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Monday, October 26th at 4:00 PM
Visual Arts Complex, 1B20 Auditorium (lower-level)

Linda Nguyen Lopez is a first-generation American artist of Vietnamese and Mexican descent whose vibrant ceramic sculptures examine the psychological resonance of domestic life. Investigating objecthood, material culture, and animism, Lopez explores how everyday items absorb and project human emotion, rearticulating common household forms into fluid, organic abstractions.

Central to Lopez’s practice is the poetic re-imagining of the mundane. Through textured and glazed ceramic forms, she constructs a visual lexicon where inanimate objects seem to possess distinct personalities and moods. Sponges, lint, and furniture fragments are transformed into soft, slumped silhouettes that blur the line between utility and abstraction, inviting viewers to reconsider their relationship with static objects.

Lopez has exhibited extensively across the U.S. and internationally in Italy, England, and New Zealand. Notable museum venues include the Craft Contemporary Museum, Museum of Arts and Design, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, and the Renwick Gallery at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. A 2024 United States Artists Fellow, Lopez serves as Associate Professor of Art at the University of Arkansas and currently lives and works in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

Mathew McConnell is an artist, educator, and researcher whose ceramic practice critically investigates artistic influence, historical lineage, and the mechanics of visual perception. Working primarily in ceramics, McConnell explores how form, texture, and cultural memory are transmitted through replication, systematically destabilizing notions of authorship, originality, and historical record.

McConnell’s conceptual framework begins with the work of other artists, historical artifacts, or iconic design objects. Through a deliberate process of re-creation and formal abstraction, his sculptures interrogate the spaces between copy and invention, examining how objects alter over time when filtered through personal memory. His smooth, carefully articulated clay surfaces and restrained compositions challenge viewers to consider how value and authority are constructed within the visual arts canon.

McConnell earned his MFA from the University of Colorado, Boulder, and his BFA from Valdosta State University. He has presented solo exhibitions at Mindy Solomon Gallery and Greenwich House Pottery, and has participated in over 80 group exhibitions globally. Recipient of an NCECA Emerging Artist Award, he has completed residencies at the Archie Bray Foundation and Anderson Ranch. McConnell serves as Associate Professor and Area Head of Ceramics at the University of Arkansas.