FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 2024
Artist Hands as Instrument: Laurie Victor Kay explores the evolving aura of art-making through the body at UNMC
The new multimedia exhibition features the Healing Arts Program’s cutting-edge technology merging art, tech and science
Omaha, NE – Multimedia artist Laurie Victor Kay exhibits new work in Artist Hands as Instrument, exploring the body, pain, and art-making in partnership with the Healing Arts Program at the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC). The exhibition event will be held on November 20, 2024.
In 2022, Laurie Victor Kay underwent two major hand surgeries—carpometacarpal (CMC) arthroplasties—performed by Daniel D. Firestone, MD, which involved bone removal and new joints in each thumb. Not long after her mother passed after a battle with cancer. “I was experiencing pain on so many levels,” says the artist. “It gave me a very unique perspective and urgency to create work that addresses our shared experiences, constructed imagination, and the surreal.” Throughout the work in the exhibition, Laurie Victor Kay challenges our understanding and visualization of the human body and the nature of physical as well as metaphorical pain as part of her larger practice emphasizing seemingly opposing elements as a means to visualize psychological landscapes and the structural interactions between nature and the inorganic.
The exhibition features a broad range of the multimedia work that reorients the viewer’s relationship to corporeal reality, including depictions of cancer cells that form landscapes, holographic works animated by Laurel Ybarra of iEXCEL featuring original artwork created at the time of the artist’s surgery as well as current scans of the artist’s hands, abstractions inspired by the artist’s longtime interest in Cubism and Surrealism, an interactive documentary, and more. Escapism is an essential motive throughout Laurie Victor Kay’s work, exemplified by a site-specific video that takes viewers into dreamlike memory with imagery spanning the Aegean Sea, cherry trees in southern France, and other ethereal subject matter.
Taking advantage of the Healing Arts Program’s 9200 sq. ft. center boasting cutting-edge technology—including an 8k infinity wall, an interactive digital virtual touch wall, a holographic theater, and more—the exhibition also examines how the aura of art is changing in the face of rapid advancements in technology that make art more shareable, digital, or even holographic. With exhibitions such as this, the Healing Arts Program merges contemporary art, technology, and science.
The exhibition will launch with an opening event on November 20, 2024, featuring an artist talk with Laurie Victor Kay and Daniel D. Firestone, MD, each sharing their experiences about the artist’s hand surgeries, the former discussing the challenges of art-making through pain and the latter discussing how he repairs such injuries and sharing before and after photographs. This will be followed by a Q&A with the audience, followed by tours of the galleries and installations throughout the space.
About Laurie Victor Kay
Laurie Victor Kay (b. 1971) is a multi-disciplinary artist whose work blurs the lines between photography, painting, installation and digital mediums to address constructed imagination, idealization and a sense of the surreal. Her various bodies of work range from photographic series that reimagine and abstract the everyday to autobiographical mixed-media series that examine the psyche, vulnerability and contemporary culture. Throughout all her practice, she emphasizes seemingly opposing elements as a means to visualize psychological landscapes and the structural interactions between nature and the inorganic.
She studied painting at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and photography at Columbia College Chicago (BFA, 1995). Her work can be seen in permanent installations at UNMC’s Lauritzen Outpatient Center and Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center, the Women’s Center for Advancement, May River Capital in Chicago, 4 World Trade Center in New York, Marriott Capitol Arts District, and Tenaska. She has exhibited throughout the United States and Europe, and her work is held in numerous private collections around the country. She is the recipient of numerous awards, has collaborated with companies across the globe, like Jim Thompson Thai Silk Company and Solé Bicycles, and has worked with an impressive roster of clientele, including the likes of Nike, Alanis Morisette, Warren Buffett, Robert Redford, Michael Douglas, Alexander Payne, Gigi Gorgeous, The Red Cross, The New York Times, Condé Nast Traveler, to name a few. She is a current member of the Healing Arts Advisory Board for the University of Nebraska Medical Center.
She currently lives and works in Omaha, NE.
Websites: https://www.laurievictorkay.com
https://lvkatelier.com/
Instagram: @laurievictorkay
About Healing Arts Program
The Healing Arts program at UNMC and Nebraska Medicine aims to transform the health care experience by connecting people with the power of art. We believe the arts also can create a compassionate, supportive and inspirational environment for our patients, their families and staff. The Healing Arts program exists to create environments that support and comfort people through the diverse art opportunities and experiences. The program is comprised of a growing list of elements to help reduce pain perception, anxiety, stress, loneliness and depression and to provide new insight and clarify feelings about a cancer diagnosis and treatment.
About iEXCEL at University of Nebraska Medical Center
The Interprofessional Experiential Center for Enduring Learning (iEXCEL) improves human performance and effectiveness in health care through the adoption of high-fidelity simulation, interprofessional collaboration and experiential learning technologies. The iEXCEL program is headquartered in the Dr. Edwin G. & Dorothy Balbach Davis Global Center (Davis Global Center) on the University of Nebraska Medical Center campus. The Davis Global Center is an advanced clinical simulation facility fostering the practice of patient care in highly-functioning, effective interprofessional teams. iEXCEL serves as an interdisciplinary resource for students, faculty, clinicians and staff. This 192,000 sq. ft. center is made up of five distinct levels that recreate the total health care system for simulation training.