‘A Memorable Toast’ exhibit features Nebraska MFA student work
calendar icon01 Oct 2024
Lincoln, Neb.—The University of Nebraska–Lincoln School of Art, Art History & Design presents “A Memorable Toast,” a group exhibition featuring work from the 20 graduate students in its Master of Fine Arts program.
The exhibition will be on display in the Eisentrager-Howard Gallery from Oct. 14-Nov. 1. Gallery hours are Monday-Thursday, noon to 5 p.m. A closing reception will be held on Friday, Nov. 1 from 5-7 p.m. in the gallery.
Participating artists include:
Sara Alfieri
Sara Alfieri received her B.F.A. from Illinois State University in 2020. Following her undergraduate education, Alfieri completed a graduate student-at-large program at Illinois State University. The preceding year, Alfieri moved to Fort Collins, Colorado, to complete a post-baccalaureate program at Colorado State University. Alfieri designs and develops digital prototypes using C.A.D. (Computer-Aided Design) software which are then brought to life through the mold-making and slip-casting process. By using old and new mechanisms of working, Alfieri is interested in how utilizing the digital fabrication process, in tandem with hand-built vessels, can highlight these processes’ differences while finding ways to connect their potentials.
Emmanuel Asamoah
Emmanuel Asamoah, also known as Kstony, is a contemporary ceramic artist born in Kumasi, Ghana, West Africa. He carries a profound respect for his heritage and the legacy of his grandmother. Kstony's familiarity with clay and its significance as a daily resource in his community inspired him to expand its use and pursue a formal education in ceramics. Kstony earned a B.A. in industrial art (ceramics option) from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Ghana. After graduation, he served a year with the National Service as a teaching assistant in the ceramic section of the Industrial Art Department at KNUST. Recently, Kstony received the NCECA Multicultural Award in 2024, and his works have been showcased in multiple exhibitions in both Ghana and the United States. Currently, Kstony is a second-year MFA candidate at Nebraska.
Maddie Butkovich
Maddie Butkovich is a printmaker from Virginia Beach, Virginia. She received her B.S.Ed. in kinesiology and high distinction in studio art from the University of Virginia in 2023. She is currently an M.F.A. candidate in printmaking at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. She most recently spent the last year completing the Aunspaugh Fellowship at the University of Virginia, where she focused on further developing her skills as a printmaker. She uses printmaking as a tactile way to build narrative through gesture and absurd imagery.
Rachel Clarke
Rachel Clarke is an interdisciplinary artist creating two dimensional and three-dimensional work, featuring process-based exploration. She transforms physical materials to create immersive installations while her alternative photography and drawings explore the material’s essence it leaves behind in a space. Originally from Cedar Rapids Iowa, Clarke is working towards a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, with an emphasis in painting and sculpture. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls Iowa.
Kimberley D’Adamo
Kimberley D’Adamo is an Italian-American artist, teacher and researcher. Her current series, On Campus Intervention, draws attention to schools as creators of culture. In these works, she uses whimsy as a tool to reshape her own relationship with schooling. Viewers are invited to consider the constraints imposed by educational institutions and to reimagine these systems in beautiful new ways. Originally from the Bronx, New York, D’Adamo is currently pursuing an M.F.A. in sculpture. She recently completed a doctorate in education from the College of Education and Human Sciences at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. She also holds an M.A. in art education from San Francisco State University in California and a B.A. in visual art and philosophy from Rutgers University in New Jersey. Recent exhibitions include Learning Environments, a solo exhibition on Innovation Campus at UNL, Come on Come Over at Elder Gallery, Nebraska Wesleyan University and Powerful Fragility, a four-woman show at the Morris Graves Museum in Eureka, California.
Kerry Eddy
Kerry Eddy is a multidisciplinary artist from Lincoln, Nebraska, and earned their undergraduate degree at UNO. Their work combines traditional painting and digital media and incorporates animation/motion. Blending themes of nature and the human-constructed world, their work often centers on subjects from their personal experience and occasionally political commentary. They are currently a first-year graduate student in painting and drawing.
Dominique Ellis
Dominique Ellis is a visual artist and researcher. She is a current graduate student in photography at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln and uses photography as a vehicle for storytelling, collaboration, and advocacy to document environmental, cultural, and historical change. Ellis was awarded a U.S. Fulbright student scholarship for Egypt, as well as an Arabic language grant for 2009-2010, and was based in Cairo, Egypt. She served as a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer in Morocco, from 2006 to 2008, working for the Moroccan Ministry of Handicrafts. Her current project employs projection photography and alternative processes, centered particularly in feminist histories of artistic and technical innovation.
Brian Garbrecht
Brian Garbrecht is a second-year photography grad and multidisciplinary artist from Elgin, Illinois. He earned his B.F.A. in studio arts from Northeastern Illinois University in 2022, where he was honored with Best in Show at the 2022 and 2023 Juried Student Art + Design Exhibitions and the Dr. Bernard J. Brommel Award for Outstanding Student Research and Creative Activity. Garbrecht’s work blends photography and time-based media to explore themes of family, memory, and identity. Recently, he was honored with UNL’s Dan and Barbara Howard Creative Achievement Award. Garbrecht was also a 2021 Honorable Mention recipient for the Dorthea Lange–Paul Taylor Prize from the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University, and a 2020 award winner for the Society of Photographic Education (SPE) Student Award for Innovations in Imaging.
Daniel Garcia
Daniel Garcia is a visual artist working in clay and ceramic materials. He was born in the northwestern region of the Mojave Desert in the city of Lancaster, California. In 2021, he graduated from California State University of Long Beach receiving a B.F.A. in ceramics and is currently a second-year graduate student studying at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. His works show juxtapositions of geometry and geological matrix pushing the boundaries of materiality and sacred spaces. Themes of dark fantasy inform an austere world of antiquity that conjures a relationship with the erosion of earth and humanity.
Josh Goering
Josh Goering was born and raised in Kansas City, Kansas. In 2021 he graduated from the University of Kansas with a B.F.A. in ceramics and a B.A. in environmental studies. Following this he did a yearlong internship at Starworks Ceramics, an artist-in-residence studio with a local clay making facility within its walls. Afterwards he went back to his alma mater for post-baccalaureate study, continuing a research project into Kansas ceramic materials. Goering’s work hinges on his environmental disposition, an inquisitive nature surrounding materials, and an inherent love of process. His current work involves a dialogue with the regional landscape using local clays and rocks as well as hand building forms that reference objects involved in his processes.
Charlotte Middleton
Charlotte Middleton is a ceramic artist from rural Maine. She is currently a third-year M.F.A. candidate at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. Middleton creates functional ceramic still-lives, thrown on the wheel, then hand-painted using multiple glazes and resist techniques. Objects are arranged specifically, and sometimes nonsensically, to bring attention to narrative of objects in use. The overlooked but essential acts of our daily lives; drinking, sharing, and nourishing become the subject. Middleton has participated in both group and solo shows internationally, and has work represented in galleries and private collections.
Alex Renbarger
Alex Renbarger specializes in painting isolated interior scenes with intense lighting and vivid colors, based on AI-generated images. She graduated from Texas State University in San Marcos, Texas, with a B.F.A. in studio art and is currently attending UNL’s graduate program in painting and drawing. Select exhibitions include the upcoming Graduate Juried Exhibition at the University of Mississippi in Oxford, Misssissippi; Smoke & Mirrors at the Medici Gallery in Lincoln; UARK x UNL Exchange at Sugar Gallery in Fayetteville, Arkansas; The Artist’s Studio at Spellerberg Projects Main St. Gallery in Lockhart, Texas; Illusions of Reverie at Texas State Galleries in San Marcos, Texas; and Here and There at Clamplight Gallery in San Antonio, Texas.
Taryn Sakry
Taryn Sakry is a first-year M.F.A. candidate in printmaking at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. Originally from South Dakota, she received a B.F.A. in graphic design and a M.A. in printmaking from Minnesota State University in Mankato. Sakry works primarily in woodcut and intaglio to explore themes of memory and experience.
Amy Sanders
Amy Sanders was born in Yueyang, Hunan, China, and raised in Allentown, Pennsylvania. She holds a B.F.A. with a concentration in ceramics from West Virginia University in Morgantown, West Virginia. In 2022, she completed a year as a post- baccalaureate student at Montana State University in Bozeman. Recently, she served two years as an artist-in-residence at the Morean Center for Clay in St. Petersburg, Florida. She currently focuses on utilitarian wares that challenge the composition of the pot.
Ani Sargsyan
Ani Sargsyan is an artist from Vanadzor, Armenia. She received her B.A. in art and museum studies from Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, and is currently working towards her M.F.A. degree in painting and drawing at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. Through oil painting and collage-like elements, she uncovers Armenia’s rich history and culture by referencing the symbolism and motifs of ancient Armenian manuscripts. By merging these elements with personal experiences and observations from the ongoing conflict in the region, her compositions bring to light the encounters of contemporary Armenian life.
Angelica Tapia
Angelica Tapia is a multidisciplinary artist whose work explores perception and identity through surreal, contemplative imagery. Inspired by nature, botanical forms, and biomorphic shapes, her art creates new archetypes that live in-between reality and imagination. Currently based in Lincoln, Nebraska, Angelica is pursuing her M.F.A. in painting and drawing, with a minor in printmaking, at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln (expected 2025). She holds a B.F.A. with a minor in philosophy from the University of Nebraska at Kearney (2022). Her work has been exhibited across Nebraska, including shows such as Kindred at the Museum of Nebraska Art (Kearney) and Ollas Artelatinx at Gallery 1516 (Omaha). In addition to her artistic practice, Tapia is a muralist, designer, and educator for Impact Art, a nonprofit dedicated to creating murals across Nebraska.
Allie Wheeler
Allie Wheeler is a printmaker and mixed-media artist who explores personal memory and relationships through collage, assemblage, and printmaking techniques. Focusing on creating sculptural handmade books and structures, she brings a unique and personal perspective to her work. Originally from Delta, Utah, she draws inspiration from her upbringing in a rural farm town, which influences the themes and imagery in her art. Wheeler holds an Associate of Fine Arts from Snow College and a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 2D media from Weber State University. She is currently pursuing her Master of Fine Arts in printmaking at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. Wheeler’s artwork has been exhibited across the country, including shows such as Content-Artists Books in Davis, California, and The Book as Art at the Decatur Library in Decatur, Georgia.
Willy Wong
Willy Wong, a photographer hailing from Hong Kong, earned his B.F.A. in photography from the Savannah College of Art and Design and is currently pursuing an M.F.A. degree at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. Growing up in this distinctive environment has profoundly shaped Wong’s photographic vision and methodology, often centered on themes such as public space, conflict, memory, and the interplay between humanity and nature. Wong’s photographic endeavors have taken him across the globe, from the American Southwest to his hometown of Hong Kong, and to diverse locales like Vietnam, Taiwan and Japan. In each place, he delves into the intricate tapestry of history and its ongoing influence on contemporary life, capturing the essence of these complex relationships and their societal and environmental impact.
P.K. Woo
P.K. Woo is a visual artist from Homer, Alaska. She holds a Bachelor of Liberal Arts in studio art and a certificate in outdoor skills and leadership from the University of Alaska Southeast in Juneau. She most recently spent the last two years as a post-baccalaureate student in ceramics at UAS, where she focused on further developing her skills as a functional potter. Through her work she intends to explore the relationship between her own identity and the natural environment through the relationship of form and surface.
Grace Worden
Grace Worden is a fine art photographer based in the Midwest. She pursued an education in photography and environmental studies at the University of Kansas, where she earned her B.F.A. in design. Worden is primarily interested in how visual art functions within environmental communication efforts. Her recent research and creative works center on the Great Plains and its rural environments. Many of her photographs document landscapes that exist as both home and habitat.
The Eisentrager-Howard Gallery is located on the first floor of Richards Hall at Stadium Drive and T streets on the UNL city campus. Admission to the gallery is free and open to the public.