Artists Honored At 2023 Rosenzweig Exhibition Awards Reception

Lisa Krannichfeld (left) and Jennifer Barnett (right), both of Little Rock, were among the artists honored at a reception July 20 for the 2023 Irene Rosenzweig Biennial Juried Exhibition at The Arts & Science Center for Southeast Arkansas. Juror Dr. Rachel Trusty (second from left) announced the awards. ASC’s Curator of Collections and Exhibitions Kevin Haynie (third from left) was also on hand to give remarks.

Louisiana’s Vincent Marie Takes ‘Best in Show’ for Mixed-Media Piece in Juried Show

Six artists from the mid-South took honors at the awards reception for the 2023 Irene Rosenzweig Biennial Juried Exhibition. The long-running art show at The Arts & Science Center opened July 20 with approximately 100 guests and artists in attendance.

Juror Dr. Rachel Trusty, visiting assistant professor at Bucknell University and an Arkansas native, presented the six awards:

I’m Tired by Vincent Marie of Breaux Bridge, Louisiana

BEST IN SHOW ($1,000) — I’m Tired by Vincent Marie of Breaux Bridge, Louisiana; mixed media, oil on canvas, mylar, and repurposed clothes; 36 inches by 48 inches; 2022.

“Marie uses layers of fabric to make public a series of private moments in the daily life of a transgender or a nonbinary person,” Trusty said. “The artist puts these quiet moments under deeper scrutiny, reminiscent of the current political zeitgeist of hyper surveillance. Soft, flowing layers of fabric pieced together offer an allegory of the handcrafting of a body in process, putting the power to reflect and the power to build back into the hands of the artist/maker.”

Lisa Krannichfeld of Little Rock took first place for her multimedia work Hold On, Let Go in the 2023 Irene Rosenzweig Biennial Juried Exhibition at The Arts & Science Center for Southeast Arkansas. The awards were presented July 20.

FIRST PLACE ($500) — Hold On, Let Go by Lisa Krannichfeld of Little Rock; ink, watercolor, concrete, acrylic, and resin, on multilayered shaped panels; 32 inches by 34 inches by 3 inches; 2023.

“Hold On, Let Go is a mixed-media piece about tension — tension between materials, shadows, and figures. Strong, monochrome concrete hands hold back the form of a colorful toddler in motion,” Trusty said. “The foreground bleeds together with background, demonstrating that the child and parent are still one – if just for this moment.”

Norepinephrine by Jason Bly of Wichita Falls, Texas

SECOND PLACE ($200) — Norepinephrine by Jason Bly of Wichita Falls, Texas; oil on panel, 14 inches by 11 inches; 2021.

“Bly’s trompe-l’oeil shadow box painting Norepinephrine mixes classical referents, including a Greek sculpture with atomic-bomb preparation materials from the ’50s to address current anxieties,” Trusty said. “A painted, hyper-realistic string connects each section, suggesting these tense feelings will continue from the past, far into the future.”

Jennifer Barnett of Little Rock received a merit award for her photograph Memory Dance in the 2023 Irene Rosenzweig Biennial Juried Exhibition at The Arts & Science Center for Southeast Arkansas. The awards were presented July 20.

MERIT AWARD ($100) — Memory Dance by Jennifer Barnett of Little Rock; photograph, 11 inches by 14 inches; 2022.

“Memory Dance by Jennifer Barnett is a study of positive and negative space, foreground and background, focus and blur,” Trusty said. “This unconventional landscape seems to include an everyday house in an everyday yard, but the colors and composition create a deeply nostalgic mood of a memory captured on film.”

Onyx by Kelsey Duncan of Nashville, Tennessee

MERIT AWARD ($100) — Onyx by Kelsey Duncan of Nashville, Tennessee; stoneware, slip, underglaze, glaze, metal, and luster; 18 inches by 16 inches by 10 inches; 2020.

“Onyx offers a pensive, bold bust,” Trusty said. “The pattern of reflective droplet shapes on the head, the metallic earrings, and the dark fabric neckpiece contrast the highly textured skin of the piece, making the skin palpably warm. The face, concerned but steadfast, meditates with eyes closed.”

Cowboy in Solitude by Paige Ellens of Memphis, Tennessee

MERIT AWARD ($100) — Cowboy in Solitude by Paige Ellens of Memphis, Tennessee; acrylic on canvas, 70 inches by 36 inches, 2023.

“Ellens’s bold work, Cowboy in Solitude, reads at first like a pop art futuristic landscape,” Trusty said. “Upon further scrutiny, a tiny vignette of a lonesome cowboy in the center offers a meditation on isolation or perhaps chosen solitude.”

The Rosenzweig exhibition welcomes submissions in traditional and digital artforms from artists in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas. For the 2023 exhibition, ASC received 594 artwork submissions by 315 artists, from which Trusty chose 35.

The exhibition is supported in part by The Arts & Science Center Endowment Fund and the Irene Rosenzweig Endowment Fund. The reception was sponsored by the Pine Bluff Art League and M.K. Distributors.

The biennial exhibition began with a gift from the Irene Rosenzweig Foundation in 1992. Born in Pine Bluff in 1903, Rosenzweig was a noted scholar and teacher. She earned a doctoral degree from Bryn Mawr College, studied in Rome, and was fluent in six languages. Rosenzweig tutored President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s family members during their time in the White House. She died in 1997.

The exhibition is on view in the William H. Kennedy Jr. Gallery at ASC’s home building, 701 S. Main St., through Saturday, Oct. 14. Admission to ASC’s galleries is free.

For more information about the exhibition and to see more of the artwork in this year’s show, visit asc701.org/rosenzweig.