Turn Painting

Contemporary Southern Artist / Gallery Owner .aspx?artist=11237212 Guy W. Bell (b. 1980) is a visual artist and painter living in Arkansas. Born in Pensacola, FL. Bell’s early childhood was spent looking skyward, watching a never- ending procession of fighter jets soar over airbases on which he grew up. When his family relocated to Arkansas in 1987, the habit of looking toward the great beyond did not wane. Though receiving no formal art training, Bell’s leisure time was consumed by learning the practices of painting, drawing and sculpting. After graduating college with a business-focused B.A. in Liberal Arts, he painted and wrote about art in his spare time. Finding success in selling work, Bell chose to pursue a full-time career as an oil painter. Bell’s first year as an artist was spent in the studio, above the Thea Foundation in North Little Rock’s Argenta Arts District. It was there he set to creating a body of work united by the theme of understanding light and it’s effect on surfaces and in atmosphere. As he continued his practice, his work gained acclaim both in the region and around the world as a master of depicting colorful skyscapes as well as evocative contemporary compositions. In 2013, Bell’s piece “Cain & Abel” was selected for Crystal Bridges Museum Of American Art’s “State Of The Art” exhibition. It was shortly afterward that Bell set to creating the world’s first levitating stone sculpture, titled “Ascension”. Videos of the piece went viral on the Internet. Bell’s work is displayed in public, private and museum collections in the United States and in private collections in an additional thirteen countries. He has been mentioned in Beautiful Decay Magazine, Art Forum, Artillery Magazine, VICE Magazine’s Creator’s Project, Artists & Galleries of the South Magazine along with many others. Bell’s role in the art world is not limited to the practice of art. He is also an advocate for artists working in the region. In 2015 Bell co-founded DRAWL Southern Contemporary Art gallery. The gallery represents work by living artists from across the American South. The gallery primarily shows art and photography with technically proficient execution created by artists that are leaders in their craft in an effort to share the work of talented Southerners with the rest of the nation.