Four Exhibitions Closing Out 2020
/Small Works on Paper Opens Sept. 24; Rex DeLoney’s Brothers By One on Oct. 1
Indecent Proposal: Coach John Thompson is featured in Rex DeLoney’s Brothers By One: The Black Athlete And Social Justice, opening Thursday, Oct. 1.
Despite an unprecedented year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, The Arts & Science Center continues to bring stunning, inclusive art to the public.
ASC wraps up the 2020 exhibitions calendar with shows examining the female body and perspective; selections from some of the best artists in Arkansas; portraits by Rex DeLoney that highlight athleticism and social activism, and ASC’s collection of political cartoons from Depression- and World War II-era America.
The following exhibitions will be on view both in the galleries at ASC, and through virtual exhibitions at asc701.org/virtual-exhibitions. (Small Works on Paper’s virtual exhibition is at the Arkansas Arts Council’s website.)
Delita Martin’s 2020 print Say Our Name is featured in The Female Gaze.
The Female Gaze
Through Saturday, May 15, 2021
The Female Gaze is the Arts & Science Center’s latest exhibition highlighting pieces from ASC’s Permanent Collection. The exhibition is now on display in the Ben J. Altheimer Gallery through Saturday, May 15, 2021.
A virtual exhibition is also viewable here.
This exhibition showcases artwork created by women artists, depicting female subjects; focusing on the reclamation of the female body and depictions of female narratives and perspectives.
The artists included are Emma Amos, Camille Billops, Margaret Burroughs, Elizabeth Catlett, Barbara Delle Gregory, Kathe Kollwitz, Cynthia Marks, Delita Martin, Reita Miller, Dorothy Morrisey, Deborah C. Moseley, Patricia Palmer, and Virginia Williamson.
The exhibition catalog may be viewed here.
The exhibition is sponsored by Explore Pine Bluff.
Kimiara Johnson of Pine Bluff’s Nola Reception Couture Gown is part of the 2020 Small Works on Paper exhibition.
Small Works on Paper
Thursday, Sept. 24, 2020–Saturday, Oct. 24, 2020
Small Works on Paper, the annual touring visual arts exhibition, will stop again at ASC. The exhibition opens Thursday, Sept. 24, and will be on display through Saturday, Oct. 24, in the International Paper Gallery.
Small Works on Paper showcases Arkansans’ artworks that are no larger than 18 by 24 inches. Thirty-nine pieces are featured in this year’s show. The artists are members of the Arkansas Artist Registry, an online gallery of Arkansas artists’ work.
This year’s entries were juried by Jamie Adams, associate professor of art at the Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri.
The Arkansas Arts Council, an agency of Arkansas Heritage, coordinates the exhibition and makes it available for loan to qualifying galleries. After the exhibition leaves ASC, the 2020 tour will close out its run at the South Arkansas Arts Center in El Dorado.
“Small Works on Paper is an extraordinary opportunity for some of our best emerging and established Arkansas artists to showcase their artwork at locations all over our state,” said Stacy Hurst, secretary of The Department of Parks, Heritage and Tourism. “We are honored to be able to support and highlight Arkansas artists’ amazing talent, skill, and hard work. In our exhibition, you can view and buy artwork you’ll not find anywhere else in the world.”
For more information on Small Works on Paper and to view the virtual gallery, visit the council’s website, ArkansasArts.org.
Rex DeLoney, No Justice For Y'all: Curt Flood
Brothers By One: The Black Athlete and Social Justice by Rex DeLoney
Thursday, Oct. 1, 2020–Saturday, Jan. 2, 2021
Rex DeLoney's solo exhibition Brothers by One: The Black Athlete and Social Justice highlights the many ways that Black athletes used their celebrity status and media coverage to give attention to social justice issues; from boxer Muhammad Ali and his stance against the Vietnam War to San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick kneeling during the national anthem as a statement against police brutality.
Other sports and activism figures featured in the portraits include Georgetown Coach John Thompson; baseball player Curt Flood; and college athlete, performer, and activist Paul Robeson.
DeLoney, who has been a teacher for more than 20 years, is an art instructor and the fine arts department chairman at Little Rock Central High School.
He has a Masters of Art in Education degree from Central Washington University in Ellensburg, Washington, and a Bachelor of Arts degree in commercial art from the University of Central Arkansas in Conway. He also has a teaching certificate from Heritage College in Toppenish, Washington. DeLoney lives in Little Rock.
He has had previous solo exhibitions at venues including the Historic Arkansas Museum in Little Rock; the University of Arkansas Pine Bluff, and Hearne Fine Art in Little Rock.
The exhibition opens Thursday, Oct. 1, in the William H. Kennedy Jr. Gallery. It is sponsored by Simmons Bank.
Ray Walters, Carriage Rider, Drawing on paper, ASC 68.018.001.
Ballots & Laughs: Political Cartoons of Ray Walters
Thursday, Nov. 5, 2020–Saturday, Jan. 9, 2021
The final exhibition of 2020 showcases ASC’s collection of comic and political cartoons with Ballots & Laughs: Political Cartoons of Ray Walters.
Walters captured a quirky view of America in the early 1930s until 1946, with more than 500 comic postcards drawn and published during this period.
“He created a realm populated with beautiful women and ugly men, gigantic fish and inquisitive frogs, weary travelers and frustrated fishermen, cowboys and Indians, trailers, and outhouse,” writes Courtney Mack and Stephen Mack, in the book Walter’s World: His Comic Postcards, His Art.
Rather than drawing political satire or commenting on world events, Walters created a world of his own. The stories captured on the 3½ by 5½ inch postcards were small escapes from the realities of The Great Depression and World War II.
Little is known about Walters. He was born in 1881 in Monroe, Wisconsin, and moved to Chicago at some point. In 1933, he and his wife moved to Marengo, Illinois, where he appears to have lived until his death in 1967.
Ballots & Laughs will be on display in the International Paper Gallery from Thursday, Nov. 5, 2020, through Saturday, Jan. 23, 2021. The exhibition will also include virtual public programming events.
