OMAHA.-Joslyn Art Museum presents a groundbreaking video series of high-definition portraits by artist Robert Wilson, one of the most exciting and influential innovators in theater, art, and design. VOOM Portraits: Robert Wilson at Joslyn Art Museum will feature larger-than-life-size snow owl video portraits — a group of 23 of the total 153 unique artworks comprising the VOOM Portraits series. Wilson began the series in 2004 in partnership with VOOM HD Networks, a pioneer in HD television, who commissioned and produced VOOM Portraits. The exhibition at Joslyn is courtesy of Paula Cooper Gallery, New York.

This video portrait series takes a minimalist approach but in a more theatrical setting punctuated by Wilson's iconic lighting and high production values. Portraits are infused with source materials found in the history of painting, design, dance, theater, photography, television, film, and contemporary popular culture. What is especially unique about these portraits is how Wilson situates the subject in a highly constructed or appropriated narrative. Ranging from historical to referential to serious to abstract, these portraits are always poetic biographies of their subjects.

Robert Wilson's video portraits feature 38 subjects, including celebrities, artists, intellectuals, animals, and ordinary people. These include actors Johnny Depp, Sean Penn, and Brad Pitt; actresses Salma Hayek, Isabella Rossellini, and Winona Ryder; dancer and choreographer Mikhail Baryshnikov; opera singer Renee Fleming; Princess Caroline of Monaco; and auto mechanic Norman Paul Fleming; to name a few. His animal subjects are Snow Owl, Black Panther, Porcupine, Frog, Briard Dog, and Skunk. Only Salma Hayek, Frog, and Snow Owl were created as a series, thus multiple unique portraits were created of each. The exhibition at Joslyn will showcase the Snow Owl series.

The portraits are shot in the typical horizontal format for television/cinema and in the vertical orientation for exhibition on high-end flat screen monitors. Large monitors are used with the idea to size the subjects at a near 1:1 relationship between viewer and subject. During the shoot, Wilson limits his subjects' movements to one or two gestures in very controlled motion. The final products have undergone meticulous editing and are looped so there is no discernible beginning or end, so as to run endlessly as a framed work of art. Each portrait has its own sound score. The final result may at first look like a still photograph but on closer inspection reveals Wilson's heightened language of minimal movement, choreographed gesture, and precise timing. The high production values in turn reveal Robert Wilson's art in the shocking clarity and precision of high definition video.

Twenty-two 42-inch high definition plasma screens comprise Wilson's Snow Owl series of VOOM Portraits. Each screen features a snow owl on a background of various shades of polka dots, from bright yellow and red to pink, light green, and white. The screens will be featured on every wall of Joslyn's Omaha World-Herald Gallery (gallery 14), surrounding the viewer with owl "portraits" that appear traditional until they blink and move, transforming the gallery into a high-tech spectacle of art and entertainment. The installation's soundtrack is the owls' hooting. An additional work in the installation — a 65-inch screen featuring three owls together — will greet visitors at the entrance to Joslyn's U.S. Bank/David and Anne Rismiller Gallery.