- University News Archive - ��Vlog��ý Little Rock

��Vlog��ýLR to host “Arkansas Women to Watch”

Ajani Oyindamola — Wed, 07 Sep 2016 13:47:44 +0000

The University of Arkansas at Little Rock will host the artwork of four emerging and mid-career female artists from Arkansas whose pieces are featured in a statewide tour. “Arkansas Women to Watch: Organic Matters” is the fourth biennial tour of work by Arkansas women. The competitive exhibit is sponsored by the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C. The ��Vlog��ýLR Art Gallery will display the exhibit from Sept. 8 to Oct. 20 in the Maners/Pappas Gallery and Gallery III in the ��Vlog��ýLR Fine Arts Building. Artists include Sandra Luckett, of Conway, Katherine Rutter, formerly of Little Rock, Dawn Holder, of Clarksville, and Melissa Wilkinson, of Bono. A reception will be held for the artists at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 21, at the Stella Boyle Smith Concert Hall in the ��Vlog��ýLR Fine Arts Building. The reception will also honor Brian McCarty, an internationally exhibited artist and toy industry veteran whose photographs are on display in the ��Vlog��ýLR Art Gallery from Sept. 1 to Oct. 20. Three of the Arkansas Women to Watch artists will give guest lectures at ��Vlog��ýLR during the exhibit, including:

Melissa Wilkinson, 6 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 29, ��Vlog��ýLR Fine Arts Building Room 157
Dawn Holder, 6 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 5, ��Vlog��ýLR Fine Arts Building Room 157
Sandra Luckett, 6 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 13, ��Vlog��ýLR Fine Arts Building Room 157

The is a co-sponsor of the reception. The event will be held during in observance of the United Nations’ International Day of Peace.

Melissa Wilkinson’s 2014 watercolor “Man Eater”

Curator Courtney Taylor canvassed the state of Arkansas to select four contemporary female artists working with imagery and materials taken from the natural world. Their work includes mixed media and photographic installations, mixed-media drawings, and watercolor paintings. Historically, society encouraged female artists to take the natural world as their subject. Rather than narrative art, which was thought to require invention and imagination beyond women’s capabilities, subjects such as botanical drawings, still-life paintings, and images of animals — merely requiring the powers of observation — were deemed suitable. The theme of “Organic Matters” illuminates how contemporary artists re-contextualize images in nature to reflect upon the themes of sexuality, gender politics, and the abstract to redefine emerging relationships between women, nature, and art. The ��Vlog��ýLR Art Gallery is located in the ��Vlog��ýLR Fine Arts Building and is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Beginning Sept. 10, the gallery will be open from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturdays and 2 to 5 p.m. on Sundays. For more information, contact ��Vlog��ýLR Gallery Director Brad Cushman at becushman@ualr.edu or 501.569.8977. In the upper right photo, Dawn Holder’s “Once Upon a Time in the Forest of I’m Not Sweet Enough” is a featured work in the “Arkansas Women to Watch: Organic Matters” biennial tour of work by Arkansas women.

��Vlog��ýLR to host photographic exhibit about children’s experiences in war

Ajani Oyindamola — Mon, 22 Aug 2016 21:25:24 +0000

In war, personal accounts of children are often unseen and unheard. In his photo exhibit “War-Toys: Israel, West Bank, and Gaza Strip,” Brian McCarty interprets children’s drawings to offer insight into the experiences of Israeli and Palestinian children affected by war. The University of Arkansas at Little Rock Art Gallery will host the exhibit Sept. 1 to Oct. 20 in ��Vlog��ýLR Art Gallery 1. A lecture and reception for McCarty, an internationally exhibited artist and toy industry veteran, will be held at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 21, at the Stella Boyle Smith Concert Hall in the ��Vlog��ýLR Fine Arts Building. The is a co-sponsor of the reception and lecture event. The event will be held during Arkansas Peace Week in observance of the United Nation’s International Day of Peace. “The children and their families live in communities that have become war zone target,” said Brad Cushman, director of the ��Vlog��ýLR Art Gallery. “Brian McCarty challenges the viewer to think about a world at war and the impact it has on all of us especially the children. He recreates the children’s drawings using toys in the war zones landscapes where the children live.”

An unknown child’s drawing serves as the inspiration behind Brian McCarty’s 2012 photograph, “Sderot House,” shown above.

In the exhibit, 18 reproductions of children’s drawings are presented alongside 22 of McCarty’s photographs. Featuring locally found toys placed and posed in the actual locations described by the children, the photographs recreate shared fears and witnessed events. In the process of sharing their artwork, children would often reveal the details that were most important or impactful to them. The exhibit is curated by Catinca Tabacaru, founder of New York-based Tinca Art, Inc. She spent her early career working for the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and the Office of Chief Defense Counsel for the Military Commissions at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. The ��Vlog��ýLR Art Gallery is located in the ��Vlog��ýLR Fine Arts Building and is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Beginning Sept. 10, the gallery also will be open from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturdays and 2-5 p.m. on Sundays. For more information, visit the or contact Brad Cushman at becushman@ualr.edu or 501.569.8977. About Arkansas WAND Arkansas WAND (Women’s Actions for New Directions) values the voices and leadership of women seeking peace, justice, and security through informed participation in the democratic process. WAND is comprised of women of all ages, races, and creeds, with voices that are fresh and eager as well as seasoned and knowing, working in communities across the nation, seeking a world that is peaceful and just.

Print shop supervisor finds photography success at ��Vlog��ýLR

Ajani Oyindamola — Tue, 12 Jul 2016 17:23:32 +0000

By day, Ted Grimmett works as the friendly print shop supervisor who has been at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock Printing Services since 2003. By night, Grimmett has been taking courses for more than a decade to fulfill a lifelong dream of earning a master’s degree. At 61, he will realize his dream as he graduates with a Master of Arts degree from ��Vlog��ýLR in August. “This institution made this possible,” Grimmett said. “I had to take quite a bit of undergraduate classes in order to get qualified to apply to graduate school, so I have been doing this a long time. I’m a goal-oriented person, and this was my goal. I think this is the only place I could have accomplished this, so I give a lot of credit to ��Vlog��ýLR.” In addition to �Ұ��ٳ�’s graduation, the ��Vlog��ýLR Art Gallery will host an exhibit featuring his photography and host a reception in his honor from 4-6 p.m. Friday, July 15. The exhibit, “Surface Tension,” will be on display July 5-28 in Gallery II in the ��Vlog��ýLR Fine Arts Building. The work represents �Ұ��ٳ�’s thesis exhibition for his master’s degree. Grimmett photographs objects and sites that exhibit transparent, translucent, and reflective surface properties. These images provoke questions about the tension between surfaces, how they interact to reveal and withhold detail, and how they appear to the eye.

Finding a love of photography

Although he has been interested in photography since the 1970s, Grimmett wasn’t sure he wanted to study the subject. “I shopped around, and I considered being a history major. I loved history, but I also enjoyed photography classes,” he said. Grimmett took up photography in 2007 after enrolling in a class in large format photography from Gary Cawood, a ��Vlog��ýLR art professor who has since retired. “Gary Cawood saw something in what I was doing,” Grimmett said. “He felt like I needed to keep pushing and keep working. He gave me a lot of helpful criticism.” In the years since that first class, �Ұ��ٳ�’s photographs have been featured multiple times in the Delta Art Exhibition at the Arkansas Arts Center. “I found a family over there in the art department,” he said. “It might be a little dysfunctional, but it’s a family with all the good and bad that comes with family.”

Finding beauty in photography

Grimmett searches far and wide to find the best locations for his photographs. A majority of his photographs are taken within one mile of his Little Rock home. “I have spent a lot of time under local bridges and looking for surface tension that usually has to do with water and reflective surfaces. There are a lot of windows, and glass, reflective surfaces in my photographs,” he said. He has also taken numerous photographs at the Arkansas Tuberculosis Sanatorium in Booneville, Arkansas, which treated more than 70,000 Arkansans. The site holds personal meaning for Grimmett. “My mother was a patient there back in the 1950s. That’s the main reason I was interested in the site,” Grimmett said. “I feel like these are places and objects that I have found that are meaningful to me.” The gallery is located in the ��Vlog��ýLR Fine Arts Building. Summer hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday or by appointment. For more information, contact Gallery Director Brad Cushman at becushman@ualr.edu or 501.569.8977.

��Vlog��ýLR hosts Ted Grimmett photography exhibit

Ajani Oyindamola — Wed, 06 Jul 2016 17:42:37 +0000

The University of Arkansas at Little Rock Art Gallery will host an exhibit featuring the photography of Ted Grimmett. The exhibit, “Surface Tension,” will be on display July 5-28 in Gallery II in the ��Vlog��ýLR Fine Arts Building. The work represents �Ұ��ٳ�’s thesis exhibition for his Master of Art degree from ��Vlog��ýLR. A reception for Grimmett, ��Vlog��ýLR print shop supervisor, will be held Friday, July 15, from 4-6 p.m. Grimmett photographs objects and sites that exhibit transparent, translucent, and reflective surface properties. These images provoke questions about the tension between surfaces, how they interact to reveal and withhold detail, and how they present to the eye. The artist thinks of these objects as artifacts found in situ and his photographs as affirmations of a constructed, found, and realized world that is often unseen or unrecognized. The gallery is also holding an exhibit featuring the artwork and artifacts of the nomadic Bedouin people of Saudi Arabia. The exhibit, “Traditional Arts of the Bedouin,” is on display until Aug. 5. The gallery is located in the ��Vlog��ýLR Fine Arts Building. Summer hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday or by appointment. For more information, contact Gallery Director Brad Cushman at becushman@ualr.edu or 501.569.8977. In the upper right photo, Ted Grimmett’s photograph, “Mirror Glass Construction,” is shown.

��Vlog��ýLR to host exhibition on nomadic Bedouin people

Ajani Oyindamola — Thu, 09 Jun 2016 15:08:03 +0000

The University of Arkansas at Little Rock Gallery will host an exhibition featuring artwork and artifacts from the nomadic Bedouin people of Saudi Arabia. The exhibition, “Traditional Arts of the Bedouin,” will be on display from June 16 to Aug. 5 in the ��Vlog��ýLR Fine Arts Building. A second exhibit will feature the master’s thesis exhibition of Ted Grimmett. His photography will be on display in Gallery II from July 5-28. The nomadic people occupying the deserts of the Middle East are known as the Bedouin. The Saudi Arabian Bedouin are iconic nomads immortalized in films such as “Lawrence of Arabia.” They have captured the imagination of the Western world since their first contact with Europeans during Napoleon’s conquest of Egypt in the 18th century. Organized through ExhibitsUSA and Mid-America Arts Alliance, the exhibition includes artworks and artifacts, from elaborately embroidered textiles and embellished metalwork to ceremonial coffee accoutrements and incense burners. The exhibition focuses on aspects of traditional Bedouin life that survive today. Visitors to the exhibition will learn how Bedouin arts and crafts frequently bridge the gap between aesthetic and utilitarian purposes, as well as recognize the unique tenacity of Bedouin traditions in an ever-changing political, social, and environmental landscape. Bedouin crafts require the knowledge of natural environment that has developed over the centuries. Animals are bred not only for desert survival, but also for their hair, skin, hoof, and bone, while other natural materials such as clay and acacia wood are used for everything from pottery to writing instruments. Traditional arts of the Bedouin reveal the Bedouin to be artists with a legacy of incredible work, not widely known outside their own cultures. The featured jewelry shows each artist’s use of obscure techniques to produce intricate pieces. Bedouin weaving, still crafted on a stick loom, demonstrates ancient knowledge of natural dyes and fibers, and traditional patterns. The women who created textiles used native stitches, not known outside the Bedouin world, to embroider meaning into the objects. The exhibition is curated by Dr. Amber Clifford-Napoleone, an assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Central Missouri. The exhibition came from the Nance Collection, which is owned and housed by the McClure Archives and the University Museum at the University of Central Missouri in Warrensburg. The gallery is located in the ��Vlog��ýLR Fine Arts Building. Summer hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday or by appointment. For more information, contact Gallery Director Brad Cushman at becushman@ualr.edu or 501.569.8977. In the upper right photo, a face mask with cotton, silver beads, glass beads, coins, and leather is shown from the “Traditional Arts of the Bedouin” exhibition.

- University News Archive - ����Vlog��ý Little Rock

����Vlog��ýLR to host “Arkansas Women to Watch”

����Vlog��ýLR to host photographic exhibit about children’s experiences in war

Print shop supervisor finds photography success at ����Vlog��ýLR