Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts Auction Catalog - 11th Annual Art Auction Online Auctions

Keith Jacobshagen - Autumnal Light

Lot #01 (Sale Order 1 of 35)

Autumnal Light, Oil on canvas, 2009, 12 x 12 in.; Keith Jacobshagen is one of the preeminent American landscape painters. Instantly recognizable for their signature relationship of sky to land, Jacobshagen's paintings grant viewers spaces of intense introspection within the spectacular expanse of the midwestern sky. Working both in his studio and en plein air, he has focused particularly on the sixty-mile radius surrounding Lincoln, Nebraska to make pictures that capture the spiritual vastness of Nebraska's landscape. Trained as a graphic designer and illustrator at the Kansas City Art Institute, Keith Jacobshagen has been painting the light and space of the Midwest for close to four decades. Jacobshagen's work has been shown in galleries and museums throughout the United States and, since the late 1960s, he has had close to 80 one-person exhibitions. His work is also included in many public, corporate and private collections nationwide.

Ed Moulthrop - Untitled

Lot #02 (Sale Order 2 of 35)

Untitled, Tulipwood, 1983, 8.5 x 8.5 in.; Ed Moulthrop was a self-taught wood turner, considered a master craftsman who expanded the possibilities of the medium. His turned bowls are characterized by their large sizes, typically spherical or elliptical forms, and highly polished finishes. Moulthrop was born in Rochester, New York in 1916. He received his undergraduate degree from Case Western Reserve University in Ohio in 1939 and his graduate degree in Architecture from Princeton University in New Jersey in 1941. He taught architecture at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta for 30 years. Moulthrop sought to find shapes and finishes that revealed "the myriad complexities, the subtle or exotic range of colors, and the etching-like patterns of growth rings" in the wood. He often used damaged or diseased wood to produce vessels that would reveal an essential character of the material. Moulthrop's work is represented in the collections of many major museums, including the Museum of Arts and Design, the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, all in New York City, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Detroit Institute of Arts and the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C.

Jon Rappleye - In Winters Tranquil Slumber #1

Lot #03 (Sale Order 3 of 35)

In Winters Tranquil Slumber #1, Digital and silk screen, 2009, 33 x 22 in., Edition 25 of 35; Rappleye's drawings, sculptures and installations introduce a personal mythology through a fanciful, folklore-laden environment - one teeming with an abundance of otherworldly flora and fauna. The artist, whose work has been featured in Artforum, ArtTimes and New American Paintings to name but a few, studied at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Skowhegan, Maine after receiving a BFA from Utah State University and an MFA from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He is represented by the Jeff Bailey Gallery in New York and the Richard Heller Gallery in Los Angeles and is a recipient of the Golden Fellowship in recognition of exceptional talent in the field of painting. *BC Artist-in-Residence, 2008; 2009

James Woodfill - Untitled Tabs

Lot #04 (Sale Order 4 of 35)

Untitled Tabs, Ink on paper, plotter drawing, 2009, 19 x 24 in.; James Woodfill makes sculptures and installations that include kinetic, light, sound or video elements, and are produced in direct response to a given site. Both his gallery exhibitions and permanent public art works have received significant national recognition for their subtly transformative effect on the perception of space. These works are produced by a software driven plotter system, which Woodfill employs as a mechanized drawing tool by embracing its flaws and slight deviations from the programmed instructions. Woodfill's work has been reviewed in such publications as Art In America, Art Papers, The New Art Examiner, I.D. Magazine and Sculpture Magazine. His public work has been widely recognized with numerous awards, including an award from the American Institute of Architects. Woodfill's efforts have extended into education, curatorial projects, writings and numerous urban planning projects and studies. He has received a Charlotte Street Foundation award in Kansas City and was awarded a multi-year studio grant from Review Studios as well. In 2000 he served as visiting assistant professor in experimental mixed media at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. Woodfill is a graduate of the Kansas City Art Institute and he has taught there since 1998. Woodfill is presenting a major exhibition of new work at the Bemis Center in January 2010.

Luis Jimenez - Sod Buster

Lot #05 (Sale Order 5 of 35)

Sod Buster, Lithograph, 1983, 36.5 x 50 in.; Born in El Paso, Texas in 1940 to Mexican immigrants, Luis Jimenez became known throughout the world for populist art and public commissions that fused "Chicano" and Anglo-American cultures. His early influences of working in his father's neon shop and a lifelong fascination with car culture fueled Jimenez' unorthodox combination of Pop Art with low-brow forms and materials such as neon, fiberglass and iridescent paint. His work, if often controversial, is eminently recognizable. Upon his death in 2006, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson ordered flags throughout the state to be flown at half-mast in honor of the artist and his legacy. Today, works by Luis Jimenez are featured in numerous public and private collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, the National Museum of American Art, the Art Institute of Chicago and the Rockefeller Foundation. Jimenez 32-foot blue Mustang is on permanent display at the Denver International Airport.

Laurie and Charles Photography

Lot #06 (Sale Order 6 of 35)

Portrait Session Gift Certificate, Photograph, 20 x 20 in.; Laurie Victor Kay and Charles Kay Jr. are award-winning fine art photographers who exhibit their work nationally and internationally. Their images have been featured in The New York Times, Photo District News, Travel + Leisure, Fortune Magazine, Conde Nast Traveler, and Camera Arts. They have received awards including the 2009 Photography Masters Cup, the 2008 and 2007 PX3 Prix de la Photographie, American Photography 22, the 2007 Pilsner Urquell International Photography Awards and an Aperture West Book Prize Nomination. Commercial clients include the Tiger Woods Foundation, Nike, Omaha Children's Museum, Y&R, Wells Fargo, BBDO, Accenture, Publicis, and the American Red Cross. Laurie and Charles reside in Omaha with their two children Miles, Evie, and rescued dog Sophie. Their collaborative work can be viewed at www.laurieandcharles.com

Stephen Mueller - Untitled

Lot #07 (Sale Order 7 of 35)

Untitled, Watercolor on paper, 2000, 22 x 14.625; Stephen Mueller is one of the true painter's painters. He has shown his work internationally, with numerous solo museum exhibitions including a show at the Joslyn Art Museum in 2003 and at the Bemis Center in 1988. His work was included in two Whitney Biennials (1987 and 1995) and has been reviewed in publications including The New York Times, The New Yorker, Art in America, Artforum, and Bomb Magazine. Mueller has received numerous awards including the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant, the Guggenheim Fellowship and an NEA individual support grant. He received his BFA from the University of Texas in 1969 and his MA from Bennington College in Vermont in 1971. Mueller has said of his work "I do think painters are predominantly influenced by either literature or music. I'm definitely a music man." Lyrical qualities and the sheer celebration of painting is present across four decades of his work and through shifting styles and motifs including floating grids, prismatic color, psychedelic washes and patterned silhouettes. Mueller has provided a significant influence to younger generations of artists throughout his career.

Stephen Mueller - Untitled

Lot #08 (Sale Order 8 of 35)

Untitled, Watercolor on paper, 2000, 22 x 14.625; Stephen Mueller is one of the true painter's painters. He has shown his work internationally, with numerous solo museum exhibitions including a show at the Joslyn Art Museum in 2003 and at the Bemis Center in 1988. His work was included in two Whitney Biennials (1987 and 1995) and has been reviewed in publications including The New York Times, The New Yorker, Art in America, Artforum, and Bomb Magazine. Mueller has received numerous awards including the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant, the Guggenheim Fellowship and an NEA individual support grant. He received his BFA from the University of Texas in 1969 and his MA from Bennington College in Vermont in 1971. Mueller has said of his work "I do think painters are predominantly influenced by either literature or music. I'm definitely a music man." Lyrical qualities and the sheer celebration of painting is present across four decades of his work and through shifting styles and motifs including floating grids, prismatic color, psychedelic washes and patterned silhouettes. Mueller has provided a significant influence to younger generations of artists throughout his career.

Stephen Mueller - Untitled

Lot #09 (Sale Order 9 of 35)

Untitled, Watercolor on paper, 2000, 22 x 14.625; Stephen Mueller is one of the true painter's painters. He has shown his work internationally, with numerous solo museum exhibitions including a show at the Joslyn Art Museum in 2003 and at the Bemis Center in 1988. His work was included in two Whitney Biennials (1987 and 1995) and has been reviewed in publications including The New York Times, The New Yorker, Art in America, Artforum, and Bomb Magazine. Mueller has received numerous awards including the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant, the Guggenheim Fellowship and an NEA individual support grant. He received his BFA from the University of Texas in 1969 and his MA from Bennington College in Vermont in 1971. Mueller has said of his work "I do think painters are predominantly influenced by either literature or music. I'm definitely a music man." Lyrical qualities and the sheer celebration of painting is present across four decades of his work and through shifting styles and motifs including floating grids, prismatic color, psychedelic washes and patterned silhouettes. Mueller has provided a significant influence to younger generations of artists throughout his career.

John Buck, The Luminary

Lot #010 (Sale Order 10 of 35)

The Luminary, Woodcut, 2009, 74.5 x 37 in., Edition 14/15; Sculptor and printmaker John Buck works with two interrelated bodies of work: sculptures of carved wood, assemblage or bronze and large, multicolored woodblock prints. The Tandem Press of the University of Wisconsin-Madison describes Buck's work as one with "an exceptional insight and perspective on the social and political realities of the day. It often explores the enormity and complexity of conflict, yet his figures are whimsical and resilient." Buck, who lives in both Montana and Hawaii, has received numerous awards, including an Individual Artist Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. His work is included in the permanent collections of the Seattle Art Museum, the Brooklyn Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago and the Museum of Modern Art. The Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco organized a major retrospective of his work in 1993 in a show that then traveled the nation.

Leslie Iwai - Unfurl

Lot #011 (Sale Order 11 of 35)

Unfurl, Ripstop nylon, vinyl tubing, leather, 2009, 85 x 18 in.; Trained as an architect, Leslie Iwai explores the formation of space as an experiential event. Her work often exists between architecture and sculpture. Unfurl represents a new direction for Iwai - the nylon feather is intended to rest on the back of a sofa - utilizing sculpture to directly interact with a domestic interior. Iwai's public art projects have made notable contributions to Omaha's cityscape. Her five large-scale Sounding Stones, a 2005 Omaha Public Art Commission in Turner Park, have since been moved to Elmwood Park. The artist's piece sO!fa was one of the sculptures created for the O! Project. The Bemis Center selected Iwai in 2005 for its Community Artist Fellowship, an award that recognizes local artists who contribute to the community through their work. Iwai earned her MS degree in math and chemistry from Wayne State College in Wayne, Nebraska and her M.ARCH at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, Virginia.

Don Ed Hardy - Free Range & Howboy

Lot #012 (Sale Order 12 of 35)

Free Range & Howboy, Color lithograph with gold leaf, 2009, 36 x 24 in., Edition 11 of 30; With 40 years of tattooing and legendary status within the inking community, Don Ed Hardy is known by many as "the godfather of the modern tattoo." Hardy pioneered imagery that combined Japanese tattoo influences with American icons. In the last few decades he has increasingly devoted his time to painting and printmaking. Free Range and Howboy is one of Hardy's most recent works. Regarding his 1995 work Big Top, Hardy states: "The crawling black panther is one of the most elegant traditional American tattoo designs. It was first adapted by Milwaukee artist Amund Dietzel from an illustration by Marie Schubert in a 1934 children's book on world mythology. The form is perfectly suited to fit an arm, leg, or other body musculature. It reflects the dragon shapes found on millennia-old Chinese bronze and ceramic vessels. Here the scenario is unclear: the "Little Lulu" style schoolchildren are either being threatened or protected by King Kat." His 500-foot-long scroll of 2,000 millennium dragons traveled to the MCA Denver, the Cuenca Biennale in Ecuador and the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco. The artist's work is represented in the collections of The Honolulu Academy of Art, The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu, The San Francisco Fine Arts Museum Achenbach Collection and the University of Colorado Fine Art Galleries. A monograph, "Tattooing the Invisible Man," was published by Smart Art Press.

Richard Chung - Figure #114

Lot #013 (Sale Order 13 of 35)

Figure #114, Ceramic, 2008, 40 x 9 x 9 in.; Richard Chung uses the inherent malleability of clay to create figurative sculpture whose subjects are often in a literal state of transition - transforming in a single sculpture from one pose to another. Many of the sculptures memorialize a kind of resilient everyman, thus inverting the traditional focus on commemorating the powerful. Chung received his BA from the University of California, Berkeley. He has shown his work nationally and is represented by Sherry Leedy Contemporary Art in Kansas City, Missouri. In addition to teaching, Chung has also worked as an assistant to Jun Kaneko in his Omaha studio.

Karen Kunc - Inner Sanctum

Lot #014 (Sale Order 14 of 35)

Inner Sanctum, Woodcut, 2006, 12 x 72 in.; Karen Kunc is a Nebraska-based artist who also works in New York, Italy, Colorado and Helsinki. Her prints and artist's books have been shown recently in solo exhibitions in the United States, France and Poland. Her works are represented in numerous public collections including the Museum of Modern Art (NY), the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. Her awards include a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship and a Fulbright Scholarship. The artist received her BFA from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and her MFA from Ohio State University. She is a Cather Professor of Art at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Kunc has taught countless workshops around the world and has served as a visiting artist to over 100 institutions while also curating exhibitions of American art in Finland, France and Egypt.

Cashcade

Lot #015 (Sale Order 15 of 35)

Residency Program Fellowships and Sponsorships. To place bids for this lot contact our auction operator via the message center. The artist-in-residence program's national and international reputation continues to grow. Over 750 artists from 19 countries and throughout the United States apply annually. Each year, 24 emerging and established artists are granted live/work studios and financial support through the Bemis Center's artist-in-residence program. The Bemis Center continues to foster dialogue about the creative process and the role of contemporary art within the community of Omaha by hosting open studios, monthly public presentations and podcasts with artists from around the world.

Larry Ferguson - #147-17-8 Iceberg, Antarctica

Lot #016 (Sale Order 16 of 35)

#147-17-8 Iceberg, Antarctica, Gelatin silver print, 2004, 50 x 50 in., Edition 2 of 10; Photographer Larry Ferguson is an internationally known artist whose work has been exhibited in more than 400 galleries and museums. His black and white images of landscapes, cityscapes and people are widely collected by galleries, museums, private individuals and corporate collectors, including the Joslyn Art Museum in Omaha, the Library of Congress in Washington D.C. and the Centro Cultural Arte Contemporaneo, A.C. Manuel Alvarez Bravo Collection in Mexico. Ferguson's work has been featured in exhibitions at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, the Nelson-Atkins Museum in Kansas City and the Art Institute of Chicago. A recipient of the Bemis Center's Community Artist Fellowship award, the artist had a one-person show, Antarctica: Journey & Destination here in 2006. Ferguson serves as Chairman of the Omaha Public Arts Commission.

John Fraser - Negative Positive

Lot #017 (Sale Order 17 of 35)

Negative Positive, Acrylic and wax on wood construction, 33.5 x 55.5 x 2.75 in.; John Fraser combines light, space and quotidian objects, blending Western and Eastern artistic approaches. Through restrained and elegant abstract forms, Fraser explores formal and material issues that offer intense impact and feeling. The artist has exhibited internationally and his work is in the permanent collections of such institutions as the Museo de Arte Contemporaneo in Segovia, Spain, the Cincinnati Art Museum, the Mississippi Museum of Art and the Sioux City Art Center. The recipient of several Illinois Arts Council grants and an Arts Midwest/NEA Regional Visual Arts Fellowship, Fraser's art is also included in the public collections of such corporations as Merrill Lynch, Saks Fifth Avenue, Deloitte & Touche and Citicorp Services.

Misha Gordin - Fallen #7

Lot #018 (Sale Order 18 of 35)

Fallen #7, Photograph, 2007, 36.5 x 43.5 in.; For three decades, conceptual photographer Misha Gordin has produced surreal black and white silver gelatin photographs that are both mesmerizing and thought-provoking. The artist has received numerous awards, including a National Endowment for the Arts Visual Artist Grant and a Michigan Council for the Arts Creative Artist Grant. He has exhibited in numerous solo shows including exhibitions at the Bemis Center, the North Dakota Museum of Art, the Museum of Photographic Arts in San Diego and the Detroit Institute of Art. His work is in the permanent collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, the National Museum of Modern Art in Kyoto, Japan, the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris and the International Museum of Photography in Rochester, among many others.

Tony Berlant - Morning Star

Lot #019 (Sale Order 19 of 35)

Morning Star, Found and fabricated printed tin, 2009, 7. 25 x 5. 5 x 7. 5 in.; Tony Berlant has been creating vivid metal collages since the early 1960s. He projects images of flora and fauna and common household objects onto tin shapes in quilt-like patterns that are both visually and conceptually rich. The artist received his BA, MA and MFA from the University of California at Los Angeles. He has shown his work at such venues as the Whitney Museum of American Art, the James Corcoran Gallery in Los Angeles, CA and the Centro Cultural del Arte Contemporaneo in Mexico City, Mexico. Today, Berlant's work is included in private, corporate and public collections, including the Smithsonian Institution's Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, DC, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles and the Whitney Museum of American Art.

Laurie Victor Kay - Decapitation, Musee D'Orsay

Lot #020 (Sale Order 20 of 35)

Decapitation, Musee D'Orsay, Archival lambda photograph, 2004, 46 x 66 in., Edition 3 of 8; Photographer Laurie Victor Kay studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and Columbia College in Chicago where she received her BA in photography in 1995. After studying painting, art history and photography in Chicago, Italy and France, the artist settled in Omaha yet she continues to produce work through extensive international travel. For the past decade, Kay has focused on photographing public places and the people in them and views her work as part of an ongoing process. She and her husband Charles own Laurie and Charles Photographs in Omaha and their commissioned portraits hang in collections throughout the world.

Debbie Masuoka - Bird Head

Lot #021 (Sale Order 21 of 35)

Bird Head, Earthenware, terra sigillata, oxides, 2009, 44.5 x 15 x 24 in.; Deborah Masuoka is well known for her large-scale rabbit heads - dynamic and powerfully reductive sculptures that are conceptually complex and visually compelling. She has been a visiting artist at the Archie Bray Foundation in Helena, MT as well as at the legendary Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem, Israel. Her work is in numerous private and public art collections, including the Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery and Arizona State University. In 2005 the Art in State Buildings program in Iowa purchased three of her cast bronze rabbit head sculptures for the Stafford Arboretum in Iowa State University's Reiman Gardens. The Iowa West Foundation tapped Masuoka to create a series of large-scale bronze sculptures for it's public art program. The artist also created White Rabbit for the O! Project. She earned a BFA from Wayne State University and an MFA from the Cranbrook Academy of Art. *BC Artist-in-Residence, 1989

Sean Ward - The Baphomet Series

Lot #022 (Sale Order 22 of 35)

The Baphomet Series, Porcelain, 2006, 21 x 12 x 14 in., Edition 1 of 45; Sean Ward was born in Eastern Long Island and now lives in Eugene, Oregon. This July, Ward completed A Pre-Conscious Space, a commissioned installation in the Bemis Center's Okada Sculpture Facility. A series of events and performances will be programmed throughout 2010 in Ward's cave. He received a BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute in 2000. In 2005 he was awarded the Charlotte Street Foundation grant, a major award in Kansas City. In 2006 he mounted an acclaimed solo exhibition, New 65" Paintings, at RARE in New York City. His current work employs closed-loop green construction processes to build socially transformative environments and highly idiosyncratic public spaces.

Aaron Holz - Lovely Still (Martin & Ellen)

Lot #023 (Sale Order 23 of 35)

Lovely Still (Martin & Ellen), Oil, resin, acrylic on panel, 2008, 21 x 21 in.; "Lovely, Still (Martin & Ellen)" is a double portrait of the characters portrayed by Martin Landau and Ellen Burstyn in director Nik Fackler's feature film by the same name, which was shot in Omaha. Holz paints in a realm of abstracted hyperrealism where Op Art meets figuration. His paintings were exhibited at the Bemis Center in 2007's State Of The Art. That exhibit was followed by a 2008 show at Columbia University's LeRoy Neiman Gallery and a solo show - his second there - at RARE gallery, both in New York. The artist is an assistant professor of painting at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. His work is found in the permanent collections of Lincoln's Sheldon Museum of Art, the Rourke Art Museum in Moorehead, MN and Minnesota State University, also in Moorehead. The Nebraska Arts Council awarded Holz with an Individual Artist Fellowship in 2007.

Memorabilia from the film Lovely, Still

Lot #024 (Sale Order 24 of 35)

Memorabilia from the film Lovely, Still , 2009, Twenty four year old Nik Fackler began writing and directing short films during high school in Omaha, Nebraska. His work as a painter and filmmaker was quickly noticed by members of Omaha's music scene, and he began directing music videos for many high-profile local acts. Lovely, Still (08) is his feature-directing debut. The film stars Academy Award winners Ellen Burstyn and Martin Landau and was an official selection of the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival. Lovely, Still will be released widely this winter. When not working in film he plays occasionally in many local Omaha bands including The Family Radio, Coyote Bones and Flowers Forever.

Mary Zicafoose - Ancient Text #12: Chain of Command

Lot #025 (Sale Order 25 of 35)

Ancient Text #12: Chain of Command, Weft-face ikat tapestry, 2009, 76 x 45 in.; Mary Zicafoose has spent the last 22 years in pursuit of visual surprises on the flat woven "rug" surface through dye processes, tapestry techniques and intriguing color play. Zicafoose blends cultural icons and symbols with a contemporary hand, creating powerful visual statements in fiber. She also translates these ethno-contemporary rugs into vibrant prints. The artist earned her BFA from St. Mary's College, Notre Dame, Indiana, and graduate studies include the Art Institute of Chicago and the University of Nebraska. Her tapestries and rugs span the globe and are included in the collections of United States Embassies on three continents. Her work has been reviewed in publication such as The Smithsonian Magazine, The Washington Post and Fiberarts Magazine. Zicafoose lives and works in Omaha. *BC Artist-in-Residence, 2008

Betty Woodman - Jasper John's Pastry Server

Lot #026 (Sale Order 26 of 35)

Jasper John's Pastry Server, Glazed earthenware, 24 x 16.5 x 9.5 in.; Considered one of the most significant artists working today, Betty Woodman has engaged in a fiercely original project for 50 years that explores contemporary and ancient concerns of painting and sculpture in the medium of clay. Long begrudging classification as a ceramist, Woodman works through an electric crosscurrent of styles and expressions whose most consistent attribute is a celebration of the vessel. Whether her vessels take the form of functional sculptures or outsized murals or architectural installations, there is always a riot of color and the intrinsic ecstasy of art-making. Joy is at the forefront in her work, and in the experience of those viewing her exhibitions, as it notably was in her 2006 retrospective at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. On the occasion of that show, critic Peter Schjeldahl said her work "...is a visual "Hallelujah" Chorus. The freshness, variety and unquenchable inventiveness ... bespeak a great insight: that seemingly exhausted formal repertoires, such as those of canonical modern art, can be made brand-new by translation into an independent artistic language." Woodman lives and works in New York City and Antella, Italy. *BC Board Member

Roy De Forest - Dog Man and Indian

Lot #027 (Sale Order 27 of 35)

Dog Man and Indian, Color lithograph with hand coloring in artist made, painted frame, 2006, 39.75 x 4.25 in. Edition 23/30; Roy De Forest (1930-2007) was born in North Platte, Nebraska into a farming family during the Great Depression, and became one of the most important artists of his generation. De Forest was a pioneer of the California Funk Movement, which rejected the conceptual nature of Pop for a more animated style. Using playfully bizarre shapes and figures, his work departs from the the reductive nature of minimalism to embrace complexity with spirited irreverence. De Forest has exhibited extensively since the 1950's and has had several dozen solo shows, including a major retrospective in 1974 at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, which traveled to the Whitney Museum in New York. His work resides in the collections of such institutions as the Brooklyn Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Art Institute of Chicago, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Rhode Island School of Design and Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, France.

Therman Statom - Quattro Melas

Lot #028 (Sale Order 28 of 35)

Quattro Melas, Glass mixed media, 2009, 15.5 x 10.75 x 9 in.; Therman Statom's works can be found in many major museum collections, including the Detroit Institute of Arts, the Musee des Arts Decoratifs (Paris), the Toledo Museum of Art, the High Museum of Art (Atlanta) and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, among others. Statom studied at the Pilchuck Glass School in Stanwood, Washington, received a BFA in sculpture from the Rhode Island School of Design and completed an MFA in sculpture at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY. He exhibits widely in solo and group shows around the country, as well as internationally. Statom has been honored with two NEA Fellowships and a Ford Foundation award. Statom's solo exhibition Nascita was presented at the Bemis Center throughout the spring of 2008. Recently, his major exhibition Stories of the New World was presented at The Orlando Museum of Art. Statom lives and works in Omaha.

Debbie Masuoka - Rabbit Head

Lot #029 (Sale Order 29 of 35)

Rabbit Head, Ceramic, 37.5 x 13 61 in., 2009; Deborah Masuoka is well known for her large-scale rabbit heads - dynamic and powerfully reductive sculptures that are conceptually complex and visually compelling. She has been a visiting artist at the Archie Bray Foundation in Helena, MT as well as at the legendary Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem, Israel. Her work is in numerous private and public art collections, including the Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery and Arizona State University. In 2005 the Art in State Buildings program in Iowa purchased three of her cast bronze rabbit head sculptures for the Stafford Arboretum in Iowa State University's Reiman Gardens. The Iowa West Foundation tapped Masuoka to create a series of large-scale bronze sculptures for it's public art program. The artist also created White Rabbit for the O! Project. She earned a BFA from Wayne State University and an MFA from the Cranbrook Academy of Art. *BC Artist-in-Residence, 1989

Keith Jacobshagen - Pulling Twilight, Havelcok Elevator Under 10 Inches of Snow

Lot #030 (Sale Order 30 of 35)

Pulling Twilight, Havelcok Elevator Under 10 Inches of Snow, Oil on canvas, 2006, 20 x 42 in.; Keith Jacobshagen is one of the preeminent American landscape painters. Instantly recognizable for their signature relationship of sky to land, Jacobshagen's paintings grant viewers spaces of intense introspection within the spectacular expanse of the midwestern sky. Working both in his studio and en plein air, he has focused particularly on the sixty-mile radius surrounding Lincoln, Nebraska to make pictures that capture the spiritual vastness of Nebraska's landscape. Trained as a graphic designer and illustrator at the Kansas City Art Institute, Keith Jacobshagen has been painting the light and space of the Midwest for close to four decades. Jacobshagen's work has been shown in galleries and museums throughout the United States and, since the late 1960s, he has had close to 80 one-person exhibitions. His work is also included in many public, corporate and private collections nationwide.

Claudia Cuesta - Copy

Lot #031 (Sale Order 31 of 35)

Copy, neon, 2009, 12 x 720 in.,; Claudia Cuesta produced these two works XY and Copy for her exhibition Terrestrial at the Bemis Center in the summer of 2000. The works were made during her residency earlier that year. Cuesta's research on the human genome informed the process of creating the exhibition and these works. She was particularly interested in the "analysis of the complexity of information stored in our cells, manifesting as gender, or personality characteristics, and how these characteristics shift over generations and how they have influenced social and economic development." Cuesta was born in Colombia, educated in England and Canada, and currently lives in Vancouver. Her work has achieved international recognition through exhibitions in Vancouver, Toronto, Seattle, London, Birmingham, Rome and Rio de Janeiro. Cuesta's work is primarily sculptural and produced with industrial materials such as steel, neon and wood; although formally minimal, the works have great symbolic power.

Claudia Cuesta - XY

Lot #032 (Sale Order 32 of 35)

XY, Steel and neon, 2009, 81 x 81 x 6 7/8 in., Diptych; Claudia Cuesta produced these two works XY and Copy for her exhibition Terrestrial at the Bemis Center in the summer of 2000. The works were made during her residency earlier that year. Cuesta's research on the human genome informed the process of creating the exhibition and these works. She was particularly interested in the "analysis of the complexity of information stored in our cells, manifesting as gender, or personality characteristics, and how these characteristics shift over generations and how they have influenced social and economic development." Cuesta was born in Colombia, educated in England and Canada, and currently lives in Vancouver. Her work has achieved international recognition through exhibitions in Vancouver, Toronto, Seattle, London, Birmingham, Rome and Rio de Janeiro. Cuesta's work is primarily sculptural and produced with industrial materials such as steel, neon and wood; although formally minimal, the works have great symbolic power.

Paul Renner - The Omaha Diner

Lot #033 (Sale Order 33 of 35)

The Omaha Diner, Oil, Vanish on photo and canvas, 2009, 208 x 300 in.; Paul Renner's 2009 exhibition The Omaha Diner was a presentation of art objects and nose-to-tail cooking, which culminated in a six course array of culinary delights served at two dinner celebrations to a total of 200 guests. Renner is a singularly bold artist, with activity spanning painting, performance art, jubilant social theater and hyper-adventurous cuisine. He creates ecstatic feasts that present food as sculpture and paintings as mythic backdrop, set within environments that transform the experience of his guests/eaters into art. This painting was created for that exhibition during his month-long residency here. His exhibition projects culminate in the staging of theatrical soirees at which visual arts and performing arts are informed by culinary art and for which he designs buildings (Theatrum Anatomicum), stages festivals (Vakanz) and founds travel clubs (The Hell Fire Touring & Dining Club). He has presented projects at the Kunsthaus Bregenz, the Leo Koenig Gallery, the Kunsthalle Wien and collaborated with figures as diverse as Hermann Nitsch, Ferran Adria, Medlar Lucan and Durian Gray. Renner lives in Bregenzerwald, Austria, and in Piedmont, Italy.

Therman Statom - Genio

Lot #034 (Sale Order 34 of 35)

Genio, Glass mixed media, 2009, 79 x 30 x 8 in.; Therman Statom's works can be found in many major museum collections, including the Detroit Institute of Arts, the Musee des Arts Decoratifs (Paris), the Toledo Museum of Art, the High Museum of Art (Atlanta) and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, among others. Statom studied at the Pilchuck Glass School in Stanwood, Washington, received a BFA in sculpture from the Rhode Island School of Design and completed an MFA in sculpture at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY. He exhibits widely in solo and group shows around the country, as well as internationally. Statom has been honored with two NEA Fellowships and a Ford Foundation award. Statom's solo exhibition Nascita was presented at the Bemis Center throughout the spring of 2008. Recently, his major exhibition Stories of the New World was presented at The Orlando Museum of Art. Statom lives and works in Omaha.

Dale Chihuly - Tangier Orange Persian Set with Olympic Blue Lip Wraps

Lot #035 (Sale Order 35 of 35)

Tangier Orange Persian Set with Olympic Blue Lip Wraps, Blown glass, 2000, 9 x 16 x 10 in.; Dale Chihuly is widely recognized for transforming the glass medium, and utilizing the material to create both wonderfully delicate works and spectacular large-scale installations. Truly one of the most recognized living artists, his installations and projects have been experienced by countless millions in such ambitious projects as Chihuly Over Venice (1995-1996), Chihuly in the Light of Jerusalem (2000) and Chihuly in the Park: A Garden of Glass at Chicago's Garfield Park Conservatory (2001-2002). Chihuly's work was first exhibited in Omaha at the Bemis Center in 1998. His self-titled exhibition featured works from the Seaform series that were created especially for that site-specific installation.


11th Annual Art Auction
Benefit & Charity > Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts > 11th Annual Art Auction
11th Annual Art Auction
by Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts Sat, Nov 14, 2009 8:00 PM Central The 11th Annual Art Auction features local, national and international artists. It is a celebration of, and critical opportunity to support exceptional talent.