PETTY NOT PRETTY: Group Exhibition

Petty Not Pretty: Group Exhibition

January 2nd, 2025 — March 31, 2025

Reception: Saturday 1/4/25 2:00-4:00PM

BENTONVILLE, AR — Midnight Gallery features twenty-three local artists in their upcoming group exhibition.

Su A Chae

Camilla Crittenden

Alex Dergazarian

Ben Dobbs

Anna Guillory

Hal Hardin

Lily Hollinden 

Mackey Howe 

Amber Imrie

Emma Johnson

Qwist Joseph

Denise Lanuti Alexander Lashley Noel Lieutard

Emma Nilsson

Ava Obert

Claire Pongonis

Kylie Robinson 

JooEun Seo

Emma Seubold

Deja Snyder

Melissa Wise-Miklos Jingjing Yu

Petty Not Pretty

pet·ty (ˈpedē)

Of little importance; trivial. 

Of secondary or lesser importance, rank, or scale; minor. 

What happens when art refuses to be pretty? When artists reject pressures to soothe, please, or respond nicely to egregious behavior? Petty Not Pretty challenges the notion that worth must be weighed by beauty alone, confronting the idea that art should be palatable in order to be consumed. If we, as human beings, are not palatable— if we speak too loudly, react too strongly, or refuse to shrink ourselves, are we automatically deemed petty? So be it.

Pettiness can occur through silence. It can also manifest loudly. We host artworks that unveil themselves with time, like a heavy sigh after a conversation runs in circles. In contrast, we invite pieces with noisy, vivid color, like a rainbow that slices through a grey, sideways downpour. 

The exhibition is a rallying cry for the dismissed and the exhausted. These twenty-three artists channel their grievances, both personal and collective, that emerge from rigid standards of beauty, the suffocating weight of expectation, and the societal dismissal of strong reactions as “petty.” Their work embraces overreaction, absurdity, and emotional rawness, inviting viewers to sit in discomfort and confront truths that often go ignored.

Like a kaleidoscope of contradictions, Petty Not Pretty teeters between humor and unease, defiance and vulnerability. It’s an electric roller coaster that pulls you in with its aesthetic allure, only to twist and turn through unexpected terrain, provoking laughter in one moment and leaving you unsettled the next. It’s messy, vital, and unapologetically alive.

So let the work provoke. Let it unsettle. Let it be Petty Not Pretty; sometimes the loudest truths lie in what refuses to be palatable.

Written and curated by Emma Nilsson