August 14 – September 15 2023

Closing Reception with comments from the artists: September 12 4:30-6pm

Curfman Gallery, Lory Student Center

Artists Chris Kannen and Lauren Lipinski Eisen both create work highlighting organic objects observed in their natural environments, as a response to their own memories. In this collection of work, the artists achieve a sense of nostalgia while simultaneously creating a heightened appreciation for the details of our natural world. Kannen and Eisen were chosen to exhibit in the Curfman Gallery by the LSC Arts Program students because of the messages conveyed in their work during a time of increasing technological influence where the value of nature is often overlooked.

Chris Kannen was born in Cleveland, OH and earned his BFA from the University of Dayton and his MFA from Hunter College in New York City. Chris has been an artist-in-residence at Samband Íslenskra Myndlistarmanna (SÍM), Reykjavik, Iceland, and in the McMurdo Dry Valleys of Antarctica as the recipient of a National Science Foundation Antarctic Artist and Writer Award. His work has been shown in galleries across the country. He lives in Denver and works in Denver and throughout the local landscape.

“I make paintings from my personal experience of nature – smaller paintings from direct observation in the plein air tradition, and larger-scale paintings that explore details of these observations.”

Lauren Lipinski Eisen received a Master of Fine Arts degree in Art Studio from Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana, and a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Fine Arts from Columbus College of Art and Design in Columbus, Ohio. She has shown her work in galleries in London, New York, New Orleans, San Francisco, and Denver, and has participated in exhibits at The Marin Museum of Contemporary Art, The Butler Institute of American Art, The SUNY Art Museum in Plattsburgh, New York, and the Masur Museum of Art in Monroe, Louisiana. Lauren’s work has received many honors and awards, and is included in several private, corporate, and public collections. She currently teaches Painting and Drawing at the University of Northern Colorado, and has also taught Painting and Drawing at Denison University in Granville, Ohio, and Columbus College of Art and Design in Columbus, Ohio

“My work investigates the visual portrayal of separate moments in time combined into single images; unified views are divided into sections representing various stages of time sequences. The composite images present a series of individual impressions, each one spontaneously capturing a particular stage of development or facet of memory, arranged into geometric sections created by an underlying linear grid. Each distinct area represents a fleeting, individual snapshot of time, while the enduring geometry provides a sequential structure for the transient forms to relate within. In addition to this focus on time passage and life cycle stages, my imagery explores relationships between landscape, architecture, agriculture, horticulture, and other aspects of industry that affect plant and animal life, alluding to a variety of interactions between man-made structures and the natural environment: inspiration and imitation, digestion and destruction, cultivation and captivity.”