As a 31-year-old delicatessen clerk searching for love, laughter and a well-balanced lunch, Nebraska-based artist, Ella Weber will share what’s behind the counter in her debut novel, The Deli Diaries. Struggling to find purpose slicing meat, three existential slices of ham hover above. Who ham I? What ham I? Where ham I? Across the counter, Weber blurs the line between employee and customer, performance and reality, art and life. Join us for the author's performative artist lecture, presented as a Stand-Up Comedy-Microsoft PowerPoint-TED Talk-poetry reading.

Ella Weber is a basement-based artist who uses humor, performance, and storytelling within her practice. Playfully upending the existential fabrics of daily life, Weber transforms her minimum-wage day jobs into her studio. Beyond the studio, she has attended residencies at MASS MoCA, The NARS Foundation, Rogers Art Loft, Munson, Ox-Bow School of Art, The Wassaic Project, and Anderson Ranch. The artist has exhibited in group exhibitions at IPCNY (New York, NY), Everson Museum (Syracuse, NY), and Contemporary Arts Center, (Cincinnati, OH). Recent solo shows include exhibitions at Munson (Utica, NY), The Union for Contemporary Art (Omaha, NE), and Plains Art Museum (Fargo, ND). Weber received an MFA from the University of Kansas and resides in Omaha, Nebraska.