Harrington taps ancestral memory, folklore
One hesitates to call Russellville artist Neal Harrington’s new show a retrospective, if only because we tend to think that term usually applies to those who are older and have much longer careers. (He was born in 1973.) But “Neal Harrington, 20 Years” is an absorbing display of the talented Arkansas Tech University art professor’s evolution.
M2 Gallery’s Mac Murphy foraged through Harrington’s studio and retrieved some beauties from the past, touching on Harrington’s college years and other early work (such as the mixed media piece Waiting), to which Murphy added the striking relief print Cerebus from 2000 and the vibrant oil pastel Line Dancing from 2009 and a number of more recent intaglios, reliefs and especially the masterful woodcuts Harrington has been producing these past few years.
The artist’s breakthrough came in 2013 when his woodcut Snake Shaker’s Shack won a Delta Award at “The 55th Annual Delta Exhibition” at the Arkansas Arts Center. Juror Monica Bowman also chose two more Harrington woodcuts for the exhibition: Daphne’s Escape and The Abduction of Europa, both 82-by-48 inches. He won a second Delta Award in 2015 with another woodcut, Feather Signal.
Harrington’s skill at drawing, translated to intricately carved wood blocks, makes for richly detailed prints. While he certainly has his own style, Harrington taps the artistic and emotional depth of artists such as Thomas Hart Benton and Arkansas’ Charles Banks Wilson; one also sees the sophistication of Rockwell Kent.
Happily, there are two wood blocks at the exhibit to show us just how remarkable Harrington’s carving is. One block has Snake Shaker’s Shack on one side and In the Pines on the other.
But what makes Harrington’s work memorable is that he applies his considerable technical gifts to subjects that are a heady brew of mystery and imagination. Steeped in folklore, classical mythology and a Southern rural Gothic, his work stirs and prods, magnetizes and, for some of us, taps ancestral memory and family stories of a world of swamps, hollers and hills inhabited by spirits and haints, sometimes fueled by fever dreams.
Two new woodcuts reflect an astrological theme: Cancer and Virgo. The man of Cancer and the woman of Virgo float in the air, embraced and perhaps being “airlifted” by shooting stars. Beneath them are jugs of moonshine — probably an empty one or
two there, one suspects.
These two works reflect a familiar Harrington theme: Is it a liquor-induced delusion or did the ’shine allow the subjects to open some supernatural/primal/alien portal? One of his best, Delta Oracle, also hangs in the show, and poses similar questions as a female spirit rises and a startled man is thrown to the ground, which is littered with moonshine jugs. The answer may only seem to be obvious.
Hickarus puts a rural spin on the Greek mythology tale of Icarus, whose father attached wings of feather and wax to his son’s body and his own so they could flee Crete. Ignoring his father’s warning, Icarus flew too close to the sun, its heat melted the wax and Icarus fell into the sea. Hickarus, wings extended, seems poised for liftoff among a vast murder of crows.
In the Pines strikes a melancholy note. A woman holds a man who has passed out or fallen asleep after drinking. A lantern hangs on a tree branch. The woman appears sad, disgusted or perhaps filled with a bitter resignation. Clearly, this isn’t the first time she has seen him in this shape.
Mr. Medusa is a vivid, lively intaglio of a snake handler created around the time of Snake Shaker’s Shack.
And finally, we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention the wonderful and humorous Fish Lady of Toad Suck Holler, in which a man pours water on a mermaidlike figure in a metal tub. The work likely draws upon a variety of sources but especially recalls a scene from the film Splash.
Harrington’s art revels in the mysteries that are woven into the fabric of our culture and dwell in our collective psyche.
“Neal Harrington, 20 Years,” through June 16, M2 Gallery, 11525 Cantrell Road, Suite 918, Little Rock. ” Hours: 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday. Info: (501) 225-6257.
NEW COSTON WORKS
Fayetteville resident Daniel Coston’s new acrylic paintings are imbued with a warm, nostalgic glow.
“Arkansas: From the Tops to the Bottoms” at Cantrell Gallery through July 1 emphasizes familiar Coston subjects focused on the state’s farms, forests, towns and bayous; there are houses, churches, barns and farm equipment. As the title suggests, the new work is set on various landscapes he has visited, from river and creek bottoms to hilltops.
The View From the Old Place is especially lovely. The orange-yellow in the sky suggests a hint of Maxfield Parrish. The hills in the distance, a picket fence, a barn and land brings forth a romanticized yearning for home. The railroad tracks in the foreground of Dermott Bank and Trust give a cool perspective on the changing view of small-town Arkansas.
But No Mail (Male?) may rise above the others. Based on a postcard that belonged to his mother, Coston paints a fashionable young woman from the ’40s perched on a fencelike railing that supports a mailbox. The woman, Mary Nicholson, was one of his mother’s friends and had done modeling. She gazes directly at the viewer, apparently waiting for the post (postman?). Coston’s cozy pieces work very well in Cantrell’s recently downsized, intimate space.
“Arkansas: From the Tops to the Bottoms,” through July 1, Cantrell Gallery, 8206 Cantrell Road, Little Rock. Hours: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Saturday. Info: (501) 224-1335, cantrellgallery.com
“SAMMY PETERS, THEN AND NOW”
An exhibit of works by Little Rock artist Sammy Peters opens with a reception from 5 to 8 p.m. Friday at the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies, 401 President Clinton Ave, Little Rock. The exhibition, titled “Sammy Peters, Then and Now” hangs through Aug. 26. “Sammy Peters, Then and Now” surveys his work from 1962 to 2016. It was featured at the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith and at the Memphis College of Art in Memphis last year.
Peters, who is represented by Greg Thompson Fine Art in North Little Rock, also shows with LewAllen Contemporary in Santa Fe, N.M.
HURSLEY’S “LENS”
Little Rock-based architectural photographer Timothy Hursley’s first show at Garvey/Simon gallery in New York generated interest from several publications. Hursley was interviewed in Interview magazine’s May 18 issue and in Fine Art Intelligence on May 1. His show was featured in Hyperallergic on May 12. “Tainted Lens” hangs at the gallery through Saturday. Email: ewidner@arkansasonline.com