The UALR Department of Art announces that its summer gallery hours have begun and will run through Aug. 17. Gallery hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. There are no weekend hours during the summer.

A new graduate thesis exhibition in Gallery I opens Thursday, May 16, and runs through June 26. The exhibition features recent work by Laura Raborn and Sandra Sell. A lecture will be given in the Fine Arts Building, Room 161, at 5:30 p.m., May 15.

A joint reception for Raborn, Sell, and artist David Bailin will follow the lecture from 6:30-8 p.m. Thursday, May 15. Bailin’s work is on exhibit in Gallery II through May 30.

More about each artist:

Laura Raborn draws and paints the human figure in ways and positions that intrigue.

Her paintings have been exhibited throughout Arkansas and are in private collections across the U.S. She has numerous awards including the Wilma and Jack Diner Purchase Award at UALR and the Juror Award at the Irene Rosenzweig Biennial Juried Exhibition. She is often commissioned to paint historic structures, one of which was presented to Gov. Mike Beebe.

After receiving a bachelor’s degree from Rollins College, she worked in marketing for six years while taking evening classes at the Arkansas Arts Center. After studying various mediums, she enrolled in the painting graduate program at UALR, where she is in her final semester. Her architectural portraits, contemporary figure paintings, and landscapes, can be viewed at www.paintingsofhome.com.

Sandra Sell uses wood as her primary medium and carving tools, including a chainsaw, to create her sculptural forms.

A native of New Hampshire, Sell grew up with a passion for visually emulating nature and constructed objects. She moved to Arkansas in 2005 upon the completion of a 20-year military career. She received a bachelor of arts degree in studio art, with an emphasis in painting and drawing at UALR in December 2008. She is pursuing a master of arts degree with an emphasis in sculpture. Additionally, Sell works as an apprentice to the artist Robyn Horn of Little Rock.

David Bailin offers large-scale narrative works in a series of drawings that are executed on a heavyweight-prepared paper in charcoal,
 pastel, oil, and even coffee. His current exhibit in Gallery II is “Revision, Missing, Listen, Light, Fly: Drawings by David Bailin.”

In each of the five drawings on display, a male figure is isolated in an office space. The imagery was inspired by the years Bailin supported himself as a part-time, full-charge bookkeeper in New York City.

Bailin is an adjunct professor at UALR. He has a master of arts degree from Hunter College in New York City 
and a bachelor of fine arts in painting from the University of Boulder in Boulder, Colo. Bailin is represented by Koplin Del Rio Gallery in Los Angeles.

For more information, contact UALR Gallery Director and Curator Brad Cushman at becushman@ualr.edu or 501.569.8977.

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