Highlights

Dreadful Objects and other art
The ddp gallery will hold an opening reception from 5 to 8 p.m. tonight for artists Shane Richey and Jason Clinton Barnes, whose “Dreadful Objects” exhibit is showing at the gallery through Aug. 9.
The show features works on paper and video by the two recent University of Arkansas masters of arts grads.
Both artists work in the medium of ideas, pushing the boundaries of the artist/viewer relationship while confronting the notion of fact.
Barnes’ analytical eye coupled with Richey’s pithy sense of delivery provides a startling showcase.
Barnes’ drawings—the largest is 8 feet by 8 feet—convey his struggle with American history as presented in textbooks. In his work, he combines American heroes with pop culture icons in a graphic retelling of the quest for the American dream.
Richey uses TVs, looped video feeds and sound to convey his belief that modern day communication, especially journalism, is influenced by agendas and advertising dollars. Some of the work is inappropriate for children.
ddp gallery is at 7 East Mountain St., between Fayetteville’s historic Downtown Square and North College Avenue.
Tuesday night from 5:30 to 7 p.m. there will be an opening reception at the Arts Center of the Ozarks in Springdale, for artists La Donna Shub and Basil Seymour-Davies.
Shub, who is also a graphic designer, is showing her watercolors in a collection called “Between Here and There.” The work combines images and symbols using numbers, words and shapes.
Seymour-Davies’ series “Connections” travels deep into the psyche. He lays portrait images on irrelevant backgrounds that disassociates the two, compelling the viewer to stop and ponder the conjunction.

At the AMP
The AMP aka the Arkansas Music Pavalion, at the southwest corner of the Northwest Arkansas Mall parking lot, will be rocking with music this week when three big acts come to town.
Tonight will be Cross Canadian Ragweed with special guests Jason Isbell of Drive By Truckers and Stoney LaRue. Ween will drop in on Friday night and Pat Benatar on Saturday night.
The new “locals stage” in the lawn area of the AMP will showcase Wille Straddlin tonight, A Good Fight on Friday night and Lauren DeMiranda on Saturday night. These shows are prior to the headliners.
Gates open at 6 p.m. and headline concerts start at 7:30 p.m. Tickets to Cross Canadian Ragweed and Ween are $25 each. Tickets to Pat Benatar are $32 to $65. Go to arkansasmusicpavilion.com to purchase.

Big time young folk
Each year, the national radio program, Garrison Keillor’s “A Prairie Home Companion” holds the “People in Their Twenties Talent” competition. This year, our friends from Newton County, Pat Villines and Mattie Speece took second place honors. Capturing the first place title were the Honey Dewdrops (Kagey Parrish and Laura Wortman) from Scottville, Va. Out of more than 1,000 entrants, the kids from the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Ozark Mountains won out. While competing for the prize in Minnesota, Pat and Mattie and the Honey Dewdrops became friends and as a result, the Honey Dewdrops are coming to NWA for the first time. They will be performing a series of shows with Pat and Mattie. You can hear them in the venue of your choice over the next week or so.
Friday night, they’ll be playing a laidback house concert show at GoodFolk, followed by shows at George’s Majestic Lounge on Tuesday night and at the Green Door with Skinny Squinty on Wednesday night.
If you’d like to head into Buffalo River territory in the heart of the Ozarks, the two groups will be playing at the Arkansas House in Jasper, July 17-18. And if you become smitten by these talented young folks, you can follow them to Virginia in August, when Pat and Mattie will be playing there in the the Honey Dewdrops home territory.