Bart Vargas

Bart Vargas is from Bellevue Nebraska. He received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Nebraska at Omaha, where his research focused on sculpture, painting and installation works created from discarded materials. His aesthetic is dominated by the universal form of the circle and the sphere, found through out the natural and manmade world. Vargas has exhibited widely, including at the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, Bellevue University and the Omaha Public Library. His work can be found in many private collections in the Omaha and Kansas City areas, including the University Foundation Collection at the University of Nebraska at Omaha.

"The geometric star is an ancient human symbol invented in antiquity. It has been used by every culture, in every time throughout the world to represent the lights of the night sky. Even today this geometric shape is commonly used to represent what astronomical science has revealed to be spheres. Astronomical science has also revealed that all the complex elements that make up our world and even our bodies were made in the life cycles of the stars themselves. In essence, we are all made of stars.I paint geometric stars and circles. I embrace the star as a positive symbol of creation and the circle as a universal form throughout existence. My paintings are made up of many layers of line, circles and color that overlap and interact, creating energy and movement. I achieve this through the simple use of color, pattern and repetition to make complex imagery made up of many simple parts. Just as everything in existence is made of smaller parts, as our bodies are made of cells, that are made of molecules, that are made of atoms, that are made of... on and on, until science believes that matter and energy are the same."