Tag Archives: Vogel Schwartz Sculpture Garden

Sculpture Vulture: Collen Nyanhongo’s “Resting Angel”

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The Sculpture at the River Market show and sale starts this coming Friday evening and runs through next Sunday.  To mark this, the October Sculpture Vulture is highlighting sculptures from previous shows.

Today’s is Collen Nyanhongo’s Resting Angel.  Carved out of stone, this features both rough and polished surfaces of a variety of textures. On one side, it appears that an angel’s wing is emerging from a stone pillar.  The other side depicts a profile of the angel’s face in the same shape as the wing.

Collen Nyanhongo’s homeland is Zimbabwe, which means “large house of stone.” He is a member of the most significant family of artists in Zimbabwe and learned the craft of using simple hand tools to sculpt his stones from his father, Claude Nyanhongo, a first-generation artist who helped create the Zimbabwe Sculpture Movement fifty years ago. The Zimbabwe Sculpture Movement is heralded as the most prominent art form to emerge from Africa in the 20th century.

Forging his own vision from his powerful artistic roots, Collen Nyanhongo blends traditional figurative form into metaphorical abstract expression that transcends his past and establishes him as an eminent world artist whose work has been honored in Zimbabwe, France, Netherlands, Denmark, Australia, Holland, England, Switzerland, Germany, South Africa and the United States.

Collen sculpts in all sizes, from a 15 ton marble stone for a public art project in Fort Collins, Colorado to smaller pieces that demand to be held and caressed. He prefers working with hard stones like Springstone, Serpentine and Lopidolite and ships them in from Zimbabwe quarries to wherever he is living and working.

Sculpture Vulture: Jane DeDecker’s “Daphne”

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The annual Sculpture at the River Market Show and Sale takes place this month (October 19-21). In recognition of this, the October Sculpture Vulture will focus on more of the pieces in the Vogel Schwartz Sculpture Garden which were acquired from previous shows.

Today’s feature is Jane DeDecker’s Daphne which was installed in 2011.  Cast in bronze, it depicts a headless torso with arms upstretched.  At the terminus of the arms are tree branches.

Jane DeDecker has been making a major contribution to the world sculpture scene since 1986. Creating over 250 limited edition, original sculptures, 60 of those being life-size and four one of a kind monuments, with 50 sold out editions. She has been published in magazines reaching global circulations, from Art and Antiques to European Home and Gardens. She has been sought out for her artistic integrity by organizations ranging from the National Parks Service to the President of the United States.

Sculpture Vulture: Bryan Massey Sr.’s “The Jazz Player”

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In recognition of the first annual Arkansas Sounds music festival taking place in Riverfront Park this weekend, today the Sculpture Vulture features Bryan Massey Sr.’s “The Jazz Player.”  It is located in the Vogelman-Schwarz Sculpture Garden.

The sculpture, cast in bronze, depicts a saxophone player jubilantly playing jazz.  It was donated to the Sculpture Garden by the Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce in recognition of the 5th anniversary of the Clinton Presidential Center and Park.  Massey was inspired to create this piece because of President Clinton’s sax playing.

Bryan Winfred Massey, Sr. is currently a Professor of Art/Sculptor at the University of Central Arkansas, Conway. He is primarily a stone carver working with a variation of stone from alabaster, soapstone, limestone, marble and granite. He also casts in iron, bronze, and aluminum as well as fabrication of steel sculptures. He was selected for the Governor’s Award for the Individual Artist of the Year, 2006.

Sculpture Vulture: Forever Ready

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Today’s Sculpture Vulture is once again in the Vogel-Schwartz Sculpture Garden. It is more fun to spend time in this garden where one can passively enjoy art with a nice cold bottle of water instead of having to labor in a vegetable or flower garden.

Ken Newman’s Forever Ready was donated in 2009 by the Sculpture at the River Market.  Mr. Newman is a member of the National Sculptors’ Guild.  One of Mr. Newman’s specialties is animals.  Cast in bronze, Forever Ready depicts a Labrador.  Here is Mr. Newman’s artist statement on the piece.

Forever Ready is based off my 30 years experiences with and my love of the Lab. The sculpture was created during the absence of a lab in my life, this was important, because I wanted to reflect on all the past labs, not a present companion. So, ‘Forever Ready’ is that reflection of the breed (hunter, companion and teacher)…Capturing its intense nature with discipline and loyalty, I have set the lab on edge so intense, that if not given the command to go, it will just fall off. But, it is able to maintain balance – wet and ready to go again. The lab’s shadow is cast in the water below, for a I cannot think of a lab without water.

Sculpture Vulture: MIRAGE

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Today’s Sculpture Vulture is Ted Schaal’s MIRAGE located in the Vogel-Scwartz Sculpture Garden. It was purchased in 2009 for the garden.

According to Schaal, “Mirage Monument was inspired by seeing a desert mirage while driving in the west. A mountain appeared to be hovering in the sky and I wanted to capture that instant of wonder about that etherial phenomenon. The sense of illusion and curiosity as to how it is happening is central to the piece. The horizontal slit in the stainless orb is the horizon line and the ridges in the bronze make stair step profiles like heat off the road.”

Sculpture Vulture: CONVERSATION WITH MYSELF

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Today’s trip to the Vogel Schwartz Sculpture Garden features Lorri Acott-Fowler’s Conversation with Myself. 

This bronze sculpture depicts a taller figure bent over at the waist and looking down at a smaller figure who is looking up at the taller figure. The figures are gender neutral.  The sculpture was featured in the 2008 Sculpture at the River Market show.

The artist has said that there are times she feels like the larger figure and other times she feels more like the smaller one.

Sculpture Vulture: Michael Warrick’s CORAL

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Today’s Sculpture Vulture feature is Michael Warrick’s Coral which was installed in the Vogel Schwartz Sculpture Garden in 2010. Using bronze, Warrick highlights the many facets of that material in an abstract piece. It features roughness, smoothness, broad surfaces and delicate tendrils.

Warrick is a longtime faculty member at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and has sculptures placed as far away as China in addition to appearing in many public and private collections in Arkansas and throughout the United States.