miami, New York City, Richmond, and other cities across the country. Specifically, her work has been on view at Parsons School of Design, The School of Visual Arts, The Colorado Photographic Arts Center, The Griffin Museum of Photography, and the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art. Wimbish’s work deals with exploring her own identity and navigating her role within her family.
May 3rd, 2019
7-10PM w/DJ ol’ Moanin’
116 N 14th. Lincoln, NE.
Above Gomez Art Supply
Closing May 31
Tugboat Proudly Presents:
“Innocent Pleasures”
A group show curated by Lisa Guevara featuring Jennifer Boe, Larry Buller, Haley Heesacker, Loc Huynh, Danni O’Brien, and Patrick Wilkins
“INNOCENT PLEASURES” is the artistic safe space we’ve all been craving. Kicking the idea of “serious Art” to the curb, artists Jennifer Boe, Larry Buller, Haley Heesacker, Loc Huynh, Danni O’Brien, and Patrick Wilkins create their ways of coping with the ticking time bomb of reality through meditative process, food, humor, and sex. By combining painting, ceramics, fiber-work, video, and more, INNOCENT PLEASURES reminds us all to relish in what relieves our woes and embrace our vulnerabilities without shame.
Jennifer Boe is a Kansas City artist who is known for her detailed embroideries of food and irreverent religious imagery. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting and Creative Writing from Kansas City Art Institute in 2001. She has shown nationally and internationally at such galleries and museums as UMKC Gallery of Art, Kansas City Jewish Museum of Contemporary Art and The Greenlease Gallery in Kansas City; Ellipse Arts Center, Arlington, VA; and Triennale Museum, Milan, Italy. Her work is in the collections of University of Kansas Medical Center, H&R Block and The Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art. She has also been featured in the magazine Bust and the book PUSH Stitchery: 30 Artists Explore the Boundaries of Stitched Art.
Larry creates ceramic objects that explore issues of sexual identity, the phallus and fetish objects. These highly ornamented and kitschy works masquerade as items that one might typically find in a domestic setting. However, upon closer inspection the viewer will discover a more subversive intention. In 2016 his work was exhibited as part of the national juried student show at the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA) annual convention in Kansas City. He has also shown work at the Project Project Gallery, Jun Kaneko Center and Metropolitan Community College in Omaha and at the Tug Boat Gallery in Lincoln. He recently completed a ten-week residency program at the Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Snowmass Village, Colorado. A native of Nebraska, Larry earned a Masters in Fine Arts Degree and Masters in Educational Psychology Degree from the University of Nebraska and taught ceramics for Lincoln Public Schools for about fifteen years.
Haley Heesacker: “I was born and raised in Lincoln Nebraska and I received my Bachelor in Fine Arts at The University Of Nebraska-Lincoln in May 2018. I have always been interested in art, particularly illustration. As a kid I enjoyed drawing pictures and comics for kids and hoping they would be friends with me. Since my family lived in the country there wasn’t a lot to do so I enjoyed carving tiny sculptures into lava rocks from the landscaping of our yard and playing in the mud. While I initially entered my undergraduate program with my heart set on drawing, I realized that I had a great appreciation for sculpture and ceramics, and preferred to work more in mix media art. I got my fix for drawing during school by being an illustrator and the Art Director for the Daily Nebraskan newspaper. My work is based around humor because humor has always kept me grounded, sane and I have always connected better with people through humor.“
Loc Huynh was born in 1992 in Austin, Texas. In 2016, he received his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting from Texas State University. He did some graduate work at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and is an MFA candidate at the University of North Texas. He currently lives and works in Denton, Texas.
O’Brien is a queer womyn maker and art educator currently based in Baltimore, Maryland. Her work is rooted in play, collecting, and constructing and informed by an education in assemblage sculpture, fiber arts, and ceramics. She marries construction and wood working skills with traditionally feminized and domesticated systems such as stitching, beading, and rug making to compose her dually hard and soft objects. Danni has recently been awarded artist residencies at PLOP (London, UK), The Maple Terrace (Brooklyn, NY), Art Farm (Marquette, NE) and Proyecto Ace (Buenos Aires, Argentina). Her sculpture work has been shown at Hillyer Art Space (Washington D.C.), Arlington Art Center (Arlington, VA), Little Berlin (Philadelphia, PA), Terrault (Baltimore, MD), Juicebox Gallery (Kansas City, MO) and published in Architectural Digest, ArtMaze, and Hiss Mag. She is currently preparing for an upcoming solo show with School 33 in Baltimore, MD and a summer residency with Wassaic Project.
Patrick Wilkins was born in Wiesbaden, Germany and grew up in Elkhart, Indiana. He earned his BA from Purdue University and his MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He has worked as a Butcher, a Glass Repairer, a Construction Worker, and a Dog Walker, among many other job that he looks back on with varying degrees of fondness. He currently live and works in Chicago.
Apr. 5th, 2019
7-10PM w/DJ ol’ Moanin’
116 N 14th. Lincoln, NE.
Above Gomez Art Supply
Closing April 27
Tugboat Proudly Presents:
“The Unpaid Intern Show”
featuring Heidi Bartlett, Alex Borovski, Kyle Choy, Phoebe Little and Kat Wiese.
“The Unpaid Intern Show” showcases the generous and wonderful young people that have donated their time to Tugboat Gallery over the past 11 years. The work displayed will range from pen-and-ink illustrations, abstract oil paintings to documentations of performance pieces. Each of these unpaid interns have gone onto to accomplish industrious and courageous feats.
Phoebe Little’s most recent body of work is pen-and-ink illustrations for her forthcoming book of feminist essays and comics, Cliterary Journal #2. Images weave a personal and political narrative, drawing from pagan symbolism, religious satire, and art history.
Heidi Wiren Bartlett is an interdisciplinary performance artist from the Great Plains. Her work is concerned with the portrayal, oppression and subversive existence of women in America today. As a white woman raised by a lesbian in Nebraska, she feels obligated to confront racial and misogynistic injustice and her escape from it, into the prairie. She sees her body as an object of power and vulnerability and she sees Nature and its processes the same way.
Katharen Wiese is a community organizer and an artist exploring identity, race and consumerism. Painting, printmaking, photography, found objects and installation are a few of the ways Wiese mines the intersection between ideas.
Kyle Choy graduated with a BFA from UNL in 2013 and has assisted with installations at Tugboat since 2014. Besides installing, his other noteworthy contributions include brave ladder climber and human calculator. He primarily paints and his work looks to either include or exclude viewers from an unfolding narrative. When not making art, Kyle can be found consuming copious amounts of Sci-fi media and fried foods. He is currently applying for graduate school and looking for summer residencies.
Mar. 1st, 2019
7-10PM w/DJ ol’ Moanin’
116 N 14th. Lincoln, NE.
Above Gomez Art Supply
Closing March 29
Tugboat Proudly Presents:
“Anagramme”
a group show curated by Katharen Wiese featuring Adrian Armstrong, Jacob Brown, Isaiah Jones, Thalia Rodgers, Michael Villarreal, and Erik White— Opening First Friday, March 1st, 2019 from 7-10pm with DJ ol moanin – closing on March 29th.
Anagramme is latin for anagram which, according to Merriam Webster’s Dictionary means, “a word or phrase made by transposing the letters of another word or phrase” or “to rearrange (the letters of a text) in order to discover a hidden message.” The artworks included in “Anagramme” are visually complex, coded and possesses some quality of filtering. In the works presented in “Anagramme,” objects in life often feel as though they have been put through the matrix of the artist’s own thought and come out the other side transformed; to be more or less truthful to themselves. A number of artists also have text based works, in which the artist might literally have created an anagram. Artists like Jean Michel Basquiat have used the anagramme to make the viewer see unrelated subjects in relationship to one another. A common example of this in his work are the letters a, r, and t which can be rearranged to spell tar, rat, and art. These are words Basquiat used to explore the intersections of racial injustice, equality, and definitions of art and elevation.
Adrian Armstrong is a creative from Omaha, NE now living and working out of Austin, TX. He graduated from the University of Nebraska – Lincoln in 2014 and moved to Austin, TX in July 2015. Adrian is also the (co) Founder of Brown State of Mind, an organization dedicated to the advancement of POC creatives and their ideas. Through portrait and figurative work, Adrian explores the black identity and experience in his art. He is interested in the construction and deconstruction of portraits and what can be said through the human face and body. Just like life, Adrian’s work is more about the journey and the process rather than the end result.
Jacob Brown “Influenced by trash and children drawings. My mediums of choice are crayons and markers. Having no particular technique, I draw however I see it in my head. My art depicts pointless childhood memories, significant past symbols and/or whatever I see that excites me. I get a lot of my inspiration just by walking around places.”
Isaiah Jones “Limerence: the state of being infatuated or obsessed with another person, typically experienced involuntarily and characterized by a strong desire for reciprocation of one’s feelings. This state of being is a strong theme in the work I have chosen to show. I am interested in the revelation and repression of the involuntary obsessions and desires I experience and the absurdity of these obsessions. Both handwritten and graphic, the text in my work functions as internal and external dialogue, sometimes a ramble and sometimes an aggressive voice of reason or authority.”
Thalia Rodgers “These works were made as a means to explore how I think about myself. Trying to figure out what makes me, me. They are a balance of censoring and being my whole true self. This is done by getting a lot of drawing done on cheap paper then taking those drawings and intuitively piecing them together into a painting. When I am in the studio I want to laugh and have fun so, I enjoy exaggerating forms, colors and perspectives and putting content in my paintings that are humorous to me or make no sense.”
Michael Villarreal “I use materials known for the construction of houses such as insulation foam, wood, and paint. Specifically integrated together, I create sculptures to resemble the components that make up a house in order to reference memory, time, place, and self.“ Michael Villarreal received his MFA at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He has exhibited in numerous solo and group exhibitions such as Art Palace Contemporary Art Gallery in Houston, TX and Bemis Center for Contemporary Art in Omaha, NE. His work has been featured in many publications– most recently, Art Maze Magazine Issue9. Currently, he teaches in the Department of Art and Design at Doane University.
Erik White “I attentively paint hastily formed figures, symbols, objects and scenes that were modeled with never-dry clay onto stretched canvases of various sizes. The paintings depict the malleable character and the crude, unrefined treatment of the clay to suggest its fragility, impermanence, and its physical construction. Those visual attributes serve as a metaphor for the social construction of the concepts within the chosen imagery. My artistic process is very playful but the content of the images are usually about serious contemporary issues. My hope is that the paintings are used to rethink, reimagine, and converse about these ideas.”
Feb. 1st, 2019
7-10PM w/DJ ol’ Moanin’
116 N 14th. Lincoln, NE.
Above Gomez Art Supply
Tugboat Proudly Presents:
“Whiplash”
a group show featuring Lindsey Day, P.J. Hargraves, and Sophia Ruppert
consists of three candidates currently enrolled at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln where they are working towards their graduate degree in fine art.
“Whiplash” takes a moment to reassess past norms through painting and sculpture—both ceramic and mixed media. What was once thought as unquestionable turns into a search for steady ground as these artists encounter, then reimagine their own cultures, spaces, and experiences outside of the idealized pressure placed upon them. By connecting their different realities together, a new world of healing, humor, and new truths emerge.
Lindsey Day is a current MFA candidate in Painting and Drawing at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Originally from Kansas City, Missouri, she earned her BFA in Painting at Northwest Missouri State University in 2014. Day is a proud recipient of the Othmer Fellowship and has exhibited her work nationally. Day’s work centers on the erratic structure of urban and metropolitan environments and how they pertain to the functionality and turmoil of the human psyche. Her work extends beyond a studio practice and into the community, where she dips into various project-based design work for local companies and organizations. Day teaches foundation painting and drawing courses in the School of Art, Art History and Design at UNL. Day is set to graduate from the Hixson-Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts in the Spring of 2019.
P.J. Hargraves is from Philadelphia Pennsylvania and is currently a second year MFA student at The University of Nebraska-Lincoln. P.J.’s work explores the truth and value of monuments and commemorative objects through narrative, humor and imagination. P.J. completed his BFA at the Tyler School of Art at Temple University and has been a staff resident at Watershed Center for Ceramic Arts in Newcastle Maine. P.J. has exhibited his work nationally and internationally and is looking forward to a residency in Reykjavik Iceland in 2019.
Sophia Ruppert is a second year graduate student working towards her MFA at the University of Nebraska – Lincoln. She holds a BFA in Art and a BA in Art History from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. Ruppert currently lives and works in Lincoln.
Jan. 4th 2019
7-10PM w/DJ Relic
116 N 14th. Lincoln, NE.
Above Gomez Art Supply
Tugboat Proudly Presents:
“12×18: 8 Years of Tugboat Posters”
“12×18” is no ordinary Poster show, it will be the best of nearly 100 posters made by Peter Worth – the official Tugboat Poster Designer over the past 8 years. It is with heavy hearts we announce his retirement.
Along with the celebration of Posters, Tugboat will also be having a mini ZineFest featuring Phoebe Little, Michael Johnson, Robert Stewart, Mike Bauer and Dustin Bythrow as Bzzy Lps.
Dec. 7th 2018
7-10PM w/DJ Ol’Moanin’
116 N 14th. Lincoln, NE.
Above Gomez Art Supply
Tugboat Proudly Presents:
“Exquisite Swap Slop Pt.2”
Tugboat Gallery Proudly Presents “Exquisite Swap Slop Pt.2” A Fundraiser for Tugboat Gallery – featuring David Gracie
Aaron Holz, Mathew Sontheimer, Sandra Williams, Myra Sontheimer, Ed Rumbaugh, Nolan Tredway, Byron Anway, Kyle Choy, Eric White, Madison Svendgard, Lisa Guevara, Michael Villarreal, Kat Wiese, Peggy Gomez, Skyler Simpson, Anne Burton, and Michael Burton
“Exquisite Swap Slop Pt.2” is a multi-Artist collaboration, 20 small panels will be swapped to 3 different artists, each adding their own worldview. Each panel will be for sale and all money will go to keeping Tugboat Gallery afloat. Each Artist will also have 1 piece of their own work on view.
Also on display in the Parrish Hallways outside of Tugboat Gallery will be Erik White’s Painting 251 Class. Undergraduate art students from UNL will display their end of semester paintings.
Nov. 2nd 2018
7-10PM w/DJ Ol’Moanin’
116 N 14th. Lincoln, NE.
Above Gomez Art Supply
Tugboat Proudly Presents:
“Black on Black:Black Artists, Black Content”
Tugboat Gallery Proudly Presents “Black on Black: Black Artists, Black Content” Curated by Kat Wiese – featuring Alajia McKizia, Nathan Murray, Zora J. Murff, Chastity Hyman and Chris Howard
“Black on Black: Black Artist, Black Content” looks at the expanse of concepts and mediums being explored by five different contemporary African American artists. This exhibition shows a depth of focus into both the formal qualities of art as well as the sociopolitical landscape. While black on black tends to indicate a flattening of space and a lack of nuance, in addressing this concept artists instead exhibited the singularity of their own expression.
Oct. 5th 2018
7-10PM w/DJ Ol’Moanin’
116 N 14th. Lincoln, NE.
Above Gomez Art Supply
Tugboat Proudly Presents:
“Scrapbag”
Tugboat proudly presents “Scrapbag” a group show curated by Amanda Smith, featuring Barber, Celeste Butler, Emily Newman, and Joelle Sandfort
“Scrapbag” pokes at a nostalgic myth of creating from scraps strictly as a condition of “making do,” rather than an active choice of material impact and artistic intent. Barber, Celeste Butler, Emily Newman, and Joelle Sandfort piece, weave, detangle, and construct with scrap and discarded items as a means to support stories and testimonies, explore identity, and examine power through substitution.
Barber graduated Cum Laude from University of Iowa, where he earned an MA and MFA. Barber uses interdisciplinary art practices to articulate various testimonies within and surrounding Black America. His most recent awards include a Stanley Grant from the University of Iowa and Alonzo Davis Award from Virginia Center for Creative Arts. Selected exhibitions include Englert Theatre in Iowa City, the Museum of Science Chicago in Chicago, Mason Murer Gallery and The Rialto Theatre in Atlanta, public artwork on Atlanta BeltLine, Lexington Theatre in Kentucky, Gallery 4731 in Detroit, Levitt Gallery in Iowa City, and Ignition Project Space in Chicago.
Celeste Butler is a multi-disciplinary fiber artist, “Quilterpreneur,” Griot, and storyteller based in Omaha, NE. Butler has exhibited at the Bemis Center For Contemporary Arts – Carver Bank, Metropolitan Community College, Love’s Jazz and Art Center, and The Union for Contemporary Art, where she was also selected for the Union for Contemporary Art 2017 Fellowship program. Butler has worked on several community quilting projects with residents celebrating the future and growth of North Omaha. One of her collaborations includes working with mothers who have lost their children to violence. She has developed in-school artist-in-residence programs, at Nelson Mandela and Saratoga Elementary School to create storytelling quilts. She has taught a long list of community workshops. Butler has guest lectured and is currently teaching courses at Metropolitan Community College. Butler was a featured artist in the Washington Post in 2017. She was also a featured artist in the Nebraska Chamber Of Commerce We Don’t Coast Magazine, and INSPIRED Living Magazine.
Emily Newman received her M.F.A. from the University of Nebraska Lincoln and her B.F.A. from Syracuse University. Her work has recently been shown regionally in the 61st Juried Exhibition at the Sioux City Arts Center in Iowa and nationally at the Attleboro Art Museum in Massachusetts. Newman’s artwork has also been selected for the North American Graduate Art Survey at the University of Minnesota, for show in the Wood’s Gallery at the University of Alabama and in a number of other group exhibitions around the country. She is an assistant professor of art at Drake University in Des Moines, IA.
Joelle Sandfort is a poet, High School Art teacher, and free-range Naturalist located in Lincoln, NE. She received her BA from Nebraska Wesleyan University in 2018. Joelle combines and alters found objects, discarded materials and studio residue. Fragments of plastic, canvas from previous projects and natural objects are commonly used in her work. She aims to re-instill these neglected things with value by uniting them through assemblage. Her work reflects the internal struggle felt in the spaces she occupies: between isolation and unity, between disorder and harmony, between conflict and coalescence with the natural world.
Sept. 7th 2018
7-10PM w/DJ Ol’Moanin’
116 N 14th. Lincoln, NE.
Above Gomez Art Supply
Closing Sept.28
Tugboat Proudly Presents:
“Here to Stay”
Tugboat proudly presents “Here to Stay” an all-female group show featuring seven kickass women, Brenna Alonso, Kelsea Brunner, Hannah Demma, Sheree Haynie, Jessica Prenosil, Oria Simonini, and Terra Swan
“Here to Stay” displays seven separate truths about culture, identity, health, and whimsy in the form of painting, photography, drawing, and collage.
Brenna Alonso was born in Washington and raised in Nebraska. She attended the University of Nebraska-Lincoln where she received her Bachelor of Science in Education and Human Sciences with an Art K-12 endorsement. Brenna is a High School Art Teacher in Lincoln Public Schools and continues her artistic practice in her home studio. Brenna works primarily in clay and uses various mediums to communicate her message. Being the American-born daughter of two Mexican immigrants, she hopes to communicate what her culture means to her. Exploring the pull between culture and belonging. Born in the United States of America, and raised by two Mexican parents, this becomes difficult to navigate. She observes small differences between the two cultures: food, agriculture, or daily tasks. Analyzing the sacrifices her parents made, helped open her eyes to bigger systemic problems which she will continue to explore within the series.
Kelsea Brunner is a wholesome Midwest Girl inspired by memes, Instagram, and the feminine spirit.
Hannah Demma is an avid outdoorswoman, outdoor educator, and lifelong Nebraskan. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln,with an emphasis in printmaking and drawing. Her mixed-media approach to art speaks to aspects of science and nature both familiar and strange, and mines the environment for inspiration, examining the intersection of the imaginative and the biological, of the creative and the empirical. Her process stirs the imagination and sparks excitement for exploration and adventure. Through her work as Coordinator for Art at Cedar Point Biological Station, as well as her work with the Sculpture in the Wild Park in Lincoln,Montana, Hannah has made it her mission to lead artists and non-artists to the well of inspiration that can be found in the outdoors.
Born and raised in North Omaha, Sheree is a soon-to-be graduate of the University of Nebraska Lincoln. Through a unique lens she conveys her intrigue of the sculptural nuances of the human body. Sheree aspires to become a physical and massage therapist, while also exploring her many other passions and interests.
Horsehead: A Series of Self-Portraits from Jessica Prenosil
“I chose gouache and pencil to render these images that I feel represent me at my finest. Absurd, jubilated, and desperate, I want to be seen as much as I see you. Look into my eye, see my teeth talking.”
Oria was born in French Guiana to Argentine parents. Her early childhood was spent on a sailboat living in the Caribbean and Central America. Her family later settled in Guatemala before moving to the US in 2001, which lead her childhood to be divided between the two countries. She has been living in Nebraska since 2012 and will be receiving her BFA from University of Nebraska-Lincoln in December 2018.
Terra Swan’s current work focuses on strength, weakness, and illness in context of her own relationship with her mother. “Both I and my mother have survived cancer. I remember watching my mother rub ointment on her radiation burns, and my mother remembers seeing the bathtub clogged with my hair. Under conventional standards, showing fear isn’t considered strong. I argue the weakness we felt in the face of each other’s illness is the strength to mourn and fear for one another.”
July 6th 2018
7-10PM
116 N 14th. Lincoln, NE.
Above Gomez Art Supply
Closing July.27
Tugboat Proudly Presents:
“Kind of About Tennessee”
a collaborative show featuring work by Frances Brady (Marta Lee and Anika Steppe)
“Kind of About Tennessee” will be a debut exhibition as Frances Brady. Their work examines notions of place. By sharing rolls of film and tubes of paint, they explore the familiar and the strange, in tandem, while also pushing the boundaries of authorship.
Since 2017Marta Lee and Anika Steppe have been collaborating under the name Frances Brady. Their two-person exhibition “Kind of About Michigan” was listed as one of the Austin Chronicle’s “Top Ten Fresh Takes in the Arts of 2017.” The accompanying book Discovery was featured at Printed Matter’s 2017 New York Art Book Fair. They received their Masters of Fine Arts from the University of Texas in 2018, and currently live and work in Austin, Texas.
June 1st 2018
7-10PM w/ DJ Ol’Moanin
116 N 14th. Lincoln, NE.
Above Gomez Art Supply
Closing June 30
Tugboat Proudly Presents:
“7-Up”
A group show featuring work by Amy Irons, Christian Gauthier, Paul Clark, Danny Sullivan, Joseph Levi Johnson, Kyle Brosnihan and Matel Rokke
“7 UP” features 7 local artists whose work emphasizes figure, pattern, nature, honesty and other worldly images using photography, encaustic, paint, marker and ink and maybe some glitter.
May 4th 2018
7-10PM w/ DJ Ol’Moanin
116 N 14th. Lincoln, NE.
Above Gomez Art Supply
Closing May.26
Tugboat Proudly Presents:
“Episodic”
A group show featuring work by Ed Rumbaugh, Patrick Studebaker, and Shea Wilkinson
Episodic Threads” stitches together past remembrances and future predictions using fabric, thread, oil paint, water based media and random fascination.
Ed Rumbaugh:
My work is non-objective. I use little planning, preferring directions from the unconscious, found or remembered fragments from dreams, and imaginary instructions on cosmic origins. Using the basic colors: red, yellow, blue, and black and white; I start with commercially printed cotton fabric and paint with water based mixed media. I try not to let my thinking affect the result by using only basic shapes: square, circle, line and dots. The fascination for me is to wonder what will be the outcome of my time and effort.
Patrick Studebaker:
Working in a combination of traditional style oil paint and oil based enamel allows for a physical separation or depth to the surface and gives the imagery access to multiple points of context and free association.
Systematically random arrangement of information, common themes, individual episodic threads, painted, framed.
Shea Wilkinson:
Shea’s stitched fiber works describe a future in which biology and technology will be so intermingled as to be hard to determine where each begins and ends.
March 6th 2018
7-10PM
116 N 14th. Lincoln, NE.
Above Gomez Art Supply
Closing Apr.28
Tugboat Proudly Presents:
“A Second Guess”
A group show featuring work by Madison Svendgard, Kendall Johnson, and Chadric Devin
A Second Guess” is a story about understanding and exploring our imperfections using discarded prints, gouache, journal pages, washi, and collage.
Featuring:
Madison Svendgard:
creates gouache paintings on paper. Her work is primarily figurative and narrative based.
Kendall Johnson:
Pieced together with old prints from my stint as a printmaker, bits and bops from watercolor sheets, scraps of journal pages written in a drunken stupor and obsessive mark making all come together to form these collages. Using my own personal iconography I navigate my fears, anxiety and introspection.
Chadric Devin:
The objects and materials in my work depict the struggle I have with my body and my obsessive desire to manipulate and reshape it. This installation is reflection on a space where I saw first understood my body as imperfect: the gym.
February 2nd. 2017
7-10PM
116 N 14th. Lincoln, NE.
Above Gomez Art Supply
Closing Feb.24
Tugboat Proudly Presents:
“Pathways”
A group show featuring work by Megan McClintic, Nadia Shinkunas, and Shawn Teseo Ballarin.
Pathways” brings together three artists whose approach to space takes three very different styles, yet whose dedication to environment and precision remains.
Featuring:
Nadia Shinkunas: I live for the shadows, negative space, and details perceived as insignificant, but couldn’t be farther from that. We absorb a massive amount of visual information daily, but do we really comprehend what we see? In this fast paced world, I focus on how seemingly minuscule variables, light, shadow, location; constantly alter our perceptions without us even noticing.
Megan McClintic: Currently, I ask others for objects to paint. I request the object has importance to them but allow them to interpret what that means. For example, the importance might be the struggle for a better life for a daughter or remembering a loved one. Gathering objects from people began as a self-healing method and became a project that touches the lives of others.
After experiencing trauma, moving forward is difficult. The comfort of knowing what to expect can be easier than facing the fear of the unknown. Past trauma misled me into believing I could not form meaningful connections with others. My work challenges this thought. I reach out to others and learn important details of their lives. I celebrate their accomplishments and offer comfort for pain. In return, I receive gratitude and triumph over trauma.
The #metoo Movement influences the way I approach my work. #metoo became a battle cry for awareness and change. Although #metoo has made positive strides, it is not entirely conducive for survivors’ healing. Survivors stand in different places in their path towards hope. Tarana Burke started ‘Me too’ as a subtle way for survivors to share comfort between one another. While the need for bold change persists, so does urgency for a softer, compassionate form of healing. Although I do not strictly ask survivors for objects, my work demonstrates the idea of tenderness in social change.
Shawn Teseo Ballarin: My paintings explore the themes of travel, isolation and change through simple, sometimes primal subject matter. The rhythmic use of pattern and expressive brushstrokes are intended to give the paintings a soothing, comforting quality that I hope reflects the human tendency to find peace or even beauty when faced with struggle or pain. I am interested in straddling the line between abstraction and representation. I hope the layers in my paintings, particularly the deepest ones that are often barely visible, inspire viewers to look carefully at the work and to reflect on what else might lie underneath.
March 2nd. 2018
7-10PM
116 N 14th. Lincoln, NE.
Above Gomez Art Supply
Closing Mar.30
Tugboat Proudly Presents:
“Thick as Thieves”
A group show featuring work by Rachel Buse, Jennifer Leatherby, and Tiffany Sinnott.
Thick as Thieves” radically formed from the uprising of three friends: Rachel Buse, Jennifer Leatherby and Tiffany Sinnott. Each artist works in mixed media installations and speaks to the realities, abstractions and infrastructures of their life.
Featuring:
Rachel Buse: originally of Lincoln, is a sculptor in Des Moines, Iowa. Her large-scale fabric works emphasize the physical weight of emotions by playing with proportion, scale and touch. She was awarded a 2015 Iowa Artist Fellowship from the State of Iowa and held residency at the Pittsburgh Children’s Museum in their 2015 Tough Art Program. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 2008.
Jennifer Leatherby: is a painter, illustrator, installation and performance artist living and working in Des Moines, IA. She studied art and design at Humboldt State University in Northern California. She has shown in California, Iowa, and Manchester, England. Jennifer’s work often references femininity, oppression, space, and how we exist inside of it.
Tiffany Sinnott: is a multi-media artist with both a certificate in animation and an MFA in studio art. Her residencies and fellowships include La Pocha Notra in Santa Fe, NM, the Urban Institute of Contemporary Art in Grand Rapids, MI and Vermont Studio Center in Johnston VT. Sinnott’s video-installation and sculptural works deal with the poetics of space, action and ethics. Thick as Thieves is her first show in Lincoln, NE.
January 5th. 2018
7-10PM
116 N 14th. Lincoln, NE.
Above Gomez Art Supply
Tugboat Proudly Presents:
“Teamwork Makes the Dream Work”
“Teamwork Makes the Dream Work” portrays what Live Yes Studios aims to accomplish on a daily basis: local artists encouraging clients to express themselves in an environment free of judgment. Together, they’ve created collaborative pieces ranging from paintings to embroidery and other mixed media. Each work utilizes combined interests between client and staff which include animals, old cars, tattoo art, outer space, and more!
Featuring:
Live Yes Studiosis a nonprofit art and music studio in Lincoln, Nebraska which supports adults with disabilities. Through the arts, the artists learn life skills to better enrich their lives and fulfill their potential. They seek to break down societal barriers and celebrate the unique abilities each person brings to this open and creative environment. Live Yes Studios is a program of Resources for Human Development. More information can be found at liveyesstudio.com or on Instagram (@liveyesstudios) and Facebook.
October 6th 2017
7-10PM
16 N 14th. Lincoln, NE.
Above Gomez Art Supply
Closing October 28th
Tugboat Proudly Presents:
“Deep Base”
“Deep Base” is not your Grandma’s ceramic butter dish, it is a vibrant explosion of ceramics and non-traditional material used in a contemporary exciting way. These 3 artists will make you look close and than closer at their work that is meant not to shock but to create dialog.
Featuring:
Larry creates ceramic objects that explore issues of sexual identity, the phallus, and fetish objects. These highly ornamented and kitschy works masquerade as items that one might typically find in a domestic setting. However, upon closer inspection, the viewer will discover a more subversive intention. In 2016, his work was exhibited as part of the national juried student show at the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts annual convention in Kansas City (NCECA). He has also shown work at Doane College in Crete and Metropolitan Community College in Omaha. A native of Nebraska, Larry earned his Bachelors in Fine Arts and Masters in Education from the University of Nebraska. He taught ceramics at the high school level before pursuing his Masters in Fine Arts.
Wansoo Kim is pursuing his Master of Fine Art degree in Ceramics from University of Nebraska, Lincoln. He received his Bachelor of Fine Arts from Seoul National University of Science and Technology. Through creating sculpture, he explores overlooked dichotomies, such as ignorance and awareness, inside and outside, above and below, and what we have seen or not seen.
Rosana Ybarra is a queer interdisciplinary artist from Portland, OR with a current focus on sculpture/painting hybrids and performance. She is a Master of Fine Arts candidate and
Instructor of Record at University of Nebraska – Lincoln. Her work has most recently exhibited at the Bemis Center for Contemporary Art and Project Project in Omaha, NE, Pure Surface in Portland, OR, the Arts & Literature Laboratory in Madison, WI, and III of Cups in Lincoln, NE. Rosana’s art is an index of her own self-exorcism. Her work offers an invitation to examine the psychosocial nuances of indoctrination through object-body experiences.