Gallery exhibition features work of Hastings College art faculty

(Hastings, Nebraska) – Every other year, Hastings College Department of Visual Arts faculty come together to exhibit their work in the Jackson Dinsdale Art Center gallery. This year, the faculty exhibition is open October 3 through November 6, with a reception set for Friday, October 4 at 6:00 p.m. in the JDAC (700 E. 12th Street).

The JDAC galleries are open 9:00 a.m. through 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, and 11 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. on Saturdays. The gallery and reception are free and open to the public. 

Note that the galleries will be closed during the College’s fall break, which is October 10-16. 

The exhibition and reception provides community members and students an opportunity to engage closely with faculty artwork and research, fostering meaningful conversations about faculty members artistic journeys and academic endeavors.

Faculty members included in the exhibition are:

Dr. Brian Corr
Patrick McGuan
Shabnam Jannesari
Jerome Dubas 
Turner McGehee
Bios for each faculty member are provided below.

Dr. Brian Corr is an associate professor and serves as the chair of the Department of Visual Arts at Hastings College. He was awarded a PhD from the Australian National University in 2018. His research examined the aesthetic and philosophical elements of contemplative space in Japanese architecture.

His work is held in numerous public and private collections throughout the world, including the National Gallery of Australia, the Denver Art Museum and the Toledo Museum of Art.

Corr is also a skilled glassblower with nearly thirty years of experience. He has taught extensively at schools including the prestigious Toyama Institute of Glass Art, the Corning Museum of Glass, the Penland School of Crafts, the Pilchuck Glass School, the JamFactory, Namseoul University, Sydney College of the Arts and the Australian National University.

Patrick McGuan, an assistant professor in his first year at Hastings College, earned a BFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and an MFA from the Cranbrook Academy of Art. Originally from the midwest, McGuan taught at Syracuse University before joining the faculty at Hastings College. Their research focuses on labor and environmental history, visionary and devotional art, and modernist/postmodern literature. 

McGuan has shown nationally at artist-run and nonprofit spaces and maintains a studio practice that draws from experimental writing, textile production and woodworking.

Shabnam Jannesari is a highly accomplished Iranian artist and an assistant professor of art at Hastings College. She obtained her MFA with distinction from the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth and has exhibited her works both internationally and in the United States. Notably, she has held two recent solo shows, "Each String is a Thread, Each Color is Chord" at the Nebraska Art Council in Omaha, Nebraska; and "The Carpet Grew like a Garden" at the 263 Gallery in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Jannesari's paintings have also been featured in several group exhibitions, such as "A Pot Nudged into Oblivion" at Miranda Art Project Space in New York City, "Narrative Imperative" at Alexey von Schlippe Gallery at the University of Connecticut and "Domestic State" at Beard and Weil Gallery, located in Wheaton College, Massachusetts. Jannesari's works have been acquired by prestigious institutions and collectors, including Fidelity Investments and the University of Massachusetts School of Law. 

Her art portrays the struggles and strengths of Iranian women and challenges societal norms while highlighting female identity. She is a recipient of the Distinguished Art Fellowship at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth from 2018 to 2021 and the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grant in 2020 and 2022. Furthermore, she was selected for the competitive Chautauqua Art Residency program in 2022 at Chautauqua Visual Arts in New York.

Jerome Dubas, instructor of art, teaches ceramics and art history at Hastings College. He has taught ceramics since 1996 and was a full-time visiting instructor of art in 2000-01. Dubas began teaching full time at Hastings College again in 2021.

Besides his teaching duties at Hastings College, he taught in the public schools for 38 years. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Hastings College in 1983. His master of arts in education was granted in 1999 from the University of Nebraska at Kearney. In 2020, he was awarded the Governor’s Art Award for Outstanding Arts Educator in Nebraska. He was also a recipient of the Dinsdale Outstanding Teacher Award, the NATA Art Teacher Award, the Moonshell Art Educator Award and the Grand Island Public Schools Middle School Teacher of the Year.

His current artwork was accepted into the 2021 Nebraska Biennial Exhibition. Among the galleries that have exhibited his work are the 1516 Art Gallery, University of Nebraska Omaha, Fred Simon, Museum of Nebraska Art, Western Nebraska Arts Center and the University of Nebraska at Kearney. His art is in permanent collections throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, the Netherlands and Brazil.

Turner McGehee joined the Hastings College art faculty in 1983 and chaired the department from 2000 to 2015. He teaches printmaking, drawing and art history.

McGehee earned a bachelor of arts in psychology at Washington and Lee University and an MFA printmaking from the University of North Carolina, Greensboro.

Among the exhibitions that have featured McGehee’s prints, drawings and paintings are shows at the Joslyn Museum, Sioux City Art Center, Colorado College, the Contemporary Art Center of Virginia and the Hyde Park Art Center. He has exhibited solo at the Haydon Gallery in Lincoln, Nebraska; the Museum of Nebraska Art; Louisiana State University; and other college and university galleries. Overseas exhibits include ones in Taipei, Amsterdam and Buchenbach, Germany.

Recent independent lectures by McGehee have discussed the art of the ancient Maya, the relationship between jazz and visual imagery, the psychology of creativity and the evolution of Christian iconography.