Codices by Brian Nissen

Hite Galleries - Schneider Hall

Codices by Brian Nissen

 
October 6 - November 14, 2010

Lecture by the Artist (Elaine Chao Auditorium, Ekstrom Library): Wednesday, October 6th, 4:30 - 5:30 p.m.

Reception follows (Hite Galleries - Schneider Hall): Wednesday, October 6th, 5:30 - 6:30 p.m.

Brian Nissen was born in London and studied at the London School of Graphic Arts and at the
École des Beaux Arts in Paris. In 1963 he traveled to Mexico, where he lived and worked for the
following 17 years. His encounter with pre-Hispanic cultures had a defining impact on his
thinking about the nature of art. By the early 70’s he held various exhibitions at the Museum of
Modern Art in Mexico City, The Museum of Modern Art in Buenos Aires and the Whitechapel
Art Gallery in London. In 1979 he moved to New York, set up his studio and began working
there, while maintaining a home and studio in Mexico. In 1980 he was awarded a Guggenheim
Fellowship. His exhibition at the Tamayo Museum in Mexico City in 1983 was a visual
exploration of the prose poem Obsidian Butterfly by Octavio Paz, and was later shown at the
Carpenter Center at Harvard University. In 1992 Atlantis, an mixed-media exhibition, was held in
Barcelona as part of the 500 anniversary celebrations of the so called “Discovery” of America. In
1993 the series Cacaxtla was exhibited at the Cooper Union in New York. The Chinampa
sculptures, inspired by the floating gardens on the lake of Xochimilco, were shown at the Museo
del Barrio in New York in 1998, and the series Limulus, based on forms of the Horse Shoe Crab,
at the City University of New York in 2001. In 2005 he completed an immense sculptural mural
The Red Sea for the Centro Maguen David, a Jewish community center in Mexico City. In 2006,
the Tamayo Museum in Mexico City presented Cuatro Cuartetos an overview of works made
over the past ten years. He also completed a monumental iron sculpture/fountain Manantial,
which is now permanently installed on the Paseo de la Reforma in Mexico City. In 2012, a
retrospective of his works will be exhibited in the main gallery of the Palacio de Bellas Artes in
Mexico City. Among his published works are ‘Framed’, a book of his essays, Limulus: Visions of
a Living Fossil (co-authored by Alberto Ruy Sánchez and translated by Rhonda Dahl Buchanan),
and Voluptuario (with an introduction by Carlos Fuentes).

For more information about the author, visit his website at www.briannissen.com and view a 10
minute trailer of the documentary of his work, “Brian Nissen: Evidence of a Poetic Act” (go to
Youtube and insert Brian Nissen Trailer in the search window: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_gJIy8l37c

The Hite Galleries in Schneider Hall are located near the main entrance on the west side of Schneider Hall.

Schneider Hall is on the UofL's Belknap Campus, the main campus for the University. (Map of Hite locations.)

Gallery Hours (Fall 2010): Mon. – Fri., 9 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.; Sat., 10 a.m. – 2 p.m., & Sun., 1 - 5 p.m.

Group Tours: school & other group tours should call John Begley @ 502.852-4483 to make arrangements