Artwork by Laura Terry Selected for 57th Annual Delta Exhibition in Little Rock

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"Ozarks Landscape, Late Summer" is mixed media on paper with stitching; it measures 30 by 40 inches and was completed in 2014. This piece by Laura Terry was selected from nearly 900 entries to be part of the 57th annual Delta Exhibition in Little Rock.

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Work by Laura Terry was selected from nearly 900 entries to be part of the 57th annual Delta Exhibition, which will be held July 10 through Sept. 20 at the Arkansas Arts Center in Little Rock.

Terry, an associate professor of architecture in the Fay Jones School of Architecture, is among the 68 artists whose work was chosen for this year's Delta Exhibition. This is the second time her work has been included in the exhibition, which is open to artists living in Arkansas and the states that border it, or to those who were born here.

A special reception for arts center members and participating artists will be held from 6:30-8:30 p.m. July 9.

Artworks were chosen by George Dombek, the Delta Exhibition juror and a famed Arkansas watercolor artist who maintains a studio in Goshen. Dombek also is an alumnus of the University of Arkansas, with a Bachelor of Architecture from Fay Jones School of Architecture, as well as a Master of Fine Arts in painting.

"The Delta Exhibition is one of the oldest and most respected juried shows in the country," Terry said. "It attracts high quality artists and to be included in such company, and by a respected artist like George Dombek, is quite an honor."

Dombek is a previous Delta Exhibition exhibitor and award winner, and his works have appeared at the Arkansas Arts Center, Birmingham Museum of Art, Butler Institute of American Art, Carnegie Museum of Art, the San Francisco Museum of Art and the Scottsdale Center for the Arts. His work is in many museums and private collections. He has won more than 80 awards, including recognition by the National Endowment for the Arts. He also will select the $2,500 Grand Award and two $750 Delta Awards. Additionally, a $250 Contemporaries Delta Award will be selected by the Contemporaries, an auxiliary membership group of the Arkansas Arts Center.

The piece by Terry is titled "Ozarks Landscape, Late Summer," and it measures 30 by 40 inches on paper and was completed in 2014. Terry calls the piece a "paper quilt" because she cuts, pieces and then sews paper together to create the image. The image is layered with graphite, acrylic, hand stitching and collaged elements.

This piece also was included in a solo exhibition of Terry's work that was displayed last fall in the Fred and Mary Smith Exhibition Gallery in Vol Walker Hall on the University of Arkansas campus.

Terry has taught first-year studio and landscape painting courses in the Fay Jones School since 1999. With all teaching endeavors, she encourages students to see beyond what is easily seen and to capture the extraordinary from the ordinary landscape around them.

Southern culture is at the heart of Terry's research, painting and teaching. Regional yard traditions are an ongoing field of inquiry. Terry's paintings, which she describes as Cubist representations of Southern events contained on a two-dimensional plane, celebrate the Southern landscape and its rich tradition of porches, agrarian ruins and food. Her research is supported by an interest in southern fiction, particularly by women writers. Terry has exhibited her work in locales that include Savannah, Georgia; Atlanta; Minneapolis; Los Angeles; and New York.

Terry shares a statement about her artwork here: "My paintings idealize the landscape, not in the picturesque sense, but because within the ideal is the real. The imagery I use borrows from the ordinary and everyday, and I juxtapose that with the inherent geometry and structure present in the landscape. I am interested in the patterns, both of nature, of seasons, and of human intervention. The landscapes I paint are a result of how those patterns shape the landscape. The cycles of plowing, seeding, and harvesting are one way to measure time. Dualities are inherent in these cycles: dark and light, chaos and order, organic and synthetic. A fine line separates the two. Where does one end and the other begin? These dualities provide balance in my work. They shift the pendulum of my view back and forth, near and distant, detailed and blurred. I think of my eye as a camera, with lenses both microscopic and wide-angled. I record the landscape as I see it, observant of these opposites. My color palette is influenced by these observations in the landscape. In the summer, the palette shifts to capture the heat, while in the winter, the palette is more subdued, monochromatic even. I paint to measure these differences, to capture them in a particular moment of time, a particular light of day."

The Delta Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture was founded in 1956. Today the exhibition's scope includes all media. A total of 882 works were submitted by 380 artists for this year's exhibition.

The exhibition reflects the region's strong traditions of craftsmanship and observation, combined with innovative use of materials and an experimental approach to subject matter.

The Arkansas Arts Center is located at Ninth and Commerce streets in Little Rock. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday. Admission is free.

For more information, contact 501-372-4000 or arkansasartscenter.org.