Great Plains Art Museum to host 'Cropping to Circles' exhibition

Courtesy image | Kendall McMinimy

"Pivotal 2," 2013, acrylic and toner on birch panel

The Great Plains Art Museum will open a new exhibition by artist Kendall McMinimy titled “Cropping to Circles” June 3 during Lincoln’s First Friday art walk from 5 to 7 p.m.

McMinimy fuses photography and printmaking in abstracted, monochromatic renderings of a familiar Great Plains image, the center pivot irrigation system. The artist draws attention to agricultural water use through images that explore the nature of irrigation.

“[The system] encircles multiple conflicting truths – a worldwide revolution in food production is also complicit in the depletion of groundwater; humanitarian aid aligns with hegemonic order; global market forces allow and deny local economies; a system simultaneously produces and diminishes,” McMinimy said in an artist statement.

Born and raised in the High Plains of Kansas, McMinimy holds a master of arts and master of fine arts from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “Cropping to Circles” was recently recognized in the Critical Mass Top 50 Portfolios of 2014.

First Friday visitors will have the opportunity to bring their own T-shirt to be screen-printed with a Great Plains design by UNL artist and Center for Great Plains Studies graduate fellow Joyce Bingeman for a $5 donation to the museum. This is the first time these designs, generally worn by museum staff, will be available to the public.

“Cropping to Circles” will run from June 3 to Aug. 27. The Great Plains Art Museum, 1155 Q St., is open to the public from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and admission is free.