Above: Ecce
Femina by Ray Allen Parker (2020, oil on canvas). Below: The
Promise of the Rainbow Never Came by Katrina Andry (2018, woodcut with
mylar and digital print); See No Evil (2021, stoneware with
glazes) by Kensuke Yamada.
CONWAY,
Ark. (January 22, 2021) – The Windgate Museum of Art at Hendrix College in
Conway announces the opening of its spring exhibitions. Altarpieces &
Icons: Ray Allen Parker and Katrina Andry: The Promise of the Rainbow
Never Came are on view through March 12, 2021. Ramune Candy Roll: Ceramic
by Kensuke Yamada runs February 8, 2021 – March 15, 2021, in the Window
Gallery which is on view 24-7 from the exterior of the building. The interior
galleries are open 12 noon – 5 p.m., Monday – Friday with reservations strongly
encouraged. Reservation information, additional COVID-19 protocols, and virtual
programs for each exhibition are on the museum website: https://www.windgatemuseum.org.
Altarpieces
& Icons: Ray Allen Parker (Neely Gallery) includes twelve intimate monumental
portraits that chronicle the physical and psychological presence of his
subjects in naturalistic detail. Two triptych paintings, Ecce Femina and
Madonna and Children, feature contemporary people presented as saints in
the composition and style reminiscent of Renaissance altarpieces. Parker’s singular portraits of family, friends,
and fellow artists places his subjects in powerful poses with direct gazes historically
associated with iconographic religious depictions.
Ray Allen Parker was born in San Diego,
California, and grew up in rural Egypt, Arkansas. He earned a master’s degree in
English at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville and returned to his
lifelong interests in portraiture and figure painting after a career in retail
communications and advertising. Parker now lives and works in Fayetteville,
Arkansas, with his wife Mary Jean. The exhibition was curated by WMA Director/Curator
Mary Kennedy with assistance from Museum Associate, Rebecca Jolley. Parker will
offer a talk on Wednesday, February 24 at 7pm. Dr. Leo Mazow, Louise B. and J.
Harwood Cochrane Curator of American Art, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and
essayist for the exhibition brochure will deliver a lecture about the
exhibition on Monday, March 1 at 7pm. Free and open to all, registration for these
virtual programs is by e-mail to windgatemuseum@hendrix.edu.
Katrina
Andry: The Promise of the Rainbow Never Came (Wilcox-Todd Gallery) reflects on the loss of
enslaved African lives during Middle Passage voyage across the Atlantic to the
West Indies. People with fevers or unexplained illnesses,
those recently born, those who died, and those who rebelled or resisted, were
cast overboard en route. Eight
large-scale woodcut prints with mylar and a mixed media installation depict
people being thrown overboard showing a transition from human to eel form. This
reverse anthropomorphic depiction points to the history of dehumanizing
representations of Black people and suggests the continuity of color-based
violence for those descended from Middle Passage survivors. Mylar raindrops
reference the promise of the rainbow: that the world would never again be destroyed
by water. For Andry, the rainbow’s promise is unfulfilled because Black people
are still treated as less than fully human as violence against them continues.
Katrina Andry lives and works in New Orleans,
Louisiana. She earned her Master of Fine Arts in Printmaking
at Louisiana State University in 2010. The exhibition was organized by the LSU
Museum of Art and curated by Hendrix alum Courtney Taylor, who is their Curator
and Director of Public Programs. Andry will offer a talk
on Wednesday, February 3 at 7pm and Taylor will speak on Monday, February 15 at
7pm. Free and open to all, registration for these virtual programs is by e-mail
to windgatemuseum@hendrix.edu.
Kensuke Yamada: Ramune Candy Roll features nine life-sized youthful figures created for the opening
of the Windgate Museum of Art. Yamada’s sculptures are an
expression of his innate playfulness that
is tempered by his respect for the universality of the human experience. The
artist hollow builds his figures to create a space within each one for the energy
or soul of the idea he expresses. Their postures, gestures, expressions, and
finishing suggest a narrative for a moment in time, to provide a connection
between his artwork and the viewer.
Born and educated in Japan, Yamada earned a second BA
degree in ceramics at Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, and his
MFA at the University of Montana in 2009. Yamada was a resident artist at the Archie
Bray Foundation in Montana and The Clay Studio in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and
a visiting artist prior to accepting a position as instructor at the University
of Arkansas at Little Rock. The exhibition was curated
by WMA Interim Associate Director Barbara Satterfield and developed with
assistance from Travis Peeples, Hendrix Multimedia Technical Director, and from
Museum Associates Hannah Samuel and Adaja Cooper.
The
art@hendrix! online exhibition continues through May 15, 2021. Dedicated
to celebrating the College’s artistic life in the pre-Windgate Museum of Art era,
the exhibition includes 94 pieces of artwork created or collected by alumni and
former and current faculty and staff, as well as significant works from the Hendrix
permanent collection and artworks courtesy of the Historic Arkansas Museum. Find
numerous online events related to art@hendrix! at https://www.windgatemuseum.org/events/
through the end of March 2021.
For more information about exhibitions
and programs, follow @windgatemuseum on Instagram and @WMAatHDX on Facebook, or contact Amanda Cheatham at 501-328-2383 or cheatham@hendrix.edu.
About
the Windgate Museum of Art
The
Windgate Museum of Art is the new art museum located on the campus of Hendrix
College. With a vision to be the premier teaching art museum in Arkansas, the
WMA presents outstanding art exhibitions, compelling educational programs, and
invigorating social activities for students, faculty, staff, and visitors to
campus. Free and open to all, the museum uses hands-on experiences to train
students in all facets of museum work, including curatorial research, collection
management, educational and social programming, marketing and communications, as
well as all aspects of exhibition research, planning, installation, and evaluation.
The Windgate Museum of Art is made possible with major support from the
Windgate Foundation and the Alice L. Walton Foundation.