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

��Vlog��ý Little Rock to Host Krain’s Work in New Photography Exhibit Opening April 4

John Hill — Thu, 24 Mar 2022 13:05:18 +0000

The University of Arkansas at Little Rock will host a new photography exhibit by photojournalist Ben Krain from April 4 to May 6. Krain’s exhibit, “Encounters,” will be on display in the Focus Gallery in the Windgate Center of Art and Design. The Focus Gallery is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, and 2-5 p.m. Sunday. The exhibit is free and open to the public. Krain, the university’s photographer and a former Arkansas Democrat-Gazette photographer, has 20 years of experience photographing events, sports, disasters, and wars. In some instances, he is the eyes of the world and goes to places where most people don’t want to go. The more challenging are those of everyday life. The simple exploration of nothing. The content is not about news, it’s about the human spirit. These are the photographs in this exhibit. A graduate of ��Vlog��ý Little Rock, Krain has won numerous state and national awards. His work has been featured in publications like Time, Newsweek, and the New York Times. For more information, contact Focus Gallery Director Joli Livaudais at jklivaudais@ualr.edu.

��Vlog��ý Little Rock to Host Exhibit by Donnie Copeland

John Hill — Mon, 28 Feb 2022 13:50:07 +0000

The University of Arkansas at Little Rock will host a new art exhibit debuting Monday, Feb. 28, by Donnie Copeland, professor of drawing and painting at Ouachita Baptist University. The exhibit, “Continuum: Painted Collage by Donnie Copeland,” will be on display Feb. 28 to April 1 in the Focus Gallery at the Windgate Center of Art and Design at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock. “The works presented here represent more than a decade’s labor on a project involving painting and collaging to produce a sort of hybrid work that I generally refer to as striations due to their striped format,” Copeland said. “The earliest works included here represent a mood or spirit of exploration and intuition in regard to approaching composition and media. The later works included benefit from the earlier mostly in regard to the sense of freedom brought about by those earlier pieces.” Copeland, a native of Greenville, South Carolina, studied painting at the University of Dallas (MFA) and at Ouachita Baptist University (BA). For the last several years, Copeland has worked primarily with painted paper to produce non-objective, collaged canvases that emphasize pattern, texture, color, and mark. His works are a synthesis of the visuality of landscapes such as planted fields and prairie that run along the rivers of Arkansas as well as that of peoples and cultures local and distant, rural and urban. His work has been exhibited in Arkansas and beyond including exhibits in Louisiana, Minnesota, Missouri, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, and the United Kingdom. The exhibit is on display from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday in the Focus Gallery on the ��Vlog��ý Little Rock campus. For more information, contact Focus Gallery Director Joli Livaudais at jklivaudais@ualr.edu.

��Vlog��ý Little Rock to Host Photography Exhibit by Alum Trinity Kai

John Hill — Thu, 20 Jan 2022 14:38:39 +0000

The University of Arkansas at Little Rock will host a photography exhibit by alumna and award-winning photographer Trinity Kai. The exhibit, “Shifting in Time,” will be on display Jan. 24 to Feb. 25 in the Focus Gallery at the Windgate Center of Art and Design at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock. Kai utilizes materials such as fabric, handmade photographic printing processes, and sculptural materials to create layers of language that express and reflect the dimensionality of experiences and spaces. Kai stated that her body of work in the exhibit depicts the vulnerability and tension that she feels during times of vulnerability and the strength that comes from finding the balance and acceptance of oneself. “My work analyzes the body as our perspective in the world and as a symbol of absence and presence within public and institutional spaces,” Kai said. “I create spaces in my work that reflect my experiences as a person with Albinism, who is classified as an other, and that confront and counter systems of discrimination and stereotypes that we all encounter in different ways. ‘Shifting in Time’ examines the internal and external emotions of the various periods in one’s life when you go through changes, self-reflection, and awareness.” Kai holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Studio Art from ��Vlog��ý Little Rock and a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Arkansas. Kai creates work through the lens of her own personal narrative that examines societal systems of discrimination. She creates multiple forms of language through self-portraiture, written language, and materiality to share her experiences and bring viewers into conversations that can be reflective and transformational. Her work has been exhibited nationwide and resides in the ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Permanent Collection of Art. In 2017, Kai won the grand prize in the Kennedy Center’s 2017 VSA Emerging Young Artists Competition with a photograph she created as part of her BFA thesis project. For her work, she received a $20,000 prize, and her photograph was featured in a year-long traveling exhibit featuring the work of young artists with disabilities. Kai was born with oculocutaneous albinism, a genetic condition that results in visual impairments and sensitivity to light. The exhibit is on display from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday in the Focus Gallery on the ��Vlog��ý Little Rock campus. For more information, contact Focus Gallery Director Joli Livaudais at jklivaudais@ualr.edu.

��Vlog��ý Little Rock Hosts Photo Exhibit from William E. Davis Collection

John Hill — Fri, 21 May 2021 19:35:11 +0000

The University of Arkansas at Little Rock is hosting an exhibit of photographs from the William Davis Collection through Aug. 13 in the Windgate Center of Art and Design.�� The exhibition, “Photographs from the William E. Davis Collection,” features 14 black and white photographs from Arkansas photographer William Davis.�� Born in 1918, Davis was a fighter pilot during World War II with the U.S. Navy. With the GI Bill, he earned a diploma in photography at the Southwest Photo-Arts Institute in Dallas. He worked as a commercial photographer for four decades and developed an interest in fine art photography in 1983.�� Davis attended several photography workshops out west and was heavily influenced by the western landscape photography style that was started by Edward Weston and Ansel Adams. He brought this technical precision with him back to Arkansas.�� Vlog��ý Little Rock received a gift of 55 photographs by Davis from the artist’s estate, along with 16 works by other photographers from his collection. The collection contains only three landscape photographs. Taylor McKinney, a graduate student in the visual arts program at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock, curated the exhibit. She is drawn to finding common themes among works and displaying them for others to enjoy, whether it is artwork or books at her job in the Central Arkansas Library System. “They are stunning in their technical precision and offer a harmony to the other works in the show,” McKinney said. “The photographer creates a sense of whimsy in his compositions, allowing the subject more grandeur than exists in their everyday use. A snow plow�� becomes a soaring gesture, a swirl of soapsuds an exciting mystery. Davis was able to see beyond the role of an object, and took in the physical form with an artist’s eye.” The exhibit is on display from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday in the Focus Gallery in the Windgate Center of Art and Design on the ��Vlog��ý Little Rock campus.

��Vlog��ý Little Rock hosts photo exhibit on Arkansas Delta by alum Beverly Buys

John Hill — Mon, 29 Mar 2021 17:56:57 +0000

The University of Arkansas at Little Rock will host a photography exhibit by alumna featuring photos from the Arkansas Delta. The exhibit, “Evocations From the Arkansas Delta, 2011-2021,” will be on display March 29 to April 23 in the Focus Gallery at the Windgate Center of Art and Design at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock. The images were created using the historical photographic printing process of cyanotype and are part of Buys’ “Delta in Blue” photo series. Buys graduated from ��Vlog��ý Little Rock with a Master of Arts in photography in 1994. She also holds a bachelor’s degree in art education from Henderson State University and an MFA from the University of Memphis. She worked as a professor of photography at Henderson State University from 1997 until her retirement in 2014 and served as director of the Russell Fine Arts Gallery at Henderson from 1997 to 2009. Buys was awarded the Polly Wood Crews Scholarship by the Arkansas State Committee of the National Museum of Women in the Arts in 2016 and the 1998 Arkansas Arts Council Fellowship Award in Visual Arts. She has been included in state and national juried exhibitions and has shown her work in many one-person shows. She is represented by Justus Fine Art Gallery in Hot Springs, Arkansas.�� The exhibit is on display from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday in the Focus Gallery in the Windgate Center of Art and Design on the ��Vlog��ý Little Rock campus. For more information, contact Focus Gallery Director Joli Livaudais at jklivaudais@ualr.edu.

Women to Watch at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock: Joli Livaudais

John Hill — Mon, 08 Mar 2021 17:19:23 +0000

In celebration of Women’s History Month, ��Vlog��ý Little Rock is profiling women in leadership positions who are making a difference at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock and in the community. The first Woman to Watch at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock of 2021 is Joli Livaudais, associate professor of photography and graduate coordinator for the Department of Art and Design.�� Tell us about yourself? I started out my education in the field of experimental psychology, but although I love psychology I found I was unhappy unless I was able to be creative. I earned my MS in psychology, but instead of continuing on to a Ph.D. I changed gears and decided to pursue art, and photography in particular. I’ve worked as a commercial photographer in Dallas, Texas, and Monroe, Louisiana. I had a studio and an art gallery in the downtown Monroe area for seven years, but I knew I really wanted to pursue fine art photography and teaching. I went back to school to get my MFA at Louisiana Tech University and graduated in 2013. I started working at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock in 2014. What are your job duties at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock? I teach the photography classes in the department, which is my primary responsibility. I also serve as the graduate coordinator for the Art and Design department. We have a Master of Art degree with emphases in art history and visual art. Although the MA has been around for many years, we restructured it in 2018, so in many ways it’s a fledgling program. I am also the director for the Focus Gallery, which is a small gallery space in the art building. We bring in a new exhibition every 4 – 6 weeks, which is hard work but a lot of fun. I enjoy being able to work with other artists, and it’s great for the students to see the artwork, and the shows are free and open to everyone. Much of my personal artwork is not what most would call traditional photography. Historical photographic processes are one aspect of�� alternative photographic methods, which includes not only methods used before commercially made film was invented, but also some types of printmaking processes, hand-coloring photos, or creating photo sculptures and installations. It lets you be very hands-on in photography. We gained many incredible advantages when photography went digital, and I love to teach digital photography, but we did lose much of the hands-on craft that was part of working in the darkroom. It’s fun to teach students the older methods. There are always a percentage of my students that fall in love with it. For several years, you and your photography students have run a popular annual fundraising event where you take professional photos of dogs. How did the Puppy Mugs fundraiser get started? Puppy Mugs is a dog portrait fundraiser put on by the students, faculty, and alumni from the photo program. For the past six years, we have held the fundraiser when we teach the studio lighting class. It is a great opportunity for the photography students to use what they’ve learned, and it’s always been a really fun day, with dogs and their people filling the Art and Design department for a few hours of fun. Proceeds from the fundraiser have been used to purchase photography equipment for student use, such as new strobe equipment for the Photographic Lighting class and new film cameras for the View Camera course. This year, we had to cancel Puppy Mugs due to pandemic safety precautions.

A photo taken at a Puppy Mugs event.

What inspired you to want to be an artist? I’ve always been a creative person and dabbled in art, but as a young person I never had confidence in my abilities to think I could “be an artist.” I tell people I tried everything else first, including the military, psychology, and commercial photography. None of that satisfied me. I needed to do fine art to be happy, and I felt that teaching was a great fit, and it wasn’t until I accepted that and had faith in it that things came together for me. How did you get involved in the “Arkansas Women to Watch” art exhibit? There is a biennial international exhibition at Washington D.C. at the National Museum of Women in the Arts known as Women to Watch. They have a different theme for every Women to Watch exhibition. For 2020, the theme was paper, and the show was titled “Paper Routes.” The Arkansas Committee of the National Museum of Women in the Arts asked Allison Glenn, associate curator of contemporary art at Crystal Bridges, to curate and nominate a list of Arkansas Women for the national show. I was honored to have one of my pieces selected to show in D.C. in 2020. For 2021, all four of the artists that Allison selected will tour the state together. Being in the D.C. show is the most exciting thing that has happened to me professionally, but I am thrilled about the Arkansas tour because I can travel to those venues to install my artwork personally, which is important because of the nature of the pieces. The exhibit that made it in the D.C. show is my installation of the origami beetles folded from photographs called “All That I Love.” For the state show, I am showing a second installation, which is paper grass blades that come out of the wall, also folded from photographs. I worked on them for a couple years. As soon as they took my information to nominate me for the national exhibit, I started working as if I had gotten it. I was on a really rigorous folding schedule for the past two years. I folded over 1,400 beetles and 900 pieces of grass. It was over 2,000 hours of work to do the beetles, and the grass blades takes 45 minutes each. My hands were always busy. Some people knit, but for the past two years, I was always folding beetles and grass blades.

Joli Livaudais’ installation “Imperata Grassland”

What’s next in your professional career? I am really looking forward to my upcoming OCDA, or what many call a sabbatical. I submitted a proposal for a new body of artwork, and it was approved for Fall of this year. The project involves microscopic photography, and I will use a layered combination of historical photographic printing processes, printmaking, and hand-coloring. It’s an exciting blend of art and science, and I am eager to get to work on it.�� What woman has inspired you the most and why? Although many women artists have inspired me with their talent, the person who has inspired me the most in my creative career is Jes Schrom. Jes was photo faculty at Louisiana Tech University when I was a graduate student, and she was one of my graduate committee members. Not only did she teach me to love historical and alternative photography, which has become my primary form of art making, she also helped me find the meaning in my artwork and has become my role model for what it means to be a great teacher and mentor.�� What advice would you give to the next generation of women artists? The best advice I can give anyone is to be persistent and don’t give up. I think every field is competitive. If you want to be one of the best, it will be challenging no matter what field you are in. The ones who succeed are the ones you don’t quit. You have to decide that is what you want, and go for it.�� How have you adapted to life during COVID-19? I miss being with my students in the classroom. We’ve been careful and diligent with everyone’s safety. We’ve split our classes into groups, so we can meet with fewer people in the space. I’ve learned how to do YouTube videos and online demos. I miss being with my students and helping them on the fly. There is so much of what we do that is demo based and being able to mentor students is important. With photography, I’m lucky. Photography has a digital aspect that I can use, regardless of whether I am teaching online or in person.

��Vlog��ý Little Rock hosts ‘Calling Home’ exhibit by alumni artist Diane Harper

John Hill — Mon, 25 Jan 2021 20:25:53 +0000

The University of Arkansas at Little Rock is hosting an exhibit by alumni artist Diane Page Harper until Feb. 19.�� The exhibit, “Calling Home,” is a collection of mixed media collages that explore ideas of weighted memories and the emotional imprint of cultural and personal history. “I long for connection to the past, to the military communities and family that raised me,” Harper said. “What most see as cultural detritus from the 1960s and 70s, I see as potential anchors to the images I’m building of my memories. Those anchors, combined with an extensive archive of family photographs, help me to heal the homesickness I feel but that I never seem to cure. All of the bits of memories, the images, the sounds, the smells, find their way to me from time to time, made all the more vibrant and real when I dig through and combine them in an attempt to ��reconcile my own fractured past.” Harper is a mixed media collage artist. Trained as a medical social worker, Harper returned to ��Vlog��ý Little Rock to earn a bachelor’s degree in studio art and graduated in 2013. She finds meaning in helping others connect with their most creative selves by teaching through her studio and other venues. Harper is a current faculty member of the Museum School of the Arkansas Art Center and previously worked as an adjunct instructor at Henderson State University. Harper has been selected as the 2020-2022 Artist in Residence for the Museum of the American Military Family in New Mexico.�� The exhibit is on display from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday in the Focus Gallery in the Windgate Center of Art and Design on the ��Vlog��ý Little Rock campus. For more information, contact Focus Gallery Director Joli Livaudais at jklivaudais@ualr.edu.

��Vlog��ý Little Rock art galleries feature work by former art professor

Janea Snyder — Sun, 02 Jun 2019 15:18:53 +0000

Photography by Carey Roberson, a former ��Vlog��ý Little Rock art and photography professor, is on display through June 28 in the Focus Gallery of the Windgate Center of Art and Design, located at 28th Street and Campus Drive East. The exhibit, “Fallen Caution,” includes 19 iPhone images Roberson took on his daily walks, which he calls his “Morning Stroll Surprise” series. The gallery is open during regular campus business hours. Photo by Carey Roberson

��Vlog��ý Little Rock to host exhibit on artwork by Jenny Ellerbe

Ajani Oyindamola — Fri, 01 Feb 2019 14:15:10 +0000

The University of Arkansas at Little Rock will host an art exhibit featuring the work of photographer Jenny Ellerbe.�� The show, “Not Atget,” which is free and open to the public, will be on display in the Focus Gallery in the ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Windgate Center of Art and Design from Feb. 2 to March 15. The gallery is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, and 2-5 p.m. Sunday. Ellerbe is a self-taught photographer from Monroe, Louisiana. After a 20-year career as a pediatric intensive care nurse in Connecticut, Ellerbe put down the tools of her previous life and returned to Louisiana, where she started over with a kayak paddle and camera. Her photography features the wetlands of northeastern Louisiana. “For the past several years, I have been developing a long-term study of northeastern Louisiana – the overlooked region that lies between the Mississippi and Ouachita Rivers,” she said. “I have wandered through the vast farmland, rural communities, and ancient earthworks collecting photographs – images that tell the story of this land and what it gives to those of us who live here season after season, generation after generation.” For more information, contact Joli Livaudias at 501-569-3182 or jklivaudais@ualr.edu. The upper right photograph is��Jenny Ellerbe’s photograph, “Greenwood Cemetery.”

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

����Vlog��ý Little Rock to Host Krain’s Work in New Photography Exhibit Opening April 4

����Vlog��ý Little Rock to Host Exhibit by Donnie Copeland

����Vlog��ý Little Rock to Host Photography Exhibit by Alum Trinity Kai

����Vlog��ý Little Rock Hosts Photo Exhibit from William E. Davis Collection

����Vlog��ý Little Rock hosts photo exhibit on Arkansas Delta by alum Beverly Buys

Women to Watch at ����Vlog��ý Little Rock: Joli Livaudais

����Vlog��ý Little Rock hosts ‘Calling Home’ exhibit by alumni artist Diane Harper

����Vlog��ý Little Rock art galleries feature work by former art professor

����Vlog��ý Little Rock to host exhibit on artwork by Jenny Ellerbe