Bradbury Art Museum opened “Memento-Mori”, a sculpture collection by an Arkansan artist, and “Sweet Dreams”, a curated collection of surreal artwork by many different artists. 

“Memento-Mori”, the collection by Little Rock sculptor Michael Warrick, deals with themes of mentorship and alter ego. 

The collection devotes a full room to large hanging heads, with a blue crow with keys dangling from its mouth serving as the centerpiece. 

“Crows are really curious and they’re a symbol for transformation. Teachers are too and that’s what we kind of have in common. We’re really curious about people. That’s part of the reason why we’re teachers,” Warrick said. 

The artist said the crow serves as his alter ego. He said the keys in the crow’s mouth represent the way a mentor can find and unlock the passions of a student. 

Warrick made the heads from a lightweight plaster-like material called Hydrocal so they could be hung from the ceiling. In addition, Warrick embedded artifacts in each head such as knives, buttons and doilies. 

“There’s no pedestals. Nothing other than just people. It’s all about the people in the shadows,” Warrick said. 

In addition to the floating heads, Warrick filled another room with statues depicting narratives, some from his own life. 

“I am a storyteller and I like bringing narratives and stories to sculpture,” he said. 

The collection’s title, “Memento-Mori”, translates to “remember death” in Latin. 

“It’s about realizing that in life we only have so much time and part of what you can do in your life is help creating memories for other people,” the artist said. 

Alongside “Memento-Mori”, “Sweet Dreams” focuses on the theme of dreaming. 

The collection features eight artists and one duo from places all over the country including New York, Chicago and Cambridge. 

Madeline McMahan, museum educator and curator at Bradbury Art Museum, said “Sweet Dreams” features fantasy, surrealism and whimsy. 

“Not only are the materials really interesting to look at, but there’s just a lot of fun stuff that you wouldn’t necessarily expect from an art museum,” McMahan said. 

One Seattle-based artist, Lana Stephens, contributed 12 pieces to the collection. 

Her paintings depict abstract cloudscapes in “candy colors.” 

“They’re meant to be sort of uncomfortable because they’re a bit unsettling as far as the color palette. The imagery is storm clouds, but yet they’re in candy colors because I wanted them to elicit a different emotional response,” Stephens said. 

She arranged nine of her paintings in a grid to make one large piece called “Eternal, Ephemeral.” 

“A passing sky may create a memory that will conjure a feeling or some kind of nostalgic moment that feels like it goes on and on and on, even though it’s just fleeting beauty,” she said. 

Both collections opened Sept. 14 and will close Nov. 15. 

McMahan said the two exhibitions complement each other. 

“They really have a good relationship with each other,” she said, “because one is dealing with these ideas about dreaming and one of them is dealing with life and death in such a way that it’s portraits of people who appear that they’re sleeping. They have a fun interaction with each other.”

Categories: Arts & Entertainment