Katherine E. Nash Gallery

Current Exhibition

Reverent and Irreverent Objects by Tom Lane
January 18 – March 19, 2022
Full Press Release

Tom Lane, Balancing Act, 2020, porcelain, 17 x 8 x 10 in.

The Katherine E. Nash Gallery at the University of Minnesota presents Reverent and Irreverent Objects by Tom Lane, an exhibition celebrating the 44-year artistic and teaching career of Associate Professor Tom Lane in the Department of Art at the University of Minnesota. 

"We all have experiences that shape us. Growing up in a small town in northeastern Wisconsin, I spent my summers playing in the woods, building treehouses, fishing in the river and learning woodworking from my grandfather. I realized early on that I loved making things. I also realized early on that I cared for the diversity in the community in which I lived. I was raised in a Catholic family. My mother discouraged my siblings and me from playing with the Protestant and Jewish neighbors. That was a big red flag for me. I knew there was beauty and value in all people and all things. My ideology was forming as I grew from childhood to manhood. I went to college, quit college, got drafted, and found myself in Vietnam. The red flag got bigger. I didn’t realize it at the time, but the red flag had the letters PTSD embroidered on the back in very small letters. Spending a year, at age 21, in a war zone was formative, to say the least. I am thankful that I did not have to take any lives during my tour in Vietnam. The death and destruction that I witnessed created deep impressions; not in a debilitating way, but in a strong emotional way that fueled my artistic practice and my actions as a citizen. After my discharge from the Army, I returned to college and became active in the antiwar movement. I recall our raised fists as we protested the war in Vietnam. My return to college nourished my heart and my mind. I studied Art, Art History, Architecture, Design, Philosophy, and Religion. Many of the works in this exhibition bridge these disciplines. Ceramic vessels become monuments, chairs become metaphors for relationships or challenge ideas of utopia. Some of the objects in this exhibition are purely Reverent and some of the objects in this exhibition are purely Irreverent but are somewhere in-between. In-between because conversations are needed." – Tom Lane

Tom Lane is a Minneapolis-based artist and an Associate Professor of Art at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. Lane’s artistic practice embraces various forms of digital technology including digital ceramic printing. Porcelain is his primary medium, a material with history and symbolism. Lane employs appropriation and hybridization in his practice and makes conceptual, not functional, vessels. Tom Lane’s work has been exhibited at Hunter College, New York, NY; Genesee Gallery, Rochester, NY; Brown University, Providence, RI; Houston Center for Contemporary Crafts, Houston, TX; Fort Hays State University, Hays, KS; Market House Craft Center, Petersburg, PA; and numerous other venues nationally, and in the People’s Republic of China at the Central Fine Arts Academy, Beijing; and the Great China Museum, Jingdezhen. His work is included in numerous public and private collections, including the September 11 National Museum, New York, NY; the Weisman Art Museum, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis; the Albuquerque Museum, Albuquerque, NM; Timberwolves, Target Center, Minneapolis, MN; the Donna and Cargill MacMillan Collection, Indian Well, CA; and the Sanbao International Ceramic Art Museum, Jingdezhen City, Jiangxi Province, P.R. China.