Anway’s ‘Abierto’ exhibition includes 3 art students
calendar icon25 Mar 2022
Lincoln, Neb.--School of Art, Art History & Design Assistant Professor of Practice Byron Anway is curating an exhibition titled “Abierto,” which means “open” in Spanish, at the Tugboat Gallery. The exhibition will include work by Anway and three School of Art, Art History & Design students.
The exhibition opens on Friday, April 1 with a reception from 7-10 p.m. at the gallery, which is located above Gomez Art Supplies at 116 N. 14th St. in Lincoln. The exhibition will run through April 30. To view the show outside of the opening reception, visitors can get access to the gallery from the employees of Gomez Art Supplies.
Curated by Anway, “Abierto” is a show of drawings, paintings and sculpture by Anway and students Belen Catalan, Chas Hyman and Qiqe Panqeqi Martinez.
In “Abierto” the four artists reimagine their past, present and future selves. Stories become memories; personal and cultural heritage are evaluated for honesty and accuracy.
Tugboat Gallery is the combined effort of School of Art, Art History & Design alumni Peggy Gomez, Nolan Tredway and Lisa Guevara and provides showing opportunities for emerging artists and established professionals.
“Due to the distancing protocols of the COVID 19 pandemic, many arts institutions suspended gallery programming for nearly two years,” Anway said. “For more than 15 years, Tugboat has provided exhibition opportunities for both emerging and established artists. This exhibition, featuring a UNL art faculty as well as three highly talented art students, is both. Since the pandemic disrupted in-person art exhibitions for the better part of two years, many first- and second-year art students have never been to Lincoln's galleries in person. ‘Abierto’ is intended as a way of reintroducing Tugboat's programming to the undergraduate UNL studio art students.”
Anway invited Catalan, Hyman and Martinez to exhibit their work with him.
“Thematically, much of the work is tied to gender, race, figuration, introspection, and the relationship between childhood, memory, and imagination,” Anway said. “All three of these artists have thriving studio practices and make art outside of assigned coursework. Each has established themselves as talented, hardworking and committed to making art a career. Each student has expressed interest in actively exhibiting work during their course of study. Finally, these students have self-identified as ready to show mature work in a professional setting.”
Martinez said she is looking forward to exhibiting her work.
“I think the Tugboat and Parrish Studios are some of the best places to see fresh, challenging and risk-taking art,” Martinez said. “I hoped to exhibit there since I first got to Lincoln. Seeing all the unique perspectives in this shared space will be a much-needed celebration of community.”
Hyman said she has always loved the Tugboat Gallery.
“I’ve been visiting Tugboat since I was 16, and it has always been a wonderful space to see,” Hyman said. “I also wanted to participate in the show because I have been working very hard for the past several months on a cohesive group of oil paintings that are very near and dear to my heart, which I would love to share with the public.”
Anway’s recent work draws on memories of teaching and traveling overseas, particularly in Morocco. Among other venues, his work has been exhibited at Joslyn Art Museum in Omaha and the Soo Visual Arts Center in Minneapolis. His work has been published twice in “New American Paintings: The West,” Manifest Creative Research’s “International Painting Annual” and the “Prairie Schooner.”
Catalan graduated from Grand Island Senior High School in 2020. Currently, they are based in Lincoln. Belen works with several media ranging from plaster, fabric and found objects to graphite works on paper. Their work explores themes of cuteness, fragility, feminity and Mexican queerness.
A contemporary painter and drawer, Hyman is a black female surrealist. She creates magical and imaginative portraits that are representative of her own personal childhood and experience coping with mental illness, grief and isolation. She currently lives in Lincoln, but sees herself moving to the Pacific Northwest in the future to be alongside the rich, geographical features of the area.
“I would describe my work as surreal and playful, yet very personal,” Hyman said. “My work plays with childhood nostalgia and my experience growing up as a black woman in the Midwest, navigating grief, mental illness and isolation. On a surface level, my work appears to be cute, but it has the essence of the themes discussed above.”
Martinez is an artist from Grand Island, Nebraska. Her paintings and drawings explore transgender identity and first-generation Mexican experiences.
“I use artwork to bridge the gaps in my communication. I think of my drawings as descriptions, dialogues and even prophecies,” Martinez said. “I’m especially looking forward to the show because of the other emerging artists whom I’ve admired and am very honored to exhibit with.”
Hyman hopes people will come to the exhibition and see the work.
“People should come because my peers, Qiqe and Belen, as well as my professor, Byron Anway, have been working very hard to provide a breathtaking collection of work to celebrate the reopening of the Tugboat Gallery,” she said. “Visiting the space when I was younger really opened my eyes to my desire to becoming an artist and following my passion. It means a lot to me that years later, I can show my own work and hopefully inspire others as well.”