BLACK but not the ART: Breaking the Frame” centers 15 Black artists shaping Nebraska’s contemporary art landscape
OMAHA, Neb. (Feb. 13, 2026) — “BLACK but not the ART: Breaking the Frame,” a new exhibition featuring Black artists from Omaha and Lincoln, opens March 6 at Nicholas Street Gallery inside Hot Shops Art Center. The exhibition highlights how contemporary Black artists in Nebraska are challenging narrow expectations of Black creativity through diverse forms and perspectives.
The exhibition brings together 15 artists working across painting, photography, textiles, text-based practices and digital media. Featured artists include Celeste Butler, Pamela Conyers-Hinson, Jada Messick, Avry Victor, and Jevon Woods, among others. Together, their work centers lineage, memory and lived experience as active creative frameworks.
Rather than presenting a singular narrative, the works reflect a range of approaches that speak to identity, place and artistic autonomy within the state's evolving cultural landscape.
“Too often, Black art is expected to look or function in a particular way,” said curator Ang R. Bennett. “This exhibition makes clear that Black creativity in Nebraska is expansive, layered and not confined to one story. The artists are creating from lived reality while defining their own visual language.”
By centering artists living and working in Omaha and Lincoln, “BLACK but not the ART: Breaking the Frame” examines the role regional artists play in shaping broader cultural dialogue while contributing to how the Midwest’s artistic present is documented and understood.
“BLACK but not the ART: Breaking the Frame” will be on display March 6-29 at Nicholas Street Gallery, Hot Shops Art Center, 1301 Nicholas St, Omaha, NE 68102.
An opening reception will be held March 6 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.
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Ang R. Bennett is an award-winning Nebraska-based interdisciplinary artist and curator whose work explores Blackness and queerness through personal and collective history, and develops projects that amplify underrepresented voices.
