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Marxhausen Gallery of Art announces 2026-2027 exhibition schedule

Seward, NE (08/31/2026) — The Marxhausen Gallery of Art at Concordia University, Nebraska recently released the lineup of its scheduled art exhibitions for the academic year beginning in Fall 2026. The gallery, located on Concordia's campus in Jesse Hall, features exhibitions each year from students and professional artists. This year's exhibitions will feature a wide range of artwork from traditional painting and sculptural work to video, photography and installation works.

The mission of the Marxhausen Gallery of Art is to promote visual and cultural opportunities by presenting a diverse, ambitious gallery program. Each academic year, the Marxhausen Gallery hosts a variety of regionally and nationally acclaimed art exhibitions, as well as faculty and student shows. Through these exhibitions, the gallery provides the local communities, as well as the student body, with opportunities to appreciate and understand the role of art and artists within culture through its collection, exhibitions and educational opportunities.

James Bockelman, director of the gallery, works to curate exhibitions that formally and conceptually address ideas not explicitly covered in Concordia's art department curriculum. This year, Bockelman wanted to provide a sampling of many of Concordia Nebraska's holdings and highlight works that are not always displayed within the gallery.

The first exhibition, "Old School: Marxhausen Wiegmann and Wolfram" features three former Concordia professors who helped to develop an art curriculum for the school.

"Their artwork not only reflects their studio research, but somehow also relates to the types of courses that they taught," said Bockelman.

Later in the year, the exhibition titled "Hands On!" is a co-curated student exhibition. This will provide an opportunity to share some of the university's recent acquisitions. It also will serve as an active academic resource that will help generate new questions and support creative practice among Concordia's student body.

If students, faculty or community members desire to view the works on display at the Marxhausen Gallery of Art on their own, the gallery is open from Monday to Friday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and Sundays from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. The gallery is closed on Saturdays and when classes are not in session. The gallery is free and open to the public.

"For me this is what art and a gallery space such as the Marxhausen is capable of doing," said Bockelman. "The artwork can create a space or a gap where time slows down, one could also think of an exchange between the art object and viewer where the viewer experiences empathy. And empathy is one of the initial components in forming a community."

Marxhausen Gallery of Art Gallery Schedule 2026-2027

Old School: the Art of Marxhausen x Wiegmann x Wolfram

September 1 - October 15

Opening Reception: Sunday, September 6: 1:00 - 4:00 p.m.; Talk: 2:00 p.m.

This exhibition explores the intertwined artistic and pedagogical practices of Concordia's first three art instructors. Their studio practices and approaches to teaching were not only closely connected but formative in establishing the foundations of Concordia's art curriculum. Through their work, the exhibition considers how these early educators shaped the character and direction of art education at the university.

Biennial Faculty Exhibition: Bloomfield x Bockelman x Boggs x Groth x Scheer

October 25 - December 4

Opening Reception: Sunday, November 1: 1:00 - 4:00 p.m.; Talk: 2:00 p.m.

Every two years Concordia's art faculty host an exhibition of their studio work and research for the campus community. This year will feature new professor Anna Bloomfield.

an Unfinished Renewal: Practices of Creation and Care

January 19 - February 19

Opening Reception: Sunday, January 31: 1:00 - 4:00; Talk: 2:00 p.m. (additional information to follow)

Unfinished Renewal brings together sketches, models, maquettes, serial photography and other works that reveal art as a process of experimentation, revision and transformation. Alongside these studies are works that consider our changing environment and the responsibility to care for the natural world. One artist examines Berlin's wetlands and their ecological renewal; another explores upcycling and the transformation of discarded materials through fabrication; a third documents the effects and patterns of climate in Nebraska through photography. Together, the works suggest that neither art nor ecological renewal is a single, finished act. Both emerge through observation, experimentation, adaptation, care and time. Unfinished Renewal considers what happens when we understand creation not simply as the production of a finished object, but as an ongoing process of change.

Hands On! Recent Acquisitions and New Perspectives from the Permanent Collection

February 22 - March 25

Opening Reception: Sunday, February 28: 1:00 - 4:00 p.m.; Talk: 2:00 p.m.

A co-curated student exhibition, Hands On! highlights the permanent collection's value as a shared object of inquiry. By sustaining a living resource for faculty collaboration, campus engagement and student inquiry, this exhibition positions the collection not simply as a repository of objects, but as an active academic resource that generates new questions and supports creative practice. The community encounters original works of art as primary sources, engaging with the histories, ideas and cultural perspectives they carry across generations. In this spirit, Hands On! embodies the central idea of the Academic Excellence Grant, Schole Together - making the time to learn together through contemplation, conversation and shared history.

BFA Thesis Exhibition

April 1 - April 15

Opening Reception: Sunday, April 11: 1:00 - 4:00 p.m.; Talk: 2:00 p.m.

Annual Student Art Exhibition

April 18 - May 4

Opening Reception: Sunday, May 2: 1:00 - 4:00 p.m.; Awards Presentation: 2:00 p.m.

About Concordia University, Nebraska

Concordia University, Nebraska, founded in 1894, is a fully accredited, coeducational university of The Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod located in Seward, Nebraska, which currently serves more than 1,700 students. Concordia offers more than 100 undergraduate, graduate and professional programs in an excellent academic and Christ-centered community that equips men and women for lives of learning, service and leadership in the church and world. For more information, visit cune.edu.

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