Using hundreds of cutout pieces of hand-painted Mylar, Kurt Lightner creates richly layered and magnificently detailed collages that depict real and imaginary landscapes. The nature that Lightner portrays is lush and vibrant, but it is at times slightly menacing. While very much grounded in the 21st century, Lightner's nature images recall the varied history of American nature painting from the awe-inspiring paintings by the Hudson River School artists to the eerie watercolors of early American Modernist painter Charles Burchfield. Kurt Lightner was a visiting artist at the Kemper Museum.