Spring 2011

This exhibit featured twenty works by a world renowned Central European master printer. Courtesy of the Baruch Foundation, prints from nine different series by the artist were represented in the exhibit.

The Department of Art purchased Anderle's  A Cruel Game for Man in support of the Foundation's art scholarship fund and to benefit UCA students.  In appreciation, the Foundation donated the remaining exhibit prints to the department.

©Jiri Anderle, Portrait of Anne B., 1980, drypoint, brushed, cut and punctured copper plate.

Habitats: Portraiture by Kat Wilson

This exhibit of twenty digital photographs explored a new paradigm for portraiture.  Inspired by Old Master paintings, each work features the subject in a self-selected arrangement of possessions, allowing commentary about individual attachments, consumerist culture and contemporary identity.

© Kat Wilson.144 Barton, 2006, digital photography.

Organized for travel by the Society of Illustrators, New York, New York

This exhibit featured forty art works that illustrated five categories related to our ecosystem: earth, energy, air, water, and wildlife. 

©Dugald Stermer, Earth/Skull, 2009, color pencil on black paper.

Curator: Ray Ogar, Asst. Professor, Graphics, UCA

This exhibit and reading room explored designer novels, neo-comics, artist sketchbooks, post-modern layout and contemporary illustration. 

©Doug Cason, Magnificent Obsession #3, 2009, oil painting on manipulated book.

This immersive installation by UCA Associate Professor of Art Holly Laws was inspired by the first mass-produced American suburb created by the New York firm Abraham Levitt and Sons in reponse to much needed-housing for returning veterans of WWII. 

Baum MFA Biennial

This biennial competitive award features paintings by recent MFA graduates Ananda Balingit-LeFils and Daniel McFarlane.   Juror is Toby Kamps, Senior Curator at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston.

upper: ©Ananda Balingit-LeFils, Boy with Globe, graphite and gouache on paper, 2010.

lower: ©Daniel McFarlane, Purple Gala, acrylic on panel, 2010.

Fantastic Realities: Photography by Julie Blackmon

Digitally-manipulated images of fictional and autobiographical events explored elements of everyday life in this exhibit.  Blackmon’s distinctive interpretation found the edges of complacency and certainty.

©Julie Blackmon, Baby Toss, 2009, digital photography. Courtesy of the artist.

Aqua Bomb: an exhibition of mixed-media installations by Visiting Professor Sandra Luckett (Painting)

The individual installations of diverse materials testified to the humor and irony that often distinguishes contemporary art making.

©Sandra Luckett, "Mo Money, Mo Problems", 2009, cut paper checks, pins and wire. Photo provided by the artist.

Tagged, Stamped and Stenciled: Guerrilla Art Goes Gallery

A celebration of graffiti as an art form, this interactive exhibit featured three large murals created by San Francisco artist Mark Bode with the UCA Painting Master Class under his tutelage.   UCA art classes and visitors contributed additional tags, stamps and stencil expressions to a recreated urban/metro station environment.

Mark Bode adds details to a mural.

Polarized Dispersions: a multi- media installation by Michael Wyshock

This UCA Department of Art Faculty Show was a combination of image, sound, and reflected light created by multiple computer-generated video tracks projected on multiple fabric screens connected to a central spine. This sculptural exploration demonstrated the artistic potential of electronic media.

©Representative photograph, multi-media. Courtesy of the artist.

Cardinal Points/Puntos Cardinales: A Survey of Contemporary Latino and Latin Americna Art from the Sprint Nextel Collection

This exhibit featured works by artists from  twenty countries, representing numerous ethnicities, cultures, and disparate social and economic conditions.  It demonstrated the variety of approaches utilized by Latino artists north, east, south and west of the center of South America, proving there is no identifiable "Latin American style."

© FreddyRodríguez, Together at Last? ¿Junto por fin?, 1989, acrylic and mixed media on canvas, Courtesy Sprint Nextel Art Collection

Pre-Columbian Artifacts: UCA's Riddick Collection

This exhibit was an "open storage" display of historic vessels, masks and figures representing a dozen geographic regions in Mexico. It was the first public exhibition of the extensive holdings gifted to the university by UCA alumni Dr. and Mrs. Earl B. Riddick, and addressed the process for managing The UCA Art Collection.

Water bottle in the form of a dog, State of Colima, Mexico, 500 AD, earthenware. Courtesy of The UCA Art Collection: Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Earl B. Riddick.

Function PLUS: Contemporary Teapots, contemporary fine craft selections from the Arkansas Arts Center Foundation Collection

The exhibit featured traditional functional teapots as well as non-functional forms that tested long-assumed boundaries between craft processes and fine art production. 

© Elaine Carhartt, Teapot, 1986, stoneware.  Courtesy of the Arkansas Arts Center Foundation Collection:  Gift from the Diane and Sandy Besser Collection.

Six Degrees of Transmutation: Emerging Artists '09

This invitational exhibition featured young artists who have distinguished themselves after completing their MFA degrees by developing bodies of work for show and sale, maintaining an active exhibition record and sophisticated online presence, achieving gallery representation, and receiving consistent mention in a variety of publications. 

©Joy Christiansen, Bare (detail), 2005,
antique bookshelf with etched glass panes,
iris print and altered books.
Courtesy of the artist.

©Seldon Hunt, String of Consciousness,
2007, computer-generated illustration.
Courtesy of the artist.

©Amy Mayfield, Curdled
Sour Marzipan and Hidden Leakage,
2007, acrylic on board and
mixed-media. Courtesy of the artist.

©Kerry Skarbakka, Trestle from
The Struggle to Right Oneself series,
2007, digital photography.
Courtesy of the artist.

Fall 2008

Leaded: The Materiality and Metamorphosis of Graphite. 
Leaded featured more than 40 contemporary artworks by 16 international artists who utilized the physical nature and visual characteristics of graphite and pencils as content in their two- and three-dimensional work.  While employing a fundamental drawing medium, the art went beyond usual borders of the generalized history of modern drawing.  The role of mark-making was subsumed or completely absent from many of the pieces, and representation was a secondary motivation.  The artworks were organized into overlapping themes: Graphite as Content, Graphite as Transformative Agent, and Graphite as Sculpture.

©Creighton Michael, SQUIGGLE linear B407, 2007, graphite, paper, acrylic, and rope. Courtesy Lesley Heller Gallery.

The exhibition was curated by N. Elizabeth Schlatter, Deputy Director and Curator of Exhibitions at the University of Richmond Museums, Virginia, and was organized for travel by International Arts & Artists, Washington, D.C. 

New Territories: Ceramic by Justin Novak.  This contemporary sculpture exhibit introduced two new series of ceramic figurines: the 21^st Century Bunny and Icarus, Jr.  Narrative and individualized with glazes and decals, Novak’s bunnies suffer from the condition of living in a world increasingly mediated by a state security apparatus. Humor illustrates the pathological and cyclical nature of violent behavior in this edgy interpretation of the “collectible” figurine. Referring tangentially to their mythological source, the Icarus, Jr. figures suggest astronauts in flight over a world of uncertain ecosystems - each one differentiated only by the disasters reflected in the visor of its climatized helmet.  The exhibition also featured artist-designed digital prints relative to series content.

©Justin Novak, 21^st Century Bunny (with Baby-Bunny), 2008, slip cast porcelain with overglaze. Courtesy of the artist.

©Justin Novak, Icarus, Jr. (Rain), slip cast porcelain with decal and luster.
Courtesy of the artist.

Baum MFA Biennial Competitive Exhibition: Juried Bodies of Work/3D.  The biennial is designed to acquaint UCA and Arkansas students with outstanding art works created by graduates of Master of Fine Arts programs across the nation. The 2008 exhibit was sponsored by the Friends of the Baum Gallery, UCA Foundation, Inc.  Juror Justin Novak, ceramicist and Associate Professor of Art at the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design in Vancouver, Canada, selected the work of Kevin Curry for this post-graduate exhibition opportunity from a national field of submissions. 

© Kevin Curry, Speech!, 2008, acrylic and
PVC sheet, speakers, amplifier.
Courtesy of the artist.

Artist Kevin Curry completed his MFA degree at Southern Illinois University (Carbondale) in 2008.  His interests in history and storytelling have inspired his use of discarded consumer items in his art work — such as toys, signage, and mechanized devices — to create artifacts that reflect upon the looked-over, hidden, and forgotten parts of American culture and contemporary life.

Spring 2008

Return of the Yellow Peril: A Survey of the Work of Roger Shimomura, 199-2004.

This exhibit featured paintings, prints, sculpture and documentation of theatrical design. Roger Shimomura began creating art inspired by his experience as a Japanese American after he joined the art faculty at the University of Kansas in Lawrence in 1969.  His uniquely bicultural style of work integrates images from ukiyo-e woodcut prints with images from American popular culture. It’s been described as “pop art with a Japanese twist.” Using humor as a weapon, his artwork moves from ironic constructions of cultural identity to biting denunciations of racial prejudice.

©Roger Shimomura, Self-Portrait, From the Return of the Yellow Peril series, 1990, acrylic on canvas.  Collection of Terrence and Lynn Coleman.  Courtesy of the Jan Weiner Gallery.

This traveling exhibit was a program of ExhibitsUSA, a national division of Mid-America Arts Alliance with the Arkansas Arts Council and The National Endowment for the Arts, and was sponsored by an Artist-in- Residence grant through the UCA College of Fine Arts and Communication.

Views from Both Sides of the Barbed Wire Fence.  This collaborative exhibit of paintings and prints by John Newman and Roger Shimomura shared the artists’ unique perspectives about the WWII-Era Japanese-American internment camps.  Their art works reflect family experience and oral tradition: Shimomura spent two years as a toddler in Camp Minidoka in south-central Idaho with his family, and John Newman’s family observed Camp Rohwer as African American sharecroppers who lived in southern Arkansas at the time of internment. 

©John Newman, Access Denied,
2005, oil on canvas. Courtesy of the artist.

© Roger Shimomura, I Was Sad When My Uncle Mich Left Camp to Go Fight in the War, from the Memories of Childhood series, 1999, lithograph. Courtesy of the artist.

Inside/Outside: Student Drawings from the Rohwer Camp.  This exhibit gave evidence of the youthful presence in the Rohwer internment camp and of the curriculum developed by its resident art educator, Mabel Rose Jamison, a graduate of the University of Central Arkansas.  Through drawings completed on site and preserved by McGehee AR community leader Rosalie Santine Gould, the exhibit examined the role of Ms. Jamison’s contributions to the quality of life in the camp, and offered a glimpse into student life and artistic response during that era. 

©Julia Hitta, Barracks at Dusk, watercolor on paper.  Courtesy Rosalie S. Gould, Vogel Collection.

Fall 2007

The Architect’s Brother: Photography by Robert and Shana ParkeHarrison. 
This exhibit consisted of narrative photographic images featuring an “Everyman” character who works to restore a spent physical world by using bizarre contraptions to patch holes in the sky, create rain machines, and chase storms to create electricity.  Robert ParkeHarrison poses as inventor, scientist, activist or caretaker in these theatrical scenes: each set is staged by Shana, with props built and photographed by the artists.  Each image captures a moment in Everyman’s effort to preserve or heal the natural world.  With humor, fantasy, and metaphor, the ParkeHarrisons’ layered photographic constructions urge viewers to immerse themselves in an alternate world that encouraged contemplation and response. 

©Robert and Shana ParkeHarrison, The Sower, from the series: Passage, 2002, photogravure print.  Courtesy of the artists.

This exhibit was organized by the George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film with the support of the Bulrush Foundation, and sponsored through an Artist-in-Residence grant from the UCA College of Fine Arts and Communication.

Fall 2006

Robert Rauschenberg, Artist-Citizen: Posters for a Better World.  

This exhibit featured 17 lithographs and screen prints that address historic social, cultural, and political concerns, such as racial equality, nuclear disarmament, and environmental protection.  Rauschenberg, believed that artists must be engaged in "determining the fate of the Earth." Praised for his artistic and social energy, Rauschenberg earned the title "artist-citizen" in 1976 during his critically acclaimed retrospective at the National Collection of Fine Arts (now the Smithsonian American Art Museum). 

©Robert Rauschenberg, Earth Day poster,
1970, lithograph. Courtesy of SITES.

The exhibition was developed by the University Art Gallery of California State University, Hayward, organized for travel by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service, and funded with support from an Artist-in- Residence grant from the UCA College of Fine Arts and Communication. 

Baum MFA Biennial Competitive Exhibition: Juried Bodies of Work. 

The biennial competitive was inaugurated to acquaint UCA and Arkansas students with outstanding art works created by graduates of Master of Fine Arts programs across the nation.  The 2006 juror David S. Rubin, Curator of Visual Arts at the Contemporary Arts Center in New Orleans, Louisiana, selected MFA thesis works in various media by Judy Rushin (Drawing/Painting, Georgia State University, 2005) and Jaime Kennedy (Photography, The Ohio State University, 2006).  Rushin’s seven works combined mixed-media drawings, paintings, prints, and charcoal drawings with wood and paper sculptures to investigate the people, places, and events in an extended backyard between the woods and the world.   Kennedy’s five photographic works investigated the dichotomy that exists between natural systems that function within the world, against human systems that attempt to modify, control, and improve upon the natural systems of order.

©Judy Rushin, Between the Woods and the World (detail of installation), 2005,
mixed-media. Courtesy of the artist.

©Jaime Kennedy, The Back of Beyond,
2006, photo-collage.
Courtesy of the artist.

The biennial competitive was originally
partially funded with a grant from the
UCA Foundation, Inc.

 STAND2006 A collegiate graphic design competitive exhibition featured student-designed posters that addressed current social, political, environmental, and global issues.  Entry juror Renate Gokl of Studio Blue in Chicago, IL, selected 14 entries for the exhibit, representing 5 Arkansas colleges and universities.  The awards juror was John Sayles, principal with The Sayles Design Group, in Des Moines, IA.  The exhibit opened with “Graphically Speaking: a design seminar from the field” that featured speakers and events about current trends and developments.  The seminar was sponsored by the Smithsonian Community Grant program, funded by the MetLife Foundation with support from the UCA Foundation, Inc., and the Friends of the Baum Gallery.

©Drew Avra (University of Arkansas), Liberty or Safety, 2006, computer-generated print. Courtesy of the Artist.

Fall 2005

A Glimpse into Echizen Ceramics.  
This exhibit featured over 100 thrown and hand-built ceramic pieces from the Fukui area of Japan where abundant iron-rich stoneware has been worked by Japanese potters for over 1,000 years. The term “Echizen” refers to the potters of this region who initially produced their wares for agricultural or utilitarian use. The exhibit included work by Juroemon Fujita, a potter recognized as a "Cultural Treasure" in Japan.

©Mitsuya Oya, Water Jar “Waterfowl” with Natural Glaze, 2000, thrown, altered and hand-built stoneware. Courtesy of the artist and the University of North Florida.

This traveling exhibition was organized by the University of North Florida, and sponsored by the Friends of the Baum Gallery.

View From Here: Contemporary Russian and American Screenprints. 
This exhibit was developed by Hand Print Workshop International, a non-profit enterprise created in Moscow in 1991, now based in Alexandria, Virginia, that continues to organize artists’ residencies focusing on the relationship between the artist, society, and common universal values. The exhibit presented 70 screen prints by 21 leading artists from Russia and the United States that represented the versatility of printmaking and the re-examination of relationships between Russia and the United States after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War.

©Vitaly Komar & Alexander Melamid, The Great Seal of the United States, 1999, screen print. Courtesy of Hand Print Workshop International.

This traveling exhibition was provided through International Art & Artists and was sponsored by an Artist-in-Residence grant through the UCA College of Fine Arts and Communication.

Spring 2005

Out of This World: A Sandy Skoglund Installation.  
This exhibit was a creative collaboration between the artist and a UCA Master Class in photography. With aluminum as the chose medium, the form and content became a backyard barbecue: the installation remained in situ as a spring- board for artistic response and reference.  Ms. Skoglund is known for poking fun at suburban realities with her large-format Cibachrome photographs of bright and humorously unsettling, room-sized installations.  Since her selection for the 1981 Whitney Biennial Exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, Sandy Skoglund's installations and documentations of same have been commissioned by museums and universities around the world. She teaches photography and installation/multi-media at Rutgers University in New Jersey.

© Both Images: Sandy Skoglund and UCA Students, Backyard Barbecue, 2005, mixed-media installation. Courtesy of the
Baum Gallery of Fine Art.

This exhibit was funded with an Artist-in-Residency grant from the UCA College of Fine Arts and Communication.