Greg Thompson Fine Art in Argenta opens the exhibition “Monkey Business and other Strange Sights — An Exhibition of works by Donald Roller Wilson” on Thursday, Oct. 31, and will hold a reception from 6-8 p.m. Friday, Nov. 1. 

No mention in the press release whether the Halloween opening date is significant. Those familiar with DRW’s work — and who is not? — can look forward to lush surrealist works featuring the Fayetteville artist’s favorite monkeys and the other symbols that occupy their simian world, like bared teeth, cigarette butts, water drops, olives, dogs and so forth. All are rendered with amazing technique. DRW’s paintings are in the collections of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington D.C.; the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago; the Whitney Museum of American Art; the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City and the Arkansas Arts Center.

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The exhibition includes works from the 1990s, many of which are for sale. DRW’s own artist statement:

More than anything, my work deals with pointlessness. It takes all the arrogance out of everything you do when you know that God is so much bigger than you are. And yet everything you are and do and see is filled with God: the grass, the asphalt, and the people fighting over Aquanet at Wal-Mart. . . .You can make a profound intellectual statement just by basing your efforts on silliness.”

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