USI ceramics professor featured at Evansville Museum, joint exhibition with father in Minneapolis

Alisa (AL) Holen, University of Southern Indiana associate professor of ceramics, will be featuring work in two exhibitions: Nuanced Relationships, at the Evansville Museum of Arts, History and Science; and Nature/Nurture: Norman and Alisa Holen, a joint exhibition at the Northern Clay Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Nuanced Relationships is an exhibition of Holen's ceramics, including new works, in the Evansville Museum's John Streetman Alcove. In her artist's statement, Holen says that she looks to create "dialogues and connections within my ceramic forms," and that "there is something immensely satisfying about finding playful and artistic solutions to functional problems." The exhibition, made possible by a grant from Melvin Peterson, is currently on display and will run through September 3.

Nature/Nurture will feature work from both Holen and her father, Norman Holen. Norman Holen was a professor of art at Augsburg College for 38 years before retiring in 2002 and has had sculptures displayed in the Kresge Gallery, Minneapolis Institute of Art and the National Gallery. He earned a bachelor's degree from Concordia College and a Master of Fine Arts degree in sculpture from the University of Iowa. The exhibition will run September 22 through November 5, with a public opening reception at 6 p.m. Friday, October 20.

Alisa Holen joined the USI faculty in 2010 after teaching at colleges and universities in Nebraska, Iowa and Wisconsin. She has curated and organized National Juried Exhibitions at the Arts Council of Southwest Indiana and New Harmony Gallery for Contemporary Art, and facilitates the Empty Bowls Evansville event as part of a national fundraising effort. Holen has a bachelor's degree in art from Augsburg College and a Master of Fine Art degree in ceramics with an emphasis in sculpture from the University of Iowa.

For more information about the Nuanced Relationships, contact Faith Connell at marketing@emuseum.org or 812-425-2406, ext. 233. For more information about Nature/Nurture, contact the Northern Clay Center at 612-339-8007 or visit northernclaycenter.org.