Category Archives: Visual Art

September 2nd Friday Art Night Highlights

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Among the locations participating in 2nd Friday Art Night tonight are Historic Arkansas Museum, Butler Center for Arkansas Studies, Old State House Museum, and Museum of Discovery.

Historic Arkansas Museum
5 – 8 pm

Free
Live music by Finger Food

Jack Kenner and Ed Pennebaker: Disciplined Inspiration

Trinity Gallery for Arkansas Artists
September 12 through November 9, 2014 
Jack Kenner of Horseshoe Lake, Arkansas, spent much of his professional life traveling the world as an accomplished commercial and art photographer, but it was the Horseshoe Lake landscapes of the Arkansas Delta that inspired the body of work he will exhibit at the Historic Arkansas Museum. “While traveling the 30 miles back and forth to my studio in Memphis, I found I could not pass by the beautiful scenes of the farmlands and lake without seeing it through my camera lens.”
Ed Pennebaker who resides near Osage, Arkansas, makes illuminated art glass and sculpture using traditional offhand glassblowing techniques, and he believes in “working incessantly—cultivating concepts, discrimination and technique.” Pennebaker works with the glass to show its fluid qualities and its interaction with light. “I derive much of my inspiration from the garden and the woods surrounding my home and studio.” Pennebaker has worked from his woodland studio, Red Fern Glass, near Osage for more than 20 years.

40 Years of the Arkansas Times

Second Floor Gallery
September 12 through December 9, 2014
From a spunky monthly launched with $200 to one of the earliest alternative weeklies, the Arkansas Times has been an essential voice in Arkansas news and culture since 1974.
Take a look back at the last 40 years of Arkansas history through the often-irreverent lens of the Times in a collection of archival covers, photos, art and memorabilia.
Butler Center Galleries

ALA art Show: Fifth Annual Juried Exhibition of the Arkansas League of Artists 

This exhibition features artwork by members of the Arkansas League of Artists (ALA) in a variety of media. This is the ALA’s fifth annual juried exhibition; Manuela Well-Off-Man, assistant curator of the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, is the juror for this year’s show. The winner will be announced at the show’s opening reception as part of Second Friday Art Night.

Echoes of the Ancestors: Native American Objects from the University of Arkansas Museum

This exhibition features an artistic display of objects created by Native Americans in ceramics, wood, glass, cane, and shell materials.

Featured artist:

Walt Priest – Walt Priest is a photographer based in North Little Rock.

Featured musician: Ted Ludwig Duo – Entertainment in the galleries will be provided by the Ted Ludwig Duo, who will play traditional jazz and innovative improvisational music.

 

Old State House Museum

Music by Big Silver headlines September’s Second Friday Art Night on Friday, September 12, as part of Second Friday Art Night. The acclaimed Little Rock band will be playing on the lawn of the museum starting at 5:30 pm. Bring your picnic blankets and lawn chairs to enjoy the music and mid-September weather. Big Silver can be heard here.In case of inclement weather, the concert will be moved inside. Food and drinks will be provided for this free event.

 

Museum of Discovery

The Museum of Discovery is excited to participate in this month’s 2nd Friday Art Night on Friday, September 12 from 5-8 p.m. They will display nature photographs taken by David Ankeny. The exhibit will remain on display at the Museum of Discovery this fall.

Free drinks and hors d’oeuvres will be served.

56th annual Delta Exhibition at Arkansas Arts Center wraps up later this month

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Mark Lewis, Peoria Avenue #7, 2011, graphite and paper collage, 2013 Grand Award

“As one of the most anticipated Arkansas Arts Center events of the year, the 56th Annual Delta Exhibition offers a unique snapshot of the Delta region,” said Arkansas Arts Center executive director Todd Herman. “The widely held exhibition sanctions local artists to lead and inspire their respective communities through art, education and cultural excellence.”

The Delta Exhibition runs through Sunday, September 28.

The Delta Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture was founded in 1956 to feature contemporary work by artists from Arkansas and the bordering states. Today, the 56th Annual Delta Exhibition has grown to encompass works in all media and is a showcase for the dynamic vision of the artists of the Mississippi Delta region. The diversity of their art reflects the region’s strong traditions of craftsmanship and observation, combined with an innovative use of materials and an experimental approach to subject matter.

The competition is open to all artists who live in or were born in one of the following states: Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas. All work must be completed during the last two years and must not have been exhibited previously at the Arkansas Arts Center. This year’s exhibition will be on view June 27 – September 28 in the Townsend Wolfe Gallery.

Guest juror Brian Rutenberg of New York selected works for the exhibition in addition to a Grand Award, with a cash prize of $2,500, and two Delta Awards, with cash prizes of $750 each, for the top works in the show. Juror Rutenberg earned his Master of Arts degree from New York’s acclaimed School of Visual Arts and went on to become a Forum Gallery artist in 2001. He has since had three successful solo exhibitions and actively exhibits throughout the United States and Canada.

For more information, visit arkansasartscenter.org/delta or call(501) 372-4000.

Nine Arkansans received Individual Artist Fellowships from Arkansas Arts Council

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Arkansas_Arts_Council_logo_2The Arkansas Arts Council is pleased to announce the nine recipients of its Individual Artist Fellowship awards. The artists will be recognized at a reception, co-sponsored by Historic Arkansas Museum, on Friday, October 3, from 6-8 p.m. at the museum on 200 E. Third St. in Little Rock. The reception is free and open to the public. Seating is limited; reservations are required. For reservations, call (501) 324-9766.

Fellowships are awarded annually in the amount of $4,000 each to Arkansas artists in recognition of their individual artistic abilities. These fellowships enable artists to set aside time for creating their art and improving their skills. Three artistic disciplines are selected each year as categories for the awards.

The three categories for this year are Literary Arts: Short Story Writing; Performing Arts: Directing of Theater Productions; and Visual Arts: Works on Paper.

The following recipients were selected by a jury of professional artists, writers, performers and art administrators:

Literary Arts: Short Story Writing

Marla Cantrell, Alma

Alice Otto, Fayetteville

Hung Pham, Fayetteville

 

Performing Arts: Directing of Theater Productions

Amy Herzberg, Fayetteville

Kassie Misiewicz, Bentonville

Rebekah Scallet, Little Rock

 

Visual Arts: Works on Paper

Sheila Cantrell, Batesville

Delita S. Martin, Little Rock

Kathryn (Kat) Wilson, Fayetteville

Final Day for two exhibits at Historic Arkansas Museum

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Two exhibits at Historic Arkansas Museum close today.

“So What!” It’s The Least I Can Do… new paintings by Ray Wittenberg

Little Rock artist Ray Wittenberg’s large-scale paintings explore a turn away from the conjuring marks of expression toward a search for pictorial simplicity. These whimsical paintings explore nothing more than the relationship between the elements of line and color with the goal to strip everything down to the essentials and achieve simplicity. The pared-down design elements, along with repetition, “desirably get the painter out of the equation,” states Wittenberg.  His Caribbean Sea on Fresh Tangerine is shown at right.

Kateri Joe: Thank Your Lucky Stars

Kateri Joe is a painter living just outside of Little Rock, Arkansas. Self-taught in art, but academically trained in psychology, her two passions converge in her mixed media pieces. Her pieces are often reflective, eccentric and made with unconventional media—such as dirt, gold leaf and fingerprints. This is her first full exhibition and is based on the universal relationship of humanity and the Cosmos.

Historic Arkansas Museum is a division of the Department of Arkansas Heritage.

On Labor Day – Enjoy the Fruits of Sculptors Labors in the Vogel Schwartz Sculpture Garden

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Little Rock 2011 040Located along the banks of the Arkansas River in the heart of Riverfront Park, the Vogel Schwartz Sculpture Garden has more than 70 pieces of public sculpture.

This premiere sculpture garden is made possible through the support of the Vogel Schwartz Foundation. The art in the sculpture garden is acquired annually from proceeds of the Sculpture At The River Market Show and Sale held each April.

Little Rock 2011 044The sculpture garden features natural terraces and walkways designed by City of Little Rock’s Leland Couch, Mark Webre and John Kinkade of the National Sculptors’ Guild. The design creates a more intimate space to view smaller works within the Riverfront Park and is ideal for hosting receptions, as well as allowing visitors to enjoy the sculptures in solitude. This dynamic sculpture garden is located north of the Little Rock Marriott Hotel and east toward the River Market.

Sculpture at the River Market will present its next annual Show and Sale on April 24-26, 2015.  The Preview Party, a ticketed event held on Friday night (April 24), will introduce hundreds of sculptures from internationally recognized artists chosen for the 2015 Show and Sale in a party setting in the River Market Pavilions.  This exquisite evening, featuring food, libations, live entertainment and more, allows party guests the first opportunity to meet and visit with the artists while viewing and purchasing works.  Additionally all patrons at the Preview Party will vote for their favorite proposal from the semi-finalists works.

On Saturday and Sunday (April 25-26) admission to Sculpture At The River Market Show and Sale is free. Thousands of visitors populate the Pavilions to see and purchase works of all media, style, subject matter, and size. The sculptures will be on display in the River Market Pavilions and in the adjacent area of Riverfront Park.

An Evening of Art – Extended Hours and a Lecture at the Arkansas Arts Center Tonight

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arkartsWatch and learn as artist Victor Ekpuk talks about creating a wall-sized, ephemeral drawing in paint markers, inspired by Ludwig van Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” from his Ninth Symphony. This is the first time that Ekpuk will draw from music. Like most wall drawings in museums, Ekpuk’s Ode to Joy will be destroyed at the end of the exhibition. The ephemeral nature of the work adds to the intensity of experience while it is on the wall. Ekpuk’s drawings, whether on paper or on walls, make their way around the world through photography and the internet. In this way, they are shared with audiences scattered in both space and time.

Location: Lecture Hall Fees: Free for members, $10 for non-members.

Reservations at Best Impressions available at 501-907-5946. –

Visit Wilmot this Summer – At the Arkansas Arts Center

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Susan Paulsen, Wilmot, 2011, photograph, courtesy of the artist

Susan Paulsen, Wilmot, 2011, photograph, courtesy of the artist

The heat of summer has returned.  This is a good time to enjoy the cooling setting of a museum. Summer is also an appropriate time to journey to yesteryear, to a time and a place of a slower pace.

The Arkansas Arts Center is currently exhibiting Susan Paulsen: Wilmot

Wilmot is a little town in Ashley County, in southeast Arkansas. . . . A few years ago, Susan Paulsen set out to tell a kind of story, to chronicle a place in Arkansas through evocative photographs taken there over the course of many visits, in all seasons of the year. . . . Together, they form a picture of a place. For the artist, that place has a personal importance—part of her family comes from there, and for generations it has been a kind of homing place for them.

Through her photographs of this particular place, she wants, as she has said, to make a sort of poem about all such places; to find commonalities among these individuals and people in other places. Her goal, from the outset, has been to evoke all the Wilmots, wherever they might be. But still there is this town, these people. . .”  – From the essay by George T. M. Shackelford, Susan Paulsen: Wilmot.

The evocative visual poetry of Susan Paulsen: Wilmot comes to the Arkansas Arts Center in the form of more than 70 photographic prints and groupings of photographs that she took in Wilmot, Arkansas between 1995 and 2012. Most spectacularly, one large wall is covered by a grid of 90 photographs.

Susan Paulsen: Wilmot was organized by Maison européenne de la photographie, Paris. The images are coming home to Arkansas for their American debut. They will be on view in the Townsend Wolfe Gallery until September 28, 2014.