BOSSIER CITY, La. (KSLA) - Two whimsical exhibitions are going on display at the Bossier Arts Council (BAC). See ArkLaTex Artistry’s interview with one of the artists, Nick Furlong.
On August 8, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., the exhibitions Unnatural Nature by Nick Furlong and Curiouser & Curiouser by Chang Liu will hold their artist reception at the two galleries in the Bossier Arts Council (BAC), 630 Barkstale Boulevard.
BAC invites the community to come and meet the artists and other art lovers. The reception is free to attend and will have some light snacks.
Unnatural Nature: Uncanny Creatures & Delightful Abominations
This exhibition, by artist and sculptor Nick Furlong, is described as an experience of twisted whimsy and bizarre oddities. It will be on show in the East Bank Gallery.
Furlong takes heavy influence from pop art, surrealism, and comic books. His exhibition aims to express a fun, playful love of nature and showcase creatures with particular adaptations, harkening to Furlong’s interests in superheroes and sci-fi.
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Furlong’s studio business is called NIXArt Studio, and he is described as a mixed-media, surreal artist. Furlong creates ceramic sculptures, pottery, and paintings.
“Yea, I do a whole lot of different types of art, little bit of everything, including some published books,” explains Furlong.
What to expect?
“A lot of my work does incorporate animals and food. Which I feel like is a large part of our life. Whether its eating the animals, or them as pets. And, I just like bring those together. Its not like a huge overarching them, but it is kind of a loose theme,” explains Furlong.
Furlong loves to imagine up his own bizarre creatures and silly monsters. He hopes that his show will either bring delight or even discomfort to the viewer.
“I think the big part of art is that it invokes something. So, I just hope I invoke some sort of emotion. Whether it is something almost negative, where they think it’s weird looking at it, or it kinda tickles their fancy and they really like it,” says Furlong.
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What drove him to create art?
“I’ve always had this natural want or need to do art. I always liked to try and capture the world around me,” says Furlong.
As a child, after seeing Jurassic Park, he stopped doing his work and was only drawing dinosaurs on the worksheets. With his love for comic books, one of the first things he did was redraw the art in them. His favorite character back then? Wolverine.
As a professional artist, it began in high school. It was the first path he really pursued.
When it came to ceramics, he discovered his passion for the medium when college required him to take a ceramics class.
His Process:
The idea can come from a lot of different places; it could come from him imagining combinations of things that would be funny or something as silly as a pun.
Once he has the idea, he begins to sketch out the concept of the piece. This helps Furlong figure out what position, pose, or emotion he wants to get with it.
He then builds an armature, especially for larger pieces, and covers them with rolled-out, big flat pieces of stoneware clay.
After he has this amorphous form of clay, he begins to carve out and shape what he wants.
The finished art is then fired at around 6000 degrees.
Curiouser & Curiouser
This exhibition, by glow-resin artist Chang Liu, seeks to create glowing creations that not only elicit emotions such as happiness and sadness but also stimulate a person’s curiosity and whimsy. These pieces are best viewed and interpreted in three different types of lighting: day, dark, and black light.
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Viewers are also welcome to touch and handle the pieces.
This exhibition will be on show in the Virginia Cook Gallery.
Related ArkLaTex Artistry interview with Chang Liu:
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