Southern art and artists are the focus of a new gallery in The Heights. Located in an office building at 5208 Kavanaugh Blvd. (above Yancey’s), Drawl Southern Contemporary Art Gallery has 14 works on display from southern artists including four from Arkansas.
While doors are open now, the official grand opening is scheduled for Oct. 9. Owners Mary and Guy Bell and Louis France are set on raising awareness “of how great southern art is.”
“Our goal is to expose people to a broader range of artwork than they get in Little Rock or in Arkansas. We want to expose [patrons] to high-level regional artists, emerging artists,” Guy Bell says.
Mary Bell is quick to add that with a gallery named Drawl, “it should be approachable and fun.”
The full service gallery offers a variety of work including oil and acrylic paintings, photography, sculptures and digital art. When we asked Bell to give an example of digital art, Bell pointed toward a roughly three-foot tall pyramid perched on a stand against a wall with what appeared to be a detached, rotating top with an eye that greets you, a little creepily, every couple of seconds.
“That is the world’s first levitating sculpture made from stone,” Bell explains. His own creation, the spinning top is able to float with the help of magnets. The eye — well — it is actually watching you; an antenna and camera capture livestream video of everything the eye sees.
A self-taught artist, Bell was one of four Arkansans featured in Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art’s “State of the Art” exhibition last year, which he says is what prompted him to open Drawl.
With the exception of two pieces, everything at Drawl is priced under $5,000.
The gallery is open from 1 p.m-5 p.m Tuesday-Friday and 11 a.m.-4 p.m. on Saturdays.
To stay up-to-date on latest exhibitions, visit Drawl’s website here.
