All posts tagged: ARkanvas by OZ Art

Anne Vieux on View in Arkansas Psychedelic Public Space

Anne Vieux on View in Arkansas Psychedelic Public Space

What can you see in Arkansas? 

If you are in Bentonville you can see Anne Vieux’s “captivating illusion of a hyper-fluid space” at the Skylight Cinema building.

Anne Vieux. Justkids/ARkanvas for OZ Art. Bentonville, Arkansas. (photo © Justkids)

A psychedelia of this moment, the modulated visual liquid was produced by the artists use of digital copies made of shiny aluminum papers. Printed on vinyl, she transformed this exterior into a trippy grid of lenswork that allows passersby to see fields that instantly challenge imaginations.

Vieux says she enjoys stretching beyond limits of data and physical space, a description analogous for some with cinema itself.

Anne Vieux. Justkids/ARkanvas for OZ Art. Bentonville, Arkansas. (photo © Justkids)

“In this piece, I wanted to disrupt the solid geometries of the architecture with a hyperreal fluid painting placed in the landscape,” she says, and something in the description makes it conversant with the chaos and surrealist quality of US life today.

“I reflected on these ideas in a cultural/political context,” says Vieux, “thinking that a larger takeaway of this piece is that through disrupting and dissolving boundaries we can create a fluid open space where there’s room to unite.”

Now you can see, right?

Anne Vieux. Justkids/ARkanvas for OZ Art. Bentonville, Arkansas. (photo © Justkids)
Anne Vieux. Justkids/ARkanvas for OZ Art. Bentonville, Arkansas. (photo © Justkids)
Anne Vieux. Justkids/ARkanvas for OZ Art. Bentonville, Arkansas. (photo © Justkids)

This project is curated by Charlotte Dutoit of ​Justkids​, and commissioned by ​Oz Art. The piece is part of ARkanvas.

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Nina Chanel Abney Mulls It Over In Arkansas

Nina Chanel Abney Mulls It Over In Arkansas

“It can’t be unity unless everyone is respected equally,” says contemporary artist and occasional muralist Nina Chanel Abney as she talks about her new four panelled installation in Northwest Arkansas.

Nina Chanel Abney. “Mull It Over”. In collaboration with Justkids / ARkanvas by OZ Art. Bentonville, Arkansas. December 2020. (photo courtesy of Just Kids)

In bold graphic style and unshaded color shapes Abney has to state the obvious – “Don’t Kill”, because, well, because you have to start somewhere. The peeling back of the initial layers of American racist history began in earnest in 2020 across the country and in the streets. Ground rules for meaningful exchange are slowly, intermittently, painfully, taking form.

Also, love.

Nina Chanel Abney. “Mull It Over”. In collaboration with Justkids / ARkanvas by OZ Art. Bentonville, Arkansas. December 2020. (photo courtesy of Just Kids)

“Mull it Over”.  That’s the title she has given to the piece that she finished last month along the Bentonville Razorback greenway trail, opposite the recently inaugurated art space The Momentary. It’s a great way to end the year, this year, as the artist continues to find ways to present thorny topics ranging from race, politics, religion, sex, identity, justice, and history using a modern language – complete with its non-sequiturs and jump-cut story-telling.

Organizers include the women-led curator group Justkids with Charlotte Dutoit and the Bentonville art organization OZ Art.

Nina Chanel Abney. “Mull It Over”. In collaboration with Justkids / ARkanvas by OZ Art. Bentonville, Arkansas. December 2020. (photo courtesy of Just Kids)
Nina Chanel Abney. “Mull It Over”. In collaboration with Justkids / ARkanvas by OZ Art. Bentonville, Arkansas. December 2020. (photo courtesy of Just Kids)
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