Peter Shear, an artist here in Bloomington paints abstract suggestive works that hint at people, landscapes, shapes, and ideas without ever fully resolving them. They are striking, ironic, funny, and sometimes confounding.
Like his work, Shear is funny, surprising, reflective, and elusive. He has a new book, a collection of his work from 2019-2022 called Accident Report. Nice Work host Tyler Lake sat down with Shear to talk about his slippery, off-kilter paintings and what it’s like being a working artist in the 21st century.
Cicada Cinema
Cicada Cinema has always been migratory. But they announced this week that they're burrowing into a permanent location. They’ll be taking over the building at 615 North Fairview. It’s that bright colorful unit that sits alongside the trail just north of Butler Park.
The folks at Cicada say the new digs will have seats for 70 people, a fancy high resolution projector, surround sound, even concessions. The whole deal.
To get it done the way they’d like, they are asking folks to help out. They have a $50,000 community fundraising campaign running through July 15th. Lots of people have already pitched in and if you want to support them you can go to cicadacinema.com and click the donate link.
But How Is A Library Like A Seance?
The Lilly Library is Indiana University’s rare books, manuscripts, and special collections library. Along with half a million rare books, including a Gutenberg bible, Shakespeare’s first folio, a first edition of Frankenstein, and 8.5 million pieces of manuscript, there is a surprising amount of hair. The librarians and curators there have mixed feelings about the hair. We spoke with Rebecca Bauman, Director of Curatorial Services and curator of modern books, about a lock of hair from a very famous head and what a library has in common with a seance.