Three New Exhibitions to Open Thursday at A-State's Bradbury Art Museum
JONESBORO – The exhibitions “Panoply: 26 Painted Lives: Ray Allen Parker,” “Sugar & Venom: Kristen Franyutti,” and “Sportsball: Jessica Lambert” will open with a 5 to 6:30 p.m. reception Thursday, March 14, at Bradbury Art Museum (BAM) at Arkansas State University.
Admission to the reception and exhibitions is free. “Panoply: 26 Painted Lives” continues through May 29. “Sugar & Venom” and “Sportsball” continue through April 3.
“Panoply” is a gathering of 26 monumental portraits by Arkansas-based artist Ray Allen Parker. Raised in Egypt, Ark., Parker creates larger-than-life oil paintings that explore the faces and figures of friends, family and creative heroes. Parker’s paintings are bold but intimate, naturalistic but expressive, dense but revealing.
The exhibition begins with “Lit,” 17 oil painting portraits of great authors whose works have influenced what Parker terms his “mental landscape.” The “Lit” paintings comprise a visual biography of the artist, who holds two degrees in English literature.
The portraits trace Parker’s journey through the novels and poetry that have shaped his thought and feelings about major themes explored in literature.
Ann Prentice Wagner, director of BAM, announced that these 17 portraits of authors, including Walt Whitman, Frederick Douglass and Maya Angelou, will remain at A-State as gifts from Little Rock art collectors Jackye and Curtis Finch Jr.
“Panoply” continues with a self-portrait of Parker and eight closely studied oil on canvas portraits that have not previously been exhibited. With these forensically close, introspective images of family and friends, more than a year in the making, Parker addresses the human condition. These works reveal in their surface depths indelible impressions of vulnerability, hope, strength and a meaningful recognition of connectedness.
“Sugar and Venom” is an imaginative realm that explores the concept of biological systems gone awry. The exhibition features seven fantastical works of wearable art. The exhibition was inspired by artist Kristen Franyutti’s recent travels to Doha, Qatar, funded by Arkansas State’s Middle East studio grant.
Franyutti says the world of “Sugar and Venom” “is set in the future and features a unique matriarchal ecosystem inhabited by otherworldly creatures. The creatures in Sugar and Venom are feminine in nature, and they wear garments that accentuate the female form using sheer fabrics, ruffles, bows, and open-side slits. The headpieces are inspired by mutations of Qatar’s plants, animals, and textiles, as well as elements from my homes in Oklahoma, Michigan and Arkansas.”
An assistant professor of drawing and fiber at A-State, Franyutti lives in Michigan and Arkansas. She obtained a BFA from the University of North Texas and an MFA from Michigan State University. Her artwork has been shown throughout the United States and internationally, including in Canada and Australia.
Sports fans and art lovers alike will enjoy “Sportsball.” Artist Jessica Lambert says “My work explores competition, endurance and discipline using video performance and sculpture. I am fascinated by athletic bodies that perform incredible acts and the sounds of competition. Based on my experience as an athlete, I use my body to train and work out until failure. Playfully constructed sculptures and physically demanding performance works bring together the body and sport in relation to competition. As an artistic athlete or an athletic artist, sports objects become material and the studio becomes my arena.”
Lambert lives and works in Jonesboro as instructor in sculpture at Arkansas State University. She holds an MFA in studio art from Texas Tech University and a BFA in art from Southeast Missouri State University.
Upcoming events associated with these exhibitions include an artist talk by Ray Allen Parker at the opening of his exhibition on Thursday, March 14.
Bradbury Art Museum will be open from noon until 5 p.m. Monday, April 8, for the total solar eclipse.
BAM is participating in the annual international program, Slow Art Day, on Saturday, April 13, from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. Visitors are urged to come and spend time taking in the art deeply. Museum staff will lead discussions at noon and 3 p.m.
On Thursday, May 9, Dr. Rachel Isom, assistant professor of English at A-State, will give an online talk on author portraits illustrated on book frontispieces.
On Tuesday, April 23, Bradbury Art Museum and the Dean B. Ellis Library will take part in World Book and Copyright Day. On this day each year, people around the world present one another with books and flowers. In the BAM lobby, visitors will be able to pick up bookmarks, flowers and paperback books to give to friends, family and colleagues.
Wagner will speak at 12:10 p.m. on “Panoply in Context: Contemporary and Modern Portraits.” The day will finish at 5:15 p.m. with a group talk and reading of texts by Isom’s literature students.
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 at mmcmahan@astate.edu or (870) 972-3434. More details about these shows are available online at BradburyArtMuseum.org.
