The monthly Live@5 concert series of the Arts & Science Center for Southeast Arkansas returned Friday after taking a month off in January.
Presented in the ARTSpace on Main, 623 S. Main St., the evening was a dual event with the group Groove City, performing in the Adam B. Robinson Jr. Black Box Theatre, while a reception and exhibition for photo artist Gary Cawood was held in the Loft Gallery. MK Distributors provided free refreshments for guests at both events.
Groove City is a spinoff from the band The Vibe, which regularly appears at Live@5. Kourtland Jackson is the drummer and front man for both ensembles.
“The Vibe is still alive and well but this group of guys has reformed and are jelling into Groove City,” Jackson said. “We are more centered on looking for and developing the type of music we love to play in our own way. We’ll be back here at ASC for two different events Feb. 15 and again on March 25. You can follow Groove City’s progress, current events and booking schedule on our Facebook page.”
The group provided a two-hour collection of modern jazz numbers, both originals and standards with a pair of keyboards and bass guitar in addition to Jackson’s drums. The group consists of Dennis Coleman and Ricky Stewart on twin synthesizers, Kahlil Franklin on bass and Jackson on drums.
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“With February being the month of love we want to remember that we were put on this earth to be kings, but man is nothing without his woman,” Jackson told his audience.
PHOTO EXHIBIT
While Groove City entertained downstairs, the upstairs Loft Gallery hosted an extensive display of color photo prints by Cawood.
Cawood was an art professor from 1985-2013 at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.
“This is a fantastic space,” Cawood said. “You have a great treasure in this museum and its curator Kevin Haynie. This exhibit is a collaboration between us and I’m very pleased with the installation. I might also say the permanent collection in the main museum next door by both local and internationally famous artists is a fantastic exhibit everyone should visit.”
Haynie is curator of collections and exhibitions.
“Gary and I were talking about this upcoming show back in July and I strongly recommended he spend some time in Pine Bluff because it’s a gold mine for the style of photography he creates,” Haynie said.
“Besides a handful of perspectives capturing downtown scenes in the heart of historic Pine Bluff, the collection of color prints lining every wall in the room were images of such subjects as fish skeletons and bird feathers, assorted piles of stone and broken concrete, shadowy pylons beneath structures, upturned exposed tree roots and cloud formations. The images highlight earth tones and natural shapes found in random objects. Every photo contained a black-and-white rod serving as a measure of perspective as well as a whimsical nuance. Each print in Cawood’s “Field Notes” exhibit is captioned “Archival Pigment Collection.”
Archival pigment is a high-quality print from a higher grade of ink that withstands ultraviolet elements more readily than typical dye ink, Haynie said, and “it’s intended to last over time without fading for up to 200 years.”
Cawood’s work is displayed in numerous public collections, including the Smithsonian National Museum of American Art, the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the Library of Congress, the Amon Carter Museum and the New Orleans Museum of Art. The “Field Notes” exhibit will be open to the public until April 13.
“His home in Little Rock is the most complete photo studio you’ll probably ever see. He does all his own matting and framing and probably has an archive of over 10,000 of his prints from decades of work,” Haynie said.
Photographer Gary Cawood (left) and supporters from Little Rock, Kate Altoff (center) and Anne Fairbanks, enjoy an art reception Feb. 2 for Cawood’s exhibit. The event was held at the Loft Gallery of the ARTSpace on Main, a program of the Arts & Science Center for Southeast Arkansas. (Special to The Commercial/Richard Ledbetter)