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That Which Connects Us Exhibit Opens

That Which Connects Us is the newest exhibit in the Osborne Family Gallery and will be on view through February 13, 2025.

  • published: 2024/12/06
a headshot of a man, Keith, smiling on the left side and on the right side an image of a collection of drawn trees, in multiple colors

That Which Connects Us is the newest exhibit in the Osborne Family Gallery and will be on view through February 13, 2025. The Osborne Family Gallery is open during the same hours that Criss Library is open.

About the Exhibit

Community is a notion that we are not only connected by not only our heritage or proximity, but also through an exchange of ideas and a desire to help one another. Trees personify this complex and vital system. In 2016, ecologist Suzanne Simard wanted to find out if trees could talk to each other. What she found was a network of fungi underground connecting the roots of trees that not only relayed information to each other, but also provided nutrients for young and dying plants. This discovery is an embodiment of community.

Through the imagery of trees, That Which Connects Us… examines those networks as an analogy of our interpersonal relationships. Using different paper in a collection of nonstandard prints, I am emphasizing the various backgrounds these communities represent. Layers of trees, trapped within the confines of the copper plate, are forced to connect to each other through their overlapping, the drawn line, and string.

Arboreal pictures act as a symbolic language for us to see how connected we are. By using different types of trees around my community in Lincoln, Nebraska I am portraying systems of living together. We need our farmers, teachers, and artists just as much as trees need a forest. The threads that connect us may not be as visible as my work prescribes, but they are there; a continuous interconnection to one another.

About the Artist

Keith Buswell graduated with a BFA in art University of Nebraska--Lincoln. He works with various printmaking processes such as screen-printing, intaglio and mono printing and dabbles in drawing and multimedia. He currently is a member of Karen Kunc’s Constellation Studios where he creates his prints. His work has been shown in the United States, Egypt, Dubai, France and Italy. Notably, Keith received the Perry Family Award in 2018 and second place in the 40 Under 40 Showcase in Annapolis, MD and third place at the Under Pressure print show in Fort Collins, CO. He is a contributing artist to issue 23 and 28 of The Hand Magazine. In 2021, Keith became curator/co-captain of the Tugboat Gallery in Lincoln, Nebraska. He also attended residencies at The Kimmel Harding Nelson Center in Nebraska City, Nebraska and at Pyramid Atlantic Art Center in Hyattsville, Maryland. Originally from Council Bluffs, Iowa, he currently lives in Lincoln with his husband Brad and his dog Max. Learn more about Keith at his artist website.