February: C.E. Nelson and Kat Wilson

Fayetteville Underground: First Thursday February 4th 5-8pm
Featuring C.E. Nelson and Kat Wilson

Join us Thursday Feb 4th. from 5-8pm for Fayetteville Underground's first Thursday opening reception. In February we explore the figure at the Fayetteville Underground. In the Hive we will have Fayetteville photographer, Craig Earl Nelson's Strangers and Not So Strange; a series of intimate and piercing close up portraits taken while using the natural light from the windows of a local pub. The Revolver gallery will feature Ft. Smith photographer, Kat Wilson's Habitats; a stunning series of environmental portraits placing people among their things, giving the viewer a true sense of the subject's lifestyle. In the Vault gallery, the underground studio artists will showcase a selection of their various figurative works and the E Street Gallery will have a wonderful selection of fine crafts. All exhibitions will continue through Feb 27th.

© C.E. Nelson

In the Hive Gallery: Craig Earl Nelson : Strangers and Not So Strange

Craig Nelson's latest work is being executed on Fujifilm's wonderful FP-100C, a 3x4 instant, peel-apart pack-film modeled after Polaroid's now discontinued versions. These portraits are shot using a Mamiya RB67 Pro-S medium-format camera with 90mm & 127mm lenses, largely hand-held, using only available light--no reflectors or other, secondary light sources. Craig favors hard fall-off, contrast, what most would refer to as chiaroscuro or Rembrandt lighting. The work is simple, straightforward, minimally posed. The latter is restricted to turning subject into or out of the light. Otherwise, direction involves only asking that subjects relax as best they can and to ogle the lens as he composes each shot. What results is a glimpse beneath the skin, a peek at the animal under the surface. In essence, Craig is working to remove the masks that we often feel compelled to wear. He hopes to give subject and viewer permission to stare, to drink in every line and blemish. Many subjects find it difficult to stare directly into the lens; does it trouble us to look at them? We live in a society in which direct eye contact is often considered intimidating, verboten unless the eyes regarding each other belong to lovers, family members, or perhaps the optometrist. The prints Craig makes from the original images are kept small to force the viewer to come close. He wants the experience to be personal, intimate; the same way he works, in nearly every case...up close, in the face of his subject, at less than arm's length. Both the act of photographing and the resulting images are quite potent.

© Kat Wilson

In the Revolver Gallery: Kat Wilson : Habitats

Arkansas artist Kat Wilson is best known for her Habitat series of photographic portraits, in which ingenious arrangements of household furnishings and possessions, both everyday and exotic, surround their owners. Inspired by the Old Masters’ portraits, Habitats, says Wilson, is “a study of objects people keep dear to their hearts." Wilson’s work has been shown in New York, California, and Arkansas — where she has shown four times at the Arkansas Arts Center's Annual Delta Exhibition, winning a Delta award this year. Kat Wilson has been published in Oxford American, the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Little Rock Monthly, Communication Arts, and others. A graduate of the University of Central Arkansas, Wilson also studied at the Visual Studies Workshop in Rochester, New York. She currently lives in Northwest Arkansas, working at the University of Arkansas - Fort Smith. Kat Wilson's says the habitat series is a "search for a new iconography. Influenced directly by the Old Masters; the lives of the normal folk are eulogized."

As always there are open studios to tour, work in progress to see, and artists to meet. Also there will be group exhibitions of the talented underground studio artist's Vault gallery and the fine crafts you have come to expect in the E Street Gallery. Don't forget to visit the fabulous DDP gallery as well. Once again this is all a part of the cultural amenity that is the visual arts on the First Thursday of every month on the Fayetteville Square from 5-8p.m.

Tell your friends and see you there!

The Fayetteville Underground
Basement of One East Square Plaza
East side of the Historic Fayetteville Square.
Fayetteville, AR
Gallery Hours W-F 12-7pm
Saturday 10-5pm
4 galleries: Open Studios
www.fayettevilleunderground.com