About
Sam King is an artist and musician from Fort Smith, AR. He has exhibited at galleries, artist-run spaces, and universities across the country, and his work is held in a number of public and private collections. He performs and releases improvisational, microtonal guitar music under the name Untight. He co-founded and co-ran Lalaland, a DIY community art and music space in Fayetteville, AR (2011-19), and directed the University of Arkansas School of Art's Foundations (2014-2020, 2022-23) and Studio Art (2018-19, 2020-2022) programs. He resides in Fayetteville, where serves as an associate professor of art for the School of Art.
Recent exhibitions
2023
Useful Friction, Ellis Hall, Hendrix College (solo)
Outliers, 211 South, Bentonville (solo)
Blue: a color story, MIXD, Rogers, AR
115 Miles East, M. A. Doran, Tulsa
2022
Time Out, Manifest Gallery, Cincinnati (solo)
Merging Spaces, MIXD
Selections from the Permanent Collection, Fort Smith Regional Art Museum
2021
Thousands of Little Folds, Forsberg Gallery, Lower Columbia College, WA (solo)
2020
Press Record on this Painting, The Little House Gallery, Memphis, TN
Unfinished/Accidents, Manifest Gallery, Cincinatti, OH
Ensemble: Together Again, The Painting Center, NYC
Tapped, Manifest Gallery, Cincinnati
2019
Neither Here Nor There, Visual & Performing Arts Center Gallery, Western Connecticut State University, CT
The Unusuals, The Painting Center, New York
Sentinels (II): Subvert (The Temperature, Part 7), curated by Ian Breidenbach and Terez Iacovino, Snag Gallery, Seattle
Print + Systems + Sound, Unrequited Leisure, Nashville
Like Mercury in the Wind, Oneoneone Gallery, Chapel Hill, NC
Groundhog Days, Center for Art and Education, Van Buren, AR (solo)
Tapped, Manifest Gallery, Cincinnati, OH
2018
Neither Here Nor There, Wilma Daniels Gallery, Wilmington, NC
University of Arkansas Faculty Exhibition, Meadows Gallery, University of Texas at Tyler, TX
Abstract ARt, Batesville Area Arts Council, Batesville, AR
2017
Griffonage, Gatewood Gallery, University of North Carolina, Greensboro (solo)
(Un)tacit, The Provincial, Kaleva, MI / Diane Endres Ballweg Gallery, Madison, WI
Abstract ARt, Rosemary Gossett Adams Gallery, Arkadelphia, AR
North of South, DRAWL Southern Contemporary Art, Little Rock, AR
2016
New Work, DRAWL Southern Contemporary Art, Little Rock (solo)
One Night Only, 49 Wareham Street, Boston, MA
Leisure Services, Valley of the Vapors Festival, Emergent Arts, Hot Springs, AR
Selections from the Permanent Collection, Fort Smith Regional Art Museum, Fort Smith, AR
Eighth National Juried Exhibition, juried by Graham Nickson, Prince Street Gallery, New York
Luck of the Draw, arranged by Trent Miller, The Diane Endres Ballweg Gallery, Madison, WI
Abstract ARt, Henry Zarrow Center for the Arts, Tulsa, OK
Art in America on Tour, curated by Julie Torres, Elizabeth Stone Harper Gallery, Clinton, SC
2015
Art in America, curated by Julie Torres for ARTIST RUN / Tiger Strikes Asteroid / The Satellite Show, Miami
New Paintings, Windgate Art & Design Building, University of Arkansas Fort Smith, Fort Smith, AR (solo)
Abstract ARt, Art Center of the Ozarks, Springdale, AR
Painting Never Dies, 49 Wareham Street, Boston, MA
2014
Painting Symposium Exhibition, Spiva Gallery, Missouri Southern State University, Joplin
Abstract ARt, Kresge Gallery, Batesville, AR
Between States, SUGAR Gallery, Fayetteville (two-person show with Matt Murphy)
Musical releases as Untight
2024
Fair, cassette/digital, self-released
2021
States, cassette, self-released (digital release 2023)
2020
Reverse Forecast, cassette/digital, Drawing Room Records #0017
Untight, cassette/digital, Tape Dad #043
Curation
Shelters, Monuments: Whiting Tennis & Sarah Norsworthy, The Provincial, Kaleva, MI, 2019
Brett Baker, Bottle Rocket Gallery, Fayetteville, AR, 2016
One Nite Standard series, Lalaland, Fayetteville, AR (small group shows - one work per artist, one night only), 2015-2018
Tenses of Landscape, Fine Arts Center Gallery, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR, 2012
Residencies
2024 American Academy in Rome
2023 Vermont Studio Center
2020 Hambidge Center for the Arts
2007 Ox-Bow School of Art
Education
MFA, Indiana University, 2005
BFA, University of Tulsa, 2003