Small Expressions
Monday, October 5, 2020 to Friday, December 18, 2020
Handweavers Guild of America, Inc. presents: Small Expressions, an annual juried exhibit to showcase contemporary small-scale works created using fiber techniques in a variety of media no larger than 15 inches. This traveling exhibition makes a stop at the Robert Hillestad Textiles Gallery for the Fall 2020 semester and is juried by contemporary tapestry artist Jon Eric Riis.
Visual Merchandising Techniques Modeled by Industry Professionals
The Silent Seller: Students' Foci on Visual Merchandising and the Consumer Experience
Monday, August 24, 2020 to Friday, September 18, 2020
! Due to ongoing concerns about the spread of COVID-19, visitors to the gallery over two years of age are required to use a facial covering at all times when indoors on the UNL campus.
Son Nguyen’s garment titled Canamortis received the first place Mary Mitchell Award at the UNL Student Showcase at Omaha Fashion Week. Son’s design process explored pleating as a way to create volume and was completed in Apparel Design by Draping.
Omaha Fashion Week Student Showcase
Monday, March 9, 2020 to Friday, April 3, 2020
! Due to ongoing concerns about the spread of COVID-19, the Gallery is closed until further notice.
A Night on the Runway: Looks from the UNL Student Showcase
March 9-April 3
Installation view: Lawrence Arts Center, Lawrence, Kansas. 2016.
Maggy Rozycki Hiltner: Vantage Point
Monday, October 7, 2019 to Friday, February 14, 2020
In April 2014, Maggy Rozycki Hiltner was selected to create an installation for the Mesa Contemporary Arts Museum’s Dr. Ruth Tan Lim Project Room. As an embroidery artist, filling 72 linear feet of wall space with hand-stitched imagery would be her largest project to date. She began by designing an idealized landscape with a big blue sky, green grass, and puffy white clouds. Researching ways of depicting cloud forms led her to thinking about clouds as water vapor and then water vapor as greenhouse gas. And other clouds— volcanic plumes, mushroom clouds, emissions from factories and puffs rising from the cooling towers of nuclear reactors—drew her attention as well. The resulting piece, Vantage Point, traveled from Mesa to other venues, changing shape to fit each one. In 2018, Hiltner stitched an additional 39 linear feet to make the piece site-specific for the Holter Art Museum in Helena, Montana.
Shelley Thornton. Image credit: Barbra Porter.
Shelley Thornton: Textile Art Dolls
Monday, June 3, 2019 to Friday, September 13, 2019
Closed Labor Day, Monday, September 2, 2019. The work of Lincoln, Nebraska native and lifelong artist Shelley Thornton is currently on exhibit in the Robert Hillestad Textiles Gallery, through September 6, 2019. A printmaking and graphic design graduate of what is now the Hixon-Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts at UNL, Thornton turned to the medium of textiles in the early 1990s, and since that time has established herself as one of the leading dollmakers working in the US.
What We Wore: Dressing Well at UNL
Monday, March 25, 2019 to Friday, May 10, 2019
On February 15, 1869 the University of Nebraska was officially chartered as a part of the Morrill Act. The Morrill Land-Grant Act provided 30,000 acres of federal lands to the newly admitted state of Nebraska (1867) to create a university that would provide a “liberal and practical education” to its citizens, including women. From Alice Frost, the first woman graduate, to Louise Pound and her support of athletics for women, to Grace Margaret Morton and her widely used textbook The Arts of Costume and Personal Appearance, women, both faculty and students, have played an important role in the history of the university.
Image: Post Japan Stones. Paint and pigment on fabric, 68" x 75".
Astrid Bennett: The Tarp Series
Monday, December 17, 2018 to Friday, February 15, 2019
The University of Nebraska’s Robert Hillestad Textiles Gallery features the exhibition Astrid Hilger Bennett: The Tarp Series, December 17, 2018 – February 1, 2019. Over decades, Bennett’s work has focused on painted, printed and dyed textiles in the form of wall pieces and functional items. In her current body of work, she also includes drawing and mixed media, creating large tarps and small scrolls.
Pigment on Cloth: Tradition, Family, and the Art of Indian Pichvai Painting
Monday, August 13, 2018 to Friday, November 16, 2018
This special exhibition introduces our audiences to the historic Indian practice of pichvais, devotional paintings on cotton cloth made as temple hangings in Nathdwara, Rajasthan. The exhibition presents work from one contemporary family of Nathdwara pichvais painters who represent the fifth, sixth and seventh generations of pichvais painters in their lineage. The exhibition will document their continuing creation of these visual narratives, long associated with Nathdwara's Shrinathji temple.
Read more about: Pigment on Cloth: Tradition, Family, and the Art of Indian Pichvai Painting
Installation View.
Merchandising competition/installations - To See and Be Seen
Monday, April 9, 2018 to Friday, May 18, 2018
Visual merchandising is as much art as commercial enterprise. Strong design strategies interpreting imaginative themes bring excitement and wonder to fashion retailing. For the first time, TMFD students will team up with several local retailers to plan and execute thematic visual merchandising displays in the Hillestad Textiles gallery.Read more about: Merchandising competition/installations - To See and Be Seen
Spiral Descendent. 2017; archival museum board, silk, dye, thread, pigment; approximately 7 ft high.
Ancestors/ Descendants
Monday, February 5, 2018 to Friday, March 23, 2018
Artist Jason Pollen will speak about his work in the Hillestad Gallery at 5:00 p.m. on First Friday, February 2, 2018. Please join us for this special event.