The free, public talk titled Caves, Codices and Comics: Drawing Stories, Painting Words will begin at 4:30 p.m. in the Chao Auditorium, Ekstrom Library.
A 5:30 p.m.–6:30 p.m. reception will follow in the Hite Art Institute galleries in Schneider Hall, where Nissen’s artwork will be on display from Sept. 27 through Nov. 15.
The lecture and exhibition are sponsored by the Latin American and Latino studies program, fine arts department, Hite Art Institute, Ekstrom Library’s rare books department, English department, liberal studies program and the Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft.
Nissen is expected to talk about storytelling’s forms through time — narrative art that includes cave wall paintings, Egyptian murals and Chinese scrolls as well as more modern graphic novels, comics and graffiti. He will project images that show the relationship of drawing and narrative and also discuss his artwork that reflects different phases and experimentation with various media.
The London-born artist studied at the London School of Graphic Arts and the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris but credits his encounters with pre-Hispanic cultures during his years of living and working in Mexico with a lasting impact on his thinking about art. Nissen was awarded a 1980 Guggenheim fellowship and has exhibited various media forms in the United States, Europe, South America and Mexico.
Related to Nissen’s exhibit and talk, the Kain Rare Books Gallery will have an exhibit of Codices: Facsimiles of Mayan, Axtec and Mixtec codices from the 15th and 16th centuries, Oct. 4–Jan. 10. The gallery is in the lower level of Ekstrom Library.
