University of the Ozarks Professor of Art Tammy Harrington will be featured in the exhibit, "The Arkansas River Valley Artists Show," on display at the Arkansas Capital Corporation Group in Little Rock.
Harrington, in her 13th year of teaching at Ozarks, will be joined by Arkansas Tech University professors Neal Harrington and David Mudrinich in the group exhibit. The exhibit is scheduled to run through May 2, 2015. There will be two receptions for this exhibit: 5-8 p.m. on Friday, March 13, and 5-8 p.m. on Friday, April 10. Both receptions are part of Little Rock’s 2nd Friday Art Night event, which is celebrating 10 years and will be holding a food drive on March 13. Attendees can bring a canned food donation to this event.
Harrington is showing 14 works in the exhibit, mostly prints and papercuts.
"I am honored to be in a group show with these two amazing artists from Russellville," Harrington said. "As I reflect on my art career, it is interesting to see how my work has transformed and morphed throughout the years. I created works that I never thought I would have imagined making. It is a natural progression to have my style and imagery change due to various influences and motivations but at the heart of it, I still enjoy expressing myself through visual means. I still get excited and nervous when working on art. Especially if I am creating work outside my comfort zone. That is truly what an artist must do in order to continue to grow creatively."
Harrington’s artwork explores the impact that cross-cultural influences of Chinese and American have had upon her development and growth.
"Each culture is equally influential, yet they are both so different from each other," she said. "I use symbolic color, pattern, and iconography to represent the two cultures. My work uses this combination of figure, color, pattern and the mix of real and flattened space. My Chinese heritage comes through with the dominant use of the folk technique of the papercut. The papercut is a traditional folk technique that utilizes iconography, superstition, and the decorative in its expression. I enjoy the technique’s stylized look; the paper cut is crisp and flat, yet complex. I wanted to find a way to represent my experience as a Chinese-American, my identity. In my exploration of Chinese imagery, I found inspiration in using traditional Chinese symbols in the stylized look of Chinese papercuts. This blended my heritage with my love of the printmaking technique. As I hit milestones in my life, I found comfort in these images and visually incorporated the symbols with aspects of my life."
The Arkansas Capital Corporation Group (ACCG) is dedicated to helping small businesses and entrepreneurs throughout Arkansas succeed. In 2013, ACCG began showcasing the work of Arkansas artists in its offices and began hosting open houses open to the public to help support the artists, as well as provide the community of staff, clients and visitors with a chance to be inspired by the art. Their offices are located at 200 River Market Avenue, Suite 400, in Little Rock.