Bradbury Art Museum (BAM) at Arkansas State University recently opened two new exhibitions, “Threads, Folds & Rabbit Holes: Kristy Deetz” and “Exploring the BAM Collection: A Tribute to Evan Lindquist and Cheryl Wall Trimarchi.”

An opening reception for both exhibitions was held June 27. Admission to the exhibitions is free.

“Threads, Folds, and Rabbit Holes” is a traveling exhibition featuring paintings from two of Deetz’s series, “Holidays Unfolding” and “Through the Veil.”

“Exploring the BAM Collection” gathers prints made by, given by and given in honor of the late Evan Lindquist, emeritus professor of art, to Bradbury Art Museum, and prints that have entered the BAM collection through the gifts of Ms. Cheryl Wall Trimarchi.

“Threads, Folds and Rabbit Holes”

“Threads, Folds and Rabbit Holes” features two series of works by Kristy Deetz, an emerita professor at the University of Wisconsin – Green Bay. Her “Holidays Unfolding” series investigates the historic use of decorative drapery and the artistic category of still life. The paintings examine the contradictory feelings that accompany loss or nostalgia and, as a result, become meditations on life’s transience.
“I explore new possibilities between a complex interface of painting, textiles and digital technology, while producing a product that maintains the richness of slow work by hand,” said Deetz.

Each painting in Deetz’s “Through the Veil” series begins with a rendering from a closely observed fabric with wrinkles and folds. These works draw upon the structures of art by artists from both the past and the present. The artist says, “The fabric in these paintings acts as a limen or threshold that places the viewer into multiple, often conflicting, layers of space and meaning.”
Deetz’s paintings good-humoredly deconstruct imagery from pop, outsider and high culture to create new “spaces” of meaning. A shape-shifting rabbit recurs throughout the artworks, moving between images and spaces.

Along with writer/scholar Edward Risden (whose pen name is Edward Louis), Deetz has published the books “The Singular Adventures of Rabbit and Kitty Boy” and “Holidays Unfolding: The Continuing Adventures of Rabbit and Kitty Boy.” Risden creates stories in response to Deetz’s paintings. The two enjoy presenting their books together.

“Exploring the BAM Collection: A Tribute to Evan Lindquist and Cheryl Wall Trimarchi”

The exhibition “Exploring the BAM Collection” is a tribute to the late Evan Lindquist and Cheryl Wall Trimarchi. Lindquist is a central figure in the history of art at Arkansas State University, where he taught from 1963 until his retirement in 2003.

In 1996, Lindquist launched the Delta National Small Prints Exhibition, which has been held annually ever since. Curt and Chucki Bradbury of Little Rock honor Lindquist annually by giving prints from the DNSPE exhibitions, several of which are in this exhibition. The late Cheryl Wall Trimarchi was an artist who lived in Jonesboro and contributed funds to add numerous outstanding prints from Delta National Small Print Exhibitions to the BAM collection.

Lindquist’s engravings are beautiful examples of this medium he championed when it was rarely practiced. In 1969, he began a series of elegant engravings examining such abstract concepts as “Identity,” ”Tension” and “Consciousness,” through graceful images of twisted strings or threads. Lindquist continued to make prints until his passing in 2023. His gifts to the BAM collection demonstrate that Lindquist was also a knowledgeable and sensitive print collector with strong connections to his fellow art professors.

Bradbury Art Museum is located in the Fowler Center, 201 Olympic Drive. Hours of operation are noon to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. Viewers may also schedule a tour of the exhibitions by contacting curator Madeline McMahan at mmcmahan@astate.edu or (870) 972-3434. More details about these shows are available online at BradburyArtMuseum.org.