Image by Dany Reyes
RE-WORK, Amplify’s next Generator Series project, examines the past as prologue in contemporary art practice. Organized by John Paul, the exhibition includes work by eleven artists who borrow, reassemble, and remix history to expand the continuum of cultural inheritance.
Composed using three distinct approaches to resituating the past, the exhibition first considers cultural material in the public domain as fair game for building critical frameworks that deploy appropriation and satire to examine historical imbalances of power and belonging. Second, it elevates scraps, rubbish, and refuse as generative objects in contemporary art production. Finally, it positions mashups and remixes as working practices that constructively interrogate tensions between the past and present, giving voice to both while creating something new.
The opening reception for RE-WORK is May 9th from 6pm - 9 pm.
A closing celebration will mark the end of the exhibition on June 13th from 6pm - 9pm.
Both events take place at Amplify’s Generator Space at 1804 Vinton Street in Omaha and are free and open to all. Please register below to visit during regular gallery hours outside of the opening and closing. Viewings are by appointment on Thursdays and Fridays between 1pm - 4pm.
Generator Space is wheelchair accessible and located on a fairly busy street with a decent amount of traffic. Please use crosswalks for safety. Unmetered street parking is available on Vinton Street, 18th Street, and neighborhood streets to the north and west of the space.
Generator Series programming is presented with support from the Nebraska Arts Council and the Nebraska Cultural Endowment.
Exhibiting Artists:
Amelia Broussard, a Louisiana native now based in Omaha, NE, creates mixed media collages inspired by her childhood explorations of the bayous. Using recycled materials, she captures the essence of these memories, exploring their unreliability while also finding joy and appreciation in the beauty of ordinary, everyday life.
Nicole Daberkow is a graphic designer and a sustainable fashion artist who utilizes upcycled linens and vintage fabric to create beautiful, utilitarian, and wearable works of art.
Angelina Gutierrez is a self-taught artist who works primarily in acrylic, spray paint, and mixed media. Her paintings—layered with texture, color, and bold marks—often depict figures that watch over, hold space for, and speak messages of strength.
Paul High Horse is an educator and artist whose art captures the symbols, traditions, and values inherent to the Lakota tribe. His work also explores different media including acrylics, archival pens, watercolor, and ledger paper. Paul currently teaches 7-12th grade art at Fort Calhoun Community School in Fort Calhoun, Nebraska.
Melissa McCarthy is a professional musician, sustainable fashion expert, and collage artist who works as a communications specialist for several Omaha based creative-arts organizations.
John Paul is a mark-maker and a “re-mix” artist who uses the techniques of juxtaposition and layering to create new visual narratives from existing works of art. John is also a community-arts-builder who works with artists and residents to identify and leverage cultural assets to enhance creative-civic engagement.
Dany Reyes is an Omaha-based visual artist influenced by graffiti, pop culture, and color theory. Dany, who was born in El Salvador San Salvador and raised in Los Angeles and Omaha, is an artist that works primarily in spray paint and acrylics. He grew up on comic books and cartoons—whose bold art styles and expressive characters caught his attention as a shy, immigrant kid learning about this new country.
Fredy Rincon is a graphic designer, welder, and award winning mixed-media artist. He is well-known for his colorful renderings of skeletal figures and Dia de Los Muetos celebrations as well as his folkloric sculptures and mixed-media assemblages tied to Indigenous Mexican traditions.
Sarah Rowe is a visual artist based in Omaha. Her work opens cross cultural dialogues by utilizing methods of painting, printmaking, textiles, performance, and Native American ceremony in unconventional ways.
Sener is a visual, sound, and installation artist. Originally from Silao, México, Sener now resides in Omaha, and has dedicated over a decade to exploring post-digital art. His practice covers experimental music, ambient soundscapes, sound art, immersive installations, digital equity, tech justice, and sound as a healing tool.
Watie White is an Omaha based artist who works in the fields of printmaking, painting, and socially-engaged art.
Viy (pronounced /v/), is a non-binary, multi-media artist. Their practice focuses on the materiality and history of objects, breaking them down to better understand them so they can be reconfigured and re-contextualized as art objects. Interested in refuse and refusal, their work comes from their own trash and items discarded by others, refusing the notion that these objects are worthless and instead seeing them as full of artistic potential.