Exhibition of Recent Work by Architecture Professor, Artist Laura Terry Opens Nov. 14

Photo Submitted

"Ozarks Landscape, Late Summer" is mixed media on paper with stitching; it measures 30" x 40" and was completed in 2014.

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – An exhibition of work by Laura Terry, titled “Observations from the 35th Parallel,” will be on display Nov. 14 through Dec. 12 in the Fred and Mary Smith Exhibition Gallery in Vol Walker Hall on the University of Arkansas campus.

An opening reception will be held at 5 p.m. Friday, Nov. 14.

Terry, an associate professor of architecture, has taught first-year studio and landscape painting courses in the Fay Jones School of Architecture since 1999. With all teaching endeavors, she encourages students to see beyond what is easily seen and to capture the extraordinary from the ordinary landscape around them.

Southern culture is at the heart of Terry’s research, painting and teaching. Regional yard traditions are an ongoing field of inquiry. Terry’s paintings, which she describes as Cubist representations of Southern events contained on a two-dimensional plane, celebrate the Southern landscape and its rich tradition of porches, agrarian ruins and food. Her research is supported by an interest in southern fiction, particularly by women writers. Terry has exhibited her work in locales that include Savannah, Georgia; Atlanta; Minneapolis; Los Angeles and New York.

She shares her artist statement for “Observations from the 35th Parallel” here. “My paintings idealize the landscape, not in the picturesque sense, but because within the ideal is the real. The imagery I use borrows from the ordinary and everyday, and I juxtapose that with the inherent geometry and structure present in the landscape. I am interested in the patterns, both of nature, of seasons, and of human intervention. The landscapes I paint are a result of how those patterns shape the landscape. The cycles of plowing, seeding, and harvesting are one way to measure time. Dualities are inherent in these cycles: dark and light, chaos and order, organic and synthetic. A fine line separates the two. Where does one end and the other begin? These dualities provide balance in my work. They shift the pendulum of my view back and forth, near and distant, detailed and blurred. I think of my eye as a camera, with lenses both microscopic and wide-angled. I record the landscape as I see it, observant of these opposites. My color palette is influenced by these observations in the landscape. In the summer, the palette shifts to capture the heat, while in the winter, the palette is more subdued, monochromatic even. I paint to measure these differences, to capture them in a particular moment of time, a particular light of day.”

The public is invited to attend this exhibition, presented by the Fay Jones School of Architecture. Gallery hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Admission is free.

For more information, contact 479-575-4704 or architecture.uark.edu.