Photographer Kat Wilson, whose narrative compositions of people and places have brought her many awards, including a Delta Award and two other awards from that annual exhibition at the Arkansas Arts Center, is exhibiting her work at two venues in Fayetteville, the U of A Fine Arts Center Gallery and Arsaga’s Depot. Since both go down Friday, and both have closing receptions, you can party amid her work from 6 p.m. on that day.
At the UA gallery, Wilson’s exhibit “Portrayal” includes her photographs of Arkansas artists. Her show at Arsaga’s, “Habitats,” is a continuation of her work featuring subjects and locations from Northwest Arkansas. The UA reception starts at 6 p.m., and the Arsaga’s reception, on Dickson Street, starts at 9 p.m.
From a news release on the exhibitions:
In every circumstance, Wilson has developed relationships with her subjects. The images in Portrayal present artists from around the state within their respective studios. Each one reveals more than the environment, or countenance of the subject, it also examines the relationship between an artist’s body of work, their public persona, and their private realities. Wilson’s photographs are carefully staged and have strong references to historical portraiture compositions. Portrayal is a unique opportunity to glimpse behind the curtain of an artist’s public perception and peer into their private realms of domestic space and psychology.
Habitats captures our local ‘folks’ on film. She includes and carefully arranges everyday and sometimes exotic belongings owned by each subject in their domestic space. The resulting images are of an environment that defines each subject’s appearance, personal interests, and desires. ‘I’m exploiting these people and their stuff,’ Wilson admits, and through this exploitation she enables them to express themselves completely, if only for a single moment in time.