The Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts Unveils 2024 Exhibition Calendar

Upcoming exhibitions place emphasis on art from the Mid-South, the relationship between humanity and the natural world, and stunning works from late-19th century Europe

The Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts (AMFA) announces its upcoming exhibition schedule, presenting an array of artistic voices and media.

The full exhibition schedule includes The Naturalist by Tricia Wright; the 63rd Young Arkansas Artists exhibition; AMFA’s signature Delta Triennial exhibition; A Particular Quality of Loss by Karen Mahaffy; Studio Time + Studio Practice; and The Triumph of Nature: Art Nouveau from the Chrysler Museum of Art.

“The Museum promises an exciting exhibition year ahead,” says Dr. Victoria Ramirez, the Executive Director of AMFA. “This summer, we will debut the Delta Triennial, a reimagination of a long-standing exhibition highlighting artists from the Mid-South. And, in the fall, AMFA will take its first in-depth look at European art with the opening of The Triumph of Nature: Art Nouveau from the Chrysler Museum of Art––another monumental moment for the Museum.”

This announcement follows the opening of the Musuem’s most recent exhibition, Action/Abstraction Redefined: Modern Native Art, 1940s to 1970s, highlighting modern Native American art through the lens of 20th century Abstract Expressionism, Color Field and Hard-Edge Painting. The exhibition will be on view through May 26, 2024.

To complement the exhibition schedule, AMFA will host many events and programs, ranging from fun family days and art classes to engaging Artist Talks and more. General admission to the Museum is always free. Visit arkmfa.org for more exhibition details and to plan your visit.

The Naturalist by Tricia Wright | April 27 – October 13, 2024

Tricia Wright (Rickmansworth, England, 1962 - ), The Naturalist, 2024, 12 karat gold leaf on handmade blue pigmented cotton paper (left); 22 karat gold leaf on handmade green pigmented cotton paper (right), each: 40 x 30 in., Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts Foundation Collection: Purchase. 2024.001.1-2.

In 2018, artist Tricia Wright purchased a small cottage in Ireland—her mother’s native country—and began immersing herself in the landscape. Wright draws inspiration from poet Seamus Heaney’s meditations on Irish peat bogs—wetlands whose deep layers have preserved everything from Neolithic tools and hoards of gold to preserved butter and mummified “bog bodies.” For Wright, history’s layers run profoundly deep in Ireland, and the earth is a museum. The Naturalist speaks softly and elegantly to the artist’s spiritual bond with the natural world. It conveys the idea of time, quieting the mind, close looking, and the patience of small creatures and natural processes.

Though conceptualized in Ireland, Wright’s work is created in collaboration with Dieu Donné’s studio in Brooklyn, where Wright works intensively with Master Papermakers to explore her themes. The exhibition presents a selection of these unique objects made from cotton and abaca paper, peat, turf, moss, fungi, lichen, and gold leaf. AMFA has acquired the newest work by Wright, The Naturalist, a large diptych created for this exhibition.

Founded in 1976, Dieu Donné is the leading nonprofit cultural institution dedicated to the use of hand papermaking processes in contemporary art. Through collaborations, Dieu Donné introduces emerging and established artists from a wide variety of practices to the creative possibilities in hand papermaking – fostering experimentation and creating innovative works of art.

Tricia Wright: The Naturalist is presented by the Alan DuBois Fund for Contemporary Craft.

63rd Young Arkansas Artists | May 18 – July 7, 2024

For more than 60 years, AMFA has highlighted the remarkable talent, creativity, and perspective of Arkansas students through the Young Arkansas Artists exhibition––the museum’s legacy program showcasing artwork from students ranging from kindergarten to high school. With nearly 400 submissions from 40 schools across the state, the 63rd Young Arkansas Artists exhibition continues this tradition of supporting and recognizing the power of art education and art educators across the state.

Sixty-five works are selected for the exhibition by a panel of Museum educators and faculty. The grand juror will then select one Best in Class and two Honorable Mention awards for each grade, along with one Mid-South Watercolorist Best in Show Watercolor Award. A selection of these works will be on view at the Museum, with the full exhibition available online. Each winning artist’s school or program will also receive a monetary award to support its art program, educators, and students.

The 63rd Young Arkansas Artists Exhibition and awards are supported by the Alice L. Walton Foundation, Arkansas Children’s Hospital, and Cindy and Greg Feltus for the Anne and Robert Hickman Foundation in memory of Laurie Hickman Cox, with additional support from Mid-Southern Watercolorists.

Delta Triennial | June 28 – August 25, 2024

Letitia Huckaby (Augsburg, Germany, 1972 - ), Ms. Woods, 2022, pigment print on fabric with embroidery, 71 x 41 x 1 7/8 in., Courtesy of the artist and Talley Dunn Gallery.

The Delta Triennial builds on a legacy established with the Museum’s first Delta exhibition in 1958. The exhibition was named after the fertile floodplains surrounding the Mississippi River and seeks toamplify artistic voices in the Mid-South as they reflect complex histories and shifts in the cultural landscape. In so doing, AMFA elevates contemporary artists and the artistic complexity of the region, illustrating that American art is not monolithic, but comprised of many diverse voices. Over the years, the Delta exhibition has evolved from its original form and will now debut in 2024 as a triennial exhibition.

Guest jurors for the 2024 Delta Triennial are Amy Kligman, Executive Director, Charlotte Street Foundation in Kansas City; Alexis McGrigg, a former Delta Voices participating artist from Mississippi; and Takako Tanabe, founding director of Ulterior Gallery in New York City. The exhibition will feature artists born in or currently working in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Texas.

The Delta Triennial is presented by Anne and Merritt Dyke with additional support from Friday, Eldredge & Clark, LLP and the Andre Simon Memorial Trust Fund in memory of everyone who has died of acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS).

A Particular Quality of Loss by Karen Mahaffy | July 13, 2024 – February 16, 2025

Karen Mahaffy (Elmhurst, Illinois, 1970 - ), Still from A Particular Quality of Loss (detail), 2016/2024, multi-channel digital animation, 4 minutes 18 seconds, © Karen Mahaffy. Courtesy of the artist.

On view in AMFA’s New Media Gallery, A Particular Quality of Loss by Karen Mahaffy envelopes the viewer in a magical room from an unknown era. Through memory, Mahaffy reconstructs her childhood bedroom’s flowered wallpaper as a digital animation. A haunting sepia-colored fog drifts over the entire image, as surprising moments of digital erosion occur. The viewer waits expectantly for a flower to pixilate and drop, wondering where the next will fall and then reconstitute itself. The silent waiting is actively meditative and rewarded by hypnotic moments of transformation.

As a multi-disciplinary artist, Mahaffy pursues ideas of time, accumulation, loss, and the aura of our once-familiar belongings and environments. Asking where it is that our memories live, Mahaffy embeds them in digital form by reimagining something remembered yet lost.

Studio Time + Studio Practice | July 23, 2024 – April 20, 2025

Jennifer Anderson, Mud Series: Eames Study #1, LCW Chair, 2010, adobe, steel, 26 1/2 x 21 x 24 1/2 in., UA Little Rock Permanent Collection.

Studio Time + Studio Practice, showcases how artists transform raw materials like clay, metal, glass, paper, and a variety of other materials into compelling works of art. Offering a captivating exploration of the art-making process, the exhibition spotlights how artists navigate their creative process, using their hands to craft materials and formulate a message informed by personal experiences.

See how Elizabeth Brim transformed an industrial diamond steel plate into an elegant, tasseled pillow, using natural elements such as fire and air; and how Jennifer Anderson appropriated the classic form of Charles and Ray Eames’, using adobe over a steel armature to create a new interpretation of mid-century modern furniture. Developed by AMFA guest curator Brad Cushman, objects from the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts Foundation Collection along with a select number of pieces from the UA-Little Rock Permanent Collection will be on view.

Studio Time + Studio Practice is presented by the Alan DuBois Fund for Contemporary Craft.

The Triumph of Nature: Art Nouveau from the Chrysler Museum of Art | September 27, 2024 – January 12, 2025

Tiffany & Company, Ogden Goelet and James Gordon Bennett Cup, 1894, silver, 24 3/4 × 13 1/2 in. (62.9 × 34.3 cm), Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr., Image courtesy of the Chrysler Museum of Art, Photograph by Edward Pollard, © Tiffany & Company.

Drawing inspiration from the elegance of nature, a new artistic movement emerged in Europe during the late-nineteenth century delivering a sinuous blend of beauty and functionality. With Art Nouveau, interiors were transformed to include opulent ensembles of furniture, glass, posters, decorative arts, and other furnishings, all depicting luxurious elements found in nature.

The Triumph of Nature celebrates the ornate beauty and designs of artists such as Louis Comfort Tiffany, Louis Majorelle, Georges de Feure, and Emilé Gallé – visionaries who dismissed any preceding styles and introduced the world to immersive interiors that celebrated nature’s abundance. Art Nouveau’s innovative and artistic accomplishments invites visitors to marvel and revel in its lustrous, nature-inspired settings. Surrounded by more than twelve acres of lushly landscaped gardens and grounds, and housing a collection of world-class Impressionist paintings, AMFA is uniquely positioned to present this exhibition of works inspired by nature.

The Triumph of Nature: Art Nouveau from the Chrysler Museum of Art is organized by the Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia, and toured by International Arts & Artists, Washington, D.C.

Images are available in AMFA's press kit.

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About the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts:

Founded in 1937, the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts is the largest cultural institution of its kind in the state, offering a unique blend of visual, educational, and performing arts experiences. AMFA is committed to featuring diverse media and artistic perspectives within its permanent collection as well as through rotating temporary exhibitions. AMFA’s international collection spans eight centuries, with strengths in works on paper, and includes notable holdings by artists from Arkansas, the South, and across the United States and Europe.

With a vibrant mix of ideas, cultures, people, and places, the museum extends its commitment to artistic diversity through the innovative Windgate Art School, a dynamic children’s theatre and performing arts program, and community-focused educational programs for all ages. Located in Little Rock’s oldest urban green space, MacArthur Park, AMFA’s landmark building and grounds are designed by Studio Gang and SCAPE, in collaboration with Polk Stanley Wilcox Architects.

About The Chrysler Museum of Art:

The Chrysler Museum of Art brings art and people together through experiences that delight, inform, and inspire. Internationally recognized for its collection of more than 30,000 objects, including one the largest glass collections in America, the Museum also includes free admission, the state-of-the- art Perry Glass Studio, a full-service restaurant, shop, theater, works on paper space, and oversees the historic Myers House.

The Museum boasts an ambitious schedule of exhibitions, events, and programs, and has been nationally recognized for its commitment to inclusion through its innovative gallery host program. For more information, visit chrysler.org. Follow @ChryslerMuseum on social media to receive the latest updates.

About International Arts & Artists:

International Arts & Artists (IA&A) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting cross-cultural understanding and exposure to the arts internationally. Since 1995, IA&A has fulfilled its mission by providing programs and services to artists, arts institutions, cultural organizations, and the public—reaching over 2.1 million people.