All Ages Invited to Free 'Art Night on the Block' May 12

Rashawn Penister’s Miles Davis is one of his mixed-media portraits that will be on display at ASC in his exhibition Life’s a Card Game, which opens May 12, 2022, with a reception from 5-7 p.m.

Event Features Reception for Harrington and Penister, Student Project Showcase, STEAM Activities

Tammy Harrington’s Splendor is one of the pieces on display in her exhibition In Between from May 5 to July 30, 2022, at The Arts & Science Center. Harrington will be present for the opening reception at 5-7 p.m. Thursday, May 12.

Visitors are invited to the Arts & Science Center for a night of art and creative hands-on activities 5-7 p.m. Thursday, May 12, 2022. 

Art Night on The Block is a free event that welcomes ASC’s newest exhibiting artists and showcases its latest collaboration between local schools and resident artists. The event also encourages visitors of all ages to explore art and science with hands-on activities. 

At ASC's main building at 701 S. Main St., visitors can attend a reception for and meet exhibiting artists Tammy Harrington and Rashawn Penister. 

Visitors can get their photos made in ASC’s photo booth and help paint an indoor mural that will be on display in celebration of the 2022 theater season.

Next door at ASC’s The ARTSpace on Main, 623 S. Main St., a new exhibition will feature a collaborative art project created by students at Pine Bluff High School, Dollarway High School and Robert Morehead Middle School. 

One of the collage quilts made during a collaborative art project by students at Pine Bluff High School, Dollarway High School and Robert Morehead Middle School is shown. The quilts will be on display at The ARTSpace on Main, 623 S. Main St. in downtown Pine Bluff. 

ASC’s resident artists Aida Ayers, Elly Bates, and Brie Boyce have been working with these students to create collage quilts. The students collaborated to research significant events and figures from the Pine Bluff and Jefferson County area. They then drew portraits depicting these, transferred them to fabric, and quilted the pieces together.  

Colorful quilts by Aida Ayers will also be on display alongside the student quilts. The quilt exhibition will be on view from May 10 to July 1, 2022.

The youth art exhibition is supported in part by an Arts in Education grant from the Arkansas Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts. Pine Bluff Sand & Gravel Company is also sponsoring this event. 

Visitors can also participate in science experiments, play games, and learn about ASC’s summer camps while at The ARTSpace.

Reception for Harrington, Penister Exhibitions

In Between combines Harrington’s sensibilities as a printmaker with the Chinese folk art of paper cutting, exploring how her cultural identity is perceived by others. Her exhibition is on display in the William H. Kennedy Jr. Gallery from May 5 to July 30, 2022.

“Oftentimes, the still figure seems to exist in a state of chaos and commotion as if she is caught in turbulent waves or stormy winds. Patterns and imagery attach themselves to the figure and surround it at the same time. These patterns represent the duality of my existence as a Chinese American,” Harrington says. 

“Depending on the moment, I teeter between how Chinese and how American I am and how this ratio of cultural identity is perceived by others,” she explains. “My physical appearance, my actions, and the way I speak are judged and evaluated.”

Her work imbues the cross-cultural influences of Chinese and American culture into figurative compositions to create an ephemeral space, in a place between reality and the mystical.

Harrington lives in Russellville and teaches two-dimensional art at the University of the Ozarks in Clarksville. She received a Master of Fine Arts degree in printmaking from Wichita State University in Kansas, and a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in printmaking from the University of South Dakota.

For more information about Harrington, visit tammyharrington-art.com.

Penister’s Life’s a Card Game features mixed-media portraits of well-known figures, like Miles Davis and Kendrick Lamar, and anonymous subjects, situating the average person amongst the aspirational who have played their cards well. His exhibition will be on display in the International Paper Gallery from May 12 through June 25, 2022.

Penister describes his work as “exploring the varying connections between playing cards and art. They’re both appealing yet mysterious to the eye of the viewer.”

“The concept of my work is focused on creating a visual message with the playing cards, an object that is used for entertainment or personal purposes, that we are metaphorically playing a card game by making life choices,” Penister explains. 

A Pine Bluff native, Penister graduated from the University of Pine Bluff with a Bachelor of Science degree in visual arts. His work takes an artistic view on social issues, focusing on people’s roles in society while they deal with their life’s struggles and achievements. The work is identity-based and is a message for people who are suffering with life’s problems, encouraging them to continue living and looking for an opportunity for a better life.

For more information about Penister, visit rashawnpenister.com

Both exhibitions are sponsored by Simmons Bank. The reception is sponsored by Art Krewe and MK Distributors.

For more information about Art Night on the Block, call ASC at 870-536-3375.