This exhibit is FREE to the public and will be on display during library hours Monday-Friday 9AM-6PM, starting Friday, January 16th, 2026, through Friday, February 6th, 2026.
Evan Gilliard's "Connection Through Creativity"
Artist Statement:
Art has the power to inspire thoughts and spark conversations that we may not even consider in our day-to-day. It builds bridges and communities that otherwise may never be considered. This is the goal I am working toward in my own artist practice.
My work is a surreal blending of experience, knowledge, and research, and is heavily inspired by the effect music can have on the spirit or soul. Each of my pieces has some musical score or backing behind the conception of the work. I create with vibrant colors, familiar and unfamiliar shapes, and imaginative concepts from a futurist anemoia. My art is infused with underlying themes such as cultural and ethnic inclusivity, bridging the old and the new, the digital and the analog, the cosmic and the near, futurism, liberation, and elements of spirituality. I've been recently doing research into metaphysics, Carl Jung's human archetypes, and theories of alchemy and the diaspora of Afro-Culture in America. I also have an interest in simple engineering, animation, and technology. The essence of which is pertinent to the work I am currently working on and will continue to progress toward. Each of my works strives to represent an intersection point in a web of contemplation of the world in which we live; its provisions, denials, the meaning of living in a shared reality, and a future where harmony is the goal.
My goal is to inspire new ideas and a community that comes from sharing conversations between one person to another. To make works that present viewers with a reflection of the times we live in and a call to thoughts of our future. I also seek to engage and provoke our subconscious, incorporating iconographical references across media and culture to create connections through shared thoughts and feelings. Ultimately, through my work, I hope to enhance, define, and bridge the social and cultural divides between us all while creating shared spaces and moments.
Artist Bio:
I am an Arkansas-based multidisciplinary artist inspired by the transformative power of art and its ability to foster connection, provoke thought, and spark conversations across all walks of life. My work is deeply inspired by music and its ability to move the soul, artists and themes of the Renaissance, surrealism, abstraction, Frutiger metro aesthetics, philosophy, psychology, sociology, current states of the world, as well as technology. I create with vibrant colors, familiar and unfamiliar shapes, and imaginative concepts from a futurist anemoia. My art is infused with underlying themes such as cultural and ethnic inclusivity, bridging the old and the new, the digital and the analog, the cosmic and the near, futurism, and elements of spiritual reclamation.
Socials:
Instagram : @Art_byevn
Website: evngstudios.com
This is the secondary branch of the William F. Laman Public Library located in the heart of the Argenta Arts District of North Little Rock.
