A new gallery exhibit on display at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock hosts artwork exploring the moral and political oppression of people living in Southeast Asia and India. 

The exhibit, “Memory/Commitment/Aspiration,” features work from The Pierrette Van Cleve Collection and is on display in the Brad Cushman Gallery in the UA Little Rock Windgate Center of Art and Design from Aug. 1 to Sept. 28.

The exhibit will also serve as a backdrop for a new art history course, Global Contemporary Art, being offered this fall by the Department of Art and Design.

Art collector Pierrette Van Cleve has traveled throughout Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, Tibet, China, and India, establishing personal relationships with artists in these countries. As a collector, Van Cleve is drawn to stories about freedom, equality, and fights for justice. Memory, commitment, and aspiration fuel these defiant and powerful artistic voices. The conditions of life these artists have survived and experienced and what they hope to obtain in the future are hallmarks of their creative output.

A reception for the exhibit will be held in the Windgate Center of Art and Design lobby and galleries from 5-7 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 5. Van Cleve also will give talks on the exhibit at 12:15 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 4, and Thursday, Sept. 6, in room 101 of the Windgate Center.

Artists with work on display in the exhibit include You Khin, Leang Seckon, Prom Vichet, Oeur Sokuntevy, Anida Yoeu Ali, Linda Saphan, Amy Lee Sanford, Surjit Akre, Shaw Ghosh, Preyawit Nilachulaka, Liu Yan, Xiong Lijun, Jiang Jung, H.M. Thang, and Phan Thahn Minh.

The exhibit is free and open to the public. The gallery is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and closed on university holidays. After Labor Day, the gallery will also be open from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday and 2-5 p.m. on Sunday.

For more information, contact Gallery Director Brad Cushman at 501-916-5103 or becushman@ualr.edu.

In the upper right photo, Leang Seckon’s 1974 piece “Sun” was created using mixed media, photos, advertisements, acrylic paint, and stitching.