The work of Russ Nordman, a professor of media arts at the University of Nebraska-Omaha and Northeast Iowa native, is on display in the Wartburg College Waldemar A. Schmidt Art Gallery through Feb. 12.

“Russ Nordman: Iowa Combines” showcases the unique architecture, historical sites and distinct characteristics of Iowa counties. An opening reception and gallery talk will be Friday, Jan. 13, 6-8 p.m.

“I have always been influenced by the desire for symmetry and the quintessential artistic act of the formal merging with the conceptual, the unified whole, the gestalt,” Nordman wrote in his artist statement. “The ‘Combines’ work examines machines, architecture and technological devices and their complex metaphysical relationship with humans. These objects need us to complete their function. Without us they sit idle. We are the consciousness of the machine.”

Nordman earned a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Iowa and has served as an artist-in-residence at the Recology Artist Residency Program at the Sanitary Fill Company in San Francisco and as a project manager for Bill Viola, a contemporary video artist. He later partnered with artist Hans Breder to form a digital-based performance group called Liminoid Laboratory, which has performed in places like Experimental Intermedia in New York and St. Petri Kirche in Dortmund, Germany.

Guests are invited to explore the show during daily hours, 9 a.m.-7 p.m. Guests also are invited to follow the gallery on Instagram (@waldemarschmidtgallery) for exhibition information and gallery content. The exhibit is free and open to the public. For more information, visit www.wartburg.edu/gallery.