Play Nice
Bonnie Lebesch’s Play Nice art exhibition in the Lynnette Jung-Springberg Gallery features an array of embroidered and needlepoint works, ranging from abstraction to gender roles in culture, and to the influence of her family history with guns. Lebesch is a Fort Collins visual artist. Her mixed media works are informed by her practices in mindfulness, intentional healing, and tai chi. Her abstract acrylic paintings and fiber works have been widely exhibited in national and local venues. Lebesch’s Gun Show solo exhibition was installed at the Loveland Museum or Art during the fall of 2020-21, and an artwork from this major series was chosen for the Arvada Center’s juried Art of the State in 2018.
The exhibition showcases artwork from three series that share an underlying theme of playing nice. This childhood admonishment influences Lebesch to create objects of beauty, even while tackling tough subjects like gun culture or women’s roles in society. Lebesch’s use of the domestic arts, primarily soft and fluffy materials, further underscores the cognitive dissonance experienced with these works.
Lebesch was an artist and designer before dedicating herself to her fine artwork in 2006. She received her MFA in Video Installation from New York University in 1991, and her BFA in Graphic Design from the University of Illinois in 1983. After graduate school, she relocated to Seattle, Washington in 1992 where she pursued video art and embarked on a fifteen-year career as a user interface designer in the high-tech industry. She applied her design talents in a wide range of avenues including illustration, photography, video, and educational curricula development. Lebesch earned numerous national and international design awards for her work as a designer and art director, and has published works in interactive digital media and books.