Fairytales, folktales, and nursery rhymes find new life in Grimm Again: A New Look at Old Tales. The exhibition of works by painters Paula Wallace, Victoria Hoyt, and clay artist, John Dennison opens Monday, October 26, at the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts in Nebraska City.

Using rich and intense colors to complement her endearing and sometimes haunted subjects, painter and printmaker Paula Wallace draws the viewer to the character’s soul. In addition to painting and printmaking at her Omaha Hot Shops studio, Wallace has worked as an illustrator and muralist, has collaborated with musicians and poets, and has curated exhibitions in Chicago, Omaha, and Iowa. She exhibits in the United States, and her work is held in private collections internationally.

Victoria Hoyt’s colorful and vibrant paintings detail playful and imaginative happenings in a familiar world as well as whimsical plots found in folktales. An Omaha native and emerging artist popular with collectors, this fall Hoyt entered her first year in the master of fine arts program at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Studio potter and clay artist, John Dennison, tells his tales on masks and sculptural bowls. Craggy textures, eroded surfaces, and miniature teapots characterize these masks and “bowls beyond function”. A long-time Omaha public school English teacher, Dennison began working as a potter over thirty years ago. In 1977 he enrolled at the University of Nebraska at Omaha to study pottery with Henry Sorenco and soon after began teaching pottery as well as English. “Literary allusions, religious icons, and elements of pop culture often inform this work,” he says. Dennison routinely travels to national juried art shows and exhibits in regional galleries.

The public is invited to meet the artists at a reception on Thursday, November 5, from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. Grimm Again will remain on exhibit through Thursday, December 12, 2009.

The Kimmel Harding Nelson gallery is located at 801 3rd Corso in Nebraska City and is open Monday through Thursday from noon to 4 p.m. Appointments at other times are encouraged: please call ahead. Both the exhibit and the reception are free, handicapped accessible, and open to the public. Exhibited artworks are available for sale. For more information, call 402-874-9600 or visit www.khncenterforthearts.org.