There is plenty of magic in Greg Thompson Fine Art's "Magic Realism" exhibition, which hangs through July 9.
On the wall at the top of the stairs is a beautiful mixed media abstraction by Don Lee of the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith. He combines a brilliant sense of color with a talent for mark-making in this untitled work from 2009.
There are three standout canvases by John Harlan Norris, assistant professor of art at Arkansas State University. Norris' Miner is a takeoff on the conventional portrait. Instead of showing us the miner's face, he obscures it with bizarre paraphernalia: a hard hat and lamp, headphones, safety mask, magnifying glass goggles and a map of the world. All of this is rendered in remarkably stylish brush strokes and intense colors, like some kind of psychedelic version of Italian surrealist Giorgio de Chirico's mannequins. Even more impressive is a tiny untitled painting by Norris in which a caped figure sports a surprising number of multicolored eyeballs. The color is luscious and brush strokes stand out even more.
Gallery owner Thompson says Norris is using "modern day elements in the same way Italian 16th-century artist Giuseppe Acrimbolo created his famous portraits of people entirely from fruits and vegetables. The premise for the work is who we are -- or the face we portray to the world and how we view ourselves -- is often a reflection of what we do. [In The Miner] the Occupant's portrait is fashioned by objects entirely of his trade."
Utopia is a 1924 oil painting by William Schwartz (1896-1977). Schwartz was born in Russia, but made his reputation as an artist in Chicago. Utopia has touches of cubism and is bathed in a warm, ethereal glow. In Schwartz's Utopian vision, the artist is a wizened old man sitting at the bottom right in the canvas, surrounded in a colorful landscape of nude and seminude men and women. There are hints of Cezanne, Gauguin and Matisse in his work.
In Hendrix College alumnus Gary Bolding's 2000 oil Suburban Wasteland II, suburban houses, each with a finely manicured lawn, sit atop rocky cliffs. It is painted in the style of a Renaissance master. Bolding's other effort is the 2012 oil Clarksdale. This street scene seems closer to social realism than magic realism.
Tim Tyler's Hommage is an oil on panel that focuses on a young woman in overalls surrounded by angled pieces of particle board. It is intended as an homage to John Singer Sargent's Madame X; the woman holds pieces of particle board that reference Alexander Calder's mobiles.
Among Kendall Stallings' three works is Reclining Man Dreaming, a 2016 acrylic that features a grid of loosely painted, calligraphic symbols in light pastel colors. Ensconced on the top rows is a recumbent businessman, with one arm over his face and the other falling diagonally across the gridwork.
There are several sculpted glass works by Richard Jolley, whose surreal sculptures sometimes feature a bird resting on a stylized head. These sleek sculptures have an element of Brancusi.
Mississippian William Dunlap has a couple of very horizontal paintings; both feature his trademark dogs set in flat, Delta landscapes and include barely noticeable details such as architectural guidelines and tiny rub-off letters. Dog Fight's title refers to both dogs on the ground and the World War II aircraft above.
"Magic Realism," through July 9, Greg Thompson Fine Art, 429 Main St., North Little Rock. Hours: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Friday, 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday. Info: gregthompsonfineart.com, (501) 664-2787.
"THE GUN SHOW"
"What does the visual presence of guns suggest to you?"
Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art curator Chad Alligood chose work he felt best answers this question for Drawl Southern Contemporary Art's juried exhibition, "The Gun Show."
People have strong feelings about guns, especially here in Arkansas. This is a show that requires as much thinking as looking.
The first place award-winner is Carly Drew's mixed media diptych, After the Hunt. It was on display -- along with the rest of the show -- at the opening reception at Cache restaurant. But it's not hanging at Drawl. Guy Bell, one of the gallery's owners, says it would not fit in the small gallery.
There are some very nice pieces on display, including Alabama resident Larry Thomson's sardonically titled Nice Rack, which has a subdued color palette and is painted in a style reminiscent of a posterized Adobe Photoshop image. It features a pickup truck seen from behind, in which we see two hunters and a hunting rifle perched on the titular gun rack in the back window.
Others are more emotionally charged. Brian Hoppers has two powerful pieces of stained glass peppered with bullet holes. Charleston references the June 2015 shooting deaths of 9 congregants at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in South Carolina.
Marc Manack's Semiautomatic Cenotaph Generation depicts the process by which a memorial for mass shootings could be designed, created, transported and installed within seven days. Perhaps more visually interesting is another set of prints showing what these proposed cenotaphs (or memorials) might have looked like for a number of shootings that have occurred in recent years.
Several pieces use humor to defuse the tension inherent in the subject matter.
EROS2200 is a fanciful gun designed by Steven Schneider that shoots a beam that "aligns all seven chakras, eliminating violent tendencies and instilling benevolence." School Xing by Dusty Mitchell mimics a school crossing sign, but the students portrayed on this sign are carrying automatic rifles; a label beside the art reads "Caution: Do not cross the students."
Gallop: After Remington is an oil painting/construction by James Volkert based on a Frederic Remington painting. Six canvases sit side by side on a table, with a hand crank on the right end. Turn the crank, and the canvases move up and down.
New Sheriff in Town by Daniel Cassity is a finely crafted oil painting of cap guns that also includes his trademark origami dragon.
Dayton Castleman's STOP (9mm) is an aluminum stop sign that has been shot multiple times with a handgun at close range; instead of the random array of bullet holes sometimes seen in rural stop signs, these are "a precise binary arrangement of Braille code." Castleman is museum manager at the 21c Museum Hotel in Bentonville.
Artist Lorin Michki writes that "When I draw a gun, I want to represent its form and design, as accurately as I can, without any other context to influence the viewer." His three highly realistic, clinical drawings are of weapons Michki owns. A video by Nancy Floyd titled 10.9 is "a collection of intimate portraits of elite female competition shooters."
The inspiration for "The Gun Show" also can be seen here, a beautiful oil by Bell of a Mobil Oil can riddled with bullet holes.
"The Gun Show," through June 18, Drawl Southern Contemporary Art, 5208 Kavanaugh Blvd., Little Rock. Hours: 11 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Tuesday-Friday, 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday. Info: drawlgallery.com, (501) 240-7446.
Style on 06/07/2016