About the Exhibition
The Elevate at 21c program presents temporary exhibitions for artists living and working in the communities surrounding each 21c Museum Hotel property. Elevate provides hotel guests with unique access to the work of notable regional artists, while featuring their work in the context of 21c’s world-class contemporary art collection. On your next visit to Bentonville, simply ask at the front desk in order to view the Elevate exhibits on the guest room floors.
On view from March – September 2019, Elevate at 21c Bentonville presents the following three artists:
Hannah McBroom (Fayetteville, AR)
Two Year Hymn (February 2017 – January 2019), 2017-2019
Oil on canvas
A two-year project recording her hormone replacement therapy-based transition from male to female, Hannah McBroom’s Two Year Hymn consists of twenty-four monthly portraits tracking the artist’s physical and emotional transformation. Exhibited as a complete series for the first time, the self-portraits’ material and stylistic variations embody the shifting experiences of the artist, ranging from feelings of fear and anxiety, to beautiful and tender representations of her non-binary presentation, existing in the space between, and outside of, rigid definitions of male and female.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Hannah McBroom graduated from Mississippi State University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Studio Art with an emphasis in painting. She received a Masters of Fine Arts from the University of Arkansas in 2019. Her work explores themes of transgender identity, materiality, alienation, and the body.
She has attended residencies at the Vermont Studio Center and Chautauqua School of Art. Hannah has exhibited in many shows nationally and internationally including The Red Clay Survey, Manifest’s Tapped, International Painting Annual #6 in 2015 and again in 2018 for #9. She is the recipient of a 2019 Artists 360 grant through the Mid-American Arts Alliance. She currently maintains a studio in Fayetteville, Arkansas.
Shabana Kauser (Fayetteville, AR)
Bahin, 2019
Ustad, 2019
Oil on canvas
Influenced by the artist’s shared experiences as the daughter of Pakistani immigrants to the UK, and as an immigrant to the United States herself, Shabana Kauser’s detailed portraits of women explore memories of cultural, social, and economic transition. Along with ornate, precisely-rendered jewelry, the Dupatta, a traditional scarf worn in South Asian countries, permeates her portraits, referencing not only her personal journey, but those of past, present, and future generations of immigrants.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
British artist, Shabana Kauser immigrated to the U.S. over 10 years ago and now lives in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Both of her parents emigrated Pakistan in the 1970s. Shabana is a first-generation immigrant, where she was born and lived in the UK for 30 years. Her move to the U.S. was unexpected and took her away from her initial career in business, with a BSc in Business IT and an MSc in Information Management. Shabana discovered her passion for painting in the U.S.
Shabana’s work is heavily influenced by her rich British and Pakistani roots. As a self-taught artist, Shabana has added to her art education by attending the University of Arts London, St. Martin’s College, UK. She has enjoyed successful solo and group gallery exhibits in the U.S., voted into a number of International and National juried shows. Her art journey has been rapidly growing ever since her first public exhibit in March 2017.
Kasey Ramirez (Fayetteville, AR)
Monument, 2019
Woodcut
Kasey Ramirez’s work explores the tension between stability and impermanence by placing architectural structures in consuming environments. In the wake of increasingly frequent severe storms, and having direct experience with Superstorm Sandy, the artist’s personal sense of vulnerability connects with the impending tipping point of climate change. Buildings become a metaphor for our human efforts to protect ourselves that are ultimately powerless before environmental extremes.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Kasey Ramirez grew up at the edge of the pine barrens in Jackson, New Jersey. Ramirez lives and works in Fayetteville, Arkansas, where she teaches drawing and printmaking at the University of Arkansas. Ramirez received an MFA in printmaking from Indiana University and a BFA in illustration from Rhode Island School of Design. Her work has been exhibited at venues including the International Print Center New York, the Center for Contemporary Art in Bedminster, New Jersey, the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Manifest Creative Research Gallery in Cincinnati, Ohio, Guanlan Original Printmaking Base in Shenzhen, China, and the Palazetto Cenci in Rome, Italy.
