Over the weekend, I made the drive to Bentonville, AR, to visit Crystal Bridges, the Walmart-funded museum of American art that just opened three years ago, and check out the State of the Art exhibition. I’d heard so many good things about the exhibition and a bunch of friends or people I’ve met through MH have work included, so I was really excited to see it. The museum is amazing and I wish I’d planned to spend more time there (sidenote: I learned there was a “drive-through safari” nearby, so instead of using the day to thoroughly explore the museum, I may have been driving around having deer and zebras and camels try to shove their noses into my vehicle). I’d never been to the state before, but northwest Arkansas is beautiful, and Crystal Bridges is located in the heart of the country. The museum invites “visitors to enjoy the natural environment as a continuation of their museum experience” and the architecture of the museum itself is incredible.
I also wanted to see the Audubon exhibition at the museum, and it was very small so I zipped right through it first and then made my way through the State of the Art galleries. There are more than 100 pieces by artists from every region of the US; so much to see. Below are images by artist friends or artists who stood out to me and a few pictures I took on my phone. Be sure to visit the State of the Art website to read about and see images of work by each of the artists included in the show. I’ve never seen an exhibition website quite like this one before.
Still from Jeff Whetstone’s video, “Drawing E. Obsoleta“
Julie Blackmon, “Stock Tank”
Flora C. Mace, “Big Violet”
Lenka Clayton, “63 Objects Taken Out of My Son’s Mouth”
Peggy Nolan, “Untitled (self portrait with bird)”
Guy W. Bell, “Cain and Abel”
Nate Larson & Marni Shindelman, “Have My Location”
Kirk Crippens, “Weeds”
Laurel Roth Hope, “Biodiversity Suits for Urban Pigeons: Passenger Pigeon II”
Crystal Bridges
Nate Larson’s & Marni Shindelman’s “Geolocation”
Calder Kamin’s “Impact Proof”
Jason Vaughn’s “Hide” and Julie Blackmon’s “Homegrown” in the museum shop
Posted November 10th, 2014