Isabel Barbuzza, professor in the sculpture and intermedia program in the University of Iowa’s School of Art and Art History, will present the next Hixson-Lied Visiting Artist and Scholar lecture at 5:30 p.m. March 27 in Richards Hall, Room 15. The lecture is free and open to the public.
The School of Art, Art History and Design’s Hixson-Lied Visiting Artist and Scholar Lecture Series brings notable artists, scholars and designers to Nebraska each semester to enhance the education of students.
Born in Mendoza, Argentina, Barbuzza received a Bachelor of Arts degree in art from the Universidad Naacional de Cuyo in Mendoza and a Master of Fine Arts in art studio from the University of California in Santa Barbara.
As a sculptor, Barbuzza works in installations, objects and site-specific; she is interested in the power of materiality and the narratives that accompany them. She uses old encyclopedias to create a tactile reading from manipulated paper. Discarded encyclopedias, for example, trace a history of Colonialism, and their information continues to perpetuate post-colonial legacies of Western superiority over the non-Western world. Barbuzza is very interested in the power and the possibilities of found materials. Other materials she has used are mussel shells, artificial flowers, honey wax combs, copper and many others.
Her work is in private and public collections in the U.S. and abroad. She has exhibited nationally and internationally, including one- or two-person exhibitions at Kanagawa Kenmin Hall Art Gallery in Japan; the Dubuque Museum of Art in Dubuque, Iowa; and the Urban Institute of Contemporary Art in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
The remaining lectures in the series are:
• April 10: Kim Dorland. Dorland lives and works in Toronto. He pushes the boundaries of painted representation through an exploration of memory, material, nostalgia, identity and place. He has exhibited globally.
• April 24: Tatyana Fazlalizadeh. Fazlalizadeh is a Brooklyn-based interdisciplinary artist working primarily in painting, public art and multimedia installation. She is a Forbes Under 30 lister, a Mellon Foundation fellow, and in 2018, she became the inaugural Public Artist in Residence for the New York City Commission on Human Rights.
Each lecture takes place at 5:30 p.m. in Richards Hall room 15.
Underwritten by the Hixson-Lied Endowment with additional support from other sources, the series enriches the culture of the state by providing a way for Nebraskans to interact with luminaries in the fields of art, art history and design. Each visiting artist or scholar spends one to three days on campus to meet with classes, participate in critiques and give demonstrations.
For more information on the series, contact the School of Art, Art History and Design at 402-472-5522 or e-mail schoolaahd@unl.edu.
