Use of ink marks exhibit with creative technology
New technology constantly changes our lives and culture, art included.
Take ink drawings, for example. Artists have, over the centuries, used feather quills, animal hair brushes, styluses, metalpoints, all kinds of pens, drawing tablets and more. Artists adapted these methods to stretch their creativity and broaden the possibilities for artistic expression.
In “Modern Ink,” an enjoyable exhibit hanging through Oct. 28 at the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies, six Arkansas artists work with ink and various technologies to create often fascinating work.
Robert Bean takes two familiar tools — a refillable Sharpie pen and brown butcher paper — to create large-scale, complex and lively storytelling drawings filled with people, all sorts of objects, words and phrases. If you saw his way-cool drawing installation on the walls of the Museum School at the Arkansas Arts Center, you’ll have an idea of what to expect here. Second Thoughts: A Holiday of Errors is a riot of activity and interaction. It is packed with sometimes surrealist imagery, Monty Python-esque humor and comWhen
mentary. A beautifully executed work, as are his others hanging in the show.
Neal Harrington, who has twice won the Delta Award at the Arkansas Arts Center’s annual Delta Exhibition, makes precisely drawn relief prints with India ink washes that are steeped in Southern, rural culture and folklore. Two recent pieces, Tar Swing and the humorous Booze Beard, hang with two others, the melancholic In the Pines from 2015 and the wondrous The Fish Lady of Toad Suck Holler (2016). All are rich in detail, emotion (particularly In the Pines) and Harrington’s exceptional technique.
Diane Page Harper’s recent work explores the creative potential of ink blots. She’s clearly enjoying this burst of creativity, as the work shows. Harper’s pieces have an undeniable whimsy and energy;
some splashes of color manifest amid the Edward Gorey/ Charles Addams-like creatures that sometimes emerge. Harper also has been teaching workshops on the technique.
Carmen Alexandria’s mystical and abstract works use oil and acrylic inks and silkscreen and printmaking techniques to create intuitive, collagelike imagery. The Drift and The Transplant are especially intriguing.
Daniel Broening’s sprawling and primordial-feeling Prima Materia: Before the Field — No. 37 is digital prints on metallic paper. Hand-drawn on a drawing tablet and digitally printed, the work presents and explores space (outer, inner, maybe both) without a reference point. It’s meditative and challenging.
And finally, there are the lovely ink drawings by the late Steve Rockwell, who died just before this show opened. There are a number of his exquisitely drawn portraits of people and an especially sweet one of a cat
at rest. How wonderful to have his work hanging in this show, allowing us all the opportunity to appreciate and celebrate a man who was much loved in the art community.
“Modern Ink,” through Oct. 28, Butler Center for Arkansas Studies, 401 President Clinton Ave., Little Rock. Hours: 9 a.m.6 p.m. Monday-Saturday. (501) 320-5700.
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M2 Gallery opens “SHE,” an exhibition of works by female artists from Arkansas and six other states, at a 6-9 p.m. Friday reception at the gallery, 11525 Cantrell Road, suite 918, Little Rock.
Arkansas artists include Melissa Wilkinson, V.L. Cox, Jessica Mungeon, Lisa Krannichfeld, Jennifer Williamson Wilson, Cathy Burns, Catherine Nugent, Scinthya Edwards, Robin Parker, Alecia Walls-Barton and Maggie Maddison.
Ashley Murphy, owner of M2 with husband Mac Murphy,
is curating the exhibition and also will show work along with their daughter Phoenix.
Artwork by artists from Mississippi, California, Texas, Kentucky, Oklahoma and New Mexico will also be shown.
The show will continue through the end of November.
For information, call (501) 944-7155.
Arkansas artist George Dombek, the renowned watercolorist, has a solo exhibition at the David Lusk Gallery, 97 Tillman St., Memphis. “Recent Paintings” hangs through Nov. 4 and includes 20 of Dombek’s works of barns, farm equipment and Ozark portraits.
Dombek will also have a solo exhibition at Lusk’s Nashville gallery in May 2018.
For information, visit davidluskgallery.com.
Email: ewidner@arkansasonline.com
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