Back to News & PressAMFA Announces "Together," an Inaugural Exhibition with New Acquisitions Celebrating Community
The Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts (AMFA) announces Together, a celebratory inaugural exhibition offering kaleidoscopic arrangements of family, friends, community, and our connection to the natural world. Curated by AMFA, and featuring loans and several new acquisitions, Together will be on view in one of the Harriet and Warren Stephens Galleries from the museum’s grand opening on April 22, 2023, through September 10, 2023.
The exhibition is a joyful tribute to the diversity of the visual arts and an inviting, unifying experience after a nearly four-year renovation and a pandemic that forced us apart. Together celebrates the community’s return to the newly reimagined AMFA, Arkansas’ home for the fine arts.
Meant to spark conversation, surprise, empathy, and much-needed humor, Together brings the work of 30 artists into fresh dialogue through a variety of media, including video, painting, textiles, wood marquetry, drawings, prints, sculptures, photography, and ceramics. Artists render their subjects in unique ways, sometimes blending different media together.
The exhibition is a collaboration amongst AMFA’s three curators: Brian J. Lang, chief curator; Dr. Catherine Walworth; and Theresa Bembnister.
Select Artists and Works
Featuring a wide range of artistic voices, Together affirms AMFA’s institutional commitment to openness and inclusivity. Several works have been acquired by AMFA for the Together exhibition, including:
- Portrait of Chantelle Keshaye Pahtayken & Shay Pahtayken, Plains Cree (2019) by Ryan RedCorn – a vibrant, larger-than-life portrait of a Plains Cree mother and daughter. A member of the Osage Nation, RedCorn creates photographs that place Indigenous people squarely in the present.
- Picnic on the Grounds (2017-2018) by Toyin Ojih Odutola, given in honor of the grand opening of the reimagined Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts by Harriet and Warren Stephens
- New Neighbors (2020) by Julie Blackmon
- Hank, 76, and Samm, 67, North Little Rock, AR, from the series To Survive on this Shore (2015) by Jess T. Dugan
- Various Landscapes #1 (2022) by Hildur Ásgeirsdóttir Jónsson
- Aurora Borealis/Solar Storms: August 2022 #1(2022) by Howardena Pindell
- connected (2017) and home (2017) by Sarah Sense
- Tightrope (2022) by Elias Sime
Several key loans are also included in the exhibition:
- A colorful collaged triptych by Oliver Lee Jackson, blending multiple media, one of three works in the exhibition on loan from the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.;
- Carving Out Time, Scene 1: Morning (2020-2021), a print by LaToya Hobbs, will be on view, as well as Dario Robleto’s mixed-media work You Make My World a Better Place to Find (1996-1998), and Meet You There (2021), a marquetry hybrid landscape by Alison Elizabeth Taylor.
Press images for Together are available in AMFA’s Press Kit.
Photographs of the building by Dutch photographer Iwan Baan, a recipient of the Julius Shulman Photography Award, known for his iconic documentation of celebrated architectural sites, will be available April 18.
Museum Hours and Related Artist Talk
On Tuesday, May 2nd, AMFA will begin regular museum hours: Tuesday through Saturday from 10:00 a.m. – 8:00 p.m., and Sunday from 12:00 – 5:00 p.m. AMFA encourages guests to reserve free timed tickets for the inaugural season online.
On Tuesday, June 1st, at 6 p.m., the museum will host an Artist Talk featured artists LaToya Hobbs, Dario Robleto, and Alison Elizabeth Taylor. Each of their works, named above, will be on view in the Together exhibition.
ARTWORK CAPTION: Oliver Lee Jackson (St. Louis, Missouri, 1935 - ), Triptych (3.20.15, 5.21.15, 6.8.15), 2015, applied felt, chalk, alkyd paint, and mixed media on wood panel, 95 x 222 in., On loan from the National Gallery of Art, Washington: Purchased with funds from the Glenstone Foundation.