Photographer Margaret LeJeune will present the next Hixson-Lied Visiting Artist and Scholar Lecture at 5:30 p.m. March 13 at the Sheldon Museum of Art’s Ethel S. Abbott Auditorium. The lecture is free and open to the public.
The School of Art, Art History and Design’s Hixson-Lied Visiting Artist and Scholar Lecture Series brings notable artists, scholars and designers to Nebraska each semester to enhance the education of students. The series is presented in collaboration with the Sheldon Museum of Art.
LeJeune’s creative practice explores the relationship between art, science and environmental studies. As a lens-based creator, she produces works that probe shifting landscapes, symbiotic relationships, and the nature of the photographic medium. In 2023, she was named the Woman Science Photographer of the Year by the Royal Photographic Society.
Her photographs, installations and video works have appeared in over 150 solo and group exhibitions nationally and internationally. She has been an artist-in-residence at several programs that promote collaboration between the arts and sciences including the Changing Climate Residency at Santa Fe Art Institute, University of Wisconsin-Madison Trout Lake Research Station, University of Notre Dame Environmental Research Center, Ives Lake Field Station at Huron Mountain Wildlife Foundation and the Global Nomadic Art Project.
LeJeune’s work can be found in the permanent collection of Nevada Museum of Art Center for Art+Environment, Central Michigan University Galleries, Mercer Gallery at Monroe Community College, Nazareth University and many private collections.
She has been the recipient of two Puffin Foundation Visual Artist Grants (2014/ 2022), Community Arts Foundation Grant (2018), and Arkansas Artist Council Sally A. Williams Artist Grant (2011). Her work has been published in Slate, Lenscratch, Oxford American, Urbanautica, Tatter Journal, and books from art.earth press including Culture, Community, and Climate: conversations and emergent praxis and Evolving the Forest.LeJeune received her MFA from Visual Studies Workshop.
She is a founding member of the Women’s Environmental Photography Collective and vice-chair of the Society for Photographic Education.
View LeJeune's work on her website.
The remaining lectures in the series are:
- March 27: Vera Iliatova. Iliatova’s work employs metaphors of landscape and interior spaces and female figures that meld together in oddly disconnected perspectives. View her work on her website.
- April 3: Tony Orrico. Orrico is a visual and performing artist whose record of exhibitions spans five continents. He is assistant professor of dance and sculpture/intermedia at the University of Iowa. View his work online.
- April 9: Jack Davis and Sharon Stocker, Richards Hall Room 15. Davis and Stocker are a husband-and-wife team of University of Cincinnati archaeologists. They were part of an international team of archaeologists led by UC that recently discovered a Bronze Age warrior’s tomb in southwestern Greece filled with more than 1,400 objects and was featured in the New York Times.
- April 10: Jaque Fragua. Fragua is a Native American artist known for his powerful and thought-provoking works. His artistic practice encompasses a diverse range of mediums, including studio painting, mural creation, sculpture, installation and public art. See his work online.
- April 17: Amanda Macuiba. Co-sponsored by the Great Plains Art Museum. Macuiba’s work is concerned with the landscapes, communities, development practices and environmental practices throughout the U.S. Her solo exhibition, “Watershed,” will be on view at the Great Plains Museum from April 4-Sept. 20, and she will be the Elizabeth Rubendall Artist-in-Residence from April 8-19. A reception will take place in the Great Plains Art Museum immediately following the lecture at the Sheldon. View her work on her website.
- April 24: Norman Akers. Akers’ work is included in the spring exhibition “Exploding Native Inevitable,” at the Sheldon Museum of Art. Akers is associate professor in the Department of Visual Art at the University of Kansas. As a Native American artist, he explores issues of identity, culture (including Osage mythos), place and the dynamics of personal and cultural transformation in his work. View his work on his website.
Underwritten by the Hixson-Lied Endowment with additional support from other sources, the series enriches the culture of the state by providing a way for Nebraskans to interact with luminaries in the fields of art, art history and design. Each visiting artist or scholar spends one to three days on campus to meet with classes, participate in critiques and give demonstrations.
For more information on the series, contact the School of Art, Art History & Design at (402) 472-5522 or e-mail schoolaahd@unl.edu.
