Art Focus
O k l aho 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 2 N o . 1
| Spring 2017
STEEPED: THE ART OF TEA APRIL 7 – MAY 21, 2017 Curated by Anh-Thuy Nguyen and Janet Hasegawa OPENING RECEPTION: April 7, 6:00-9:00pm CURATOR WALKTHROUGH: April 8, 1:30-3:00pm
ROOTED, REVIVED, REINVENTED: BASKETRY IN AMERICA JUNE 2 – JULY 23, 2017 Curated by Josephine Stealey OPENING RECEPTION: June 2, 6:00-9:00pm CURATOR WALKTHROUGH: June 3, 1:30-3:00pm 2
Images: Sword and the Chrysanthemum, Jean Ann Fausser (top) White Oak Egg Basket, Leona Waddell (bottom)
Art Focus
Ok l a h o m a Volume 32 No. 1 | Spring 2017 R e v i e w s a n d P re v i e w s 4 PHOTO/SYNTHESIS by Lucie Smoker
6
FILM REVIEW: Daughters of the Dust & Neruda by Jill Hardy
F e a t u re s 8 NOT FORGOTTEN: Crystal Z Campbell by Alison Rossi
10 COLOSSAL CHROMATICITY: Rachel Hayes by Krystle Brewer
12 IMITATION OF LIFE: Politics in Art by Elizabeth Downing
16 MOMENTUM OKC 2017: Spotlight by Kyle Cohlmia
18 FRENCH CONNECTION by Olivia Biddick
22 ART 365 PREVIEW: Andy Mattern by Molly O’Connor
24 EKPHRASIS : Spring 2017 edited by Liz Blood
26 OVAC News 28 Gallery Guide (top) On the cover: Marwin Begaye, Greed Consume, digital print. (page 12) (middle) Andy Mattern, process images from Art 365 project; courtesy of the artist. (page 22) (bottom) Krystle Brewer, rocess image for Modern Family. Images courtesy of the artist. (page 16) Support from:
Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition 730 W. Wilshire Blvd., Suite 104, Oklahoma City, OK 73116. PHONE: 405.879.2400 WEB: 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 Anonymous letters will not be published.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; 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. © 2017, Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition. All rights reserved. View the online archive at ArtFocusOklahoma.org.
3
Will Wilson (U.S., Navajo; b. 1969), Billy Joe Bigheart, Citizen of Osage Nation and affiliated Cherokee, Great-Grandson of John WahSheWahHah Bigheart, Nekahstahska (2016), archival pigment print from wet plate collodion scan, 8 x 10". Image courtesy of the artist.
4
PHOTO/SYNTHESIS by Lucie Smoker
Some exhibitions are so big I can barely walk through without a lunch break. Photo/ Synthesis at the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art was not that huge physically. I didn’t need a sandwich. Rather, Photo/Synthesis was a mammoth on my mind. It invigorated my curiosity, dismantled my preconceptions, and surprised me with controversy. I came to see powerful portraits and found those plus a concept called “artistic sovereignty” and a hundred-fifty year old photo process that, um, talks? “Just line up your iPad,” said the docent, “That image will come to life. It’s a talking tintype.” The portrait had bright eyes and a sense of joyful modernity wearing an intricate, traditional necklace. I wanted to meet Shoshana Wasserman, citizen of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation and affiliated Thlopthlocco Tribal Town, Human Being, and granddaughter of Sandy Dacon— but of course my iPad was having none of that. Surrounding me were thirty-three new black & white portraits by Native American artist Will Wilson hung side-by-side with thirty-three of the iconic, 1930 copper plate images by Edward S. Curtis of “the vanishing race.” All were sized to match the Curtis originals, around 8 x 10". On the outer walls were 20 much larger portraits by Wilson, poster size. Photo/Synthesis began as a response to the Curtis images. “They created part of the myth of the American West, part of the myth of Native America,” said associate curator heather ahtone. But Curtis “authored” everything about the 1930 photos himself. The tribes had no input and some portraits did not even name the subject, only labelled them as A Wichita Dancer or A Little Comanche. “That’s a form of erasure,” said ahtone. “Once you take a name away, that person is no longer recognized as an individual. He becomes a type; the type becomes a stereotype and the stereotype becomes something which is no longer recognizable as real people.” With this exhibition, Wilson and ahtone wanted to return the control over tribal imagery to the tribes—restoring “artistic sovereignty.” Through a three-year process, ahtone worked with tribal leadership to choose who would represent them, what they should wear, etc. The tribes were
not involved in funding the project and that distinction felt important. Their input took the form of research, time spent in negotiation, but mostly a vision of how they wanted to be seen. Billy Joe Bigheart squinted down from his portrait with a reserved skepticism. A citizen of Osage Nation and affiliated Cherokee, great-grandson of John WahSheWahHah Bigheart, Nekahstahska, he wore an expression similar to his great-grandfather’s in Curtis’ image, Big Heart (1930). I awed at the rays of white light across the newer but grittier Wilson “tintype.” They seem to highlight the lines of wisdom in his face. “Happy accidents,” the artist called them. For this project, he used a 140 year-old lens with a wet-plate collodion process. Once the insta-photo of carnivals, the “tintype”portraits were set up in 3-5 minutes on aluminum plates, not tin. The process creates stark black & white portraits highlighted with beautiful flaws that Wilson encourages. Glowing rays, dark splotches, dots and unpredictable areas of softness complement the image. I was struck by the amount of trust wrapped in each portrait: trust in the process, in the tribe’s vision, in the artist/photographer who had to establish rapport in order to bring out these emotions. As in his larger Critical Indigenous Photography Exchange (CIPX) project, Wilson builds a partnership with each sitter—from before the image is taken, through inviting them into the darkroom to see the image reverse. He makes only a digital scan for himself and gives the original to the sitter, or in the case of Photo/ Synthesis, to the tribe. In doing so, he returns “tintype” to its carnival photo booth roots. I imagined Zachary Rice and Taylor Moore coolly absorbing the process. Citizens of Pawnee Nation, these OU Linguistics grads returned home to work on the tribe’s language program. Wilson’s portrait of them somehow exudes that cool confidence of young adults molding the world to their needs. “Culture isn’t static. It moves slower but incorporates new technologies,” said Wilson. He created some of his images as “talking tintypes.” Using an app called LAYAR, the viewer positions their device in front of the image and ... yes, my iPad finally connected, bringing out a ghostly overlay of Shoshana Wasserman.
I liked the way the talking tintype stopped if I turned away from her portrait, sort of insurance against multi-tasking. As a result, I was wholly focused on her as the screen faded to a video where she greeted me in her native language and told me more about herself. As I moved on to another portrait, her words still resonated in my mind, extending our encounter. That’s the opposite of the distance I felt from the people in the Edward S. Curtis images. Where Wilson’s portraits contain hyperreal grittiness and the light of individuality, Curtis’ possess poetry of a distance that cannot be denied. He believed himself to be documenting the end of a culture. His resulting images feel sensitive, somber, achingly beautiful yet tainted with exoticism and nostalgia. Wilson says, “There’s a certain violence to nostalgia. It fixes [the tribes] in corporeal spaces. They had been forcibly resettled here. When Curtis came, some level of assimilation had already occurred. The people had adopted new ways, new resilience. I wanted to participate in bringing that forward.” To say, “Yes, we still do amazing things. The culture is still vibrantly alive.” And he achieved that in community with good intentions. The exhibition had the overall feeling of attending a family reunion. My one criticism lies in the fact that the artistchosen images along the edge were displayed so much larger than the images created in collaboration with the tribes. Distracting at times, that felt at odds with the stated goal of “artistic sovereignty.” At the same time, the more uninhibited outer portraits, not bound to respond to Curtis, felt more dynamic, playful like the backyard of that family reunion. One portrait of a thirteen-year-old Cheyenne & Arapaho basketball player pulled them all together. With a slight smile glowing through her cheeks, Ann Marie Woolworth didn’t need a talking tintype. Granddaughter to Woolworth and Madbull, she held her head high, matched my gaze, and in her eyes, I saw that resilience—unstoppable. n Lucie Smoker is a suspense author, poet and freelance writer. Check out her latest words at luciesmoker.wordpress.com.
re v i e w 5
FILM REVIEW: Daughters of the Dust by Jill Hardy
Images courtesy of Cohen media.
The images of Julie Dash’s visually mesmerizing Daughters of the Dust could tell a story all their own, even without the unique dialogue that accompanies them. From the opening frames, the tone of the movie is set by the waves of the sea, the palm trees, Spanish moss...you can almost feel the sand under your feet. Dash’s story of a family on the brink of change at the turn of the twentieth century is a vehicle for both a glimpse of the unique Gullah culture of the southeastern coast of the United States and an examination of how people are both individuals, who need to seek their own happiness, and parts of a greater whole. The plot centers on the Peazant family, who live on an island off the coast of Georgia. The relative geographical isolation has meant that family members have mostly stayed close through the years, but a move is in the works that would remove the younger generations to the mainland, with the exception of the family matriarch, Nana Peazant. The return of two very different women— Viola and Yellow Mary—to gather with the entire family one last time on the island represents the type of changes that contact
6
re v i e w
with the outside world may bring. Viola has become a fervent Christian, adopting orthodoxy not common to the island, and paints the move as a consciousness expanding journey. Yellow Mary has lived a life marked by hard circumstances and loss, and brings a young woman back with her who is hinted to be her lover. Their voices balance the vision of what life off the island will be, and serve to moderate the dreams and address the hesitations that the other family members have. Although insular and conducive to cultural preservations that have strengthened its members, the island is by no means depicted as a pristine paradise. The elders’ indigo stained hands and Nana Peazant’s stories serve as reminders that slavery was the genesis of their community, and the movie’s narrator, the Unborn Child, is the baby carried by Eula, who was raped and doesn’t know if the baby is her husband’s or her attacker’s. Dash’s vision is singular, and the pacing, while slow, is perfect for what this film is—ideas set to the background of a place and time. Who goes to a new place in the hopes of
achieving the most possible, and who stays in the place that grounds you? How do you respond when your dreams don’t turn out the way you planned? Where is the line between honoring your ancestors, the people who brought you to this point and time in your life, and seeking out what is best for you as an individual? Are they really that far apart? Does everyone have the same answer? Many—probably most—movies that appeal to the art lover in us are trying to do what this director does, and not many achieve it. Non-linear storytelling in Daughters of the Dust means that you have to work a little harder as a viewer, to piece together bits of information about characters and timelines. You also have to listen more closely, since the movie’s dialogue is in Gullah dialect— but this is a different film experience. Let yourself be immersed and you’ll find yourself thinking about the macro ideas in each individual’s story and the overall narrative for quite a while after it’s over. n Jill Hardy is a freelance writer and can be reached at jdhardy4@msn.com.
FILM REVIEW: Neruda by Jill Hardy
If you are looking for a strict, historically accurate biopic of Chilean poet-political warrior Pablo Neruda, you need to know upfront that Pablo Larraín’s Neruda does not fit that bill.
fleeing is no saint, but beloved, just the same. This duality is probably most poignantly illustrated in a scene where a detractor at a gathering still wants to kiss Neruda; despite his perceived hypocrisy, there is no doubt—through his poetry— that his heart is with the Chilean people, and he is deeply adored.
If you’re familiar with Larraín’s other work, however, and if you’re okay with all of the sides of a conflict, this is well worth a watch. In Larrain’s storytelling, we see a beloved figure like Neruda being put under the microscope, examined against the backdrop of an overarching look at how stories—and poems—are made and told.
That’s one of the great strengths of Neruda, as an artistic vehicle; it leads us to examine art itself, as well as the artist. The power of Pablo Neruda’s poetry is almost a character in its own right in the movie, and even the very act of creating characters is broached, as the leads battle for the title of protagonist in front of our eyes.
The narrative of Neruda fleeing his political enemies in 1948 Chile is one well known to Neruda-ites across the world and throughout time; after Chile’s president aligned himself with anti-Communist forces, the pro-Stalin Neruda was forced into hiding. Larraín’s take on this piece of history is told through the perspective of the (fictional) detective assigned to find Neruda. Working class, the son of a prostitute (possibly the illegitimate child of the former police chief ), this detective (named Peluchonneau and played to perfection by Gael García Bernal) represents the common Chilean—the very sort of individual that Neruda’s Communism would seem to benefit. But Peluchonneau hardly sees his prey as a hero, and his criticism is not the wildeyed hate of a fanatic, but a level-headed indictment with an uncomfortable logic. “They don’t know what it is to sleep on the floor,” he says, of Neruda and other “champagne Communists” who purport to represent the interests of their poorer countrymen while they enjoy uncommon lifestyles.
Image courtesy of The Orchard.
The movie’s direction is close to perfection; the dialogue intertwines seamlessly with the narration, and the 40s era tone is set with just the right amount of camp—green screen driving scenes and García Bernal’s perfectly calibrated noir attitude give it a fun, retro feel, even with the seriousness of the subject matter. (Pinochet is only represented in one chilling, detention camp cameo; a somber reminder that all of the ideas being discussed are centered on very real and very brutal repression.)
Neruda succeeds as a story because of its style and the plot’s playful purposefulness. But it’s also a thoughtful encouragement to see people, and times, and movements—political and personal—through all possible lenses, with an eye towards understanding the skepticism of the common people involved (Pelochanneau asks, “When Communism arrives, will we all be equal to him, or will he be equal to us?”) and most importantly— the questioning of our heroes. The true ones will stand up to scrutiny, and will still be our heroes even if they fall short of perfection. n Jill Hardy is a freelance writer and can be reached at jdhardy4@msn.com.
The plot comes close to being a more morally malleable Les Miserables; the pursuer in this case isn’t so dogmatic, with points worth considering, and the man
re v i e w 7
NOT FORGOTTEN: Crystal Z Campbell by: Alison Rossi
(above and next page) Crystal Z Campbell , Go-Rilla Means War, installation at the Sculpture Center in New York. Images courtesy of the artist.
Even though I have heard Tulsa Artist Fellow Crystal Z Campbell speak once before, I’m still surprised by the softness of her measured voice when we head out for a walk in downtown Tulsa on a warm, winter afternoon. As manicured sidewalks give way to mosaics of urban detritus, we stride and discuss her work and experiences around the globe. Campbell remains attuned to the here and now. A homeless man’s furious invocations elicit quiet compassion and a reflection on the lack of funding for mental health care in Oklahoma. A shattered jar of Vlassic Dills merits a pause and a photo as we observe glistening, chartreuse spears curiously intact and wonder about the narrative that just unfolded. Jaunts through hip, new retail spaces inspire conversation about gentrification as
8
f e a t u re
well as the pace and sustainability of growth in the area. Rounding the corner into Greenwood, we stop to read parallel sidewalk plaques. While one set refers to the area as “Black Wall St.”, the newer plaques identify the neighborhood as the “Historical Greenwood Business District”. Why the dual signage and phraseology? she wonders. Campbell is an astute and sensitive observer of the world around her. Her work preserves discarded artifacts of humanity and excavates lost histories. Go-Rilla Means War, a recent installation commissioned by the Sculpture Center in New York that is part of In Practice: Material Deviance, was prompted by the artist’s salvaging of a damaged roll of 35mm film she found in the abandoned Slave Theater, a historically black performing arts and theater venue and center of civil rights
activism in western Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. Campbell “carried this 35mm film for six years like a relic” and last year, cobbled together a makeshift spool from plumbing pipes and flanges and manually scanned 20,000 frames from the film. In October of 2016, she visited various archives in New York City but found no information about the theater or the film itself. With no titles, credits or soundtrack available to her, Campbell collaborates with the anonymous filmmaker to complete a film that is, so far, absent from the public record. The artist explains that “the film, Go-Rilla Means War, and its faded and discolored frames are a metonym for Bedford-Stuyvesant’s deterioration by way of neglect, media demonization of black bodies and the War
on Drugs, all of which formed a constellation leading to Bed-Stuy’s current gentrification.” In January, she completed the installation: a uniquely soundtracked, 365 second slideshow loop of images from the film, archives and other sources projected onto opposing walls. Bathed in the room’s deep pink light, the viewer must pivot from right to left as one would at a crosswalk with no lights, a reference to the lack of infrastructure in Bedford-Stuyvesant during the 1970’s. The timing corresponded with the demolition of the Slave Theater and raised questions for her “about what communities and cultural institutions are deemed worthy of being part of history’s archives and whose histories are absent from the public narrative.” Those questions resonate with her pursuits in Oklahoma as she has connected to regional history through a focus on the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921. Using images from photos and postcards taken before, during and after the Tulsa Race Massacre, Campbell created Notes from Black Wall Street, a suite of fifty 8.5 x 11 mixed media paintings displayed in the Syncretic: Tulsa Artist Fellowship exhibition at 108 | Contemporary’s this past December and January. These once-circulated black and white postcards bear handwritten text such as “run[n]ing the negro out of Tulsa,” often outlined by the artist in vivid color to underscore that motivations that drove the massacre transcended race. Among the devastating ruins depicted in each image are vestiges of prosperity in the form of downed theater signs, shattered storefronts and skeletons of once grand homes. Visually touring these works encourages engagement of the senses, imagination and critical thought. What sounds, smells, textures and tastes would one have experienced ambling through this community a century ago? What layers of shared and suppressed American history lie under our feet? The artist’s application of thick, tactile paint on the images in the series suggest that this history is material that can be touched and that the distance of space and time can be bridged. Campbell was raised primarily in Oklahoma and the Tulsa Artist Fellowship has provided her with the opportunity to revisit the state’s history after over a decade of working as an artist in The Netherlands, Italy, Houston, Iceland, Switzerland, Vermont, New York, San Diego and Marfa. Excavating some of Oklahoma’s neglected and forgotten people, places and events through her work feels right for her right now. The artist confronts viewers with new sets of questions imbued with contemporary relevance and resuscitates and dignifies narratives of erasure. Learn more about Crystal Z Campbell and her work at: crystalzcampbell.com n Alison Rossi consults for museums and teaches in higher education.
f e a t u re 9
COLOSSAL CHROMATICITY: Rachel Hayes by Krystle Brewer
Rachel Hayes, Mirror Lake, Bottomless Lakes State Park, Roswell, NM, 2015, nylon, polyester, silk satin, 100’
Rachel Hayes’ works are large and bold while also simultaneously gentle and soft. Pairing a delicate process of sewing together fabrics and light gels with a large scale and powerful color palette, she turns feminine quilts into masculine structures that are eye-catchingly beautiful. With Hayes’ range of skills, she approaches her work as a fiber artist, painter, and sculptor solving formal problems through color, texture, and composition. This unlikely combination and approach to her work stems from her diverse experience in art school. When beginning her BFA, she always thought she would go into the sculpture department. However, as the time came for her to choose a focus there was a “certain machismo” about the sculpture department that Hayes felt would inhibit her ability to thrive. While taking foundations classes that were located next to the fiber and textile department, she realized there were sculptural works being made there too, and in an environment that
10 f e a t u re
better suited her personality. Hayes recalls thinking, “Okay, this is sculpture too, it’s just soft sculpture.” Once inspired by the work in the fiber and textiles department, she began making soft sculptures as well. “I began sewing as a way of building and constructing. I loved sewing because I could make something huge but then fold it up and carry it across campus with me.” She found herself drawn to dying processes after a couple years into her fiber and textiles program. All of her friends were painters and she began to think about her work in relation to painting. When she enrolled in an abstract drawing class in the painting department, her professor instructed her to bring her sewing machine to class and “draw” with her textiles since the work she was creating was abstract, just in a different medium. This experience further influenced the abstract painting quality about her work. Upon completing her BFA at the Kansas
City Art Institute, she applied to graduate programs, though only submitting to sculpture departments, assuming that would be the best fit for her practice. However, while she was at Virginia Commonwealth University for her interview in their sculpture department, she met the chair of the painting department and he convinced her to leave her slides with him instead, leading to her MFA in painting. Navigating this path of trying to figure out exactly where her work fit in academic departments has brought Hayes to a practice that combines the material of fiber, the aesthetic of abstract painting, and a utilization of space from sculpture. Though using sewing as a means to connect fabric and light gels, her compositions come from a traditional painting dialogue. Hayes then transforms these large-scale paintings into sculptures and installations involving mass and space. “I think the huge part of [this type of work] was attractive to me because of the physicality and
Not Fade Away, 2015-2017, silk, nylon, lighting gel acetate, thread, 30 x 50 x 40’
the machismo. I was trying to compete with what I would have been working on in the sculpture department. The scale is powerful and color also became a way for me to grab someone’s attention. “ Though it wasn’t until several years removed from her formal education that she was able to see how all of these elements intertwined to create her visual voice, Hayes can now trace the path that brought her to her current practice. Since, she has had numerous solo shows and commissions, many of which are large
scale and site-specific installations that play with space and light. By combining the softness and flexibility of sheer fabrics with light gels, she creates works of vibrant color that when light shines through the work, it casts a colorful shadow replica on the space surrounding the work raising the question of which is the art, the physical object or its interaction with the space and viewers? Borrowing visual vocabulary from both modern painters and land artists, Hayes’ innovative practice turns flat paintings into
large works that interject into and becoming a part of the space around them. With the bold use of color and the larger-than-life scale, she achieves her goal of making massive works that demand attention while creating a powerful sensory experience. “I’m a sculptor at heart but I just happen to love color and use it formally.” n Krystle Brewer is an arts administrator, arts writer, and artist who can be found at krystlebrewer.com
f e a t u re 11
IMITATION OF LIFE: Politics in Art by Elizabeth Downing
(left to right) Alice Leora Briggs, La Anexada. Alice Leora Briggs, Cinta Canela (Cinnamon Tape)
Art has always referenced social issues and by extension, politics. In this cacophonous political atmosphere, how are Oklahoma artists reacting? What, if anything, has changed about their approach to current and future creative work? These questions were posed to four Oklahoma artists with differing backgrounds and working in different media. For Marwin Begaye, Assistant Professor of Printmaking and Painting at OU, it began at the beginning: “growing up as a native person, I was always told that I have to take care of the earth and it will take care of me.” Begaye has explored the issue of environment through printmaking in a series about the pipelines, a series on diabetes, and an embroidered series addressing inattention to the environment. The black and white Tar Sands woodblock print depicts a skeleton atop a horse holding a shield with the power button (as seen on many technology devices) with oil derricks on the horizon and dollar signs suspended in the air. His Grievance piece more overtly references consumerism with plastic Target
12 f e a t u re
shopping bags in the shape of a bird contrasted against an intricate black and white woodblock printed background. Western Doughty also finds his work rooted childhood experiences in North Tulsa where he was a firsthand witness to the inequities and injustices perpetrated against his friends and neighbors. Where a shoplifting incident at QT led to detention for his African American friends, he was sent home and so he “Feels a duty to push back on behalf of the community I grew up in.” Several of Doughty’s photographic series have stemmed from recurring dreams that reference his childhood including a body of work shot at the Desert Hills motel on Route 66. Finished Business embodies the uncomfortable subject matter sometimes shown in the series and shows the power of Doughty’s visual storytelling. Miss Trailer Park 2014 is part of a project where he lived in a trailer park for a year. This photograph is a study in contrasts, both visually and in a socioeconomic sense, and challenges the viewer to question their assumption.
Alice Leora Briggs, draftsman, installation artists, and printmaker, “has always been interested in the disasters, famines, and wars that decorate human history.” Briggs created an “illuminated manuscript police blotter” in collaboration with Charles Bowden, a Tucson-based writer, which depicted the events surrounding a drug cartel death house in Juarez. Her current book, created in partnership with Juarez-based photographer and journalist Julian Cordona, talks about the new words that have come into use in Juarez in response to the “crescendo of violence.” An example is the Cinta Canela drawing, the literal translation means cinnamon tape, but it’s used to describe the brown plastic packing tape used to restrain or gag. The Encobijados drawing, meaning “the blanketed ones,” describes murder victims whose bodies are rolled in blankets and left in the desert around Juarez. For Ebony Iman Dallas (artist, writer and founder of Afrikanation Artists Organization), the subject of police brutality has been with her since before she was born. That was when
“With this administration, they are giving artists more to work with.” He continues, “When I was first doing this work, people thought I was this outrageous militant artist because I was addressing an issue head on. Now, with everything else happening, it’s more normal.” —Begaye
her father, who emigrated from Somalia, was killed by police officers. “He was here for school and killed by people who were supposed to protect him,” she says. Dallas’ background in journalism and art led her to a career in art directing, and she’s come back to addressing social issues through painting, particularly after a session at the Artist Inc. program last year. Her freestyle pen drawings and brightly colored paintings, such as a portrait of Malala Yousafzai, “hit on hard topics but want[s] to show that people can inspire positive change.” Dallas addresses difficult issues by showing the subjects as a part of a larger story and choosing moments that highlight the subjects overcoming their situations. The portrait of Malala, for example, depicts a postattempted-assassination scene where the young woman is reading a book because “this bad thing happened but nothing has changed, she’s still pushing forward with the same agenda she had before.” (continued to page 14)
(top) Ebony Iman Dallas, Nabad iyo Caano (Peace and Milk), painting (bottom) Ebony Iman Dallas, Daughters of Abraham, painting
f e a t u re
13
(continued from page 13)
Briggs, who came to Tulsa as a part of the Tulsa Artists Fellowship, says, “I am attuned to the politics and hope that whatever I do is bigger than that.” So what do these artists think of the current political situation and its relationship with art? Says Begaye, “With this administration, they are giving artists more to work with.” He continues, “When I was first doing this work, people thought I was this outrageous militant artist because I was addressing an issue head on. Now, with everything else happening, it’s more normal.” Briggs, who came to Tulsa as a part of the Tulsa Artists Fellowship, says, “I am attuned to the politics and hope that whatever I do is bigger than that.” Doughty references the historical precedent of artists reacting to oppressive leadership and says, “I’m so scared that it won’t happen this time, and it makes me want to not be afraid. To release my hang-ups and use my art to empower myself and others.” Each of these artists pointed to changes in their work influenced by the current political situation. Dallas’ future work will certainly address police brutality, and in an explicit way. “Most people aren’t ready to hit the streets in protest. Art shows are a good way to bring people together. As for viewer reaction, she adds “I’m starting not to care about being careful because I’m tired of feeling like I can’t say or do certain things.” Briggs has found her art shifting towards immigration although “not in response to the deterioration of the current political situation.” Briggs says that she “accidentally became political. [I’m] trying to understand the full range of human behavior.” Her next project documents massive numbers of belongings that have been confiscated from immigrants who cross the border. She is cataloging and scanning “things that aren’t supposed to exist” like earrings, cell phones, and prayer cards in order to create a work “so compelling that people have to stop and look.” Of future work, Doughty says bluntly, “There’s no holding back now.” He is diving back into the archives of shot but un-shown photographs, and embarking on another dream-inspired series. In the past, he says his work has been misconstrued as misogynistic and controversial: “It’s not going into any living rooms in Tulsa.” He says there is a desire for art that is “pretty,” but there are many great-but-unknown artists in Oklahoma because their work “isn’t pretty, but real.” (top) Marwin Begaye, Grievance, woodblock and plastic bags. (bottom) Marwin Begaye, Tar Sands, woodblock.
14 f e a t u re
Begaye notes that there are a lot more social- and politicalbased exhibitions now and he will “keep on trucking with current bodies of work that address these issues given the current climate.” And, he points out, political work is not all he does, but “being native, it’s already political whatever I switch to because of the history of the relationship.” At the heart of politics is debate, disagreement, compromise, and a lot of words. Art has always been and will continue to be a visual way to process and participate in culture. The perspective shift from words to visuals is often a muchneeded way to reframe what’s happening. And perhaps, more importantly, to be immersed in an experience outside of one’s own. As Dallas says, “art is a great way of informing a mass amount of people.” n
(top left) Western Doughty, Oklahoma Bride, photograph (top right) Western Doughty, Miss Trailer Park 2014, photograph (bottom right) Alice Leora Briggs, Encobijados
Elizabeth Downing may be reached at beth@bethdowning.com.
f e a t u re 15
MOMENTUM OKC 2017: Spotlight by Kyle Cohlmia
Editor’s note: Every year, three Momentum OKC Spotlight artists are selected to receive financial assistance and curatorial guidance. Emerging Curator Kyle Cohlmia describes her experience visiting the artists on studio visits with Lead Curator Kate Van Steenhuyse, and the virtuosity of each of their projects.
In the center of the tent, Zah placed a family photo album, inviting viewers to review the book at their leisure. In each page of the photo album, Zah placed polaroids of the family she currently lives with. The images showed them working their everyday lives on one side, while on the other side, she included collages of her idealistic life, a sort of wish list or perceived paradise for a traditional lifestyle that Zah has kept in her memory, consisting of magazine cutouts of both traditional and contemporary Native American people and images. Should’ve Seen it in Color lived as an interactive installation in Graphite Gallery for the duration of Momentum and invited viewers to experience Zah’s interlude of past and present life, while simultaneously contemplating their own emotions regarding family in both realistic and idealistic notions. Krystle Brewer, Modern Family
Summer Zah, Best of the West, collage and ink, 7.5 x 11”
Summer Zah, Should’ve Seen it in Color
A fire pit, white shed, and fractured lawnmower made up the landscape of a rural Oklahoma scene on the first of three studio visits we conducted. Driving through this type of setting, one might not assume therein thrives creativity, but beyond the wide-open space of Ada, Oklahoma we found Summer Zah and her white shed studio where she thinks about and creates emerging works that speak strongly toward her personal experience and cultural background. Zah, a recent graduate of Southeastern University with a BFA in printmaking and BA in Native American studies, presented her work titled, Should’ve Seen it in Color, a large-scale, interactive installation, for which the title was influenced by listening to the country music singer, Jamey Johnson. Zah’s piece represents the rollercoaster of emotions she has experienced—the embodiment of her mother’s illness—and a visual interlude to her past life living in Dulce, NM at the Jicarilla Apache Indian Reservation.
16 f e a t u re
Zah is most known for her collage prints of traditional Native American imagery with contemporary metaphors, text, and color. However, Should’ve Seen it in Color took her prints to a larger and life-sized scale installation, comprised of a camping tent representative of Zah’s experience working in meat tents, a space to cut, sell, and consume the meat gathered in her New Mexican community. What stood out the most in this installation however, were the interwoven pictures, interspersed with blue and yellow dye, from her past that adorned the interior of the space with fringe hanging down on the sides, representing Zah’s discombobulated emotions of her past, present, and future. Weighing down the tent were old coffee cans filled with ash from her backyard fire pit, creating an aromatic smell of brunt embers. Adorning the label of the cans, Zah placed prints of her mother’s past prescription labels, an image that Zah is used to by now from taking care of her mother and visiting the doctor frequently.
Describing her personal aesthetic as “grandma chic,” Krystle Brewer invited us into her well-kept home for a studio visit. With tea on the kettle and Brewer’s new puppy, Melody, happily following, the crew moved out to her at-home studio, a quaint structure located in her backyard where Brewer mixes materials and makes models for her unique ceramic pieces. Brewer, exhibitions director at 108 | Contemporary in Tulsa, OK, is known for her work in ceramics, and created an interactive installation, Modern Family, for this year’s Momentum. Modern Family consisted of a small, wooden dining table with two chairs on opposite ends, inviting visitors to sit and imitate a traditional dinner table setting. In the center of the table, Brewer placed handmade, ceramic pieces. However, the individual plates were merged together to represent a Venn diagram; the cups merged with their corresponding forks, and the remaining silverware blended with each napkin. Through this array of dinnerware, all molded in ceramics to replicate realistic utensils, Brewer represented our inherent desire to merge with other humans (with and without its varying complications). Above each chair were suspended head phones, on which a recording played of Brewer having dinner conversations with her partner over topics revolving around a contemporary
relationship. Will they cohabitate? Will they have children? Does their relationship best fit their individual needs? These recordings looped continuously and included the background noise of the clink of silverware as Brewer and her partner discuss these topics in earnest at their actual dinner table. In addition, Brewer showcased more of her merged ceramic tea cups on a shelf to the side of her installation at Momentum. Brewer’s simple, yet subversive aesthetic made a statement about non-traditional values in gender roles and challenges the idea that craft is a lower tier of fine art. Modern Family invited viewers to experience firsthand the desire to create relationships fitting for their individual needs beyond conformity. Lisandro Boccacci, Out From Smoke & Ash
Lisandro Boccacci is an emerging filmmaker studying at Tulsa Community College. His video-based project, Out from Smoke & Ash, featured segmented shots detailing events from
the Tulsa Race Riots, specifically telling the story from the Tulsa neighborhood of Greenwood, one of the most affluent all-black communities in America and known as “Black Wall Street,” covering 40 square blocks, more than 600 businesses, and 15,000 residents, which was demolished during the tragic event, leaving hundreds killed and thousands homeless. This significant and interactive installation included eight TV screens, each with a different narrative telling the story of the race riots and narrated through spoken word. Each video screen was mounted onto a wood pallet frame with a hinged door opening up to the screen, which presented a choice for the viewer to dive into each clip by figuratively and literally opening the door to Oklahoma’s historical past. Bocacci’s intro and outro to the eight different scenes of Out from Smoke & Ash, set the tone of this video series, as he began by revealing a TV screen showing clips of news coverage prior to Trump’s election. Connecting the past to the present, Boccacci’s intro then pulled back to reveal steps from the 1921 race riots that survived the time, thus starting the film experience. Throughout the film, Boccacci panned his camera through eight different rooms, each room signifying a scene that highlighted an aspect of the Tulsa Race Riots through historical re-enactments, narrative, poetic, modeled, and documentary styles of expression, including the narrative of white racism against the black community, a re-enactment of a mother and daughter experiencing first-hand the violence of the riots, and a choir singing to mourn the nights’ deaths.
(left) Krystle Brewer, process images for Modern Family. Images courtesy of the artist.
(above) Lisandro Boccacci in his studio. Images courtesy of the artist.
Boccacci collaborated with the University of Tulsa, as well as local actors, crew members, professors, artists, and students, to tell the story of the Tulsa Race Riots in a unique way never before shown, which ultimately unlocked a significant part of Oklahoma’s history that is rarely told. Collectively, these interactive and inspiring installations highlighted detailed representations of narrative including personal tragedy, contemporary relationships, and collective memory. The 2017 Momentum Spotlight artists were shown at Graphite Gallery in Oklahoma City’s Plaza District, March 24 and 25. For more information on Momentum, visit MomentumOklahoma.org. n Kyle Cohlmia is a writer living and working in Oklahoma City.
f e a t u re 17
FRENCH CONNECTION by Olivia Biddick
constraints but also because the object and nature of the program is to await the inspiration given from traveling somewhere foreign. Ginna Dowling uses prints to tell stories, something that has always been a part of her life as the fifth female artist within three generations of her Oklahoma family. This is Ginna’s second residency abroad in the past few years. In 2015 she worked in Ireland with the help of an OVAC Creative Projects grant, and the experience has carried over into her current work. The trip heightened her interest in “culture and ideas that come from travel and learning more as it relates to visual storytelling,” good priming for the French exchange.
Daren Kendall, Intersection, 2012, steel and safety glass, installation view, Bailey Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York.
Norman Art Council’s Cultural Connections program involves mini-residencies with three Norman artist traveling to one of our sister cities, and three local artists from the sister city journeying to Norman. This year the overseas city is Clermont-Ferrand, France. Norman’s selected artists are Ginna Dowling, Jason Cytacki, and Daren Kendall. The application and selection process was extensive, considering every detail and possible dilemma. “We looked for several things when reviewing the [artists’] proposals - We had to think about the space in which the artists would be exhibiting. It is a challenging space, an 18th century chapel that has be turned into a community art space. Most importantly, we were looking for proposals that would allow for community interaction. This is, after all, a cultural exchange designed to explore the characteristics of sister cities through art,” says Erinn Gavaghan, Executive Director of Norman Arts Council and curator of Cultural Connections. The location for the exhibition in ClermontFerrand, the restored Chapelle de l’Oratoire, has a 32-foot ceiling and lies in the center of the city. Norman artists work alongside the French artists during their time in France, May 2017. The
18 f e a t u re
French artists: Cecile Gambini, Hervé Bréhier, and Annemarie Rognon, travel to Norman in September this year to get ready to display their work in MAINSITE Contemporary Art from October through November. Choosing which French artists to select and send to Norman was fortunately an easy task. Beginning in 2014 the same three artists for Cultural Connections were housed in downtown Clermont-Ferrand as part of a neighborhood rehabilitation project designed to revitalize the beautiful historic old center of the city and to support the Clermont artists says Hélène Lucchesi, orchestrator on the Frenchend of the exchange. When asked about the logistics and language barriers of the program Erinn replies, “I have a new saying: ‘There is easy, and then there is Clermont-Ferrand easy!’ The City has been a dream to work with.” Due to the extensive traveling and the cost of shipping abroad, artists must be extremely resourceful and pragmatic when it comes to outlining their exhibition, providing materials and packing. The limitations, rather than inhibit the integrity of the art, act as a chance to improvise and try new methods, spurring creativity. Most of the art is assembled or created on location partially due to shipping
Her work showed at MAINSITE during the span of February’s Norman Art Walk, closing on the second weekend of March. The exhibition, Inherent Language of Life used the tradition of glyphs or characters to tell a story. The glyphs in Ireland were abundant and acted as a bottomless source of inspiration for Ginna. She took the traditional symbols and injected her own meaning (some more universal, others more personal) to tell her journey through Ireland in a series of linocuts on vertically stacked Yupo paper. One piece titled The Snug (Irish term for pubs that allow women) takes dozens of individual glyphs made by women from a larger, black and white, made by both male and female piece and makes them pink. The new environment and context completely changes the meaning of each glyph, ranging from varied icons from trees to ovaries. A portion of Inherent Language of Life, using the glyph style, is reflected in France. Her exhibition in France is fittingly called A Tale of Two Sisters, and touches on individual and communal connections. Ginna’s proposal explains that the story-telling installations “create a language and tell a story with narrative imagery that challenges the current volatile issues of violence, fear, hatred, and intolerance that are rampant throughout the world.” The projects explore identity, considering differences as well as similarities between “visualized reference of a sisterhood” to create “an accepting and cohesive collective in the form of art,” according to Ginna’s proposal. In real life, the art translates into two installations — one that uses Post-its to create
a collage to represent the community (as it is built through the contribution of locals). The other a mural made from individuals creating their own glyphs by ripping up paper into the shape of their choice. “When you tear you lose control,” says Ginna in her defense of the selfproclaimed non-artists. Found paper materials that represent each city, i.e. newspapers, phone book pages etc. add another layer to the pieces. She notes that once the shapes are gathered and shown together, the inner artist shines through, and you can no longer tell who made what nor the class, race, gender, sexual orientation or creed of the individual. You see only art. Two years ago, Jason Cytacki, Assistant Professor at the University of Oklahoma, taught a course in sister city Arezzo, Italy: Being my first time in Europe, I was struck by how different things were in some cases, but also very similar in others. I most enjoyed the times when I wandered around the city and spent time looking at all the small elements of the city, from door knobs to drains to signage. These details seemed so fresh and interesting because everything was new –which was certainly part of it, but also at least partially due to the fact that I was walking around fully present and aware of my surroundings. When I returned to Norman, I started trying to look at things in the same way I did in Arezzo and was surprised by how I had a different view of Norman. This planted the kernel of an idea and when I read the prospectus for the Cultural Connections show I thought it would be the perfect venue to explore these ideas. The idea, examining what is often overlooked but ultimately hugely significant, takes form in true to self and scale, hand-drawn illustrations. Seeing two similar but different enough variations of, for example, a French door and an American door, allows us to notice how what constitutes our definition of mundane or exotic is relative. The displays of the drawings experiment with layering and transparencies “so that the various drawings can have a conversation as they are juxtaposed next to each other,” says Jason. The fragmented articles from both countries’ daily life create a complete image together.
(top left) Jason Cytacki, Nebo (You Can Look…), 2016. (bottom left) Jason Cytacki, untitled process image courtesy of the artist. (top right) Ginna Dowling, The Snug (detail). Photo by Britni Peel (bottom right) Ginna Dowling, The Snug (floor shadow detail). Photo by Britni Peel
(continued to page 20)
f e a t u re
19
(continued from page 19)
School of Art The School of Art at the University of Tulsa offers majors in Art History, Digital Media, Drawing, Graphic Design, Painting, Photography, and Printmaking. Jason Cytacki, Entrance
Jason moved to Oklahoma from Indiana and has a keen hold and understanding of Americana and the American West, seen in past drawings and paintings. That ability to observe and comment on a culture helps illustrate the nuances in an inanimate object, giving it life. Daren Kendall, Assistant Professor at the University of Oklahoma, makes sound sculptural installations, but usually with a sense of humor. The site-specific installations, as described in his proposal, draw from Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi’s Statue of Vercingétorix and Statue of Liberty both symbolizing “ideas of freedom and democracy.” The former depicts the king warrior riding into battle on a horse and can be found in the center of Clermont-Ferrand, while the latter is the ubiquitous symbol of a now less welcoming America. Together they are meant to “demonstrate the potential of art to transcend boundaries and create a space to explore and shape the cultural identity and political landscape which binds these two sister cities,” says Daren. All three artists’ work touches on the political climate in both the U.S. and Europe, even if not overtly so, because now more than ever; the personal is political due to the current state of affairs. Art is the common thread in the program and the primary way of communicating with our French sister-city counterparts. After receiving a response in French from one of the exchange artists, I attempted to decode the response using Google Translate. The fractured version of the response Google provided to my question was delightfully poetic in a typically straight-forward French way. When describing what he hopes to get out of his first trip to the United States, Hervé said (via Google),”to go around in circles, then ask my way, speak with people, language game, try to understand.” But taking previous works at face value, there is a mix of playful and industrial—hard lines and messy curves offered up— just like the Norman artists themselves.
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. 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 Juried Student Exhibition The show is curated by a nationally recognized juror, and students win cash awards for their work. Come visit us!
Norman Art Council’s Cultural Connections continues to gain popularity in Norman as it rekindles its relationship with its sister cities. This year’s exchange is the second cultural exchange of four. The original was in Arezzo, Italy, and the following exchanges will happen in Colima, Mexico and Seika, Japan over the next few years. 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.
20 f e a t u re
Please Follow us on Facebook. www.facebook.com/utulsaschoolofart/ For more information, visit www.cas.utulsa/edu/art/ or call 918.631.2739 • TU is an EEO/AA institution
21
ART 365 PREVIEW: Andy Mattern by Molly O’Connor
Andy Mattern, process images from Art 365 project; courtesy of the artist.
Originally from Albuquerque, photographer Andy Mattern moved to Oklahoma in 2015 when he accepted the position of assistant professor of photography & digital media at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater. Prior to relocating to Oklahoma, Mattern taught photography at the Santa Fe University of Art and Design and the University of New Mexico. While attending graduate school at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, he became interested in using photography as a tool to explore place, making work that dealt with the extreme winter and the objects and artifacts specific to that environment. As one of five recipients of OVAC’s Art 365 awards, photographer Andy Mattern is literally venturing underground into the depths of Oklahoma storm shelters to create a unique body of photography work. How would you describe your project for ART 365?
The project I’m working on for Art 365 involves making photographs inside storm shelters. The photographs are one-of-a-kind contact prints produced on light sensitive paper using only the available light coming in through the air vents
22 f e a t u re
in the spaces. The visual result is fairly abstract black-and-white compositions in various sizes that I intend to show as a group on the wall. Rather than using a camera and the lens to make a detailed representational picture, these photographs are more about the experience of being in the space and attempting to see what can almost not be seen. How did the concept of the 365 project originate?
Shortly after moving to Oklahoma in 2015, I noticed these peculiar mounds with little air vents popping up in people’s yards. I had to investigate further because I was curious and I discovered that they were in fact storm shelters. As a new transplant to Oklahoma, I had never seen one of these before and so I became interested in learning more about them. After going inside one for the first time I realized that they are nearly pitch black and therefore could be used as a camera obscura, or a pinhole camera. This was the starting point for my project where I converted the spaces into life-size pinhole cameras to create images of what was immediately outside the shelter. However, after repeating this process
several times I realized there was something else happening aesthetically and experientially inside the space. With the door closed the only light in the space trickles in just faintly through the air vents. This led me to realize that, in a way, these dark rooms could be considered a kind of camera in their current form. So, without my even changing anything in the space, I could collect an image using only available light from inside. This is how the idea of making contact prints came about. I wanted to see if I could communicate something about the feeling of being in these dark, cold, confined spaces while including some notion of security or hope that I think is part of the experience of taking shelter. This is what the images display, mostly dark negative space with a single glowing form hovering somewhere in the frame. What do you find fascinating about the storm shelter and Oklahoma’s extreme weather?
More so than many other states, Oklahoma has a reputation for tornadoes. I must admit that this was one of the only things I knew about the state before I moved here. I follow the news stories, like so many people, of the tornadoes
in Moore, Oklahoma with horror. After I was offered the position at Oklahoma State University I began reading up on the history of the state more broadly, but this notion of extreme weather that could appear at any time is hard to shake. This was a natural starting point for me to explore my new adopted state. What are some of the revelations you have had in exploring the underground bunkers?
I’ve been pleasantly surprised at how inviting strangers have been to me when I ask if I can photograph in their shelter. Perhaps it is because these are shared spaces in moments of need, or perhaps I just been lucky so far, but it has been great to interact with the owners and interesting to see the variety of spaces. Some are very comfortable with furniture and emergency supplies such as water bottles nonperishable food a radio and flashlights. Others are less frequently maintained inhabited by lots of spiders. I wouldn’t consider myself overly claustrophobic, yet these spaces do feel quite confining and I’m always relieved when I am able to get out. How have you located the storm shelters where the process takes place?
At first, I put the word out to my friends and colleagues and then I opened up the call to social media. From those two sources I had a lot of hits and I was able to visit different spaces in the area. When those dried up, however, I started knocking on doors. I had seen several shelters around my neighborhood while walking and so I composed a letter with an explanation of my project and approached strangers’ homes. As it turned out, I never had to show any of them the letter, which I brought just in case there was no one home. So far it has worked out that people have been home; they hear me out and have been welcoming for the most part. I met an elderly neighbor recently just a few block from my house who talked to me at length about the history of the neighborhood, his family, the city, and his wife’s dementia, among other topics. He was fine with my photographing his shelter, but it had an ADA lift inside with a dead battery. After taking a look at it, I suggested I could wriggle into the space and hook up his battery charger while doing my work. He agreed and we were able to help each other. It’s probably one of the
strangest ways to meet your neighbors, but as an introvert I’m happy to have the excuse. Has the work you are doing for Art 365 influenced the classes you are teaching as an art professor? If so, how?
In the photography program at Oklahoma State University I integrate analog and digital processes along with the history of photography and the deployment of photography as contemporary art. I don’t know that this project itself has influenced my classes, perhaps it is the other way around. The way that I have been thinking about and teaching photography for the last few years has involved looking deeply at the rudiments of the medium. What is an image? What is a photograph? What kinds of pictures can we, or should we, make now? I am grateful to the curator, Dana Turkovic, who has been encouraging and insightful while allowing for the project to evolve. I have a tendency to over-plan and overthink things. Her observations throughout this process have helped me let go of some of my expectations and given me the space to pursue the ideas that present themselves rather than clinging too tightly to my initial direction. What are the some of the results of using the pinhole camera process and other elemental techniques to create the effect you desire for your work?
The most immediate result is a very different kind of image than I am used to creating with a digital camera or a large-format film camera. The pinhole process, or in the case of this project now, making contact prints from a direct light source, tend to be much less detailed and more abstract. Also, the process uses chemistry and light-sensitive papers, which involve a lot of trial and error—mostly error. I’m literally guessing the exposure time looking at my watch, shrugging, and just waiting. I have been commiserating with my students about this because they are shooting film for the first time in their lives and struggling with the technical aspects of exposure and development, not knowing what to expect. When it works, it’s great, but when it doesn’t it’s a real sense of loss. Those photographs that don’t appear on the film are gone forever. And I have been doing the same thing, venturing out into the world with large sheets of light sensitive paper, hoping that I get something. I’ve had some moments
of frustration and fear that it’s just not going to work, but then I get into the darkroom, an image appears in the tray, and I’m over the moon. What are the key elements of your experimentation?
Certainly the main ingredients are light and time. In fact, those are the first two projects I give in my Photography 1 course. If you have those two things, light and time, and some kind of light sensitive material you can make a picture. What is your goal for the Art 365 project?
I think one of the scariest things for an artist— or anyone, really—to do is something s/he has never done before. It’s also the most exhilarating thing, and I think it can help to move the work forward. It’s healthy to not know what you’re doing sometimes. I guess that’s my goal right now: to not know what I’m doing. That, and hopefully, to make images that surprise me and that speak in some way to a common experience. I’ve only been through one tornado season in Oklahoma so far, during which time the alarms went off twice and I took shelter. But I still feel like a tourist, at least so far. So I have the luxury of thinking of storm shelters in a more metaphorical way. I see them as an architectural expression of our vulnerability and of the limits of our control over this environment we inhabit. n Author’s note: Mattern is still seeking additional spaces to complete the Art 365 body of work. If you own an outdoor storm shelter with air vents and would be willing to allow him access to the space, contact him at andy@andymattern.com. Molly O’Connor is a multidisciplinary artist from Oklahoma City. She also serves as the Cultural Development Director for the Oklahoma Arts Council. She can be reached at moconnor1122@yahoo.com.
f e a t u re 23
24
ekphrasis
EKPHRASIS: Spring 2017 edited by Liz Blood
As a Tulsa Artist Fellow, Crystal Z. Campbell became enthralled with the history of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. Shown here are five of fifty paintings on photographs of the Greenwood district where the destruction took place. All together, the images resemble a loose city grid. In a sort of peripatetic mediation, poet Eder Williams McKnight considers the great historian John Hope Franklin, fragmentation, vestiges, and ruins—and how hope moves us forward. This spring marks the 96th anniversary of the attack. Poet Bio: A native Atlantan, Eder J.
Williams McKnight is a teacher and poet, currently residing in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Williams received an M.F.A. in poetry from Stonecoast at the University of Southern Maine in 2015. She has produced two hand bound art books, But Move Not (2012) and A Burlap Bloom (2013) with artist Suzanne Sawyer of Down Horne Girl Studio.
Artist bio: Crystal Z. Campbell is an artist
of African-American, Filipino, and Chinese descents. Campbell works in different mediums investigating historical narratives and the politics of witnessing. Campbell exhibits internationally and selected honors include Skowhegan, Rijksakademie, Whitney Museum’s Independent Study Program, and an upcoming Smithsonian Fellowship. Campbell is a second-year Tulsa Artist Fellow.
(opposite page) Crystal Z. Campbell, Notes from Black Wall Street, 2016, acrylic, gouache, marker, and graphite on archival photograph, 8.5 x 11” each, suite of 50 paintings.
John Hope Walks Hands behind back not in prayer not in cuffs John Hope circles his park this fiery afternoon. John Hope holds a brick. This is the brick of that bank and that home and that church incensed like coals in kiln. Knowledge banked in John Hope’s mind confirms the theory of brick and wall: How brick holds elements of earth heat, time. How mortar is sand. How walls are mutable. John Hope finds a street looks both ways. At Admiral the way goes north. At the river, east and west. North is dark country like Harlem is dark country to those who see a black sky but miss its guiding star.
John Hope sees the light. Red, blue, pulse and circle, hands cuffed sirens seduce the pop of bullets man down man down they sing the names, first and last first and last, the yearly names chanted in pitch that breaks his brick. John Hope adjusts his glasses. The rubble in his hand holds jewels like red and blue glass formed from the press of time. He pockets them as native seeds. John Hope continues to walk. People appear from points in time. They move through streets like flashing stars. John Hope records their names. Spills scarlet and indigo seeds as he moves along.
John Hope ascends the great wall of Greenwood stacked with fired bricks. He leaps through epochs. New Amsterdam has a wall. 12 feet high. The Dutch split their minds and say I no you. No Red No Black No Brit No You, then build a wall. North are Lenape, wild hogs, Africans graves of Africans, their bones arranged in fractals, their skin flaked onto a brushwood wall, which became a road where street walkers buy and sell in marbled buildings, trade blood for margins, trade past for futures. John Hope walks the old Green streets. There, the grocer. The lawyer. The Eagle Zion. The banker’s opulent home. There a grave of grey bones, femurs, cracked clavicles beneath a buried ballpark. The sky smokes, the scent of scorched trees. Black buying and trading closes at the bell Charred brick and mortar wall the sky.
e k p h r a s i s 25
OVAC NEWS
SPRING 2017
Momentum OKC was an interactive, multidisciplinary art event highlighting Oklahoma artists age 30 and under on March 24 & 25, 2017. There were cash prizes selected by curator Kate Van Steenhuyse and the emerging curator Kyle Cohlmia, and a $100 Viewer’s Choice Award selected by the audience. The show highlighted our Spotlight Artists Lisandro Boccacci, Krystle Brewer, and Summer Zah who received $1,500 and curatorial guidance to create a small body of work to exhibit. For more information on the event, and all future iterations of Momentum, visit MomentumOklahoma.org. Momentum Ada is a film and new media festival taking place in Ada, OK May 2017. There will be cash prizes selected by curators Samantha Dillehay and Brian Cardinale-Powell. The show will highlight two Spotlight Artists, Manda Shae Dickinson, and Laurence Reese who will receive $1,500 and curatorial guidance to create new work to exhibit. The survey will feature art from artists age 30 and under from the following states: Oklahoma, Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, and Texas. For more information on the event, visit MomentumOklahoma.org. Art 365 is an exhibition from the Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition which offers five Oklahoma artists a year and $12,000 to create innovative artwork in collaboration with a nationally recognized curator. The artists work with a guest curator for one year to create a body of original artwork for the exhibition. The 2017 Art 365 artists are Narciso Arguelles, Pete Froslie, Andy Mattern, Amy McGirk and James McGirk, and Kelly Rogers. The exhibition will open in Norman at MAINSITE Contemporary in June and will move to the Hardesty Arts Center in Tulsa later this fall. For more details, visit art365.org. This past December, we held our third Collector Level Membership + Community Supported Art (CSA) Launch Event. Collectors attended a reception with the artists and received an original piece of artwork. The program connects 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 May. For more information, or to sign up, please visit ovac-ok.org/become-a-collector. 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 stop on the tour includes Gardiner Gallery of Art May 5 – June 17, 2017. Visit 24Works.org for more information. The next quarterly deadline for all OVAC Grants is April 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. n
26 o v a c n e w s
Thank you to our new and renewing members from November 2016 through January 2017 Jo Ann Adams Mary Alaback Craig and Jenan Alleman Samantha Arnold Sally Bachman Alfredo Baeza Tommy and Tahlia Ball Mattie Barlow Joshua Benson Lori Billy Steve Brown Carie Antosek Calvery Paxton Cavin Dayton Clark Carolyn Click Karen L. Collier Janey Carns Crain
Jeremy Cunanan Bryan Dahlvang Ebony Dorsett Alana Embry Marianne Evans Kandyce Everett Ashley Farrier Cathleen Faubert and Pete Froslie Diane Glenn and Jerry Stickle Susan Green Gabrielle Guyse Kristina Haden Kirkland and Julia Hall Peter Hay Darby Heard
Hailey Helmerich Michelle Hendry Geoffrey Hicks Michelle Himes-McCrory Pauline Honeycutt Jonathan Johnson Joni Johnson Jasmine Jones Kayleigh Killgore Karen Kirkpatrick Melanie Krcilek Virgil Lampton Trent Lawson Jessica Legako Janice Mathews-Gordon Heather McCoy Mandy Messina
Mat Miller Eric Chance Mobbs Anne Motley Holly Moye Nina Nguyen romy owens Kylie Parker Martin Peerson Anthony Pego Angela Piehl Guy Ragland Anne Richardson Stephanie Ruggles Amy Sanders Amanda Sawyer John and Mary Seward Kerri Shadid
Virginia Sitzes Stephen Smith Charles Steelman Adam Stewart Patrick Synar Amber Tardiff Megan P. Thompson Alexander Tomlin Christian and Alesha Trimble Patricia Triplett Jordan Vinyard Mark Waits Blake Walinder Evan Ward Katrina Ward Mo Wassell
Graduation Exhibitions
O U S C H O O L O F V I S U A L A R T S P R O U D LY P R E S E N T S T H E C L A S S O F 2 0 17 E X H I B I TO R S :
Corazon S. Watkins Danielle Weigandt Nathan Scott Wiewel Brendon Williams Devon Wilson Christina Windham Thomas Young
OU SoVA
Michele Archambo · Hannah Brown · Michael Burnette · Wesley Dorr · Kaitlyn Dorrough · Austin Dorrough · Marisa Franzese · Lauren Godines · Laura Hix Shelly Irvin · Shane Jensen · Jiaxin Jiang · Alexis Kimbrough · Carolyn Kriet · Sharon Lee · Haley Letton · Elise Matthews-Gordon · Hallie McIntyre · Calli Morris Mary Muñoz · Beau Murphy · Ashley Musgrave · Christine Partigianoni · Ellise Perryman · James Price · J D Reeves · Emerson Ruthart · Isabella Siewert Lucas Simmons · Virginia Sitzes · Morgan Sneed · Alyssa Teague · Kevin Walsh · Katelyn Williams · Mariah Williams · Kasady Williams · Jalyn Yeakley · Damon Young
all for you.
MFA
BFA
OU School of Visual Arts The University of Oklahoma For more info: art.ou.edu
MAINSITE Contemporary Art 122 E Main St, Norman.
April 14 – May 13
Fred Jones Jr. Art Center 520 Parrington Oval, Norman.
Join us in celebrating visual art achievement at the 103rd Annual OU SoVA Student Exhibition
May 01 – 12
April 20 – May 14 Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art Joe Andoe, Juror
o v a c n e w s 27
Gallery Listings & Exhibition Schedule Ada
Claremore
62nd Annual Student Exhibit Through April 27 Senior Exhibits May 1 – May 12 Momentum Ada May 19 – May 20 The Pogue Gallery East Central University 900 Centennial Plaza (580) 559-5353 ecok.edu
Senior Art Capstone Exhibit April 20 – May 11 Foundations Gallery Rogers State University 1701 W Will Rogers Blvd (918) 343-7740 rsu.edu
Alva Quartz Mountain Traveling Exhibit and NWOSU Artist in Residence Joe Gegan April 7 – May 2 NWOSU Student Art Works, Carlene Wallace, Jeremy Combrink and NWOSU Artist in Residence Kerry Cottle May 5 – June 1 “Art on the Salt Fork” Featuring OPSU Faculty Exhibit June 2 – July 1 Graceful Arts Gallery and Studios 523 Barnes St (580) 327-ARTS gracefulartscenter.org
Ardmore
Annual All Schools Exhibit April 4 – April 22 The Goddard Center 401 First Avenue SW (580) 226-0909 goddardcenter.org
Bartlesville Price Tower Arts Center 510 Dewey Ave (918) 336-4949 pricetower.org
Chickasha BFA Art Exhibition Through April 22 Nesbitt Gallery University of Science and Arts Oklahoma 1806 17th St (405) 574-1344 usao.edu/gallery/schedule
28 g a l l e r y g u i d e
Wolf Productions: A Gallery of the Arts 510 W Will Rogers Blvd (918) 342-4210 wolfproductionsagallery.com
Davis Chickasaw Nation Welcome Center 35 N Colbert Rd (580) 369-4222 chickasawcountry.com 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 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
James Coplin April Fine Arts Institute Adult Students May Ardeth Goodwin June Fine Arts Institute of Edmond 27 E Edwards St (405) 340-4481 edmondfinearts.com Snapshots of the Melton: Works Rarely Seen April 3 – 20 Melton Gallery University of Central Oklahoma 100 University Dr (405) 974-2432 uco.edu/cfad University Gallery Oklahoma Christian University 2501 E Memorial Rd (800) 877-5010 oc.edu
El Reno Student Art Show April 3 – April 28 Redlands Community College 1300 S Country Club Rd (405) 262-2552 redlandscc.edu
Guthrie Hancock Creative Shop 116 S 2nd St (405) 471-1951 hancockcreativeshop.com Owens Arts Place Museum 1202 E Harrison Ave (405) 260-0204 owensmuseum.com
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 Cameron University Senior Art Exhibition April 8 – April 28 Corazon Watkins, “Salvage Art: A Different Twist” May 13 – June 30 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 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 The Cultivated Connoisseur: Works on Paper from the Creighton Gilbert Bequest Through June 4 103rd Annual School of Visual Arts Student Exhibition April 20 – May 14 Picher, Oklahoma: Catastrophe, Memory, and Trauma June 13 – September 10 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
University of Oklahoma MFA Thesis Exhibition April 14 – May 13 Art 365 June 9 – August 12 MAINSITE Contemporary Art Gallery 122 E Main (405) 360-1162 mainsite-art.com Moore-Lindsey House Historical Museum 508 N Peters (405) 321-0156 normanmuseum.org Corazon Watkins “Essence of a Man” Through April 30 Pam Husky, Fiber Artist May 12 – June 30, Receptions May 12th and June 9th 6pm - 9pm 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 [ArtSpace] at Untitled 1 NE 3rd St (405) 815-9995 1ne3.org Brass Bell Studios 2500 NW 33rd facebook.com/BrassBellStudios Contemporary Art Gallery 2928 Paseo (405) 601-7474 contemporaryartgalleryokc.com Artists-in-Residence: Sarah Atlee & Randall Barnes May 4 – June 4 Artist + Chef Dinner May 4 Current Thursdays – Opening Reception May 11 6pm - 9pm Sunday Soup May 21 6pm - 9pm deadCENTER Film Festival: Art Films at Current Studio June 7 – 11
Current Thursday June 8 6pm - 9pm Current Studio 1218 N Penn Ave (405) 673-1218 currentstudio.org DNA Galleries 1705 B NW 16th St (405) 371-2460 dnagalleries.com Exhibit C 1 E Sheridan Ave Ste 100 (405) 767-8900 exhibitcgallery.com Cowboys & Indians by Oklahoma Hall of Fame members Harold T. “H” Holden and Mike Larsen April 20 – August 26 Gaylord-Pickens Museum, home of the Oklahoma Hall of Fame 1400 Classen Dr (405) 235-4458 oklahomahof.com Grapevine Gallery 1933 NW 39 (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 Dream of Man: Nicole EmmonsWillis and Tessa Raven Through April 7 Jerry Allen Gilmore Through April 7 Individual Artists of Oklahoma 706 W Sheridan Ave (405) 232-6060 individualartists.org Sara Scribner | Shane Scribner Opening reception April 7 6pm - 10pm Beth Hammack | Andy Matten Opening reception May 5 6pm - 10pm Mike Larsen | Allen Birnbach Opening reception June 2 6pm - 10pm 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
The Artistry of the Western Paperback Through May 14 Hollywood and the American West Through May 14 A Yard of Turkey Red: The Western Bandanna Through May 14 Power and Prestige Children’s Gallery Through May 14 National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum 1700 NE 63rd (405) 478-2250 nationalcowboymuseum.org Nault Gallery 816 N Walker Ave (405) 642-4414 naultfineart.com Nona Hulsey Gallery, Norick Art Center Oklahoma City University 1600 NW 26th (405) 208-5226 okcu.edu Inasmuch Foundation Gallery Oklahoma City Community College Gallery 7777 S May Ave (405) 682-7576 occc.edu The Unsettled Lens Through May 14 After the Floating World: The Enduring Art of Japanese Woodblock Prints Through May 14 Kehinde Wiley: A New Republic June 16 – September 10 The Complete WPA Collection: 75th Anniversary Through July 2 The Modernist Spectrum: Color and Abstraction Through December 31 Dale Chihuly: Magic & Light Through July 1, 2018 Oklahoma City Museum of Art 415 Couch Dr (405) 236-3100 okcmoa.com Jeffrey Gibson: Speak to Me Through June 11 Coded_Couture June 29 – August 10 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 Oil Paintings by Rod Bailey April 7 – April 29 Mark and Stephanie Brudzinski “TSUKURU: Make. Build. Create. Assemblage.” May 5 – May 29 Yeon Ok Lee “Hidden Reality” June 2 – July 1 Paseo Art Space 3022 Paseo (405) 525-2688 thepaseo.com Red Earth 6 Santa Fe Plaza (405) 427-5228 redearth.org Off the Beaten Path Through May 4 smART Space Science Museum Oklahoma 2100 NE 52nd St (405) 602-6664 sciencemuseumok.org Summer Wine Art Gallery 2928 B Paseo (405) 831-3279
Park Hill Anna Mitchell Legacy Exhibit Through April 1 Cherokee National Historical Society, Inc. 21192 S Keeler Dr (918) 456-6007 cherokeeheritage.org
Ponca City Ponca City Art Center 819 E Central (580) 765-9746 poncacityartcenter.com
Shawnee ArtsTrek April 9 10am - 4pm The Art of Jaime Arrendondo May 13 – July 1 Mabee-Gerrer Museum of Art 1900 W Macarthur (405) 878-5300 mgmoa.org
Stillwater Senior Graphic Design Portfolio Exhibition March 20 – March 31 Annual Juried Student Exhibition April 19 – May 5 24 Works on Paper May 5 – June 17
Gardiner Gallery of Art Oklahoma State University 108 Bartlett Center for the Visual Arts (405) 744-4143 art.okstate.edu Oklahoma and Beyond: Selections from the George R. Kravis II Collection February 28 – July 8 Oklahoma State University Museum of Art 720 S Husband St (405) 744-2780 museum.okstate.edu
Sulphur Chickasaw Visitor Center 901 W 1st St (580) 622-8050 chickasawcountry.com/explore/view/ Chickasaw-visitor-center
Tahlequah Spider Gallery Cherokee Arts Center 212 S Water Ave (918) 453-5728 cherokeeartscenter.com
Tonkawa Eleanor Hays Gallery Northern Oklahoma College 1220 E Grand (580) 628-6670 noc.edu
Tulsa Steeped: The Art of Tea April 7 – May 21 Rooted, Revived, Reinvented: Basketry in America June 2 – July 23 108 | Contemporary 108 E MB Brady St (918) 895-6302 108contemporary.org aberson Exhibits 3624 S Peoria (918) 740-1054 abersonexhibits.com Creating the Modern Southwest Through May 14 Plains Indian Art: Created in Community Through August 27 Textured Portraits: The Ken Blackbird Collection February 26 – August 27 Gilcrease Museum 1400 Gilcrease Road (918) 596-2700 gilcrease.utulsa.edu
Angela Piehl, Feral Beauty & Opulent Decay April 7 – May 21 MANUS: ab.sum Re-envisioned Architecture by Amy Rockett-Todd April 7 – May 21 Douglas Shaw Elder, Oklahoma ECO-SCAPES May 5 – June 18 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 US Senior Show April 5 – April 28 Middle School Show May 1 – May 19 Holliman Gallery Holland Hall 5666 E 81st Street (918) 481-1111 hollandhall.org Joseph Gierek Fine Art 1342 E 11th St (918) 592-5432 gierek.com Emily Chase April 7 – April 26 Sacred Light by Michael Mcruiz April 7 – April 26 Cliff Tresner April 7 – April 26 Celebration Of Original Thought May 5 – May 25 Immigration Group Show May 5 – May 25 We Are Human/Somos Humanos Jose Torres-Tama May 5 – May 25 Living Arts 307 E MB Brady St (918) 585-1234 livingarts.org Mainline 111 N Main Ste C (918) 629-0342 mainlineartok.com M.A. Doran Gallery 3509 S Peoria (918) 748-8700 madorangallery.com
(continued to page 30)
g a l l e r y g u i d e 29
(continued from page 29)
Lovetts Gallery 6528 E 51st St (918) 664-4732 lovettsgallery.com Mike Glier Through April 2 Philbrook Downtown 116 E MB Brady St (918) 749-7941 philbrook.org Lusha Nelson Photographs February 5 – May 7 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
John Hammer, Drawn to Art April 7 – 29 2017 5x5 fundraiser May 5 – 27 Michael Wright, Life in Clouds: Chaos, Coteries and Chairs. May 25 – 28 David Morrison, Storm and Cinder June 2 – July 1 Tulsa Artists’ Coalition 9 E MB Brady St (918) 592-0041 tacgallery.org
Wilburton The Gallery at Wilburton 108 W Main St (918) 465-9669
Woodward Plains Indians and Pioneers Museum 2009 Williams Ave (580) 256-6136 nwok-pipm.org
Tulsa Performing Arts Center Gallery 110 E 2nd St (918) 596-2368 tulsapac.com WaterWorks Art Center 1710 Charles Page Blvd (918) 596-2440 cityoftulsa.org
Urban Art Lab Studios 2312 E Admiral Blvd (918) 747-0510 urbanartlabstudios.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
FELLOW $150 · · · · ·
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
FAMILY $75
· Same benefits as Individual, for 2 people in household
INDIVIDUAL $45 · · · · ·
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
· Same benefits as Individual level. All Student members are automatically enrolled in Green Membership program (receive all benefits digitally).
30
MEMBER FORM ¨ Collector Level + Community Supported Art Program ¨ Patron ¨ Fellow ¨ Family ¨ Individual ¨ Student ¨ Optional: Make my membership green! Email only. No printed materials will be mailed. Name Street Address City, State, Zip Email Website
Phone
Credit card #
Exp. Date
Are you an artist? Y N Medium?________________________ Would you like to be included in the Membership Directory? Y N
Would you like us to share your information for other arts-related events?
Y
N
Detach and mail form along with payment to: OVAC 730 W. Wilshire Blvd, Ste 104, Oklahoma City, OK 73116 Or join online at ovac-ok.org
T o ri i Ki y o t a d a V I I ( J a p a nes e, 18 75–19 41) . A n acto r p o rt ray i n g D an s h i ci Ku ro be i i n t h e pl ay ‘ Nat s u m at s u r i ’ ( d et a i l ), O ct o be r 19 40. W o o d b l o c k p ri nt . Ok l a ho ma C i t y Mus eum o f A r t . G i f t o f Mr. a nd Mrs . Al b ert J . Ki rk p a t ri c k , 19 6 9 .08 0
R a lph Gib son (A me rica n, b. 1939). Untitled (Wom a n with st atu e) (d e tail), 1 97 4 , printed 1981. Gela tin silv er print. Ok la h oma C ity Muse u m of Art. Gift of Ca rol a nd Ra y Merri t t , 2 0 14 .0 1 2
Art Focus
Ok l a h o m a
Non Profit Org. US POSTAGE PAID Oklahoma City, OK Permit No. 113
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.
Annual Subscriptions to Art Focus Oklahoma are free with OVAC membership.
Visit ovac-ok.org to learn more.
April 15: OVAC Quarterly Grants for Artists Deadline May 5:
24 Works on Paper opens in Stillwater
May 19–20: Momentum Ada June 9:
Art 365 opens at MAINSITE Contemporary in Norman
“BETHLEHEM”
BETH HAMMACK
APRIL
“THE SURVIVORS”
MIKE LARSEN
MAY
JUNE
SARA SCRIBNER SHANE SCRIBNER
BETH HAMMACK ANDY MATTERN
MIKE LARSEN ALLEN BIRNBACH
OPENING: FRIDAY, APRIL 7 6 - 10 PM
OPENING: FRIDAY, MAY 5 6 - 10 PM
OPENING: FRIDAY, JUNE 2 6 - 10 PM
2810 N. WALKER | 405.5286336 | JRBARTGALLERY.COM
“KINSHIP”
SARA SCRIBNER
ANNUAL “BEST OF THE WEST BRUNCH” SUNDAY, JUNE 11 10:30 AM - 1:30 PM