Village Profile® Home Page | About our Company | Sales Opportunities | Community eStore | vpmobile.us®

Joslyn Cultivates a Garden of Art

For Matthew Placzek, work is truly a labor of love. The sculptor—whose creation “Labor” greets visitors to the Lewis & Clark Landing along the Missouri River, and whose playful “Illumina” ensemble adorns the courtyard outside Qwest Center Omaha—is proud to present his latest work, “Sioux Warrior,” a centerpiece of the new Peter Kiewit Foundation Sculpture Garden at Joslyn Art Museum.

Standing 15 feet tall and weighing 5,000 pounds, the bronze “Sioux Warrior” depicts a Native American on a rearing horse, as proposed and modeled by the late Serbian-born sculptor John David Brcin in the 1920s for the entrance to the Joslyn. Placzek was commissioned to realize Brcin’s work for the sculpture garden.

To commemorate its installation last fall, Lakota Oglala Wendell Bird Head and the group Urban Crew performed an honor song with drum following Bird Head’s blessing of the sculpture. “That was a very nice, moving tribute,” said Placzek.

Dedicated June 5, the garden is the focal point of a Joslyn campus $10 million redevelopment project that has dramatically redefined and beautified its grounds. The garden includes 20th-century sculptures and contemporary works by internationally-renowned artists, flowing reflective water features, enhanced entrances and drives, renovated and expanded parking, landscaped green spaces, granite pathways and an entrance plaza to welcome visitors.

A collaboration between HDR, Inc., and Kiewit, the project represents the second significant capital initiative undertaken by the museum since it opened in 1931.

Placzek grew up in Grand Island before coming to Omaha to study art at Creighton University. His sculptures are in the private collections of Omahans Walter Scott and Warren Buffett, are displayed at the U.S. Embassy in Prague and are included in the collections of the late President Ronald Reagan and entertainer Wayne Newton.

Placzek will add to Omaha’s public art collection along the riverfront at Lewis & Clark Landing when he completes a firefighter memorial sculpture. “The people keep us here. I love Omaha. People here are very supportive of the arts. That’s one of many reasons we’ve stayed.”