The Great Plains Art Museum at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln will open two new exhibitions of photography Sept. 2 during Lincoln’s First Friday Art Walk, 5-7 p.m.
Michael Farrell’s “Wayfaring Strangers” features a set of large-format portraits created during the pandemic in fall 2020. The work was done in a backyard natural light alcove, harkening back to 19th century portrait settings.
“Most were enthusiastic about a safe-distance visit and having a nice picture or two,” Farrell wrote about the exhibition. “But as we talked, it became clear to me that there was a lot going on emotionally for all of us.”
Farrell is a veteran in public broadcasting, specializing in history and humanities documentaries, as well as programs about diverse topics such as music, art, and rural and environmental issues. In addition to teaching, he co-leads the Platte Basin Timelapse project, a collaborative, multi-year initiative that uses time-lapse photography to show a watershed in motion over time.
In “Field Guide to a Hybrid Landscape,” Dana Fritz’s photographs show the forces that shaped the Bessey Ranger District of the Nebraska National Forest and Grasslands, once the world’s largest hand-planted forest. Wind, water, planting, thinning, burning, decomposing and sowing all contribute to the environmental history of this conifer forest overlaid onto a semi-arid grassland in an effort to create a timber industry and change the local climate.
Dana Fritz is Hixson-Lied Professor of Art at Nebraska. She uses photography to investigate the ways people shape and represent the natural world in cultivated and constructed landscapes. She is the author of “Terraria Gigantica: The World under Glass” (University of New Mexico Press, 2017) and “Field Guide to a Hybrid Landscape” (forthcoming from University of Nebraska Press in January 2023).
Fritz and Farrell will each give a short talk about their work during the opening reception at 5:30 and 6 p.m., respectively.
Exhibition support is provided by the Charles W. Guildner Great Plains Art Museum Excellence Fund, Hixson-Lied Faculty Grants and the university’s Arts and Humanities Research Enhancement Fund.
The Great Plains Art Museum, 1155 Q St., is open to the public 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. Admission is free. Learn more.
