Argenta is not playing around with this Third Friday Night Art Walk. This Friday evening, August 19, between 5-8 p.m., there’s a little path of art and hospitality venues to tour, with a map and “passport” at each stop to complete for a chance at a $25 gift card to Brood & Barley.
Here’s a little of what’s up:
At the Argenta Branch of North Little Rock’s Laman Library, there’s an opening reception for “Joyride,” featuring the work of Milkdadd and Michael Shaeffer.
The ACANSA Gallery showcases the art of Lourdes Valverde and Briseida “Brioch” Ochoa in “Perspectivas.”
While Mexican-American artists Lourdes Valverde and Briseida Ochoa utilize completely different styles and mediums, the artwork of both artists shows contemplation and passion, demonstrating the range of ways they communicate moments and life experiences using natural elements, human figures, silhouettes, marks and textures. This broadens to create one perspective by integrating different points of view.
About Lourdes Valverde and her work
Maria de Lourdes Valverde Galindo was born and raised in Mexico. She moved to Bentonville, AR in 2015. She earned a Bachelor’s degree in Science of Industrial Engineering at Durango Technologic Institute in Mexico. She is a self-taught artist and has participated in exhibitions throughout Mexico and now Arkansas.
About Briseida “Brioch” Ochoa and her work
Briseida “Brioch” Ochoa is a visual artist, born in the region of El Paso, TX bordering Cd. Juarez, Chih., Mexico. Brioch uses photography and printmaking as a means to new perspectives and realities with the help of cyanotype and anthotype techniques. Her work focuses on the idea of transcendence and the existence of visual poetic narrative through the human figure, landscapes, scenography, installations, performances, and symbolism.
Perspectivas will be on display at The ACANSA Gallery from August 19 through September 9, 2022. The ACANSA Gallery is located at 413-A Main Street, North Little Rock, AR and is open Monday through Friday, 10:00am to 5:00pm.
Over at Bang Up Betty, there’s an exhibit from Fayetteville-based artist and North Little Rock native Lex Blevins called “Garbage Collection,” a “There is something compelling about trash. It’s really easy to identify with,” Blevins said of the exhibit. “We’ve all interacted with a plastic spoon. With nails. With receipts. Most of us have stories with Uno cards or plastic toys. But once those items leave our scope of consciousness, do they stop mattering? Does their story stop?”
Blevins makes work “about mental illness,” she said. “I think a lot about accumulation. Stacks and piles of things that just keep stacking and piling. And how eventually things break down. The accumulation and the breakdown are constant themes in life and part of preventing the breakdown is managing the accumulation. Stabilizing. So we attempt to collect and compile and catalog and just make things make sense. With ‘Garbage Collection,’ I wanted to take things and recontextualize them. I pick up objects from parking lots and trails and just about anywhere I go and frame them to give litter a new life. All of these objects have had previous lives. They’ve been touched and torn and thrown out and run over and now they’re here. Preserving the mundane objects from the mundane places I go to try to find something in what feels like nothing.”
At THEA Foundation Gallery is “Down the Line,” with beautiful work by Emily Moll Wood. More on that here.
Newport, Arkansas, native Jayne Pyle exhibits work at the North Little Rock History Commission.
Plus: At the Arkansas Regional Innovation Hub, families can find children’s activities, Josh Stoffer gives a concert at the ACANSA Courtyard, and Meikel Church exhibits work at Argenta Counseling and Wellness.