The Arkansas State University–Beebe art department is proud to present the featured artworks of Krista Schoening through the month of February in the England Center Art Gallery from noon to 3 p.m., Monday through Friday. Admission to the gallery is free and open to the public.
Krista Schoening is a painter whose work engages with the history of botanical painting and still life, using the past as a mirror through which to better understand present moments.
“I paint from observation and much of my work considers flowers – their organic geometry, colors, and rhythms,” said Schoening. “I am interested in the way that humans have interacted with common garden flowers to encourage their evolution, resulting in extravagant forms that provoke affective responses in humans. These forms often have intriguing structural symmetries, lush colors or evocative textures.”
Schoening said her interests include plant-human relationships, the history of still life and early modern nature studies.
“I am interested in the way that humans have interacted with common garden flowers to encourage their evolution, resulting in extravagant forms that provoke affective responses in humans,” said Schoening. “These forms often have intriguing structural symmetries, lush colors or evocative textures. They speak to human emotions through the senses, forging links between plants and people. In the garden, plants are often cultivated for reasons that aren’t motivated by profit or bound by logic. The garden allows space for excess, pleasure, beauty, play and plants grown for sentiment’s sake.”
Schoening has exhibited in both commercial and public galleries including the Susquehanna Art Museum, the Grand Rapids Art Museum, the Amarillo Museum of Art and the Henry Art Gallery. She is assistant professor of painting at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and holds a master’s degree in painting and drawing and another master’s degree in art history from the University of Washington.
The England Center Art Gallery is located at 201 North Orange Street in Beebe. The gallery presents works of art by students and featured artists throughout the academic year. For more information, contact Thomas Fernandez at (501) 882-8913 or the England Center Art Gallery reception office at (501) 882-4495.
ASU-Beebe is the only two-year college in central Arkansas that offers an Associate of Fine Arts (AFA) degree. The AFA degree has an emphasis in vocal music or instrumental music, theater, graphic design or creative arts enterprise. This degree is a comprehensive two-year curriculum designed specifically for transfer toward a bachelor’s degree in fine arts.
