Senior Art Exhibition to Open Thursday, April 15, at BAM
JONESBORO – The 2021 Senior Art Exhibition at Arkansas State University will open with a public reception from 5 to 6:30 p.m. Thursday, April 15, at Bradbury Art Museum (BAM). Admission is free.
Work by five graduating seniors in the Department of Art + Design will be included: Kierra Crenshaw of Jonesboro, Madison Landis of Pangburn, Katie Lewis of Newport, Morgan Presley of Cave City, and Rachel Rowland of Paragould.
The exhibition continues through Saturday, May 8, at BAM, which is in Fowler Center, 201 Olympic Dr. Hours are noon to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.
Due to the pandemic, the museum will have a limited capacity of 60 visitors, and walk-in groups may not exceed 10 people. Groups larger than 10 should call ahead for a reservation.
BAM staff will be wearing face coverings and taking other steps to help ensure a safe experience. Guests also are required to wear face coverings and maintain a distance of six feet from other guests.
Kierra Crenshaw is a contemporary artist who embraces the fantasy of the landscape. As an Arkansas native, her inspiration is drawn from the land of the natural state, embracing and documenting the changes of its life. Growing up, she watched the world she loved disappear in front of her very eyes, thus fueling her passion for environmental awareness in the form of art. By mixing the natural with the mystic, Kierra creates surreal landscapes that captivate and transport her audience into a world where land has been untouched by humans.
Madison Landis is a multi-media artist who makes art inspired by her personal experiences. Drawing from moments of joy and hardship, Landis attempts to translate feelings of peace and destiny through the creations of her sculptures, paintings and installations. In making semi-abstract art, her intention is for the audience to be inspired by her life but more importantly, draw conclusions for their own lives.
Katie Lewis is a Newport-based painter, and has been honing her skills in portraiture for several years. Working in oil paint with some modern modifications, Lewis closely follows the old masters’ techniques to create her work. She draws inspiration from family photo albums, taking fleeting moments and translating them into paintings. The paintings represent monumental moments in her subjects’ lives as well as mundane, candid moments. Lewis is influenced by photo-realist artists such as Robert Bechtle and Tim Gardner.
Morgan Presley is an artist working out of Cave City for the past several years. Inspired by her Southern upbringing, Presley creates oil paintings that tap into the underlying and sinister connotations small-town cultures cultivate. Religion, modesty and self-expression are explored in her works through stylization and self-portraiture. She considers her hometown a blessing in disguise; taking pictures locally for source imagery for her paintings provides an authentic and true feel to each work.
Rachel Rowland is an American photographer who specializes in self-portraiture. Her work focuses on challenging the superficial ideals of what it means to be a human in today’s society. As a woman in her early 20s, she recognizes and acknowledges the toxicity in her generation and desires to expose and destroy the abnormal behaviors the world now accepts without question. By digitally and physically manipulating her self-portraits, Rowland invites her audience to dismiss the idea that who we are and who we want to be as individuals should be controlled by the opinions of others, as well as promotes authenticity and vulnerability to those in her generation who lack identity through themselves.
For more details, one may contact the Museum at (870) 972-3687.
 Artist: Kierra Crenshaw |
 Artist: Morgan Presley |
