Three Exhibitions to Open May 9 at Bradbury Art Museum
JONESBORO – Three new exhibitions, “The Soft Animal of Your Body,” “From Cart to Checkout: Affirmations to Get You to Your Next Paycheck Without Crying,” and "Girls with Cameras," will open Thursday, May 9, in Bradbury Art Museum (BAM) at Arkansas State University.
Admission to the exhibitions is free. The shows will continue alongside “Panoply: 26 Painted Lives” through Wednesday, May 29, when they will conclude with a 5-6:30 p.m. reception.
“The Soft Animal of Your Body” is a solo exhibition of work from Lydia Dildilian, assistant professor of art at A-State. The show is an immersive series of new works delving into the intricate themes of motherhood, and it features experimental approaches to drawing and painting—utilizing materials from acrylic paint to glitter to overhead transparencies and incorporating additional disciplines from video to sculpture.
Employing visual metaphor and abstracted mindscapes, the exhibition unravels the elusive emotional depth of motherhood, using clouds as a motif. Dildilian’s beautiful and unexpected transformations of the gallery invite the viewer to play, to observe, and to meditate on the tension between euphoria and dysphoria within the maternal experience.
Dildilian spearheads the painting program and imparts her expertise in painting, drawing and design foundations. Through her art, Dildilian delves into the intricacies of socio-economic structures, American identity, and the nuanced landscape of motherhood. Her works, characterized by their intricate layers and vibrant hues, encompass paintings, collages and installations.
By intertwining blurred and sharpened features, she navigates a dialogue between sourced imagery from diverse realms such as photographs, magazines, video games, and appropriated images, constructing recursive and experimental spaces that challenge and engage viewers alike.
“From Cart to Checkout: Affirmations to Get You to Your Next Paycheck Without Crying” by Cody Scrivner features the printmaking instructor’s witty explorations of late-stage capitalism. His invented satirical mega-corporation Topia-Corp is the vehicle through which these investigations are delivered.
This exhibition is the launch of Topia-Corp’s Affirmation Shopping Bag initiative, with each bag showcasing a different painfully relatable phrase, such as, “Money doesn’t buy happiness. Even if it did, you couldn’t afford it.”
Born in Batesville, Scrivner completed his Master of Fine Arts degree at Texas Tech University. He returned to his home state in 2023 to serve as instructor of printmaking at A-State. His discipline of choice is silkscreen printmaking, which utilizes a stencil process and ink forced by squeegee through a stretched mesh screen—typically one color at a time.
Scrivner has shown with the Arkansas Society of Printmakers, Printmatters Houston, Louise Hopkins Underwood Center for the Arts, Municipal Garden & Arts Center, The Contemporary Print with PrintAustin, and the ICOSA Collective. He enjoys long walks on the beach, perfect registration, and doom-scrolling until four in the morning to drown out his existential dread.
“Girls With Cameras” is the culmination of a project led by Kim Vickrey, professor of art, and supported by the Women’s Foundation of Arkansas. The project is focused on cultivating confidence in young women through photography. The participants are northeast Arkansas students who came to campus for a one-day event where they were assisted by Vickrey, photographer Melissa Donner, hair and makeup artist Angela Schusler, A-State students, faculty volunteers, and community members. The exhibition will showcase the photographs produced during the event.
Bradbury Art Museum is in Fowler Center, 201 Olympic Drive. Hours of operation are noon to 5 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday. Viewers may also schedule a tour of the exhibitions by contacting curator Madeline McMahan, mmcmahan@AState.edu or (870) 972-3434.
More details about these and upcoming shows are available online at BradburyArtMuseum.org.
