Student Sculpture on Display in Storefront Windows of Garland Center

Photo Submitted

Image courtesy of Xi Krump

Fayetteville, Ark. – Nine student art projects will be on display through storefront windows located at the Garland Center on Garland Avenue during the month of March. A closing reception celebrating the student artists will take place on Thursday, March 29, from 5-7 p.m. This reception is free and open to the public and will be held on site.

The installations, or three-dimensional works that are designed for a specific spaces, were created by students currently enrolled in ARTS 4213 Mixed Media and Spatial Context and ARTS 622V Graduate Sculpture, taught by Bethany Springer, assistant professor of art in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences.

As part of the project assignment entitled The Store, students researched the history and function of storefront windows and considered not only the relationship between art and commodity and the metaphorical use of windows in art history, but also the relationship between public and private space. Students took inspiration from several sources including Storefronts Seattle, Art in Storefronts (San Francisco), the Occupy movement’s recent window display at Printed Matter in New York City, and Claes Oldenburg’s Store, a rented storefront on the lower east side of Manhattan in 1961, in which Oldenburg displayed painted objects created out of chicken wire and plaster-soaked burlap that represented popular merchandise like food and clothing.

Exhibiting artists include Xi Krump, Cambry Pierce, Duperier Newton, Bradley Hammond, Eric Jackson, Melissa Love, Paul Skains, Kelsey Smith, Jeanne Vockroth, and Ven Yates.

Support for these projects has been generously provided by Ali Sadeghi, director of the University of Arkansas Bookstore, and the department of art. For more information, please contact Springer at 917-698-6031 or bspringe@uark.edu.