Artwork by Sarah Rowe
Amplify's Artist Grants program is 5-years-old. To mark that milestone, we're celebrating!
Join us on December 18th at Slowdown from 3-5pm for food by Lola's, drinks, and performances by 3GYPT, Conny Franko, and Vōx Dance Collective, all amazing artists who call Omaha home.
We'll also release new editioned works: Thunderbird by Sarah Rowe and Grid (x Grid) by Angie Seykora! Each edition will be available for pre-order leading up to Grid and for sale during the event at the special price of $75 each. Editions will be available through Amplify's website after Grid at the regular price of $100 each. Click here to learn more.
Is there a better way to spend a Sunday afternoon?!? Join us as we look back at where we've been, share more about what's to come, and most importantly, celebrate the artists who work every day to make Omaha a more vibrant, thoughtful, and inclusive place.
Online ticket sales close at 10am on December 18th. Tickets will also be available at the door. 2 drinks are included in your $10 ticket purchase price.
Performance Schedule:
3:20pm: 3GYPT
3:50pm: Conny Franko
4:20pm: Vōx Dance Collective
People of all ages, including kids, are welcome. Some performances may include mature themes and strong language. Please use your best discretion or email peter@amplifyarts.org with questions.
Slowdown is ADA compliant and wheelchair accessible. Free parking is available in the venue’s east parking lot which faces Charles Schwab Field. Metered street parking on the west and south sides of the venue is also available.
Masks are welcome and encouraged.
About the performers:
3GYPT is a self-taught musician and artist. Inspired by Erykah Badu, Sade, Aaliyah, Dezarie, Jah-9, and her travels through Jamaica, she reorients the often male-dominated genres of Reggae and Dub to focus the stories of women of color in her music. Giving voice to empathy, self-love, and justice, 3GYPT crafts songs that hold space for both hurt and healing.
Conny Franko is a skateboarder, emcee, and poet who braids family, community, and the Chicano culture of a flyover state into lyrics that are equal parts petition and prayer. Oldies, doo wop, hip hop, punk rock, black metal, drum & bass, pop music, and psychedelia converge in a cacophony of influences distilled by notions of what it means to belong.
Vōx Dance Collective was created to challenge dominant systems and hierarchical power structures by foregrounding collaboration in high-energy, evocative contemporary and modern dance performances. In their work, the body becomes a medium to build honest, authentic relationships between performers and audience alike.
About the special editions:
Sarah Rowe is an interdisciplinary artist based in Omaha, NE. Her work opens cross cultural dialogues by utilizing methods of painting, casting, fiber arts, performance, and Native American ceremony in unconventional ways. Rowe’s work is participatory, a call to action, and re-imagines traditional Native American symbology to fit the narrative of today’s global landscape. Rowe holds a BA in Studio Art from Webster University, studying in St. Louis, MO, and Vienna, Austria. She is of Lakota and Ponca descent.
A former grant recipient and multi-year program participant, Sarah designed a functional piece for Amplify’s Editions program. This wearable fleece-lined hooded blanket is completely covered in Sarah’s Thunderbird print. Originally a woodcut, Thunderbird has been replicated here using an all-over-printing method that reveals the image’s intricacies in an entirely new way. Cozy and bold, Thunderbird will warm body and soul.
Edition size: 30
Date: 2022
Materials: All-over-printing on a poly-spandex blend wearable fleece-lined blanket
Dimensions: One size fits most; 36.6” from the shoulder to the bottom seam; 28.3” from shoulder to shoulder; 61.4” bust
Care: Machine wash cold with similar colors, hang dry, do not bleach or dry clean, iron on low without steam only when needed
Angie Seykora received an MFA in Sculpture from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania. In 2018 Seykora was the recipient of an Unrestricted Artist Grant from Amplify Arts and in 2016, was recognized as a Distinguished Artist by the the Nebraska Arts Council through the award of an Individual Artist Fellowship. In 2013, she was presented with the Outstanding Student Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture award from the International Sculpture Center, where she was selected for the Art-St-Urban Sculpture Residency in St. Urban, Switzerland. Angie Seykora is an instructor of sculpture at Creighton University. Her work is exhibited and collected on a national and international level.
A multi-year grant recipient and program participant, Angie’s investigation into the formal relationships between line, color, shape, and texture continues with Grid (x Grid). Using reclaimed plastic mesh, Angie collects, weaves, and reimagines the material stuff that makes up more and more of our world. Available as individual works, this edition also stuns in larger groupings.
Edition size: Series of 50 unique works in various colorways
Date: 2022
Materials: Plastic mesh, beads, adhesive, paper
Dimensions: 6” x 6” (each)