Program Overview
The Painting program at the University of Arkansas embraces both freedom and discipline. Students explore a broad spectrum of media, methods, and conceptual approaches in order to develop their unique strengths and find their creative direction.
Our program begins with a strong foundation in the tradition of oil painting to build proficiency in the formal skills of painting including: spatial representation, building form with mark, and the understanding of color relationships. While many of the faculty teach in both Painting and Drawing, we are committed to the unique possibilities of these mediums, and offer focused study in either Painting or Drawing at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.
Degree Programs
Bachelor of Fine Arts, Painting Concentration
Our program begins with a strong foundation in the tradition of painting. Painting I builds proficiency in the formal skills of painting, including spatial representation, form, mark, pictorial design, and the understanding of color.
Intermediate level topic-based courses provide sustained study of varied approaches to painting, including figure and landscape painting, formal and perceptual abstraction, contemporary approaches to representation, and water media. Intermediate coursework stresses the development of conceptual content and awareness of the historical and contemporary contexts of painting.
Upper-level classes reinforce the idea of painting as a practice of inquiry. Research, questioning, and systematic experimentation form the basis for the development of an individual voice in painting. In addition to individualized studio instruction, the advanced student interacts with their peers, other faculty and visiting artists as well as engaging with the community. Professional skills are developed that prepare the student to join the community of professional artists.
BFA students are required to participate in individual and group critiques by presenting their work to faculty, visiting artists, and other students. The BFA in Studio Art with a concentration in Painting requires 21 credit hours of Painting coursework as well as a three credit-hour professional development capstone course.
Bachelor of Arts
The Bachelor of Arts degree with an emphasis in Painting requires twelve credit hours of Painting coursework. A faculty-supervised summary critique is required of each student graduating with an emphasis in Painting before completion of the degree.
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Faculty
Carris Adams is an artist, educator, administrator, and book lover. Her work explores the signs/signifiers that mark our landscapes. Through the materiality of painting and drawing, Adams attempts to embody the sense, shape, and experience of these markers. Her work describes the appearance of subjects found during her day-to-day travels, while also reflecting the various social, cultural, political, and economic circumstances under which we labor. Adams received her BFA from the University of Texas at Austin and her MFA from the University of Chicago. Adams's work has been exhibited at The Studio Museum in Harlem, The Logan Center Exhibitions at The University of Chicago, Tiger Strikes Asteroid Gallery - Chicago, SCOTTY (Germany), and The Engine Room (New Zealand).
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David Andree explores land as a subject of flux through painting, drawing, sculpture, and sound. A Minnesota native, David maintains tribal affiliation with the Red Lake Nation of Ojibwe. David holds a Master of Fine Arts from the State University of New York (SUNY), received his Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD), and currently holds the position of Assistant Professor at the School of Art in Fayetteville, AR where he resides in the Ozarks.
He has had work exhibited at the Shirley Fiterman Art Center, Gallery MC and BWAC Gallery in New York City, Rochester Contemporary Art Center, Hallwalls, the Big Orbit Gallery, Exhibit-A and the Burchfield Nature and Art Center in upstate New York, The Masur Museum of Art (Monroe, LA), Plains Art Museum (Fargo, ND), Manifest Creative Research Gallery (Cincinnati, OH) in addition to numerous venues around Minneapolis, Minnesota including the Anderson Center, SooVac and the Rochester Art Center. His work has been included in publications from Friend of the Artist, Manifest Creative Research Gallery (USA), with published works from Sunshine LTD (USA), Dauw (Belgium), Eilean Rec. (France), Herhalen (Scotland) and Touched Music (UK).
David has been invited as Artist in Residence at the studios at MASSMoCA, Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (North Adams, MA), Hambidge Center (Rabun Gap, GA), UCross Foundation (Ucross, WY), Wassaic Project (Wassaic, NY), Works on Water / Underwater New York (New York, NY), Grand Marais Art Colony (Grand Marais, MN), Anderson Center (Red Wing, MN), amongst others.
He is the recipient of a 2014 Artist Initiative Grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, a Creative Climate Award from the Human Impacts Institute, a Juror Award from Ylinka Barotto, Assistant Curator, Guggenheim Museum, and his work is collected by Target Corporation, including private collections throughout Minneapolis, Chicago, New York, and the United Kingdom.
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Kara Andree is an artist and educator engaged in exploring various forms of drawing and painting from the origin point of visually observed phenomena. Kara received her MFA from the State University of New York at Buffalo (SUNY Buffalo), her BFA from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD), and currently teaches as an Instructor in foundations, drawing and painting at the School of Art in Fayetteville, AR. Her work has been exhibited at the Kathering E. Nash Gallery (Minneapolis, MN), Burnet Gallery (Minneapolis, MN), Hallwall’s Contemporary (Buffalo, NY), amongst others. She has presented her work and practice through various institutions including the Minnesota State High School League 4A Visual Arts Festival, Wisconsin Art Education Association Fall Conference, Minnesota Art Educators Conference, and the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art (Bentonville, AR).
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Maryam Amirvaghefi (b.1989, Tehran, Iran) received her MFA from the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, and her BFA from the Sooreh University. Amirvaghefi's works are mixed media medium of painting, video art, and sculpture pieces. Her work has been included in a number of exhibitions, nationally and internationally, such as Contemporary Istanbul Art Fair 2023; Turkey; The Museum of Art in The University of Southern Mississippi's School of Performing and Visual Arts, Hattiesburg MS; CICA Museum; South Korea; Mey Gallery, LA; Studio 200 Gallery, Brooklyn, NY; Bavan Gallery, Iran; Charlotte Street Foundation, Kansas, City, MO; Aaran Gallery, Iran; Gallery 263, Cambridge, MA; Soo Contemporary, Iran; Walton Art Center, Fayetteville, AR; Etemad Gallery, Iran; Jodee Harris Gallery, Greensburg, PA; Delaware State University, Dover, DE, among many others.
Her work has been published in the n+1 Magazine, Dovetail Magazine (issue 2), AL-TIBA Art Magazine, The Magenta Publication, Studio Visit Magazine, and Average Art Magazine.
She is currently working at the University of Arkansas School Of Art as an Assistant Director of Exhibitions and Instructor. In addition to her studio practice, Amirveghefi has curated shows from Iranian and American artists in Tehran. Iran and USA and co-curated exhibitions that feature artists such as Laleh Khorramian, Jordan Nassar, Wafa Bilal, Sheida Soleimani, Yasmine Diaz, and many others.
https://www.maryamamirvaghefi.com
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Born in Louisville KY, Neil earned a BFA from Indiana University (2003) and an MFA from Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University (2006). In 2005 he received a full fellowship to be a resident at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. After graduate school Neil worked as a painter for the artist Jeff Koons in his New York studio.
In 2007 Neil and family left New York City to pursue careers as artists and academics. This decision has offered a tour of the South with time spent in Louisville KY, Starkville MS, and Tuscaloosa AL. Neil and his wife Adrienne are currently professors of Art and live in a household of makers, dogs, and sheep on and three acres in Fayetteville AR.
Neil has exhibited widely including solo exhibitions at Goose Barnacle (Brooklyn NY), MANIFEST Gallery and Drawing Center (Cincinnati OH), and Elon University (NC). Group exhibitions include The Huntsville Museum of Art (AL), The Mississippi Museum of Art (Jackson), and The New Gallery of Modern Art (Charlotte NC), First Street Gallery (NYC), Washington Art Association (CT) among many others. He has presented on his work and practice at institutes of higher learning including Boston University, UMass Dartmouth, Arkansas State University, and the University of Mississippi. He is a member of ZEUXIS (an association of still life painters based in NYC).
Recent creative endeavors include participation in Art Week (July 2022) at the fabled family home of painter Fairfield Porter on Great Spruce Head Island in Maine.
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Su A Chae is an artist and educator with a primary focus on painting. Having initially worked in accounting academia in South Korea, she gained insights into the role of accounting in reducing information asymmetry and moral hazards within capitalism. After relocating to the United States and transitioning to a career as an artist, Chae now explores the evolving role of painting in the digital age. Her work delves into asymmetrical balance creating paradoxical spatial relationships and the complexities associated with cultural identity. Chae holds an MFA in Painting from Indiana University and an MA and BA in Business from Ewha Womans University in South Korea. She completed the Tyler School of Art Summer Painting Intensive.
Chae’s work has been widely exhibited at venues including the Painting Center, Deanna Evans Projects, Ortega y Gasset Projects, Paradise Palace, and 5-50 Gallery in New York, as well as Gross McCleaf Gallery and Icebox Project Space in Philadelphia, the Indianapolis Art Center, and others across the Midwest. Her work has been featured on platforms like Young Space and the Hopper Prize (as a grant finalist), and in publications such as New American Paintings, White Hot Magazine, and I Like Your Work.
Chae has participated in artist residencies at Penland School of Craft, Wassaic Project, Vermont Studio Center, and ACRE. She has served as a juror for the Dairy Barn Arts Center and as a guest lecturer at the University of Connecticut. Her work is collected by Eskenazi Health, Indiana University, and private collectors.
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Sam King works at the intersection of painting’s material thresholds and the viewer’s instinct for interpretation to produce visually and sometimes physically disrupted continuities. He has exhibited at The Painting Center, NYC; Unrequited Leisure, Nashville; The Provincial, Kaleva, MI; MANIFEST Gallery, Cincinnati; DRAWL Southern Contemporary Art, Little Rock; Laconia Gallery, Boston, among others, as well as university galleries, including University of North Carolina Greensboro, Western Connecticut State University, Lower Columbia College, and University of Arkansas Fort Smith. King has collaborated with other artists and musicians on a number of occasions, most recently with Brooklyn-based experimental rock quartet JOBS, for the audio-visual release Similar Canvas (Ramp Local #47). In 2020, he was a resident at the Hambidge Center, supported by the Lee and Margaret Echols Fellowship for musicians. In 2019, he curated Shelters, Monuments, featuring the work of artists Whiting Tennis and Sarah Norsworthy, for The Provincial. He was a 2007 recipient of the Arkansas Arts Council’s Individual Artist Fellowship. With Christopher Lowrance, he co-founded MW Capacity, a website devoted primarily to painting in the Midwest. With Stephanie Pierce, he co-founded Lalaland, a DIY community projects space in Fayetteville, AR, active 2011-2019. His work is held in a number of public and private collections. He attended the University of Tulsa (BFA, 2003) and Indiana University (MFA, 2005). King resides in Fayetteville, AR, where he is Program Director of Foundations at for the University of Arkansas School of Art.
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Marc Mitchell is an artist/curator that received a M.F.A from Boston University and a B.S. from the University of Tampa. His work has been featured in solo/two-person exhibitions throughout the United States at institutions such as the University of Wisconsin, Madison; University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa; REDUX Contemporary, Charleston; GRIN Gallery, Providence; and Laconia Gallery, Boston. His work has been reviewed in the Boston Globe and ArtNews, as well as featured in New American Paintings twice (2014 and 2017). Mitchell has been a visiting artist/curator at numerous universities and he's been selected as a visiting resident at residencies such as the Vermont Studio Center and Hambidge Center for the Arts.
Over the past 10 years, Mitchell has been responsible for exhibitions that featured artists such as Josef Albers, Louise Bourgeois, Mark Bradford, Nicole Cherubini, Sam Gilliam, Philip Guston, Trenton Doyle Hancock, Rashid Johnson, Mary Reid Kelley, Allan McCollum, Richard Misrach, Thomas Nozkowski, Sara Greenberger Rafferty, Erin Shirreff, Jessica Stockholder, Hank Willis Thomas, Carrie Mae Weems, Wendy White, Molly Zuckerman-Hartung, and many others.
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Kristin Musgnug was born in Buffalo, New York, and grew up in New Jersey. Her work explores the domesticated American landscape through a re-examination of the Romantic tradition of landscape painting.
Musgnug received a BA in Art History from Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts and a MFA in painting from Indiana University, Bloomington. Following graduate school, she joined the Core Residency Program at the Houston Museum of Art’s Glassell School. Since 1991 she has been on the faculty of the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. During 1994-95 she was Artist in Residence at Lucy Cavendish College of Cambridge University, England. She's made painting trips to England, Macedonia, Nova Scotia and numerous parts of the United States, including residencies at the Norton Island Artists Colony, the Hambidge Center for Creative Arts and Sciences, the Ragdale Foundation, and the Dorland Mountain Colony. In 2002 she received an Arkansas Arts Council Individual Artist Fellowship in Painting. Recent exhibitions include solo shows at Kansas State University, Inman Gallery in Houston, and the Galveston Arts Center. Her work is in the collection of the Houston Museum of Fine Arts and was included in the book, Texas: 150 works from the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Musgnug’s work is represented by Inman Gallery in Houston, Texas.
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Jody Travis Thompson was born in Sulphur, Louisiana and began painting at the age of twelve when he was enrolled in private painting lessons after showing an aptitude for rendering and representation in oil paint. Thompson received his BFA in Studio Arts with concentrations in Painting and Drawing from McNeese State University in Lake Charles, Louisiana. Thompson’s work has been shown in group and solo exhibitions, as well as being included nationally in the private collections.
http://jodytravisthompson.com/
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Mildred holds a BFA from the School of Hard Knocks and an MFA from the Fayetteville Animal Shelter. She joined the University of Arkansas in Fall 2017 and has won numerous teaching awards for her ability to connect with students. While she often works in the Drawing and Painting studios, Mildred can also be found in throughout the Studio and Design Center.
Mildred often attends SoA events and is known for her gentle encouraging nudges. Cross-appointed between Painting, Drawing and the Gallery, Mildred often wanders the halls looking to befriend students and faculty alike. When not providing useful feedback during classes and critiques, Millie enjoys a good nap and chomping on a bone. She is diligently working on two new projects, "Off Leash" and "Losing Weight", and hopes to debut the work in the Spring.
Visiting Artists
UArk Painting regularly hosts visiting artists to speak about their work, research and projects with current students. In addition UArk Drawing, UArk Gallery and the School of Art invite artists to lecture and engage with our students. Through these lectures, discussions and studio visits students are exposed to a wide variety of conversations occurring in contemporary painting and given opportunities to connect with working professionals in their field.
2024/25
Stephanie Pierce
Scott Wolniak
Marc Handelman (UARK MFA Program)
2023/24
Caleb Weintraub
Mickalene Thomas (School of Art)
Steve Locke (School of Art)
Scott Malbaurn (School of Art)
2022/23
Matt Bollinger (UArk Gallery)
Jurriaan Benschop
2021/22
Caroline Kent
Eve Mansdorf
Barry Schwabsky
Hangama Amiri (UArk Drawing)
Conrad Bakker
Josephine Halvorson (UArk Gallery)
Melanie Johnson
Komikka Patton (UArk Drawing)
Will Hutnick (UArk Drawing)
Christian Schwarzwald (UArk Drawing)
Jennifer Samet
2020/21
Paolo Arao
Meghan Brady
Zoey Frank
Kathy Liao
Caitlin MacBride
Emil Robinson
Kimberly Trowbridge
Peter Van Dyke (UArk Drawing)
Jess Westhafer
Karla Wozniak
Tauba Auerbach (UArk Gallery)
Douglas Bosley (UArk Drawing)
Jessica Tam (UArk Drawing)
Jonathan Herrera Soto (UArk Drawing)
2019/20
Trudy Benson (UArk Gallery)
Laleh Khorramian (UArk Gallery)
Helen O’Leary
Jered Sprecher (UArk Gallery)
John Yau
2018/19
Dana Frankfort (UArk Gallery)
Carrie Moyer
2017/18
Ken Kewley (Drawing and Painting Association DAPA)
Kendall Carter (UArk Gallery)
Jason Stopa (UArk Gallery)
Jessica Stockholder (UArk Gallery)
Molly Zuckerman-Hartung (UArk Gallery)
2016 and earlier
Katherine Bradford (UArk Gallery)
Brett Baker
Radcliffe Bailey (UArk Gallery)
Gideon Bok
Mel Chin
Lesley Dill
Mark Dion
Craig Drennen (UArk Gallery)
Leonardo Drew
Chie Fueki
Trenton Doyle Hancock (UArk Gallery)
Mary Reid Kelley (UArk Gallery)
Susan Lichtman
Michael Ray Charles
Pete Schulte (UArk Gallery)
Claire Sherman
Whiting Tennis
Rachel Hayes
Kristen Morgin
Emily Gherard
Megan Williamson
Gallery of Student LIFE
