UA Little Rock Art Gallery to Open New Year with Exhibitions Highlighting Illustration, Goodspeed Collection
The University of Arkansas at Little Rock Art Gallery will open its 2024 season with two exhibitions featuring great examples of illustration from Arkansas-based artists as well as selected works from the Goodspeed Collection.
The first exhibition, “Illustration: Art That Works,” will be on display in the Brad Cushman Gallery in the Windgate Center of Art and Design from Jan. 17 to Feb. 18. A reception will be held from 5-7 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 25, in the Windgate Center.
“Illustration, like graphic design, is looked upon as a ‘practical arts’ degree because, along with freelance work being common to both fields, illustrators can seek employment with newspapers and magazine publishers, can work in the gaming industry, in animation, as comic book and graphic novel illustrations, and as concept artist and production designers,” said Nathan Larson, interim art gallery director and curator. “Illustrators work digitally and in more traditional media like painting and drawing, but also move between digital and traditional media. In this exhibition, Arkansas-based illustrators who work in a variety of media and in equally varied employment are brought together to represent what is possible in the field of Illustration.”
Artists whose work will be displayed in the exhibition include Robert Bean, Nikki Dawes, Sean Fitzgibbon, Dusty Higgins, Layet Johnson, Kirk Montgomery, Sally Nixon, Michele Noiset, David O’Brien, Kasten Searles, and Ricky Sikes.
In the second exhibition, a group of artwork from the personal collection of Henry Goodspeed, a retired financial advisor living in Little Rock, will be on display in the Ann Maners and Alex Pappas Gallery in the Windgate Center from Jan. 17 to March 3. A reception for the exhibition, “Goodspeed Collection: Stories,” will be held from 5-7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 15, in the Windgate Center. The exhibition will include examples of photography, printmaking, painting, drawing, ceramics, woodworking, and fiber works.
“This collection is an idiosyncratic reflection, a love for art, and an appreciation for art that spans media, style, and eras,” Larson said. “Each artwork has a story about how it came to be in Henry’s collection or has a story which is an integral aspect of the artwork itself.”
The UA Little Rock Art Galleries in the Windgate Center are open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. – 1 p.m. Saturday, and 2-5 p.m. Sunday.
For more information on these upcoming exhibitions, contact Larson at 501-916-5104 or nglarson@ualr.edu.
