06/18/12

Story by Diane Carroll

Nerman Museum features works by Zack Balber, Chris Biddy, Lauren Mabry

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. – Artists Zack Balber of Miami, Chris Biddy of New York and Lauren Mabry of Lincoln, Neb., each have an exhibition on view at the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art at Johnson County Community College.

The three exhibitions run through July 15.

Zack Balber, Tony (color), 2011, lambda print, 67 x 47”. Courtesy Fredric Snitzer Gallery, Miami.

In Tamim, Balber uses portrait photography to uncover the camouflaged identity of some of Judaism's most unconventional Jews. Balber, Jewish himself, connected with the men he photographed while rediscovering his own lineage. Instead of valuing their heritage, many of the men he depicted had adopted tough-guy personas and hidden behind tattoos, which are forbidden in Jewish culture. When approached with the opportunity to be photographed as Jews – wearing the yarmulke that Balber wore for his bar mitzvah – these ordinarily recalcitrant men let go of their powerful exteriors. The result was a startling series of photographs of shirtless, heavily tattooed men whose insecurities and vulnerabilities shine through. Wearing the yarmulke, the men said, made them feel a spiritual reconnection to their culture. Tamim is a Hebrew word that is sometimes used to denote perfection. Balber has said that he considers his subjects as "perfectly imperfect, proud, unashamed, vulnerable, scared, confident and insecure."

Balber attended the University of Florida, New World School of the Arts.

Chris Biddy, Trailer, 2011, watercolor on paper, 10 x 8”. Courtesy of ATM / Bill Brady KC and the artist.

In Kids, Biddy turns Facebook photos of adolescent girls into meticulously rendered paintings. His subjects are self-represented, captured via their smart phones or digital cameras within the context of their respective lives. In explaining his work, Biddy states: "To me, photographs as tangible objects seem relegated to the past, as everyone has a digital camera or camera phone. The number of digital images is immense – yet most are easily erasable and generally banal. I do not intend to burden viewers by turning ephemera into objects of greater permanence...But I am captivated by the tender, transitory moments of the snapshots I select. I also enjoy the transformative effect of employing watercolor and oils to capture these digital images."

Biddy earned a bachelor of fine arts in painting from the Kansas City Art Institute in 2009.

Lauren Mabry, Cylinder, 2011, earthenware, slips, and glaze, 10.5” dia. Collection Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art.

In Cylinders, Mabry applies layers of glazes to her ceramic pieces, giving them the flavor of an abstract expressionist painting. In a statement about her work, she says that she hopes it allows viewers to experience color, form and matter as a synergistic whole in a new unexpected way. She sees an inherent sense of mystery in the ceramic medium. "To finish a work, it must always be removed from my hand, loaded into a closed kiln and heated to temperatures that melt the materials together, transforming the piece. I anticipate the outcome but it is always different from my expectations. That same sense of 'unknown element' remains in my completed work."

Mabry earned a bachelor of fine arts in ceramics from the Kansas City Art Institute in 2007 and is working on a master's degree in ceramics at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln.

The Nerman is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday; 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Friday; noon to 5 p.m. on Sunday. It is closed Mondays and on college holidays. Admission and parking are free. For more information, visit nermanmuseum.org or call 913-469-3000.

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