The show, “2019 Arkansas Women to Watch: Heavy Metal,” follows the 2018 NMWA show in Washington, D.C., of the same theme. Arkansas artist Holly Laws of Mayflower exhibited two works in the national show; her work is joined in Arkansas’s “Heavy Metal” by works by Michele Cottler-Fox of Little Rock, Amanda Heinbockel of Little Rock and Robyn Horn of Roland.
The exhibition, now at the Norman Hall Arts Center of Arkansas Tech University in Russellville, opens March 26 in the Russell Fine Arts Gallery of Henderson State University in Arkadelphia. It goes next to the Arts and Science Center for Southeast Arkansas in Pine Bluff (April 20-May 18), then to Fayetteville Art Ventures Gallery (Aug. 3-Aug. 31), the Arts Center of the Ozarks in Springdale (June 29-July 27), the Stephens Fine Art Gallery at the University of the Ozarks (Sept. 7-Oct. 5) and to North Little Rock (Oct. 12-Nov. 9).
Included in the exhibition are Laws’ repurposed metal objects created as a larger group of work, “Bellwether,” portions of which were exhibited last year at the Historic Arkansas Museum. The work, which includes a thorny branch and caged wings, is a response to rising misogyny and political division in American life. Central High School art instructor Heinbockel’s small items include a salt cellar and a small brass birdcage. Cottler-Fox, a physician, weaves silver and found objects to create jewelry. Horn, who is largely known for her work in wood and two-dimensional works on paper, sculpts in steel for this exhibition.
