UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL ARKANSAS
COLLEGE OF FINE ARTS AND COMMUNICATION
February 10, 2014
CONTACT: Barclay McConnell, (501) 450-5793 or barclaym@uca.edu
ARTISTS SET FEBRUARY TALKS AT BAUM GALLERY
By Taylor Woods
College of Fine Arts and Communication Media Office
CONWAY — Visual artists Kirsten Kindler and Dusty Mitchell will each give a talk at the University of Central Arkansas’s Baum Gallery in February.
Virginia-based artist Kindler will give an informal gallery talk on her work in the Baum Gallery on Thursday, Feb. 20, at 1:30 p.m. Kindler’s exhibition, Paper Construction, will be on view until Feb. 20.
Arkansas artist Dusty Mitchell, from Bravo’s reality TV show Work of Art: The Next Great Artist, will give a lecture about his work in the art lecture hall adjoining the Baum Gallery, McCastlain 143, on Monday, Feb. 24, at 5:30 p.m.
Both talks are free and open to the public.
Kindler’s exhibit features hand-cut, large-scale collages on Mylar, made from multiple layers of magazine images, carefully pieced together to create complex sculptural structures. Kindler’s work is time intensive, fragile and revered for its intricacy. Her compositions consist of ceiling and wall-hung installations.
“She’ll be talking about her work, her process, how that work evolved and some about how she actually puts that work together,” said Barclay McConnell, director of the Baum Gallery. “A lot of people have questions about her process because the work is on Mylar and it’s an intricate process. She is painstakingly cutting out magazine images and then collaging them together with plastic but there’s much more to it than that.”
Kindler sees her work as “found objects.” She finds her objects, the discarded magazine images, and uses these materials to create new art forms.
“Inspired by recycling and pre-fabricated structures, my recent work is as much about excavation and the mining of subject matter as it is the desire to transform the ordinary object,” Kindler writes in her artist’s statement.
“By using miniature pictures of actual materials I am able to play with shifting scales and build improbable infrastructures.”
McConnell said gallery visitors have been eager to learn more about Kindler’s process and experience.
“She’s very personable and is highly intelligent, so anything that she has to say and share will be interesting to me,” McConnell said.
McConnell said images from the current exhibits are on the Baum Gallery’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/baumgallery and Kindler’s work can be viewed there.
Mitchell, the Bravo reality show star, is originally from Arkansas. He is a working professional artist based in Mountain View.
“Mitchell got on Next Great Artist and did really well,” McConnell said. “He got very far in the competition. He’s smart and interesting and he’s coming to judge the Annual Student Competitive, which is our next exhibition.”
Mitchell will serve as the juror for UCA’s Annual Student Competitive opening on March 2 at the Baum Gallery. The opening reception for that exhibition will be Sunday, March 2, from 5-7 p.m. and is free and open to the public.
In his public talk, Mitchell will discuss his experience on Bravo, his artwork and his artistic process in general.
More information about Mitchell and his work is available at www.mustyditchell.com.
For more information visit uca.edu/art/baum or contact McConnell at (501) 450-5793 or barclaym@uca.edu.
Baum Gallery exhibitions and events are always free and open to the public. Gallery hours are from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays, with extended hours until 7 p.m. Thursdays. The gallery is also open from 1-5 p.m. on Sundays. For directions and a campus map, visit www.uca.edu/art/baum. Visitor parking is available near McCastlain Hall.
The UCA College of Fine Arts and Communication includes the Departments of Art, Communication, Mass Communication and Theatre, Music and Writing. The college’s primary mission is the preparation of the next generation of artists, educators and communicators. For more information about CFAC, visitwww.uca.edu/cfac or call (501) 450-3293.
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