Artists for Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center Chosen

OMAHA, Neb. — Artists Rob Ley and Suzy Taekyung Kim have been selected to commission the artwork for the Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center, for which HDR is providing professional services including architecture, engineering, programming, concept development, graphic design and healthcare consulting. Kiewit is the construction manager/general contractor.

Ley, who is based in Los Angeles, California, and Kim, who is based in Brooklyn, New York, were chosen by the project’s 1% for Art committee, which reviewed more than 400 applications over a period of eight months. The committee consisted of art professionals and representatives from the cancer center, as well as cancer patients and patient services.

Ley will receive a $175,000 commission to create a large-scale installation—a metal curtainwall—for the drop-off area of the center. The organic structure of Ley’s work changes the nature of the metal, serving as a metaphor for care and overcoming disease. The slightly reflective curves will capture the light, color and movement of the area around it.

Kim will receive a $125,000 commission to create a large-scale painting for the lobby. The painting will be approximately 12-feet high by 16-feet wide and will consist of eight customized wood panels that create one large surface. Kim uses color to create weaved images of foliage and explosions, and accumulates multiple layers of diluted paint, stains, acrylic paint, mica and gold leaf.

The artwork created for the Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center is the largest 1% for Art project since the program started in 1978. About $360,000 has been allocated by the program for public art in the facility. The remaining $50,000 will be set aside as matching funds for a second exterior public art site.

In addition to the 1% for Art projects, the cancer center will house a healing arts collection and exhibition space. The previously announced Leslie’s Healing Garden will be a part of that collection, named after one of the daughters of Marshall and Mona Faith, who passed away from pediatric cancer more than 60 years ago.

“We want to make sure healing goes beyond what our patients receive medically,” said Ken Cowan, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center. “These two large works of art will instantly create an atmosphere of healing for them and play a major role in the healing artistic tapestry we’re creating in this state-of-the art facility.”