A photographic installation of over 150 images

Note our new hours: Friday through Sunday afternoons from 12 – 5 pm.

“Close to Home,” an evocative collection of over 150 photographs made in Lincoln over a three-year period by Michael Farrell, will be featured from 5:00-8:00 p.m. First Friday, January 5 at WallSpace-LNK Fine Art Gallery, 1624 S. 17th Street, Lincoln. While the black and white images were made with “old school” vintage Rolleiflex film cameras, the installation reflects a new exhibition approach. Continuous bands of images circle around and through the entire gallery, creating an immersive experience. 

This body of work is inspired by Eugene Atget, whose remarkable photographs of the neighborhoods and parks of Paris in the late 19th and early 20th century were discovered and brought to the art world’s attention only at the end of his life. American photographer Berenice Abbott rescued the views at the time of Atget’s death. His capture of quintessential Parisian scenes influence photographers to this day. 

“I made these images,” Michael Farrell notes, “by walking the streets of my neighborhood, and later, many of the areas of Lincoln that contain the icons that give our city its visual identity.” 

Close to Home is on exhibit Friday-Sunday, January 5 – January 28 from 12:00-5:00 p.m. with extended First Friday hours of 5:00-8:00 p.m. Affordable individual images from the collection are available for purchase.

Dec 29 and 30 ONLY – Painting, drawings & prints

• Like Salt on a Snail, 2023
• copyright, Phoebe Little

Lincoln native Phoebe Little, who recently earned her MFA from the prestigious Yale School of Art, is home for the holidays and is offering work for viewing and purchase

12-8pm Friday, December 29 and 12-5 Saturday, December 30 ONLY.

The artist will be featured at a “final Friday” reception from 5:00-8:00 p.m

Phoebe notes that her recent paintings “explore an ambivalent relationship with pleasure and contemporary constructions of identity through consumer culture.” Based on still-life compositions and digital collage, her paintings ask, “When does pleasure bring us real fulfillment and when does it defy our expectations, leaving us disillusioned?”

• Reclining Male Nude
• copyright, Phoebe Little

This pop-up show offers a never-before opportunity to purchase limited edition prints of Phoebe’s most recent paintings. A suite of early figure drawings and a large scale oil painting from the artist’s archive are also available. Phoebe earned a BFA in Painting from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and currently lives in New Haven Connecticut, where she is pursuing work for an exhibition in London in 2024.

Take advantage of this rare chance to see (and acquire) the evolving work of this acclaimed rising talent.

Paintings and drawings by the late David F. Routon

Nov. 30 – Dec. 23
First Friday reception Dec. 1, beginning at 5pm.

The reception will be hosted by David’s family, joined by curator Bri Murphy, to share thoughts and reminiscences about David.

The show includes a selection of paintings, drawings, and prints celebrating David’s unique imagery. His representations of the human figure evoke the admonition of poet Emily Dickinson to “Tell all the truth but tell it slant.” Working from direct observation, photographs, old movie stills and more, Routon explored the emotive and psychological implications of conventional portraiture and personal imagery. Some images are fully rendered; others suggest varying degrees of completeness.

A longtime professor of painting and drawing at University of Nebraska-Lincoln and three other universities, Routon influenced generations of artists, not only through his teaching, but through his own work.

WallSpace-LNK gallerist Michael Farrell notes, “In addition to being a talented draftsman and painter, David Routon was a well-known and beloved figure on the arts scene in Lincoln. He was a figure at nearly every opening or visual arts event, offering enthusiastic and piquant commentary about the works on exhibit. This exhibition is a chance for art lovers to once again see and new viewers to appreciate David’s work, which  was last exhibited in 2017.”

An Invitational Group Exhibition curated by Karissa Johnson from the Museum of Nebraska Art

Seven artists with Nebraska connections have been selected for “Loosely Assembled,” an invitational exhibition of assembled objects on display November 2-25.

Karissa Johnson, curator at the Museum of Nebraska Art (MONA) and WallSpace-LNK founder and artist Michael Farrell curated and designed the exhibition highlighting a range of Nebraska artists committed to assemblage artwork in order to bring renewed attention to the artform.

Works by Jeanelle Myers, now of Sag Harbor, NY; Jo Nelson, Hastings; John Spence, Jeff Chadwick, Liz Shea, and Michael Farrell of Lincoln; and the late Mott-ly (Lee Tisdale) of Lincoln and Kansas City will be featured. 

Connected by their Nebraska roots, the artists bring widely divergent experiences to their mixed media creations. Jeanelle Myers has been collecting things, many from the natural world, and turning them into art for 35 years. Jo Nelson’s artistic journey took her to New York City and Florida where she refined her interest in Asian objects. Liz Shea began her artistic career as a textile designer and has worked for decades as an art educator and public art advocate. Architect Jeff Chadwick has covertly constructed boxed assemblages for 30 years and is exhibiting them publicly for the first time. John Spence is a Lincoln photographer and filmmaker who began making assemblages exclusively in 2017. Michael Farrell has been creating assembled objects and other artistic works since the late 1960s. Mott-ly, the only deceased artist in the show, grew up in Lincoln and studied at the Kansas City Art Institute. His assemblage work often sought beauty and humor in the face of living with chronic pain and illness. It has not previously been on public display in Lincoln.

“What I really appreciate about assemblage work, and it’s something that is demonstrated by each of the seven artists included, is the requirement of the viewer to really look and engage with the artwork to find out what it’s about,” says Karissa Johnson, co-curator of the exhibition. “I hope this show draws in visitors who are open, curious, and not afraid to ask questions.”

The artists are unified by their creative impulses to assemble objects in complex and enigmatic works that convey beauty, mystery, tragedy, faith, joy, and whimsy.  Co-curator Farrell observed, “this show brings together an unusual group of artists and never-before exhibited assemblage work. It will be talked about in our community for a long time.”

October 5 – 28

Painter Robin Smith is returning to Lincoln with a new exhibition October 5-28 at WallSpace-LNK. “Still Life and Landscapes” features forty works. In some, common objects and materials are juxtaposed in intriguing ways that bring the “still” things to life. Powerful scenes and skies from Nebraska’s Pine Ridge landscape offer a compelling, different view of Smith’s painting prowess.

A First Friday reception for the artist is on October 6 from 5-8 p.m. at the gallery.

The still life works are part of a series “connected by motif,” Smith notes. “Currently I employ medium sized canvasses (40 x 30 inches) with objects in the middle of the picture plane on a table.” His scenic views reflect a lifetime of personal experience.  “Growing up on Cape Cod gave me a sense of the vastness of the landscape. The influence of the light and landscape is exacerbated by my surroundings in Western Nebraska.”

A former Chadron State College faculty member, Smith studied painting at the Skowhegan School and the University of Massachusetts before studying in the MFA program at UN-L. He went on to earn a doctorate in visual ethnography from Arizona State. He also plays a mean banjo.

Robin Smith’s work has been shown at the Nelson-Atkins Museum in Kansas City, the Museum of Nebraska Art in Kearney, the Sheldon Museum of Art and other regional museums and galleries. His paintings are part of many private collections and are held by MONA and Sheldon.

The paintings are available for viewing and purchase Thursday-Saturday, 12-5 or by appointment by emailing dr_robinsmith@hotmail.com.