November art exhibit features the works of Christopher Tice

 

[November 05, 2021] 

For their November presentation, Lincoln Arts Institute will host a solo exhibition by artist Christopher Tice. An opening reception will be held on Thursday, November 11, 2021 from 5 to 8 pm at the LAI Gallery, 112 S. Mclean St., Lincoln. The show, entitled “Sites 4 Soar Eyes”, will include selections from several series of drawings Tice has been developing since 2019.

Though an academically trained and experienced visual artist, Tice decided two years ago that he wanted to reconsider drawing, which has been a fundamental means of artistic communication for thousands of years, but has acquired limitations within the traditional Western esthetic. He began with works that were very exploratory in nature, experimenting freely with his materials and techniques. At first, he explains, the goal was to reimagine: “I was concerned with removing the emptiness of the blank page… the content of these works was secondary.”

After some months, Tice began to feel constraints on his progress from two sources. First, he became dissatisfied with the possibilities offered by commercially sourced drawing materials. He therefore began making his own drawing charcoals from different woods, which widened the range of line, texture, and tone in the drawings. He also created a unique drawing tool that allows him to make simultaneous marks from several charcoal sticks.

The artist had also felt restricted by the space in his home studio, where he could only produce a limited number of drawings at a time. This constraint was overcome when Tice moved into a studio space at Lincoln Arts Institute. This has proven very successful, leading to large scale and collaborative projects.

LAI owner Jason Hoffman is also pleased with the arrangement. “Having an active studio artist in the building has led to a fruitful partnership. As our renovations continue, we are creating more studio space and are looking forward to adding more artists this Spring.”

The November exhibition will document the development of Tice’s experiments, with works from an Early Abstract Series (2019-2020); very spontaneous drawings from his Pure Psychic Automatism series (2020 – ongoing); and drawings from his Lunacy Series (2020-ongoing). In this last series the works begin as spontaneous drawings created on the full moon, refined with additional marks and colors. He admits that the results are “stories that haven’t been heard, sites that are still unexplored.” The viewer is thus invited to join in the interpretation of the images.

After the reception, the gallery will also be open on Friday evenings from 5 to 8 pm through December 4, as well as during numerous pre-holiday events throughout the month (contact [e-mail] for times). All events will follow current Covid guidelines.

[Pamela Moriearty]