“No Words,” an exhibition of landscape photographs by Roger Bruhn will be the final August pop-up show at WallSpace-LNK. A Fourth Friday opening reception with refreshments will run from 4:00-8:00 p.m. August 25. Saturday August 26^th hours will be 12:00-5:00 p.m. 

Bruhn notes, “Most photography today is focused more on ideas than the pleasure of the visual. I have nothing against ideas. But when it comes to a visual art like photography, I want my work to please the eye. Life is a desire, not a meaning. These photographs are about seeing, not about ideas.” Indeed, both the color and the black and white images made between 1968 and 2023 in this exhibit focus on places both near and far that transcend their subject matter.

Viewers will share the photographer’s sense of discovery in landscapes throughout the American West. “I don’t really search out my subject matter, Bruhn said. 

“I just wait, and it finds me.”

“No Words” images are available for viewing and purchase Friday, August 25 from 4:00-8:00 p.m. and Saturday, August 26 from 12:00-5:00 p.m. More information at wallspace-lnk.com or on Facebook. 

This exhibition (two days only – Aug 11 & 12) is drawn from a portfolio of over 100 archival gelatin silver prints of old barns and farmhouses made by Michael Farrell in a project spanning the years 1998 to 2006. In this ongoing exploration of the southeast Nebraska countryside the photographer and his partner Lynne Ireland traveled thousands of miles of county roads, exposed many hundreds of sheets of 4×5 or 5×7 film, and noted the locations of hundreds of abandoned farm buildings.

“Requiem for the Home Place,” a selection of traditional gelatin silver photographic prints, matted and framed, will be on display and available for purchase August 11 and 12 at WallSpace-LNK. Signed and framed as well as unframed original prints are available for purchase at a significant discount both days. 

“Photography is about memory, loss and desire. These photographs are about worlds and lives no longer viable but whose ashes and bones still lie above the surface reminding us of what once was.” – from the essay by Michael Farrell accompanying the 2006 exhibition. See both the prints and the essay at WallSpace-LNK on August 11, noon to 8 (reception at 4pm to close) & Aug. 12, noon to 5pm.

Long-time photographic artist John Spence will be showcasing new assemblage sculptural work during a two-day pop up show First Friday, August 4 and Saturday August 5 at Wallspace-LNK Gallery, 1624 S. 17th Street, Lincoln. 

This assemblage work features a long-standing interest in the childhood play activity of “Cowboys and Indians” and the depiction of the American bison in our culture. Spence drew inspiration for this body of work from the Hastings artist, Dave Stewart. “After completing an hour video program about Dave and his work, I realized I wanted to have as much joy making art as he did,” Spence said, “I looked at my twenty-year-plus collection of buffalo figurines and thought, ‘I need to put these guys to work!’’’ 

As the series progressed, happy associations with other long term collections and interests integrated themselves with the original focus. This has resulted in recent work which presents wider and deeper associations to engage the viewer. Most recently Spence has integrated elements of Classic 1930’s Tramp Art to the assemblages.

Note: This show is a Pop-up for two days only August 4 & 5. WallSpace-LNK will be closed for parts of August for family vacations and events. Stay tuned for information about another Pop-up event later in August!

July’s offering at WallSpace-LNK

“Sacred Places of the Near West,” large format color photographs of Nebraska and Colorado, are on display July 6-29 at WallSpace-LNK, 1624 S. 17^th Street, Lincoln.  A First Friday reception July 7 from 5:00-8:00 p.m. will feature artist’s remarks at 6:00 p.m.

Gathered from over two decades of travel to photograph unique and inspiring landscapes, these color images and the places they represent are imbued with meaning not only to photographer Michael Farrell, but to many who see the land as a living entity. From long before our contemporary geopolitical boundaries and place names, these locations were important to the Otoe, Pawnee, Cheyenne, Arapaho, Lakota and Ute peoples. Today they offer solitude, visual beauty, and the opportunity to contemplate the brevity of our existences measured against the seeming timelessness of the land.

Photographed using the challenging high-craft 8×10 inch film camera process, these scenes are unequalled for clarity, detail and subtle rendering of light and shadow. “They need to be seen in person to appreciate their intensity, quality, and spirituality,” Farrell noted.

WallSpace-LNK is open Th-Sat, noon to 5pm or by appointment at 17th & Sumner in Lincoln, NE.

Back to the Bohemian Alps is the title of June’s exhibition at WallSpace-LNK. A few years ago, these large-scale color photographs made in parts of Butler, Saunders and Lancaster Counties were featured in a very popular exhibition at the Great Plains Art Museum. We’re bringing them back due to the many requests from gallery visitors.

The Bohemian Alps is a region of gently rolling loess hills that sits like an overturned shallow basket on the table of eastern Nebraska between the Platte River to the north and the capital city of Lincoln’s salt flats to the south, David City to the west and Wahoo to the east. A visitor driving the gravel roads will notice the many Czech names on the mailboxes and on the gravestones in the small community cemeteries. Many Bohemian Alps farming families are still on places originally settled by their Czech or Moravian immigrant forbears in the 1870s and 1880s.

The WallSpace-LNK show will feature favorite images from the 2019 exhibition as well as some images not seen previously.

The illustrated companion book with an original essay by photographer Michael Farrell will be available as are prints from the show.

WallSpace-LNK is open Th-Sat, noon to 5pm or by appointment.