Art Focus
O k l a ho m a V i s ual A r ts C oal i t i on
Ok l a h o m a Vo l u m e 3 1 N o . 5
Fall • 2016
(Top) Lucas Simmons, Heirs of the Plastic Age, 2016, oil on canvas, 84 x 66� (Bottom) Nicholas Enevoldsen, Four Chairs, 2015, oil on linen, 42 x 92� Simmons and Enevoldsen were the 2016 OVAC Student Awards of Excellence recipients.
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THE LANGUAGE OF THE UNEXPECTED: Native Fashion Now Mary Kathryn Moeller
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DENNIS HODGES: A Sense of His Soul Lucie Smoker
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WEST MEXICO: Ritual and Identity Alison Rossi
10 ZACHARY BURNS: A Visual Awakening Karen Paul
F e a t u re s 12 50 STATES, 50 STORIES: Nick Vaughan and Jake Margolin’s American Expedition Ryan Hefley
16 LYNETTE ATCHLEY: Curious Creatures Renee Montgomery
18 ART 365 PREVIEW: Pete Froslie Olivia Biddick
20 A Journey Through Time and Culture at OKC’s 21c Museum Hotel Kerry M. Azzarello (top) On the Cover: Orlando Dugi (Diné [Navajo]), dress, headpiece, and cape from Desert Heat Collection, 2012, silk, organza, feathers, beads, and 24k gold; porcupine quills and feathers; feathers, beads, and silver. Image courtesy of the artist © 2015 Peabody Essex Museum, Photo: Thosh Collins, Model: Louisa Beli (page 4)
22 Regaining Consciousness with Public Art
(middle) Nick Vaughan and Jake Margolin, Bridge and Found Graffiti, Doniphan NE, 2015, 8 hand-cut road maps, 37.5 x 87.5”. Courtesy of the artists and Devin Borden Gallery (page 12)
27 OVAC News
Krystal Brewer
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edited by Liz Blood
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(bottom) Lynette Atchley, Koba the Drillhog, 2015, lithograph, 10 x 15” (page 16) Support from:
Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition 730 W. Wilshire Blvd., Suite 104, Oklahoma City, OK 73116. PHONE: 405.879.2400 EMAIL: director@ovac-ok.org WEB: ovac-ok.org Executive Director: Holly Moye, director@ovac-ok.org Editor: Lauren Scarpello, publications@ovac-ok.org Art Director: Anne Richardson, speccreative@gmail.com Art Focus Oklahoma is a bimonthly publication of the Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition dedicated to stimulating insight into and providing current information about the visual arts in Oklahoma. Mission: Supporting Oklahoma’s visual arts and artists and their power to enrich communities. OVAC welcomes article submissions related to artists and art in Oklahoma. Call or email the editor for guidelines. OVAC welcomes your comments. Letters addressed to Art Focus Oklahoma are considered for publication unless otherwise specified. Mail or email comments to the editor at the address above. Letters may be edited for clarity or space reasons. Anonymous letters will not be published. Please include a phone number.
2016-2017 Board of Directors: President: Susan Green, Tulsa; Vice President: John Marshall, Oklahoma City; Treasurer: Gina Ellis, Oklahoma City; Secretary: Michael Höffner, Oklahoma City; Parliamentarian: Douglas Sorocco, Oklahoma City; Ariana Brandes, Tulsa; Bryon Chambers, Oklahoma City; Bob Curtis, Oklahoma City; Hillary Farrell, Oklahoma City; Jon Fisher, Moore; TiTi Fitzsimmons, MD, Oklahoma City; John Hammer, Claremore; Travis Mason, Oklahoma City; Laura Massenat, Oklahoma City; Renée Porter, Norman; Amy Rockett-Todd, Tulsa; Douglas Sorocco, Oklahoma City; Dana Templeton, Oklahoma City; Chris Winland, Oklahoma City; Dean Wyatt, Owasso; Jake Yunker, Oklahoma City. The Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition is solely responsible for the contents of Art Focus Oklahoma. However, the views expressed in articles do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Board or OVAC staff. Member Agency of Allied Arts and member of the Americans for the Arts. © 2016, Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition. All rights reserved. View the online archive at ArtFocusOklahoma.org.
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THE LANGUAGE OF THE UNEXPECTED: Native Fashion Now by Mary Kathryn Moeller
Orlando Dugi (Diné [Navajo]), cape, dress, and headpiece from Desert Heat Collection, 2012, silk, organza, feathers, beads, and 24k gold; feathers, beads, and silver; porcupine quills and feathers. Image courtesy of the artist, Hair and makeup: Dina DeVore, Model: Julia Foster, Photo: Nate Francis/Unék Photography.
A unique opportunity to see cutting-edge fashion by Native American artists, Native Fashion Now opens at the Philbrook Museum of Art on October 2nd. Organized by the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, MA and already exhibited on both coasts, viewers in Oklahoma and surrounding states have a chance to glimpse the vibrant modern history and current practices of Native American artists and designers. As viewers enter the exhibition space, they are greeted by a red-carpeted ceiling and suspended parasols. The parasols, commissioned for the exhibition, are made by Patricia Michaels (Taos Pueblo). Made of dyed cloth and hide, and embellished with paint and intricate beadwork, the parasols are frequently used by models wearing Michaels’ creations. Video from the 2011 Santa Fe Indian Market accompanies the parasols and features white-wigged models walking the streets of Santa Fe holding Michaels’ parasols aloft. The large petal shades are balanced by salt-cedar handles carved by James Duran (Taos Pueblo), Michaels’ artistic and life partner. Michaels is perhaps best known for her
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second-place win in the 2012 season of Project Runway. Her hand-painted silk and leather Cityscape dress, featured on the show, is made of delicate overlapping squares of the Manhattan skyline as reflected in water. The layered designs give the garment texture and capture the vibrancy of a city. Cityscape is displayed in the first of four exhibition themes, Pathbreakers, which also includes pioneering Native American fashion designers such a Lloyd “Kiva” New and Frankie Welch—both Cherokee. Though the exhibition is not organized chronologically, the Pathbreakers section includes most of the oldest pieces in the show, dating from the 1950s-1970s. New’s work is particularly timely since 2016 is the centennial of his birth. Born in Fairland, OK, New is considered the grandfather of contemporary Native American fashion. He established his own design label called “Kiva” which was sold in affluent areas such as Beverly Hills and in major department stores like Neiman Marcus. New co-founded the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe. He was noted for his innovative approach to design as well as his mentorship of younger Native artists,
Orlando Dugi (Diné [Navajo]) and Troy Sice (Zuni), The Guardian—Bringer of Thunder, Lightning and Rain handbag, 2013, elk antler, stingray leather, parrot feathers, bobcat fur, rubies, shell, glass beads, and sterling silver. Image courtesy of the artists.
many of whom, like Michaels, appear in the exhibition. New is not the only artist in the exhibition with ties to Oklahoma. There are several, including Wendy Ponca whose Mylar gowns connect to her Osage heritage. Ponca reinterprets not only the look but also the sound of this seemingly extraterrestrial material as linked to Osage cosmology. In the section of the exhibition titled Revisitors, numerous artists connect to Native traditions, especially traditional techniques. Viewers encounter examples of traditional beadwork though not in ways they may expect. French designer Christian Louboutin’s shoes are recognized the world over but in the hands of Jamie Okuma (Luiseño and Shoshone-Bannock) the footwear is the fusing of traditional Native American bead work and high fashion. Okuma covered a pair of Louboutin’s boots with thousands of antique glass beads but the signature red sole, a Louboutin trademark, is still visible. In Okuma’s design swallows soar up the calf of the boot while floral designs hang from ankle. In conversation with Philbrook Curator of Native American and Non-Western Art,
Christina E. Bourke, she notes that throughout the exhibition the artists grapple with the weight of history, though it is perhaps most notable in the section titled Activators where haute-couture gives way to edgy street-style and t-shirt culture. Dustin Martin’s (Dine, Navajo) 2013 t-shirt Ceci n’est pas un conciliateur (This is not a peacemaker) features a Colt .45 with the French statement written underneath. It is derivative of Rene Magritte’s 1929 painting The Treachery of Images in which the artist painted a briar pipe with the declaration that Ceci n’est pas une pipe (This is not a pipe). Yet where Magritte engaged in the conundrum of semiotics, Martin points to the blistering reality of Native American history. The Colt .45 was referred to a the “Peacemaker” and nearly synonymous with Hollywood’s depiction the “Wild West.” In reality it was used throughout the second half of the 19th century in most conflicts between Native Americans and the United States Army. Martin points bluntly to the lunacy of applying the “peacemaker” moniker to a gun. The use of such language proves as deadly as the weapon itself as it covers bloodshed in a blanket of supposed tranquility and rank injustice. Martin is but one artist who utilizes language in his work. It is a technique seen in the t-shirt by Jared Yazzie (Dine, Navajo) who boldly states an obvious but overlooked event of 1492 with his proclamation Native Americans Discovered Columbus. Other artists in the exhibition explore the power and unique properties of language. Frankie Welch (Cherokee) designed clothing for several First Ladies and many of Washington, D.C’s elite. In 1966 she received a commission for a presidential gift and created a scarf filled with the Cherokee syllabary. The design became her most well-known and remains an iconic item for the subtle beauty of the characters. Derek Jagodzinsky (Whitefish Cree) also uses parts of the Cree syllabary to fill a wide white band that fits around the middle of the figure in an otherwise black fringe dress. The characters, repeated again and again on the dress, as well as other pieces of his collection are the phrase “we will succeed.” This statement, and by extension the clothes on which it is writ, can be a message of empowerment for those who know, learn, and appreciate the language. The incorporation of language in these pieces and others can be considered a macro truth for this exhibition. As Christina Bourke states, “Fashion in Native arts is a language.” Across cultures and time, fashion has served as a mode of communication for history, values, and practices. This exhibition
demonstrates how contemporary artists and designers explore the breadth of Native artistic traditions and push new boundaries to communicate the future of Native fashion. Native Fashion Now is on view from October 2nd, 2016 - January 8, 2017. For more information call 918-749-7941 or visit. philbrook.org. n
Jamie Okuma (Luiseño / ShoshoneBannock), Boots, 2013–14, Glass beads on boots designed by Christian Louboutin (French). Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts, Museum commission with support from Katrina Carye, John Curuby, Karen Keane and Dan Elias, Cynthia Gardner, Merry Glosband, and Steve and Ellen Hoffman, 2014.44.1AB © 2015 Peabody Essex Museum. Photo: Walter Silver.
Mary Kathryn Moeller is an arts writer, curator, and educator. She is available via email at mkmoeller77@gmail.com
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DENNIS HODGES: A Sense of His Soul by Lucie Smoker
Dennis Russell Hodges, Governor 12, 2016, giclee print, 8 x 24”
Napoleon once said, “I love power. But it is as an artist that I love it. I love it as a musician loves his violin, to draw out its sounds and chords and harmonies.” This election season has played out our discord, but on September 27th, OU’s Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art opened an exhibition that is less a display of art and more an opportunity to look deeper into what drives our politics. Will visitors find music there? Artist Dennis Hodges has collected dozens of official governors’ portraits, the images these men and women have chosen as representations of themselves, and cropped them to only reveal the eyes to us. Enlarged and mounted on semitransparent panels with light coming from behind, the eyes feel alive, animated, or perhaps just in the spotlight. These powerful governors are identified only by a number and—a glint, a certain depth, or feeling of distance. What inspired this approach? Hodges says, “Everywhere in other countries, political campaigns used to put up huge posters of their candidates, just head and shoulder images asking for your vote. On the streets, old people or young families could look in their eyes and know who they were.” Over time, a laborer might develop a relationship with the face, seeing that same image every day at a bus stop and asking, “Look at me, I’m talking to you, are you telling me the truth?” These days truth has become pliable. Candidates mold or bend facts to their liking.
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Without access to classified documents or private conferences, we have to rely on media to decipher the true from the false—a media that struggles with the concept of bias. But what if we had in political discourse an ability to focus on the unspoken? What about those silent cues we all exude but cannot control? Nonverbal communication such as the twinkle of an eye or the feeling of warmth from touch reveals who we are and impacts how we relate to other people. While the 93% number we all hear has been debunked, sociologists agree that nonverbal cues do impact our impressions of each other. Hodges’ exhibition, A Sense of His Soul, brings that dimension to politics but in a way you might not expect. “In American politics, every politician smiles,” Hodges says, “In other countries, it’s very solemn. It’s about how serious they are about their work.” And that one difference can have a huge impact on the unspoken communication. He says, “When you laugh, the muscles around your eyes move, but if you smile for the camera, your eyes are not smiling.” While chosen by the governors themselves, these images offer an unexpectedly naked glimpse into the trustworthiness, honesty, and transparency of politicians who have attained a seat of power—the governor’s mantle. But they also tell us about ourselves as an electorate. What do we value? What will we give up to attain it? “Dennis Hodges’ body of work poses interesting
questions about how we perceive character in facial features,” said Mark White, the Wylodean and Bill Saxon Director of the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art. “Official political portraits should endear constituents to their political leaders but, by focusing exclusively on the eyes of those leaders, he asks the viewer to take a second look.” Hodges himself started taking pictures at eight. His dad, a photographer, taught him the basics of composition. He took a dark room class, but studied humanities in college—art, history & music. He went into business but continued taking photos on the side. Like many creative people, he didn’t take his art seriously as a way of supporting himself until some of his images were published in magazines. That third-party validation gave him the confidence to believe he was doing something meaningful so he packed up for his first portfolio review and learned that his work (at that time) was nothing new. “Curators are painfully honest,” says Hodges, “But as hard as it is to hear that truth, you have to hear it.” He walked away from those failures determined to think of things differently, He reassessed his portfolio, set aside his hard-built projects and started again. This time the work clicked. Previously critical curators started booking him for exhibitions in places like Colorado, Spain, Houston, and Buenos Aires. The series has been shot in nine countries to date. For OU, Hodges chose governors’ photos as the closest thing we have to those huge political posters overseas. He writes to each
School of Art The School of Art at the University of Tulsa offers majors in Art History, Ceramics, Digital Media, Drawing, Graphic Design, Painting, Photography, and Printmaking. The School of Art is a stimulating and intimate environment to practice, understand, and advance the visual arts. With small class sizes, students work closely with faculty to gain a solid foundation in media, artistic practices, and scholarly research. The liberal arts atmosphere at TU encourages students to develop innovative and interdisciplinary approaches to art and art history. Course work and individualized study foster students’ knowledge, critical thinking abilities and technical, creative, and writing skills.
(From top to bottom) Governor 21; Governor 34; Governor 47; Governor 25, 2016, giclee prints, 8 x 24”
state’s PR office to request the image, some cooperate, some do not. To be fair, they are only required to send expensive images to constituents. Then Hodges crops out as many identifiers of face or individuality as he can. He enlarges them and leaves us confronted with a breathtaking universality. As windows to souls of the men and women to whom we have entrusted the keys to power, they speak of underlying truths in our politics. You will want to invite some of them to dinner; flee from others. Hodges says, “The ones that bother me the most seem to be the most normal on the surface.”
Students are challenged to develop the highest professional standards in concept, technique, and presentation, and to actively engage in the community as a part of good studio practice. Because of close relationships with faculty, students receive individualized attention as they shape the program to their needs. One of the highlights of the academic year is the Gussman Student Exhibition. The show is curated by a nationally recognized juror, and students win cash awards for their work. Come visit us!
While he works hard to remove partisan politics from his art, he concedes that some personal bias might creep in when he’s cropping images of famous governors such as Christie or Fallin. He will likely leave most of those out of the exhibition, choosing instead to allow us to look inside anonymous eyes without the burden of bias. A Sense of His Soul runs from September 27th through December 30th in the atrium-like passageway between the Lester and Stuart Wings of the Fred Jones Jr. Museum in Norman. With natural light illuminating the semi-transparent panels, visiting on different days will yield additional insight into these people playing our political heartstrings. We cannot see results here, but we can look deep into the heart of intention. n Lucie Smoker is a suspense author, poet and freelance writer. Check out her latest words at https://luciesmoker.wordpress.com
49th Gussman Annual Juried Student Exhibition Opening: March 30th, 2017 For more information, visit www.cas.utulsa/edu/art/ or call 918.631.2739 • TU is an EEO/AA institution
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WEST MEXICO: Ritual and Identity by Alison Rossi
West Mexico: Ritual and Identity is the largest, most comprehensive display of Mesoamerican objects ever exhibited at Gilcrease Museum, an institute dedicated to the diverse heritage of the Americas. The exhibition features ancient masterpieces, ties these works to modern and contemporary artists and popular culture and reveals the science behind the show. Curators Dr. Robert Pickering (professor, department of Anthropology and director of the Museum Science & Management program, University of Tulsa and adjunct curator at the Gilcrease Museum) and Cheryl-Smallwood-Roberts (assistant curator, Gilcrease Museum) devoted over three years to the exhibition’s research and development and this is evident in the breadth, depth, and quality of interpretation as well as in the careful and thought-provoking organization of objects. The content of this exhibition will appeal to a wide variety of visitors: scholars, general audiences, artists, students, families with children, science and archaeology enthusiasts and those interested in Mexican cultures past and present. Multilayered interpretive elements, all presented in both English and Spanish, provide ample portals of entry to the show. Comprised of over two hundred ceramic figures, vessels, and tableaux, West Mexico: Ritual and Identity presents new research and enlivens objects created approximately 2,000 years ago in the states of Nayarit, Jalisco, Colima and parts of Michoacán. Ancient societies that inhabited the geographic area between present day Guadalajara and the Pacific have commonly been referred to as the “Shaft Tomb Culture” named for the deep, chambered underground tombs found and excavated at sites across this region. However, Pickering and Smallwood-Roberts state that they prefer not to employ the term “Shaft Tomb Culture” since it “places too much emphasis on the dead and virtually ignores the living” and fails to distinguish between the numerous social and political entities that shared some common beliefs, rituals and activities. Visitors to the exhibition are first introduced to the ancient cultures of West Mexico with a brief guide to ceramic styles typified by regional characteristics that some may already recognize. Subsequent thematic groupings of objects
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(figure 1) Male and Female Pair (monumental figures), ca. 300 BCE-300CE, ceramic, slip/paint, GM54.7770 and GM54.7769. Image courtesy of the Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, Oklahoma.
challenge standard assumptions about these cultures and provide insight into select ritual as well as quotidian practices. Heavily stylized, extraordinarily elaborate humanoid figures are presented as both archetypal characters such as musicians and warriors as well as representations of real individuals. Two treasured and monumental works from the Gilcrease collection, a male and a female figure [figure 1], each nearly three feet tall, likely belong to the latter category. Embellished with jewelry, patterned garments, tattoos and body paint and holding what appear to be ritual objects, these figures reflect the sophistication and stratification of West Mexico’s Mesoamerican societies. While it’s clear that individuals displayed their identities associated with gender, age, accomplishments, status, specific clans and more through personal adornment just as we do today, the nuances of these various regalia and body ornaments have yet to be decoded. Other anthropomorphic figures represent scenes and groupings as familiar today as they were a few
thousand years ago: intimate couples, children climbing on their mothers and bodies weary from age and various pathologies. Another section of the exhibition aims to shed light on the many rituals represented in complex tableaux depicting the famous Mesoamerican ballgames, funeral processions, a volador (flyer) scene, convivial gatherings and dancing. A mural by artist Herb Roe helps visitors to imagine a 2,000 year old ritual and text panels as well as a booklet entitled Curator’s Notes further explain the complexities of such rituals as well as other exhibition content. While the anthropomorphic figures, tableaux, scaled models, diagrams, painted renderings, and didactic text humanize the inhabitants of these West Mexican societies, vessel forms reflect their natural environment. Coil or slabbuilt ceramics represent the flora and fauna of West Mexico, notably spouted dogs from Colima and Nayarit [figure 2]. Visitors have the opportunity to sculpt their own version of the Xolo dogs in a designated creative space within the exhibition. Exquisitely crafted ollas, often
burnished and embellished with elements such as fruits and squashes [figure 3], cacti and shrimp as well as effigy vessels in the forms of parrots, armadillos, lizards, crabs and other animals attest to the highly developed artistry of these cultures. While some of the vessels may have held goods intended to accompany the dead into the afterlife, many reveal signs of use and the substances contained with certain vessels have been identified through residue analysis. Pickering, a well-respected anthropologist with a background in forensics, and co-curator Cheryl Smallwood-Roberts arranged for objects from the West Mexican collection amassed by Thomas Gilcrease between 1948-1955 to undergo testing not only to determine substances held in vessels but also to authenticate the museum’s collection due to the epidemic fakery that plagues collections of archaeological objects around the world. One exhibition gallery is devoted to fascinating insights about how surprising tools such as endoscopy and CT scanning as well as residue analysis can shed light on the authenticity and individual history of an object. Visitors are invited to test their skills at determining fakes from authentic works with an engaging and playful hands-on activity in this gallery. While some modern reproductions of West Mexican ceramic works were intended to deceive, others openly pay homage to the creative traditions of these cultures in sometimes unexpected ways. The final gallery in the exhibition encourages visitors to consider the links between these Mesoamerican societies and popular commercial culture as well as modern and contemporary art. Ancient West Mexican figures and their likenesses were appropriated to exoticize Kahlúa ads from the 1960s and 70s and to sell pharmaceutical products. Paintings by iconic twentieth century Mexican artists such as Diego Rivera, Rufino Tamayo, and Alfredo Ramos Martinez echo the motifs, themes and subjects of works featured in the exhibition while Quetzalcoatl, a central deity in the Mesoamerican pantheon, is the subject of artist Betsabeé Romero’s 2004 Serpiente that consists of four beautifully carved tractor tires. Though the legacy of West Mexican works from Mesoamerica is evident and great strides have been made in decoding their meaning and authenticating them, much about the inhabitants of these societies remains a mystery. Pickering notes that the exhibition and accompanying academic book, Shaft Tombs and Figures in West Mexican Society: A Reassessment “create a high watermark about what we know right now about these ancient cultures but there is still a lot of important work to be done.” This compelling exhibition will undoubtedly generate additional interest in and research about the magnificently crafted and intriguing objects that provide insight into these ancient cultures. A symposium, CSI West Mexico, focusing on the new technologies explored in the exhibition, takes place on October 2 at 2 p.m. in the Gilcrease Auditorium. West Mexico: Ritual and Identity closes November 6. For more information, visit https://gilcrease.org. n
(top, figure 2) Dog Vessel, ca. 300 BCE-33 CE), Comala Style, Colima, Mexico. Ceramic, burnished slips, modern restoration materials, GM54.3731. Image courtesy of the Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, Oklahoma. (bottom, figure 3) Fruits or Squash Effigy Olla, ca. 300 BCE-300 CE, Comala Style, Colima, Mexico. Ceramic, burnished slip. 19.1x30 cm. GM54.3725. Image courtesy of the Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Alison Rossi is an instructor in higher education and a consultant for museums.
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ZACHARY BURNS: A Visual Awakening by Karen Paul
Zachary Burns, I Don’t Want to be Perceived the Way I Am, I Just Want to be Perceived the Way I Am (the Bin Project), photographic installation, 36 x 36” (variable height), 2011-2012. Installation image from Momentum OKC, 2013 courtesy of the artist.
Individual Artists of Oklahoma’s fall exhibition, Fleeting Light, is an intensely personal show that represents the evolution of Oklahoma City artist Zachary Burns, his relationship to the creative process, and his relationship to the community in which he creates.
impaired. Burns pitched the concept to New View for an exhibition that would empower its visually impaired artists.
The experience of the creative process not only plays an important role in this project, it is a central theme in Burns’ work.
“I wanted to do something different. It is amazing and mind-blowing that NewView is letting me do this project,” he said.
A graduate of Oklahoma City University, Burns’ first creative photography efforts remained traditional until he began work on his capstone, The View from In Here. After internally debating several ideas for the project, he decided to do something that related to his visual impairment—legal blindness in his left-eye. It was a decision that would change the course of his photographic work by allowing creative exploration into his personal visual experience. It was also a creative awakening for Burns.
Burns has developed a photography exhibition that will not only mimic his experience with a visual impairment, but will leverage the collaborative efforts of the visually-impaired students in his sixweek photography class. Using phones and digital cameras, they will prepare a series of photographs that illustrate how they experience the world. Their photos will be displayed alongside Burns’ work.
“When I’m out shooting, I may take 10-15 minutes to analyze a site, looking around for the best angle, and composition,” he said. “I spend a lot of time deciding what I want out of it and what’s really there. Sometimes, I may do all of that work and walk away without taking a single photo. Other times, I may shoot an entire roll of film.”
Burns’ IAO show is a partnership with NewView Oklahoma, an Oklahoma City nonprofit that has a mission of empowering individuals who are blind and vision
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“I want our students to use whatever equipment they are most comfortable using,” Burns said. “I don’t want anyone to be afraid to make mistakes and they don’t need the world’s most expensive camera to participate. It’s about the doing.”
Burns’ love of the creative process also extends to the experience that he strives to give his viewers. “Since my first Momentum show, I have always tried to make photographs that are more than just photos on a wall,” he said. “In that first show, I exhibited a traditional piece that hung on a wall. I stood back and watched the audience as they looked at the piece and then moved on.”
Burns quickly realized that his viewers were only getting the top layer of meaning in his work. “That show made it clear that I needed to do more than just put a photo on the wall,” he said. “The show served me well because it changed the direction of my work.” Since then, Burns has intentionally worked to engage his audiences’ other senses as they experience his photographs. His previous installations, such as I Don’t Want to be Perceived the Way I Am, I Just Want to be Perceived the Way I Am (the Bin Project,) included stereo photographic images with altered left images in a large bin for viewers to dig through and select. With NewView, Burns is developing two non-traditional components to compliment his students’ works. Audio interviews of students talking about their specific visual impairments will be played during the opening reception, and a small documentary will create a long-lasting opportunity to experience the project. Burns is working with his production partners at Planet Thunder to create the documentary. Planet Thunder, whose film Electric Nostalgia was recently honored at the 2016 deadCenter Film Festival as the Best Oklahoma Feature, will shoot the class as it is happening and are hoping to find one or two students who would be willing to share their perspectives about creating photographs. “When I think about it, I get nervous about this project,” Burns said. “However, then I go in and talk to NewView. They are so excited and on board with this project. It’s unlike anything they have ever done before.” Burns hopes this project gives his visually-impaired students a new way of independently expressing themselves visually. “I hope they will want to keep doing photography after the class ends,” Burns said. Fleeting Light begins with Burns’ class at New View from Aug. 31 – Oct. 5, 2016 with the exhibition at Individual Artists of Oklahoma from Nov 29, 2016 – Jan. 7, 2017. n Karen Paul is a writer specializing in Oklahoma-based subjects. She has worked with Art Focus since 2009. You may contact her at karenpaulok@gmail.com (top) Installation image from Momentum OKC, 2013 (middle) Detail view of bin with 1300+ stereographic images from Momentum OKC, 2013 (bottom) Detail image of a selected stereo image from the bin, 2011-2012
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50 STATES, 50 STORIES: Nick Vaughan and Jake Margolin’s American Expedition by Ryan Hefley
Documentation photograph, taken by the artists from the making of 50 STATES: Wyoming, taken in Scottsbluff, Nebraska in November 2013.
Traveling with a series of 18 pigmented microcrystalline wax panels depicting queered cowboys, Nick Vaughan and Jake Margolin set out to travel across the western United States. Along their route, they would stop, place a soil sample on a panel and then drive over it, embedding the earth within the wax. They were researching historical accounts related to the LGBTQ community as inspiration for their future works, when they stumbled upon the story of William Drummond Stewart. An early explorer of the American West, Stewart
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reportedly engaged in risqué parties with his all-male companions. Stewart’s story represents the masculine exploits long associated with discovering the West. What Vaughan and Margolin’s art brings to life are the ways in which the West was conceived as a place free from traditional standards, including those relating to American sexual mores during the early 19th century. Popular images from movies and advertisements of the cowboy or frontiersman, such as the Marlboro man, have often been construed
as exemplars of a hyper heterosexuality—a reception that downplays the different forms of desire they project. When Vaughan and Margolin marry their artwork with the earth tread upon by the explorers, they express the latent homoeroticism in the imagery, connecting modern LGBTQ experiences with past ones. With the Stewart piece forming what would become the Wyoming leg, their 50 States project was born. Over the next 25 years, Vaughan and Margolin plan to honor accounts from
Nick Vaughan and Jake Margolin, Lawn Chairs, 2013, hand-cut road map, 23.5 x 37” (framed). Image courtesy of the artists.
each state with works on specific individuals whom they feel have a narrative that needs to be told within the landscape of the LGBTQ community. We’ve all heard of the standout stories associated with LGBTQ struggle— Harvey Milk, Rock Hudson, or Keith Haring—but less touted are the countless other individuals whose lives are no less remarkable, but whose stories have yet to be fully told. 50 States does this. While the Stonewall Inn riots in 1969 have often served as a marker for modern LGBTQ history, Vaughan and Margolin have sought to reveal older stories to emphasize the depth, variety, and history of LGBTQ people throughout America’s existence, not just from the modern era or from big cities. They demonstrate that LGBTQ history is American history. That Vaughan and Margolin would undertake a project so epic and long-ranging in scope comes as less of a surprise when we uncover their own story. They met in New York City in 2006 while both working with TEAM, an avant-garde theater company. Today, their art and their private lives have become intertwined in every aspect, as they are married and work collaboratively. The work that they create is completely mutual with no artistic weight being shifted to either side; they are equally
represented in every aspect of their projects, from the thought process to the physical creation of their artworks. The majority of their art reflects their identity as an LGBTQ couple in America. We conceive of our identity within its existing historical and cultural narratives, but how can one’s LGBTQ identity be folded into a larger storyline if that very history has been shrouded? What’s more, Vaughan and Margolin’s work offers an LGBTQ narrative that is no longer a single, simplified tale of overcoming adversity and ensuing celebration, but rather an extremely complex timeline comprised of a multitude of individual accounts. Before they began 50 States, Vaughan and Margolin were already invested in the twinned issues of place, history, and identity. This engagement manifested in a parallel series of works involving cut maps. The maps are not a direct part of the 50 States project, but served as sketches or notes—precursors, if you will. Maps as a medium inspired them because they recognized their similarity to the intricate network formed by the cardiovascular system within the human body, as well as to the United States’ extensive network of roads. As such, they become surrogates of sorts for conveying
the body in its various social permutations: geographic, political, individual, and historical. Images of LGBTQ bars, Westerns, male pinups, and queered suburbia form the positive space of the maps. Video footage bleeds through the negative space of the map to create a productive interplay of ideas and form. For example, in Southwest: Pinups, a looping scene of an oil derrick thrusts over an image of a vintage male model, creating a collision of sexuality, desire, and the lust of exploration. Vaughan is a fellow with the Kaiser Family Foundation’s Tulsa Artist Fellowship program, which brought the duo to Oklahoma. Here they started the Sooner portion of 50 States, which tells the tale of the playwright Lynn Riggs, whose Green Grow the Lilacs serves as the basis for the musical Oklahoma! The play itself has become an integral part of the state’s identity, but the personal story of Lynn Riggs is often overshadowed by the success of the production. Riggs was a closeted gay man, who feared coming out in the restrictive milieu of early 20th-century Oklahoma. Vaughan and Margolin seize on the duality of his life to show how even the most well-known histories can include queered narratives beneath their (continued to page 14)
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(continued from page 13)
heteronormative veneers. The twosome intertwine Riggs’ life with that of Bruce Goff, a gay man and architect who proposed a never-realized monstrous “crystal chapel” for the University of Oklahoma. In channeling Riggs and Goff, the artists remind us how identifying as gay often comes with a split self-projection and view of oneself, akin to the way a crystal refracts light to produce a new, distorted image. Vaughan and Margolin’s work unearths hidden stories and creates community through the connections the stories forge. Take, for example, the case of Charles “Frenchy” Vosbaugh, the subject of the Colorado portion of 50 States. Frenchy was a biological woman who lived as a man—what we might today call transgendered—except he hailed from the small town of Trinidad, Colorado, in the late 19th century. Vaughan and Margolin saw in Frenchy’s story a potent testament to today’s transgender community and the possibility of creating a compelling connection between the old and the new. Vaughan and Margolin held a night of celebrations in June 2016, in which transgender/ genderqueer artists and activists in 5 different cities offered toasts to Frenchy’s life. Vaughan and Margolin live-streamed the toasts in Trinidad, where they gathered with local community members. To share this experience more broadly, the duo plans to show the video on a panoramic screen, which will immerse viewers in the moment. From wax panels and cutaway maps to videoed celebrations, Vaughan and Margolin’s work takes on different physical forms; they let their choice of
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story determine the media and approach to their projects. The Texas portion for 50 States is based upon the 1895 novel, Norma Trist: or Pure Carbon, a tale of the inversion of the sexes, which recounts a contemporary lesbian love affair. Vaughan and Margolin pay homage to the narrative by using stenciled, loose graphite to place the entirety of the text on top of parchment paper; the graphite not only reflects the title of the novel, but the ephemeral quality of the medium mirrors the same quality of the narratives that they are exploring. They pair the text with images of modern-day locations of historical LGBTQ bars throughout the state. Similar to the Wyoming project’s union of dirt and wax, the contemporary pictures alongside the more than 100 year old text creates a connection between the modern and the bygone, allowing people to identify themselves within the timeline created. Their September exhibition at Invisible Dog Art Center in Brooklyn will debut their Oklahoma, Texas, and Colorado chapters of 50 States. Yet, with 46 more states to go, we still have a lot to learn from Vaughan and Margolin. No doubt they will unearth more narratives that will help us to appreciate the complexities of LGBTQ history and to see all of our stories as inextricable, fundamental parts of the American experience. For more information, visit nickandjakestudio.com. n Ryan Hefley is a senior at the University of Tulsa in the Art History and History Departments.
(above) Video still from 50 STATES: Wyoming (4 Channel) in which the artists walked along the path of an 1843 gay pleasure excursion lead by William Drummond Stewart and his same-sex lover. Here, the trip lines up with a section of the Oregon Trail. (opposite page left) Installation view of 50 STATES: Wyoming as installed at Art League Houston in 2016. In the center of the space is the 4 channel video pictured on page 14. Photo Credit: Janice Rubin. (opposite page right) Nick Vaughan and Jake Margolin, Mary’s Naturally, Houston, 2015, hand-cut road map, 24 x 24” (framed). Image courtesy of the artists and Devin Borden Gallery.
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LYNETTE ATCHLEY: Curious Creatures by Renee Montgomery
(left) Summer Morning Bath, 2014, photograph, digital print, 8 x 11” (middle) Lynette Atchley pictured with work, 2016, photograph (right) Turkey Bat Manor (detail), 2015, ceramic, wood, prints, photographs, sound, found objects, 72 x 98 x 60”
A recipient of the 2016 Oklahoma Visual Arts Fellowship, Lynette Atchley has quickly developed a reputation for her quirky functional ceramics as well as her intriguing mixed media installations. Visitors to the Momentum Tulsa 2015 exhibition will remember Atchley’s Supper Time on the Farm with Isabel and Precious Pearl, a dark exposé about pet ownership. A Shawnee native, Atchley has shown her ceramics, prints, drawings and installations in numerous juried, solo, and dual exhibitions in addition to winning several awards and grants. “I absolutely fell in love with ceramics.” Atchley stumbled into her first pottery class at Seminole State College while defining a major. As an undergraduate she excelled beyond the mastery of the standard tableware forms to develop a distinct aesthetic based on the weathering effects of nature. “What does wind and water do to surfaces?” she questioned, e.g., Weathered Tea for Four. Atchley’s style then morphed to plant life afflicted with abnormalities, for instance, organic forms based on desiccated tree hollows which are wheel-thrown then hand-manipulated as seen in Untitled Altered Vase from the same year. Atchley’s work focused entirely on functional wares until 2013 when a graduate school instructor at the University of Texas, San Antonio encouraged her to try sculpture since she had already been suggesting anthropomorphic forms in her ceramics. As the artist explains, she started slowly, moving first to cryptic non-utilitarian
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ladles and introducing various ‘skin defects’ to her irregular surfaces, such as with Warted Oil and Vinegar Set. “I liked the storytelling that was going on—I consider my pottery to be like an abstract painting because beyond the sheer function of the ceramic ware, the concept is complex to convey without representational imagery and very conscious of formalism,” the artist describes. A new direction emerged in 2015. “Adding such elements as nails and spikes, I had been referencing humans but not actually making sculptures of humans. I appreciated the narrative that had been happening but this was still not enough, so I jumped in and started making animals.” In a summer print-making class, Atchley began constructing strange hybrid animals, then turned these ideas into sculptural clay creatures fixed in mixed-media installations as gross pets dominating their owners’ domestic environments. For instance in Supper Time on the Farm with Isabel and Precious Pearl, her largest installation, she shows an aberrant sharpei/rhino/tapir-like creature with its daughter up on the absent owner’s dining room table, chair and food knocked over. In this and subsequent installations featuring strange animals, Atchley criticizes owners of exotic animals who are unprepared to deal with the realities of the animal. “The eccentric and even vain personalities that obtain undomesticated species lose touch of
society’s established normality in pet ownership, ultimately sacrificing standards of animal and public welfare,” Atchley explained. In Out Back two reptilian creatures (part alligator with squid-like heads) inhabit a child’s plastic pool, reminding viewers of the cute pet store purchase that soon becomes an overwhelming long-term burden. In Turkeybat Manor the ugly birds’ roosts have taken over their ‘master’s’ living room, with their ancestors’ portraits beginning to infiltrate the family’s photo wall. (In Atchley’s installations, the pet owners are never part of the scenario but are often pictured in the back of the scene two-dimensionally in portraits.) Using clever details, as the annoying bats’ water bowl, scummy from their oily skin, Atchley expresses the many complications inherent in owning exotic and even common pets. To Atchley her ‘creature-compilations’ evoke the oddities or curiosities chronicled in historic medical journals of the Mütter Museum. Other influences are her childhood interest in horror films, as well as her own pet ownership (a former family dog once—and her present large mixed-breed who commands his own living room sofa). To help figure out each animal’s peculiar characteristics, the multi-media artist uses drawing and printmaking, while also consulting the thousands of reference documents she maintains on file, and visiting the zoo to capture the animal’s attitude, for instance, Idabel’s
and Precious Pearl’s stance is based on an ostrich foot. Finally, the artist mixes sounds to devise the unidentifiable grunts, shrills, etc, emitting from her faux habitats. Posing special problems for the ceramist is the animal’s imposing size—crucial in conveying the creatures’ intimidation. Idabel took five months to create, mainly to sort out how the beast’s legs could support its hefty body. Many figures are loaded into the kiln in parts, with a forklift and cannot be glazed or slipped because of multiple firings. Any surface coating must be applied with paint, for example, to convey animal sweat. Atchley plans to continue exploring new scenarios with her installations, “What absurd owners can I depict with just animals? . . . Now that I’m a mom of a [toddler son], I’m wondering if I’ll change my work to be more sensitive, more raw?” she asks. A work in fabrication features a more aggressive Drill Hog (part mandrill monkey/maned wolf/warthog) which has co-opted the frilly pink princess bed of its young pageant girl owner, who in turn sharply contrasts to her father, a stereotypical pitbull owner or gangster, pictured in a background photo. “The Drill Hog is the ‘pit bull’ of my exotic creatures in that, if not naturally docile or socialized properly, it can be deadly,” the artist explains. Atchley has meanwhile continued to develop her functional works, which show seamlessly alongside the large narrative installations. Last year Atchley began using a soda fire kiln to produce random surface variegations on her ceramic ware emulating nature’s eccentricities. Since relocating back to Shawnee after graduate school, the 31-year-old artist has served as adjunct faculty at several local colleges (including the Oklahoma Baptist University where her grandfather once served as art department chair). The OVAC Fellowship will help Atchley establish a home studio on the rural property she purchased in 2008. Partial funds have been used to acquire a trailer to haul and store her large pieces, and the artist is renovating a prefab shed (a former chicken coop) into a work space. She looks forward to buying her own kiln and dreams of one day perhaps providing regional workspace for other ceramists. “I thought I would have to move to make a go of it, but that is not true anymore.” n
7 - November October 7October - November 20, 2016 20, 2016 Curated byWiggers Namita Wiggers Curated by Namita
Reception October Opening Opening Reception October 7, 6-9pm 7, 6-9p Lecture andOctober Awards8,October 8, 1:30-3p Lecture and Awards 1:30-3pm
108Brady East MB Brady Street, Tulsa, OK 741 108 East MB Street, Tulsa, OK 74103 w w w . 1w 0 8wcwo .n1t0e8mc po on rt ae rmyp. oo rr ga r y . o r
Renee Montgomery previously worked as the Assistant Director at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and now works in Oklahoma museums and institutions teaching children.
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Art 365 PREVIEW: Pete Froslie by Olivia Biddick
Pete Froslie, Device, 2014, DC motor, high power LED, IR sensor, acrylic, glass 14 x 12 x 12”
Pete Foslie doesn’t seem to have a comfort zone. Being an artist already assumes something about an acceptation or rejection of norms, but his art specifically appears boundless—not of this world. His upcoming project for the 2017 iteration of Art 365, Aesthetics of Capital, is a conscious shift from the mechanical to the natural, looking at how nature and capitalism coexist. “Although my past work displays an association with engineering and computer science, I am currently enthusiastic about natural disciplines, including geology and ecology,” says Froslie. The project takes a closer look at “where minerals and gases enter commodity chains, and the aesthetic traces that result from the paths they follow—initiated by capitalist
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economies.” Such commodities include lithium, natural gas, and tantalum, with an emphasis on products in the supply list for Silicon Valley companies like Apple and Tesla.
more complicated idea. I like to imagine the work has a cute, crusty exterior, and dark, gooey interior,” says Froslie.
Froslie says he will tour some of these “commodity ports” this year, but some explorations, like researching ice in the poles, will wait until he takes a sabbatical. Other areas will be examined from afar and take shape artistically in the form of a map.
He teaches art and technology courses at the University of Oklahoma, a combination of subjects that was fairly new when he began in 2010. His work “manifests physically as electromechanical sculpture, and is extended through varying media as it borrows from history to create mythological fictions,” as described in his official bio.
How will this body of work physically look? It’s too soon to say, but Froslie’s enthusiasm about energy and art is undeniable and almost unfairly inspiring. “When approaching the formal aspects of my work, I usually try to create projects that are a bit fun to engage with, while attempting to convey a darker,
Froslie commonly combines both old and new technologies to make little “kinetic environments” filled with light and movement that range in scale from a 12-inch glass dome to an entire floor space. A recent example is how he created a zoetrope—one of the earliest animation mechanisms that lead to film. A
project for an annual art exhibition in Nevada, it projected flashing light on 3D printed skulls, giving the effect of an eerie carousel. When asked if he was the type of child who took things apart to learn how they worked, he answers yes only to the first part. The “learning how it worked” came later; “As a kid in the mid-eighties, I dismantled my dad’s stereo for its parts to convert a toy car into a time machine. This was right after Back to the Future was released. My hope was to leave the toy out over night with the parts cobbled together in its trunk, and wake the next morning to find tire tracks burned into the sidewalk. The car was gone, but there were no tracks. It wasn’t until around 1997 that I started to learn mechanical processes, which was primarily in response to the social shifts computers were bringing.” Like many people who were alive before Y2K, Froslie’s understanding of technology, especially computers, was not second nature. It had to be learned and developed over time and Froslie admits only recently that using technology for art feels malleable and transparent—much like painting to him. Knowledge concedes control, which in Froslie’s case means being able to make art that blurs the lines between analog and digital. However, “some degree of nostalgia” explains his overall preference and attachment to analog forms. “In my own practice, there is a bit of cycle every few years between software-based virtual work, and hardware-based physical work. I’m pretty happy moving between the two.” The beginnings of his work for Art 365 are shaping up in the studio to be a bit of a bait and switch with natural and technological elements. For example, a form that may look like a rock is not really a rock, but a database. Certainly a range of ideas and unexpected platforms involving the themes of capitalism’s effect on the environment and vice versa can be expected. Art 365 will open at MAINSITE Contemporary Art in Norman in June 2017 and then move to Tulsa in October 2017. For more information, visit Art365.org. n Olivia Biddick is the Office/Production Coordinator at CVWmedia in Norman. She has a BA in journalism with an emphasis on broadcasting and electronic media from the University of Oklahoma. Contact her at olivia.biddick@gmail.com.
(top) Device (detail), 2014, DC motor, high power LED, IR sensor, acrylic, glass (bottom) Geode [Generated], 2014, digital photograph, custom software, dimensions variable
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A Journey Through Time and Culture at OKC’s 21c Museum Hotel by Kerry M. Azzarello
(left) Exterior view of 21c Museum Hotel Oklahoma City (former Fred Jones Manufacturing Company). Along the sidewalk, planted among a row of bald cypress trees, one can spot Matthew Geller’s Woozy Blossom (Platanus nebulosus), 2010-2015, steel, water, copper, pump. Photo by Kerry Azzarello. (right) Marilyn Artus, Her Flag: Take 7, 2016, mixed media collage with hand and machine embroidery. Image courtesy of the artist.
21c Museum Hotel opened in Oklahoma City in June 2016. The boutique hotel housed in a renovated historic building centers on an art museum open to the public free of charge containing an extensive collection of some of the most relevant contemporary art today. The novel idea started with Laura Lee Brown and Steve Wilson, collectors and preservationists who wanted to integrate contemporary art into daily life by sharing their collection of work by living artists with new audiences. Their goal was first realized in 2006, when they rehabilitated a series of 19th century warehouses along downtown Louisville, Kentucky’s West Main Street. 21c Museum Hotel, and its art-community-lifestyle, was born. A decade later, they celebrated the opening of the sixth 21c Museum Hotel located at 900 West Main Street in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. “When we opened the first 21c in Louisville ten years ago, we wanted to help revitalize a once-vibrant area on West Main Street in Louisville,” said Steve Wilson, CEO of 21c Museum Hotels. “We saw a similar opportunity here in OKC, on the western edge of downtown and, to be
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a cultural catalyst and agent of forwardthinking change on Main Street, in an area with a rich, storied past.” That past began 100 years ago, when construction was completed on the Ford Motor Company Assembly Plant in 1916. Albert Kahn designed the four-story brick building. A young employee named Fred Jones ambitiously worked his way up in the company. Eventually, he established the Fred Jones Manufacturing Company, which is how many locals refer to the building. In 2014 the structure became listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Historically, the building’s purpose as an assembly line for automobile production allowed for mass-production of motor vehicles—making them more accessible to the general public. As is often mentioned on the museum tours—that’s precisely what 21c aims to do with art—create a space where the public can interact with contemporary art and see it as a part of their daily lives. Since the 21c collection, along with other works on loan, is spread across all six of their current locations nationwide, each city’s venue is unique and carefully
crafted to each particular location. Museum Director and Chief Curator Alice Gray Stites curates the exhibitions and installations. For the Oklahoma City venue, art is displayed in the 135 guest rooms, the 14,000 square foot museum, the restaurant, and everywhere in-between. Within all of those spaces, one can find permanent sitespecific installations, rotating exhibitions, and even works by local artists. The inaugural main exhibition at Oklahoma City’s 21c Museum is Labor & Materials, a diverse look at life, toil, and the building blocks of work features pieces by approximately 50 artists from the US and all over the world. According to Stites, “Exploring the evolution of industry in the 21st century, Labor & Materials presents a precarious balance between promise and peril.” She says, “The scale, scope, and speed of technological innovation heralds unprecedented changes in what, how, where, and by whom goods and services are produced and provided.” Visitors will be confronted with positive and negative aspects of contemporary issues such as mass consumption, globalization, domestic labor, environmental impact, and cultural identity.
Between the museum entrance and the hotel check-in stands The Big Kiss. In this twelve-foot mixed media sculpture by Chinese artist Chen Lei, a small child leans upward to kiss an imposing polar bear in an impossible balancing act. Optimistically, we see the tender innocence of the joining of two worlds. Pessimistically, we witness the imminent disturbance that potentially leads to destruction. Are the actions we take today helping to lighten the burden of future generations, or will the balance between nature and human intervention eventually lead to a disastrous collapse? Korean artist Do-Ho Suh’s Untitled and Who Am We (blue) explore the relationship between individual and group identities. He illustrates the fine line between the two with rows of miniaturized yearbook photos from thousands of Korean high school students. “I reduced the scale of the portraits as far as I could because I wanted to find the exact point at which both the human eye and technology could identify individual traits,” Suh explains. His work helps spark critical thought regarding the whole and the parts, and is itself yet one component of a larger exhibition examining relationships of existence and ritual. This work is particularly apt for this location—considering it is in the belly of the former factory and assembly line where the cogs and wheels were dutifully assembled by the hands of hundreds of anonymous workers. Undoubtedly, visitors should also immediately notice the presence of mass fabricated purple penguin sentinels throughout the hotel. Children instinctively approach them for photo opps and the staff periodically changes the penguins’ positions behind the scenes to maintain audience engagement. Every 21c Museum Hotel contains a rookery of penguins, each with a signature color. Purple was chosen for Oklahoma City in the spirit of innovation and discovery. The penguins,
designed and produced from recycled plastic by Cracking Art Group, provide a unifying element among the company’s various locations. They also underscore the history of production and accessibility, while simultaneously calling attention to the effects of mass industry on the environment. 21c Oklahoma City also hosts four permanent, site-specific works including pieces inspired by the building’s industrial history. Outside the Main Street entrance, standing amid a newly landscaped line of trees is Woozy Blossom (Platanus nebulosus) by Matthew Geller. This sixteen-foot tall steel tree features branches that produce a foggy mist, with mechanical inner workings that contrast with the natural processes of its living neighbors. Contemporary art merges with factory technology in James Clar’s River of Time. A conveyor belt made of blue, white, and green acrylic panels creates an artificial waterfall in perpetual motion. Incorporated in the flowing falls are LED lights that display the current time for both interior guests and sidewalk passersby. In Spinning Wheel of Life by Gunilla Klingberg, cut metal icons of tools and common factory signage form concentric rings on the ballroom floor. The centermost image, a Model T Ford wheel, also marks the center of the former assembly line. It is the first permanent U.S. piece for the Swedish artist. Floors two, three, and four house the work You Always Leave Me Wanting More. The installation features five large red arrows filled with pulsating white lights emerging from the floor. Depending on which floor you visit, the configurations, directionality, and heights all differ. The piece is by SuttonBeresCuller, a collaboration of Seattle- based artists John Sutton, Ben Beres, and Zac Culler.
The Elevate exhibition, on display across from the elevators on each of the guest floors, features a special rotating selection of local Oklahoma artists. On the second floor, we see yearbook photos again make an appearance, in conjunction with playing cards, measuring tape, and other collaged items in Her Flag: Take 7 by Marilyn Artus. The third and fourth floors feature clusters of Oklahoma City-based photographer Stephanie Halley’s works such as i brought you silence, the greeting, and unraveled. Representing Oklahoma in this initial run of art is thrilling for Artus, “Some of my favorite contemporary artists, such as Kara Walker, have work in the opening exhibition here and it is such a big deal for me to be hanging in the same building with them.” Elevate artists will rotate approximately every six months. The 21c Museum Hotel model is one of change, culture, and revitalization. The opening of its latest location brings worldclass art into Oklahoma City, allowing a free exchange of ideas rooted in the issues of our time. Its rotating exhibitions, upcoming artist talks, films, demonstrations and other programing will undoubtedly revitalize its physical location and add to the already rich culture of Oklahoma City. 21c Museum Hotel is located at 900 W Main Street in Oklahoma City. The gallery is open 24/7 with guided docent tours being offered every Wednesday and Friday at 5pm. Tours, like the museum itself are free and open to the public. For more information call 405-982-6900 or visit 21cmuseumhotels.com/oklahomacity. n Kerry M. Azzarello holds a Masters of Art in Art History from the University of Oklahoma. As a lover of both art & architecture she looks forward to many more visits to this and other 21c Museum Hotels. Kerry can be reached at kerryazzarello@gmail.com.
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Regaining Consciousness with Public Art by Krystal Brewer
In one of my favorite books, Incognito: Secret Lives of the Brain, one point author David Eagleman makes is how our brains are able to run on ‘autopilot’ when doing familiar activities while preoccupying the active part of our brains with daydreaming; until something out of the ordinary happens and our brains are signaled to direct its conscious attention back to the stimulus surrounding us, upsetting the path and pace. This disruption could come in the form of an object in the road when you’re driving, or, in the case of the pedestrian bridge connecting East Archer and North Boston in Tulsa, could be the road beneath you suddenly lighting up where it never had before. In this modern age of disconnection and distraction, many pedestrians are thrust into an experience of the unexpected with Trace, a public art installation by Grace Grothaus Grimm and Geoffrey Hicks in partnership with Urban Core Art Project. If the faux bricks’ dissimilar color and texture among the red bricks constructing the path weren’t enough to signal people’s brains, surely the resulting light show is enough to pull their attention into the present moment. In this installation, hundreds of bricks have been replaced with custom resin cast bricks that each hold circuitry, LED lights, solar panels, and the programmed software that dictates their responses.1 When a step applies pressure to the individual bricks, they respond with a white light. After a few seconds, this light fades out and a blue light illuminates the translucent brick. This sequence then allows for a succession of lights so that when a person walks across the section of the bridge, the bricks repeat their steps back to them in blue light. This relationship between viewer—or walker—and the installation allows for interaction with the environment, and the bricks’ playback even influences how people walk as they step on each resin brick in anticipation of the blue-lit reaction. Once noticing the first lit brick, people are then drawn to step on only the resin bricks in a stretched out game of hopscotch. Though the title comes from the fact that the installation traces the steps of the viewer, it is only after these individuals first trace the steps of the installation that it gives its full response, in that it continues to glow even after the participant has walked away. The name then has a dual meaning—to retrace the steps laid out for you, but also the trace left behind by those walking across the bridge, as though hinting at our lasting impressions. This temporary installation injects an element of color and play that breaks up the monotonous trek from Archer to Boston and grabs the attention of pedestrians, bringing their awareness to the space and the present moment. Though by the end of the year when the installation ends, the lighted bricks will likely become familiar enough to no longer disrupt a daydreamer’s musings, at least for now, it is a refreshing and unanticipated change. Editor’s note: this review first appeared on our new critical art review web platform, Art Review Oklahoma. For more info, visit www.artreviewoklahoma.org. n Krystle Brewer is an artist, curator, and writer based in Tulsa and can be found at krystlebrewer.com.
1 Grothaus Grimm, Grace, and Geoffrey Hicks. “Trace.” Trace. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 July 2016. tracepublicart.com
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Grace Grothaus Grimm and Geoffrey Hicks, Trace, 2016, installation with audience participants. Photos courtesy of the artists.
October 1 - November 20, 2016 Hardesty Arts Center | Tulsa, Oklahoma Presented by:
Sponsorsed by the Hardesty Family Foundation AHHAtulsa.org/returnfromexile
Troy Jackson, Return From Exile
YOUR PROJECTS, OUR EQUIPMENT. AHHATULSA.ORG/EDUCATION
101 E. ARCHER ST TULSA, OKLAHOMA
PHOTOGRAPHY AND PRINTMAKING SUITES AVAILABLE FOR INDEPENDENT USE.
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24
EKPHRASIS: Fall 2016 edited by Liz Blood
Poet Melody Charles explores elements of the reality and environment created by artist Jane Razauskas’ piece, “carbon X05.” Ekphrasis is a place for poets to express their imaginative understanding of a visual work of art.
no question / making tracks movement works audibly / shifts silence spectacle / no paths allow no blocks where does everyone stand / yet then how do we move / why live to work to live how do y’do, dear you / what doesn’t undo true / patterns in the wide void gradations abundant / connections interrupt / not to make an effort where does everyone stand / still more how do we rest / why work to live to work how do y’fear to do / what doesn’t undo new / patterns in the void wire rotations abundant / stillnesses interrupt / not just to make a stand it was almost worth it / hanging around with them / scanning reality quickly such noises surge / promptly drop static signs / windows shut, open blinds mental environment / polluted densely rank / repetitive verses weak hooks leave us hanging / shadows in the skylights / trailing off into dark old, old sensory news / parting, minding the gaps / consider wandering vary theme, but please keep / routine the right distance / unintended endings bird on wire, cat on ledge / nothing strong lends itself / just delivers their juice quickly such patterns lose / momentum ranks second / only necessary
Poet Melody Charles is a cheesemonger and poet from Tulsa, OK. This Land Press has published a couple of her poems. You can find her on Twitter @mldynnchrls.
unlocked doors don’t stay shut / believe carefully now / now embrace dearth & dirge say words unbarred like light / tumbling memory / waltzing bewilderment muse ever upward, love / love each seeing of ways / through, across, & over
Artist Jane Razauskas, an east coast native, currently lives and works in Tulsa, OK. Through her art she considers the vagaries of perception, and the intangible nature of human experience. She is a 2016 recipient of the Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation Individual Support Grant.
(opposite page) carbon X05, 2015, carbon paper and carbon residue on stone paper, 25.5 x 17.5”
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OVAC NEWS
FALL 2016
12x12 Art Fundraiser was held on September 23 at Science Museum Oklahoma. The event was a huge success and 175 Oklahoma artworks all measuring within the dimensions of twelve-by-twelve (by twelve) inches were on exhibition. The artwork was sold in a surprising blind auction with bids starting at only $175. Guests enjoyed bites from 26 local restaurants, and performances by Perpetual Motion Dance, Lincka, Harumph, and DJ Jon Mooneyham. Thank you to our sponsors Ackerman McQueen, Steve Mason & Travis Mason, NBC Oklahoma, Yelp Oklahoma City, High Five Media, Lamar Advertising Company of Oklahoma City, and Oklahoma Today, among many others. For more information on this event, and details on next year’s 12x12 Art Fundraiser, keep an eye on 12x12OKC.org. This past May, we held our second Collector Level Membership + Community Supported Art (CSA) Launch Event. Collectors attended a reception with the artists and received their second piece of original artwork. The program is a new way to connect art buyers with local artists. Through the CSA Program, collectors will receive 2 original pieces of art annually by Oklahoma artists and enjoy all of the additional benefits at the Patron Member level. The next Launch Event will be held in December. For more information, or to sign up, please visit ovac-ok.org/become-acollector. 24 Works on Paper, the biennial travelling exhibition of work by living Oklahoma artists returned again to open to the public in Guymon, OK in August 2016 and will continue its tour around the state through January 2018. The next few stops on the tour include The Wigwam Gallery in Altus,
OK October 7 – November 19, and TAC Gallery | Tulsa Artists’ Coalition December 2 – December 31. Visit 24Works.org for more information. The next quarterly deadline for all OVAC Grants is Oct 15. Applications are accepted monthly on the 15th for Education Grants. All other grant categories are reviewed quarterly. Please visit ovac-ok.org/programs/ grants for a complete list of the available opportunities. Art People
The Philbrook Museum announced Scott Stulen is the new Director. Previously, Stulen served as the Curator of Audience Experiences and Performance at the Indianapolis Museum of Art (IMA). The Oklahoma Arts Council recently welcomed Heather Lunsford as the new Director of Art in Public Places. Laur’ Myers Reese is now leading IAO (Individual Artists of Oklahoma) as the new Executive Director.
(top) Kayleigh Killgore, Not Yet Lost: Snow Leopard—Tibetan Buddhist, 2016, ink, 17 x 14”. 24 Works on Paper Curator’s Choice Award winner. (bottom) Andy Mattern, Standard Size #8197, 2014, archival pigment print, 16 x 13.5”. 24 Works on Paper Award of Merit winner.
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School of Visual Arts The University of Oklahoma For more info: art.ou.edu
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Schedule a tour of the SVA to meet the OU art faculty and learn about our programs.
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Connect with us: OU_SVA OU_SVA
Thank you to our new and renewing members from May through July 2016 Bobby Anderson Rebecca Arman Chelsie Austin Scott Aycock Margaret Aycock Kerry Azzarello and Adam Lanman Rex Barrett Fran Barton Carol Beesley Eric Bloemers Cynthia Boatright Bill Boettcher Bryan Boone Patti R. Bray & Bill Birchall Krystle Brewer John Bruce Zach Burns Amena Butler Kathy Buttry and Connie Seabourn Pattie Calfy Annalisa and Bruce Campbell Joseph Tanner Capps Cady Dill Carlson Eleanor Davy Carmack Claudia Carroll-Phelps Sharon Caudle Dian Church Angela Church Alicia Saltina Marie Clark Kristyna Cockroft Debra Coleman Kjelshus Collins and Andrea McMillan
John L. Cox Hilary Cranford Janet Fadler Davie Sarah Day-Short and Kevin Short Kay Deardorff Rebecca Dierickx Genevieve Doolin Michael Downes Kika Dressler Sandra Dunn Tony Dyke and Susan Morrison-Dyke Chase Kahwinhut Earles Michael Elizondo Jr William Emmons Charla Enns Ellen Etzler Josh Farrell Sarah Fayssoux Lauren K. Florence Catherine Freshley James and Judith Gaar Luke and Leeandra Galutia Joeallen Gibson Joseph Gierek, Joseph Gierek Fine Art Kristin and Dusty Gilpin Jeudi Hamilton Michelle Hammons Christina Harmon Virginia Harrison William D. Hawk Ingrid Hendrix Barrett Hird
Gina Hoffman Jeff Hogue Jan Holzbauer Brooke Hoover Don House & Sabine Schmidt Megan Hughes Cecelia Hussein Jacqueline Iskander Madihah Janjua J. Jann Jeffrey Nancy and Dan Junkin Kreg Kallenberger Aubree Karner Kelsey Karper Yvonne Kauger, Oklahoma Judicial Center Jean Keil Allin KHG Sarah King, Scissortail Collective Walter King Andrea Kissinger Adam Lanman and Kerry Azzarello Roger K. Lawrence Ty Lawrence Vincent B. Leitch Rosie Leonard William B Livingston Lorraine Longo Frank Lorenzo Jolene Loyd Forbes, Paseo ArtWorks Bruce and Ellen Macella Cynthia Marcoux
E. Marie Tatjana Marley Bobby C. Martin Mark Maxted Suzanne Wallace Mears Sunni Mercer Michelle Metcalfe Stacey D. Miller Cindy Miller Sylvia Miller Dedra Morgan Vicki and R.C. Morrison Maggie Munkholm and Barrett Hird Regina Murphy Don C. Narcomey and Vicki VanStavern Christie Fleuridas Owen Lori Palmer Daisha Pennie Bryon Perdue David Phelps Patty S. Porter Suzanne King Randall Laurence Myers Reese Theresa Riemer Patrick Riley Christine Rodgers Buffalo and Kelly Rogers George Rooks Timothy Ryan Terri Sadler Jennifer Salazar Jessica Sanchez Yvonne Sangster
Carl and Beth Shortt Louise Siddons Annie Solomon Eric Spiegel Jim Stewart Michi and Charles Susan Cheryl Swanson Tai Tindall Chuck and Ann Tomlins Alex True Dusty and Kristen Gilpin Colleen Van Wyngarden Joshua Vaughn Adam Vermeire Dillon Votaw Kelley Walker Brianna Walker Sandra Wallace Tim and Jarica Walsh Carla Waugh Jim Weaver Kay West Janie Wester Sandi Willhite Dawn Williams Jessica Willis Jason Wilson John Wolfe Betty Wood Nicki Wood Dean and Kelly Wyatt Amy Young
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Gallery Listings & Exhibition Schedule Ada
Davis
El Reno
The Pogue Gallery East Central University 900 Centennial Plaza (580) 559-5353 ecok.edu
Chickasaw Nation Welcome Center 35 N Colbert Rd (580) 369-4222 chickasawcountry.com
Redlands Community College 1300 S Country Club Rd (405) 262-2552 redlandscc.edu
Alva Native American Art Through September Artists Round About Through October Graceful Arts Gallery and Studios 523 Barnes St (580) 327-ARTS gracefulartscenter.org
Ardmore
DJ Lafon Through November 4 The Goddard Center 401 First Avenue SW (580) 226-0909 goddardcenter.org
Bartlesville Peanuts‌Naturally Exhibition Through October 9 Price Tower Arts Center 510 Dewey Ave (918) 336-4949 pricetower.org
Chickasha Nesbitt Gallery University of Science and Arts Oklahoma 1806 17th St (405) 574-1344 usao.edu/gallery/schedule
Claremore Rogers State University 1701 W Will Rogers Blvd (918) 343-7740 rsu.edu Wolf Productions: A Gallery of the Arts 510 W Will Rogers Blvd (918) 342-4210 wolfproductionsagallery.com
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Duncan Chisholm Trail Heritage Center 1000 Chisholm Trail Pkwy (580) 252-6692 onthechisholmtrail.com
Durant Centre Gallery Southeastern OK State University 1405 N 4th PMB 4231 (580) 745-2000 se.edu
Durham Metcalfe Museum 8647 N 1745 Rd (580) 655-4467 metcalfemuseum.org
Edmond Multiplex Through October 28 Donna Nigh Gallery University of Central Oklahoma 100 University Dr (405) 974-2432 uco.edu/cfad Edmond Historical Society & Museum 431 S Boulevard (405) 340-0078 edmondhistory.org Fine Arts Institute of Edmond 27 E Edwards St (405) 340-4481 edmondfinearts.com Melton Gallery University of Central Oklahoma 100 University Dr (405) 974-2432 uco.edu/cfad University Gallery Oklahoma Christian University 2501 E Memorial Rd oc.edu
Guthrie Hancock Creative Shop 116 S 2nd St (405) 471-1951 hancockcreativeshop.wordpress. com Owens Arts Place Museum 1202 E Harrison (405) 260-0204 owensmuseum.com Â
Guymon
All Fired Up Art Gallery 421 N Main (580) 338-4278 artistincubation.com
Idabel Museum of the Red River 812 E Lincoln Rd (580) 286-3616 museumoftheredriver.org
Lawton Micheal W. Jones - My Wildest Dreams Through October 28 Arni Anderson - The Spirits of Oklahoma Heritage Through October 28 The Leslie Powell Foundation and Gallery 620 D Avenue (580) 357-9526 lpgallery.org Museum of the Great Plains 601 NW Ferris Ave (580) 581-3460 discovermgp.org
Norman The Crucible Gallery 110 E Tonhawa (405) 579-2700 thecruciblellc.com
Dope Chapel 115 S Crawford (580) 917-3695 Downtown Art and Frame 115 S Santa Fe (405) 329-0309 Firehouse Art Center 444 S Flood (405) 329-4523 normanfirehouse.com Jacobson House 609 Chautauqua (405) 366-1667 jacobsonhouse.org Visage: Photography from the Permanent Collection Through December 4 A sense of his soul Through December 30 Fred Jones Jr Museum of Art 555 Elm Ave (405) 325-4938 ou.edu/fjjma Lightwell Gallery University of Oklahoma 520 Parrington Oval (405) 325-2691 art.ou.edu MAINSITE Contemporary Art Gallery 122 E Main (405) 360-1162 normanarts.org FALL QUILT SHOW Through November 5 Moore-Lindsey House Historical Museum 508 N Peters (405) 321-0156 normanmuseum.org The Depot Gallery 200 S Jones (405) 307-9320 pasnorman.org
Oklahoma City Acosta Strong Fine Art 6420 N Western Ave (405) 453-1825 johnbstrong.com
Diane Jackson Exhibition Through October 22 [ArtSpace] at Untitled 1 NE 3rd St (405) 815-9995 artspaceatuntitled.org Brass Bell Studios 2500 NW 33rd facebook.com/BrassBellStudios Contemporary Art Gallery 2928 Paseo (405) 601-7474 contemporaryartgalleryokc.com DNA Galleries 1705 B NW 16th St (405) 371-2460 dnagalleries.com Exhibit C 1 E Sheridan Ave Ste 100 (405) 767-8900 chickasawcountry.com Surroundings by Christie Owen Through January 7, 2017 Gaylord-Pickens Museum, home of the Oklahoma Hall of Fame 1400 Classen Dr (405) 235-4458 oklahomahof.com Grapevine Gallery 1933 NW 39th (405) 528-3739 grapevinegalleryokc.com Howell Gallery 6432 N Western Ave (405) 840-4437 howellgallery.com In Your Eye Studio and Gallery 3005A Paseo (405) 525-2161 inyoureyegallery.com DIANE COADY Through October 22 Individual Artists of Oklahoma 706 W Sheridan Ave (405) 232-6060 individualartists.org
JRB Art at The Elms 2810 N Walker Ave (405) 528-6336 jrbartgallery.com Kasum Contemporary Fine Art 1706 NW 16th St (405) 604-6602 kasumcontemporary.com Lowell Ellsworth Smith: My Theology of Painting Through December 31 National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum 1700 NE 63rd (405) 478-2250 nationalcowboymuseum.org Nault Gallery 816 N Walker Ave (405) 642-4414 naultfineart.com Katherine Liontus-Warren, A Journey of Discovery Through October 14 Nona Hulsey Gallery, Norick Art Center Oklahoma City University 1600 NW 26th (405) 208-5226 okcu.edu Oklahoma City Community College Gallery 7777 S May Ave (405) 682-7576 occc.edu The Modernist Spectrum: Color and Abstraction Through December 31 Oklahoma City Museum of Art 415 Couch Dr (405) 236-3100 okcmoa.com Oklahoma Contemporary Arts Center 3000 General Pershing Blvd (405) 951-0000 oklahomacontemporary.org Oklahoma State Capitol Galleries 2300 N Lincoln Blvd (405) 521-2931 arts.ok.gov Paseo Art Space 3022 Paseo (405) 525-2688 thepaseo.com
Michael Litzau October 7 – 29 Libby Williams & Taryn Singleton November 4 – 26 Beatriz Mayorca December 2 – 31 The Project Box 3003 Paseo (405) 609-3969 theprojectboxokc.com
Our People, Our Land, Our Images Through December 31 From the Belly of Our Being: art by and about Native creation Through December 31 Oklahoma State University Museum of Art 720 S Husband St (405) 744-2780 museum.okstate.edu
Red Earth 6 Santa Fe Plaza (405) 427-5228 redearth.org
Sulphur
Satellite Galleries Science Museum Oklahoma 2100 NE 52nd St (405) 602-6664 sciencemuseumok.org Summer Wine Art Gallery 2928 B Paseo (405) 831-3279 summerwinegallery.com Tall Hill Creative 3421 N Villa
Chickasaw Visitor Center 901 W 1st St (580) 622-8050 chickasawcountry.com/explore/ view/Chickasaw-visitor-center
Tonkawa Eleanor Hays Gallery Northern Oklahoma College 1220 E Grand (580) 628-6670 north-ok.edu
Tulsa
Park Hill
108 Contemporary 108 E MB Brady St (918) 895-6302 108contemporary.org
Cherokee National Historical Society, Inc. 21192 S Keeler Dr (918) 456-6007 cherokeeheritage.org
aberson Exhibits 3624 S Peoria (918) 740-1054 abersonexhibits.com
Ponca City Ponca City Art Center 819 E Central (580) 765-9746 poncacityartcenter.com
Shawnee Mabee-Gerrer Museum of Art 1900 W Macarthur (405) 878-5300 mgmoa.org
Stillwater Gardiner Gallery of Art Oklahoma State University 108 Bartlett Center for the Visual Arts (405) 744-4143 art.okstate.edu
West Mexico: Ritual and Identity Through November 6 Gilcrease Museum 1400 Gilcrease Road (918) 596-2700 gilcrease.utulsa.edu Hardesty Arts Center 101 E Archer St (918) 584-3333 ahhatulsa.org Henry Zarrow Center for Art and Education 124 E MB Brady St (918) 631-4400 gilcrease.utulsa. edu/Explore/Zarrow Alexandre Hogue Gallery University of Tulsa 2930 E 5th St. (918) 631-2739 utulsa.edu/art
Holliman Gallery Holland Hall 5666 E 81st Street (918) 481-1111 hollandhall.org
Tulsa Performing Arts Center Gallery 110 E 2nd St (918) 596-2368 tulsapac.com
Joseph Gierek Fine Art 1342 E 11th St (918) 592-5432 gierek.com
Waterworks Art Studio 1710 Charles Page Blvd (918) 596-2440 cityoftulsa.org
Living Arts 307 E MB Brady St (918) 585-1234 livingarts.org
Wilburton
Mainline 111 N Main Ste C (918) 629-0342 mainlineartok.com M.A. Doran Gallery 3509 S Peoria (918) 748-8700 madorangallery.com
The Gallery at Wilburton 108 W Main St (918) 465-9669
Woodward Plains Indians and Pioneers Museum 2009 Williams Ave (580) 256-6136 pipm1.info
Lovetts Gallery 6528 E 51st St (918) 664-4732 lovettsgallery.com Cady Wells: Ruminations Through October 2nd Philbrook Downtown 116 E MB Brady St (918) 749-7941 philbrook.org A Bestiary Through October 23 Oscar Bluemner Through November 6 First Person: Remembering Little Big Horn Through Nov 20 Philbrook Museum of Art 2727 S Rockford Rd (918) 749-7941 philbrook.org Pierson Gallery 1307-1311 E 15th St (918) 584-2440 piersongallery.com Urban Art Lab Studios 2312 E Admiral Blvd (918) 747-0510 urbanartlabstudios.com Tulsa Artists’ Coalition 9 E MB Brady St (918) 592-0041 tacgallery.org
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To subscribe, visit Arts.OklahomaToday.com
Become a member of the Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition. Join today to begin enjoying the benefits of membership, including a subscription to Art Focus Oklahoma. Collector Level + Community Supported Art (CSA) Program $1,000 ($85 a month option) · · · · ·
2 original and quality pieces of art by Oklahoma artists 2 tickets to CSA Launch Events twice a year 2 tickets to 12x12 Art Fundraiser $400 of this membership is tax deductible All of below
PATRON $250 · · · · ·
Listing of self or business on signage at events Invitation for 2 people to private reception with visiting curator 2 tickets each to Momentum OKC & Momentum Tulsa $200 of this membership is tax deductible. All of below
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Acknowledgement in Resource Guide and Art Focus Oklahoma Copy of each OVAC exhibition catalog 2 tickets to Tulsa Art Studio Tour $100 of this membership is tax deductible. All of below
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Subscription to Art Focus Oklahoma magazine Monthly e-newsletter of Oklahoma art events & artist opportunities Receive all OVAC mailings Listing in and copy of annual Resource Guide & Member Directory Invitation to Annual Members’ Meeting
Plus, artists receive: · Inclusion in online Artist Gallery, ovacgallery.com · Artist entry fees waived for OVAC exhibitions · Up to 50% discount on Artist Survival Kit workshops · Affiliate benefits with Fractured Atlas, Artist INC Online, Artwork Archive, and the National Alliance for Media Arts & Culture.
STUDENT $25
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730 W. Wilshire Blvd, Suite 104 Oklahoma City, OK 73116 The Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition supports Oklahoma’s visual arts and artists and their power to enrich communities. Visit ovac-ok.org to learn more.
Oct 7: 24 Works on Paper opens in Altus Oct 15: OVAC Quarterly Grants for Artists Deadline Dec 2: 24 Works on Paper opens in Tulsa Coming soon: watch for details on Momentum 2017
October
John Wolfe, Carol Beesley & Bob Nunn Opening Reception Friday, October 7 6:00pm - 10:00pm
November
Robert Peterson & Karam Opening Reception Friday, November 4 6:00pm - 10:00pm
BOB NUNN
JOHN WOLFE
December
Christmas at the Elms Opening Reception Friday, December 2 6:00pm - 10:00pm
ROBERT PETERSON
MOH’D BILBEISI
CAROL BEESLEY
KARAM
2810 N. Walker Oklahoma City, OK 405.528.6336 www.jrbartgallery.com
Non Profit Org. US POSTAGE PAID Oklahoma City, OK Permit No. 113