“WYSIWYG: Recent Paintings,” an exhibition of new work by Michael Farrell will be featured at a First Friday reception February 2 from 5-8 p.m. at WallSpace-LNK, 1624 S. 17th Street, Lincoln. Regular gallery hours are Friday-Sunday, 12-5 p.m. through February 25.

A spirit of playfulness emanates from these new paintings that feature “universal” symbols rendered in unexpected colors and backgrounds. Common expressions are reframed in plays on words or puns in some of the works’ titles, adding to the sense of whimsy.  “Pair-o-Dice,” and “Phone Home” are among works on display. 

Farrell’s work is inspired in part by the symbols and words his father and grandfather inscribed over decades on gravestones in the family monument business. Those mostly religious symbols expressed comforting messages about the deceased for generations to come. “Now,” Farrell noted, “electronic media have made many prosaic symbols ubiquitous, but how they’re presented has a big impact on what they mean and how they’re interpreted.”

The bursts of color are offered as an antidote to winter’s gray. Viewers are invited to consider the artist’s idiosyncratic renditions of familiar symbology and determine for themselves if “what you see is what you get.”

In addition to the First Friday opening, works are available for viewing and purchase Friday-Sunday 12-5 p.m., February 2 -25 or by appointment (text to 402-429-3684). More information at wallspace-lnk.com or Facebook.  

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.