THE NATIONAL WEATHER CENTER BIENNALE
ART’S WINDOW ON THE IMPACT OF WEATHER ON THE HUMAN EXPERIENCE
NATIONAL WEATHER CENTER BIENNALE THE UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA NORMAN, OKLAHOMA 2015
THE UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA
NATIONAL WEATHER CENTER BIENNALE THE UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA NORMAN, OKLAHOMA 2015
Art’s window on the impact of weather on the human experience
APRIL 19 - JUNE 14, 2015
TABLE OF CONTENTS 4. INTRODUCTION 6.
JUROR’S STATEMENT
8.
NATIONAL WEATHER CENTER
10. FRED JONES JR. MUSEUM OF ART 12.
NORMAN ARTS COUNCIL
14.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
15.
PAINTING
57. PHOTOGRAPHY 85. WORKS ON PAPER 108. PUBLICATION NOTES
INTRODUCTION The National Weather Center Biennale In the prologue to the The Family of Man, the extraordinary 1955 photographic exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Carl Sandburg wrote: “The first cry of a newborn baby in Chicago or Zamboango, in Amsterdam or Rangoon, has the same pitch and key, each is saying, “I am! I have come through! I belong! I am of the Family.” … “People! Flung wide and far, born into toil, struggle, blood and dreams, among lovers, eaters, drinkers, workers, loafers, fighters, players, gamblers. Here are ironworkers, bridgemen, musicians, miners, builders of huts and skyscrapers, jungle hunters, landlords and landless, the loved and the unloved, the lonely and abandoned, the brutal and the compassionate-one big family hugging close to the ball of Earth for its life and being.”… “Everywhere the sun, moon and stars, the climates and weathers, have meanings for people. Though meanings vary, we are alike in all countries and tribes in trying to read what the sky, land, and sea say to us. Alike and ever alike we are on all continents in need of love, food, clothing, work, speech, worship, sleep, games, dancing, fun. From tropics to arctics humanity lives with these needs so alike so inexorably alike.” These remarkable words speak clearly to us across more than a half century: What is the sky, land, and sea saying to us?
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For meteorologists and climatologists, this decoding is what they do. But actually, this is what we all do, “… we are alike in all countries and tribes in trying to read what the sky, land, and sea say to us.” Artists see by listening; they listen by seeing; they reveal the essence of the object; they actually get it, and wonderfully often, they can bring it forth so that we can “get it”. Cezanne and his fruit in still life or his mountain, Mont Sainte-Victoire, are now part of all of our worlds. When we have viewed his pictures, we then see freshly the world and ourselves. So it is with the artistic works in this exhibit; our familiar experiences with weather and climate are refreshed and new insights and emotions become part of us and extend our vision. The artist opens a window on our world, and our horizons deepen; they have a profound clarity about the language of our sky, land, and sea. But just how did this exhibit, “the climates and weathers,” happen? In the spring of 2012, the idea was a simple one; it did not have this elaboration. Rather, it began with a thought—let us have an art exhibit around the theme of weather. In 1893, Venice created the first Art Biennale, so why not Norman, home of the National Weather Center? Let us gather the collective listenings of artists so that we might see afresh just what the sky, land, and sea are saying. Before spring turned to summer, Ghislain d’Humières, then director of the Fred Jones Jr.
Museum of Art, Dr. Alan Atkinson, on behalf of the Fred Jones, and myself developed a proposal to host the first National Weather Center Biennale, and fortunately this was met with enthusiasm by University of Oklahoma President David L. Boren’s office and before you could say “over the rainbow” we were off and running. As a consequence, the National Weather Center and the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art partnered with the Norman Arts Council to present the first National Weather Center Biennale. It was a natural. Oklahomans, almost by definition or statehood, are accustomed to rapid weather changes, but in the spring of 2013 the public was invited to experience not just tornadoes, thunderstorms, blizzards, and wild fires, but also sunrises and sunsets, mists and rain, hot sun and cool nights—all in one place. Our initial call in 2013 for entries stimulated interest from artists all over the world. In the end, we received more than 700 entries from all 50 states and a number of foreign countries. The tradition continues and expands with this juried exhibition. The quality of the artists’ response in 2015 was even greater. The challenge again for the 2015 Biennale was to choose the best work submitted while at the same time balancing our media categories, holding onto the notion that all manner of weather should be represented, and that we should strive to recognize the wide variety of artistic styles and approaches encompassed by the submissions. In addition, we worked hard to keep in mind our initial charge to the artists: to consider the
impact of weather on the human experience. Due largely to logistical considerations, we still limit the Biennale to two-dimensional works in three categories: painting, photography, and works on paper (including printmaking and both wet and dry media on paper). We are considering the possibility of sculpture and video for 2017. We are fortunate to have Mel Chin, a renowned conceptual artist, to serve as the 2015 guest juror. The Houston, Texas artist creates works that are difficult to compartmentalize. Throughout his career, Chin has been recognized through various awards and grants from numerous organizations, including the National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Council for the Arts, Art Matters, Creative Capital, and many others. Chin’s work will be featured in upcoming exhibitions at the New Orleans Museum of Art, Blaffer Art Museum and Contemporary Art Museum in Houston, and the Contemporary Art Museum in St. Louis, Missouri. My close colleague, Erinn Gavaghan, executive director of the Norman Arts Council, spoke about the pleasure in seeing this second Biennale come into existence. She said, “Those of us involved in the National Weather Center Biennale are all so pleased to see the final selections for the exhibit. From minimalism through abstract through traditional landscapes, the interpretations of the human experience with weather are represented in 88 unique and exciting works of art.” Tim Stark, who is not only an elegant artist but also was a wonderful project manager for the 2015
exhibit, echoed Erinn: “The breadth and depth of the artwork selected for the 2015 Biennale is simply remarkable. From abstracted forms to finely detailed photographs, the Biennale is a true and diverse sample of how artists are calling on the weather and climate for inspiration and responding to both with creativity and ingenuity. Drawing artwork from across the country and beyond, the Biennale is poised to be a very special exhibition.” We again thank all of the artists in this National Weather Center Biennale for their dedication to their art. We are all richer because of it. The National Weather Center building is an appropriate place for this remarkable international exhibit. It is the anchor of a unique research and learning community that includes the nation’s largest academic meteorology program; five National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration research, operations, and support organizations; the Oklahoma Climatological Survey; a NOAA-OU Cooperative Institute; the Cooperative Institute for Mesoscale Meteorological Studies, and more than a half dozen private weather and weather technology-related companies – all located within a few hundred yards of each other on the OU Research Campus. The central space for the exhibition is the 9,600-square-foot atrium in the National Weather Center. Dr. Alan Atkinson, the curator of the first Biennale, wrote in his introduction to the 2013 National Weather Center Biennale catalogue that “Visitors to the National Weather Center of
the University of Oklahoma’s research campus are greeted by the Latin phrase Totum Animo Comprendere Caelum, literally ‘understand the sky with your mind.’ It speaks not only to the work that goes on at the National Weather Center, but to one of the ancient inclinations of mankind: the desire to comprehend the dynamic nature of the environment in order to better understand our own place in the world. It is no accident that weather has become one of our most beloved metaphors for the condition of our own existence. Since antiquity we have spoken of ‘seasons of the heart’ and ‘storms of passion.’ It is weather that keeps us humble in the face of the awesome powers that move in the heavens while at the same time stirring our awareness of the ephemeral beauty of creation.” What is the sky, land, and sea saying to us? In 1969, on seeing the image of the Earth rise above the moon, taken from the Apollo 10 mission, Archibald MacLeish said, “To see the Earth as we now see it, small and beautiful in that eternal silence where it floats, is to see ourselves as riders on the Earth together, brothers on that bright loveliness in the unending night.” And what do we see when we gaze upon that remarkable image? We see the sky, land, and sea, and we seek to know what they are saying. Hopefully this exhibit will help us see and listen. Berrien Moore III Director, National Weather Center
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JUROR’S STATEMENT Forty years ago a “climate change” due to “global warming” was identified by Wallace S. Broecker. Since then, evidence of his prediction of the future has come to plague global populations in the forms of droughts, massive winter systems, increasing tropical storm activity and ongoing catastrophic polar ice melt-downs. An exhibition dedicated to the weather needs to provoke greater awareness and sensitivity, now more than ever. So it was with this pressing reality I began to review the artwork for this year’s competition. After multiple viewings, I saw that the works evoked the complexities and diversity of weather, colors and forms that can personify a world at rest and peace, just as they can summon a world doomed by human interaction. I recalled the early formation of my own artistic practice when I used cloud forms and colors to embody my emotional state in symbolic fashion. I was definitely influenced by looking deep into the skill of masters of the past; I loved Leonardo’s Deluge, Church’s Twilight in the Wilderness, Turner’s firefilled skies, Ryder’s brooding masses of dark cloud-forms backlit by the moon over saturated marinescapes and his Death on a Pale Horse; and then, something entirely different, fantastic beasts emerging out of swirling murky fogs of ink in Chen-Rong’s Nine Dragons Scroll. Many years of looking at art has forced me to
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seek out diversity in this biennial in considering the ways that weather could be represented. From digital media to the classic media of the past, all are employed to be the conduit of our senses. The selected works have reacquainted me with the human compulsion, when standing before the awesome evidence of nature, to attempt to capture it any way possible. The art of this exhibition includes works of documentation, abstraction and representation, whether executed with precision, powerful expression, or scientifically, they all reflect this profound desire. These works can be understood as mirrors, alongside the works that inspired me decades ago, reflecting a passion for the practice of art and a deep connection and concern for the climate we all inhabit. MEL CHIN Curator, The National Weather Center Biennale Mel Chin was born in Houston, Texas and began making art at an early age. He is known for the broad range of
approaches in his art, including works that require multi-disciplinary, collaborative teamwork and works that conjoin cross-cultural aesthetics with complex ideas. He developed Revival Field (1989-ongoing), a project that pioneered the field of “green remediation,” the use of plants to remove toxic, heavy metals from the soil. A current project, Fundred Dollar Bill/Operation Paydirt, focuses on national prevention of childhood lead-poisoning. Mel is also well known for his iconic sculptures, works that often address the importance of memory and collective identity, and for inserting art into unlikely places, including destroyed homes, toxic landfills, and even popular television, investigating how art can provoke greater social awareness and responsibility. His work is exhibited extensively in the U.S. and abroad and was documented in the popular PBS program, Art 21: Art of the 21st Century. Mel is the recipient of numerous national and international awards, including four honorary doctorates. A monograph of the installation, The Funk & Wag from A to Z, was published by the Menil Collection and distributed by Yale Unversity Press in 2014, and a traveling retrospective exhibition of his work, titled ReMatch, opened at the New Orleans Museum of Art in February, 2014.
PARTNERS 5
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NATIONAL WEATHER CENTER In the fall of 2006, the University of Oklahoma officially opened the doors of the National Weather Center, one of the most important facilities in the world for weather education and training, research and development, and operations and services. This $67 million, 254,000-square-foot building unites the University’s world-class educational and research programs with the Norman-based research and operational programs of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). This state-of-the-art facility fosters and facilitates interactions among OU and NOAA colleagues, producing synergies in integrated education, research, and services that have significant impacts on the practice of meteorology worldwide. Constructed through a unique OU-Federal collaboration, the National Weather Center is the flagship facility for OU’s 271-acre Cy and Lissa Wagner Research Campus across from Lloyd Noble Center. The University of Oklahoma, the State of Oklahoma and the Federal Government shared the cost of construction of the National Weather Center. The National Weather Center houses five stories of classroom, office and research space plus a rooftop outdoor classroom and weather observation deck. Over 500 people work in the National Weather Center, including research scientists, operational meteorologists and climatologists, engineers, technicians, support staff and graduate and undergraduate students. The National Weather Center proudly employs individuals who have won numerous awards for their work. Building staff members have received recognition for operational forecasting excellence, research excellence, teaching excellence, technology and innovation, and for excellence in tourism and bringing new business to the area. Not
many facilities can claim awards and recognition in “all of the above.” Since its opening, the National Weather Center has hosted numerous special events, projects and guests including Town Hall meetings for US Congress members, weather safety training for numerous national organizations including the NFL, Georgia Dome and the Chicagoland Speedway, current and former astronauts, several Governors, a First Lady Retreat representing 28 states, authors, national conferences of our professional society (AMS), historical and literacy programs for the Oklahoma Historical Society and Oklahoma Libraries, the kick off for the National Weather Service’s Weather Ready Nation initiative, summer camps for students both locally and at the Clinton Presidential Library in Arkansas, and numerous social functions such as business parties, concerts, weddings and receptions. Dr. Berrien Moore III Director, National Weather Center Chesapeake Energy Corporation Chair in Climate Studies, OU School of Meteorology Dean, OU College of Atmospheric & Geographic Sciences, Vice President for Weather & Climate Programs, OU Dr. Berrien Moore III is the Director of the National Weather Center, and he holds the Chesapeake Energy
Corporation Chair in Climate Studies in the School of Meteorology, and he is the Dean of the College of Atmospheric & Geographic Sciences. He is also Vice President for Weather & Climate Programs at OU. As a mathematician, Dr. Berrien Moore III began his academic career at the University of New Hampshire. He later spent a year at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution at which time he began an intensive investigation of the global carbon cycle and climate. He has had appointments at the East-West Center in Hawaii, the University of Stockholm and the University of Paris. Prior to coming to OU in June of 2010, Moore served as the Founding Executive Director of Climate Central, a nonprofit, nonpartisan think-tank based in Princeton, New Jersey, and Palo Alto, California, and prior to heading Climate Central, he served for 20 years as the Director of the Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans and Space at the University of New Hampshire and held the position of Distinguished University Professor. In recognition of his lifelong dedication to science, he has been the recipient of numerous honors, including the NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal for outstanding service to the agency – NASA’s highest civilian honor; the NOAA Administrator’s Recognition Award; and the 2007 Dryden Lectureship in Research by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. He was the Coordinating Lead Author for the final chapter, “Advancing our Understanding,” of the Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which was released in Spring 2001, and as such has been honored for contributing to the award of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize to the IPCC. He is an elected Fellow of the American Meteorological Society and International Academy of Astronautics.
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FRED JONES JR. MUSEUM OF ART Located on the northwest campus of the University of Oklahoma, the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art is one of the finest university art museums in the United States. In 1936, with the generous gift of Lew Wentz and Gordon Matzene’s large collection of East Asian art, Oscar Jacobson (1882-1966) was named director of the University’s new art museum. Jacobson’s vision for a museum building came to fruition in 1971, when Mr. and Mrs. Fred Jones of Oklahoma City donated a fine arts building to the University in memory of their son, Fred Jones, Jr. Over the years, the museum’s permanent collection has grown exponentially through the generosity of donors such as Max Weitzenhoffer and Jerome M. Westheimer Sr. In 1996, with an initial gift of $1 million from Mrs. Fred Jones, OU President and Mrs. David L. Boren spearheaded the successful fundraising campaign to acquire the important collection of the late Richard H. and Adeline J. Fleischaker, which is composed primarily of Native American and Southwestern art. This acquisition generated the gifts of collections from Priscilla C. and Joseph Tate, as well as William H. Thams, in memory of his wife, Roxanne Thams. 2000 was a watershed year in the development of the FJJMA’s collections, with the gift of the Weitzenhoffer Collection of French Impressionism. In 2005 the museum opened a new addition, designed by acclaimed architect Hugh Newell Jacobsen of Washington, D.C., and named in honor of Mary and Howard Lester of San Francisco. In 2007, the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art
and the Philbrook Museum of Art in Tulsa were named joint stewards of the Eugene B. Adkins Collection. To properly display OU’s portion of the approximately 3,300-object collection, the University built a new level above the original museum structure and opened the Stuart Wing in 2011. Named after OU Regent Jon R. Stuart and his wife, Dee Dee, and designed by acclaimed architect Rand Elliott, the addition provides 8,300-square-feet for the Adkins Gallery and a new 4,500-square-foot photography and works on paper gallery. The museum now totals approximately 40,000 square feet of exhibition space. In spring 2010, Arizona-based James T. Bialac decided to give his private collection to OU because of the University’s commitment to excellence in education. The multimilliondollar collection of more than 4,500 works represents indigenous cultures across North America, especially the Pueblos of the Southwest, the Navajo, the Hopi, many of the tribes of the Northern and Southern Plains, and the Southeastern tribes. Included in the James T. Bialac Native American Art Collection are approximately 2,600 paintings and works on paper, over 1,000 kachinas and 400 works of varying media, including ceramics and jewelry, representing major Native artists. In November 2012, the University of Oklahoma announced a new annual gift from the OU Athletics Department, which now provides complimentary admission for all visitors to the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art in perpetuity. This unique collaboration between athletics and art is one of the first in the United States creating free admission for a university art museum through a university athletics program.
Strengths of the museum’s nearly 17,000-object permanent collection are French Impressionism, twentieth-century American painting and sculpture, traditional and contemporary Native American art, art of the Southwest, ceramics, photography, contemporary art, Asian art, and graphics from the sixteenth century to the present. Temporary exhibitions are mounted throughout the year with educational programs that explore the art of various periods and cultures. The museum’s website is www.ou.edu/fjjma. DR. MARK WHITE INTERIM DIRECTOR and EUGENE B. ADKINS SENIOR CURATOR, Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art Mark Andrew White is the Interim Director and Eugene B. Adkins Senior Curator at the Fred Jones Jr Museum of Art, University of Oklahoma. He specializes in American and Native American art of the twentieth century with a particular focus on the Southwest. His recent publications include Macrocosm/ Microcosm: Abstract Expressionism in the American Southwest (2014), Art Interrupted: Advancing American Art and the Politics of Cultural Diplomacy (2012). The James T. Bialac Native American Art Collection: Selected Works (2012), and The Eugene B. Adkins Collection: Selected Works (2011). 11
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NORMAN ARTS COUNCIL The Norman Arts Council has been working to support and promote Norman’s artists and arts organizations since 1979. Today, the NAC operates from MAINSITE Contemporary Art, a beautiful gallery in the heart of the Norman Arts District in downtown Norman. Annually, the NAC grants funds in excess of $150,000 to more than 20 Norman arts and cultural organizations for the projects that make this a great arts community. In addition to its granting program, the NAC serves as an anchor to the arts community with programming designed to enlighten and entertain. The 2nd Friday Norman Art Walk is a free, monthly art walk sponsored by the NAC in which artists, galleries, organizations, and small businesses open their doors to visitors for a free evening of arts each month. The NAC recently created the Norman Open Studios Exhibit and Weekend that invites visitors through the doors of spaces where Norman artists create their work. Through MAINSITE, the NAC curates and hosts contemporary art exhibits meant to engage audiences with work being created by emerging and career artists from around the world. This past spring, the NAC embarked on large community arts project called StART Norman which saw the temporary rebirth of an abandoned property in an under-loved area of downtown Norman through arts exhibits, arts
programming, and quality of life initiatives. The Norman Public Arts Board, a collaboration between the NAC and the City of Norman, works to place art in the public spaces of the community and has installed many public art works around Norman. The NAC is particularly proud of its collaborations with other Norman arts organizations to create meaningful and fulfilling arts education opportunities for all ages in Norman. Work with the Pioneer Library System, the Norman Public Schools, the Firehouse Art Center, and the University of Oklahoma School of Art and Art History fosters a culture of arts education in Norman which we believes makes this a great place to live, work, and play … a community of creativity. Erinn Gavaghan Executive Director, Norman Arts Council Erinn Gavaghan arrived in Oklahoma after graduating from Webster University in St. Louis with a MA in art history. Prior to coming to the NAC, Gavaghan formed her foundations of arts management working for Ballet Oklahoma (now
Oklahoma City Ballet) and the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis. Since returning to Oklahoma to lead the Norman Arts Council, Gavaghan has become engaged with many of the metro’s wonderful arts organizations. She has served as the Emerging Curator for Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition’s highly praised Momentum program. She was also awarded an OVAC Curatorial and Writing Fellowship in 2012. She is currently an adjunct professor of art history at Oklahoma City Community College and also has lectured as an adjunct professor at the University of Oklahoma. Gavaghan is a board member for the Cultural Development Corporation of Central Oklahoma where she co-chaired a focus group to examine the state of individual artists in central Oklahoma and serves as chair of the Oklahoma Artist Network, an organization that facilitated creative growth through interdisciplinary communications and collaboration among Central Oklahoma artists. She is also very active in the Norman community, involved in Leadership Norman while also volunteering her time as a board member of the Norman Downtowner’s Association and sits on the Mayor’s Community Roundtable.
PHOTO BY SHEVAUN WILLIAMS
The opportunity to serve as an initial juror for the National Weather Center Biennale has been one of the most pleasurable of her career with the Norman Arts Council.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
An exhibition the scale of the National Weather Center Biennale is something that requires a great deal of planning and even more collaboration. Producing a successful biennale is due to the many people and organizations that work to make it possible. From its inception to completion, the biennale has proven a wonderful collaboration between the National Weather Center, the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, and the Norman Arts Council. First and foremost, we are grateful to University of Oklahoma President David L. Boren for recognizing and supporting the roles art and weather play in the human experience, and how they are related and can work together. Thanks to Nick Hathaway, the Office of the President, and OU Public Affairs for generous support throughout the process. An integral part of any biennale is the juror. By selecting the work to be displayed their vision elevates each biennale and gives it a unique feel. We are very grateful to Mel Chin for being this year’s juror. Mr. Chin’s unique prospective and status as an acclaimed international artist added greatly to this year’s biennale and helped to set the stage for success for years to come. We would also like to acknowledge artist
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Elizabeth Patterson. Her 2013 Best in Show award-winning artwork graces the cover of this catalogue and has served as the primary marketing image for the entire run of the 2015 biennale. Thank you to the staff of the National Weather Center who worked tirelessly to provide a beautiful venue for staging the exhibition, to create an innovative new online application process, and to help with much of the operations behind the biennale: Melissa Bird, Heather Bowers, Jim Davis, Tanya Guthrie, Devon Harr, Mary Anne Hempe, Alicia Keys, Kyle Keys, Kevin Kloesel, Greg Leffler, Chris Maxon, Matt McCord, Heather Murphy, Kari Roop, Lee Anne Sallee, Mona Springfield and Daphne Thompson.
Much appreciation is given to the Norman Arts Council who has provided countless hours of promotion and the NAC Board of Directors for hosting the artist reception and for their support of this exhibition. We would like to especially recognize and thank Joshua Boydston for his beautiful catalogue design. Finally, the biennale would not be possible without the participation of all the artists who shared their artwork, passion, and vision with us. It has been our great pleasure working with so many supportive and creative people from so many backgrounds and affiliations. We hope you enjoy the 2015 National Weather Center Biennale and the many more to come. Dr. Berrien Moore III, Director National Weather Center
We wish to thank the staff at the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art who worked diligently to help the biennale come to pass in the midst of regular museum exhibitions, events, and programs: Gail Kana Anderson, Michael Bendure, Tracy Bidwell, Joyce Cummins, Tanya Denton, Brynnan LightLewis, Brad Stevens, Kathleen Thompson, and Becky Zurcher Trumble
Mark White, Interim Director and Eugene B. Adkins Curator Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art The University of Oklahoma
Special thanks to Cassie Gilman at the OU President’s Associates office for networking and calendar support.
Erinn Gavaghan, Executive Director Norman Arts Council
PAINTING
Bluff, Johnson Ranch Near Guymon, OK 36 x 48 in. Oil on canvas
Carol Beesley Norman, Oklahoma, USA Carol Beesley is an Oklahoma artist who cites the color and experience of the landscape as an interpretation to reveal what is “seen” beyond the reality of physical presence. Her work is in 16
numerous private collections and public venues such as the Oklahoma State Supreme Court, the University of Oklahoma Schusterman Learning Center, Tulsa, and OU’s Catlett Music Center,
Norman. Her work was recently featured in the commercial film Bringing Up Bobby. She is represented by JRB Art At the Elms Gallery on the Paseo, Oklahoma City. In 2014 she was named
NBC Bank’s Oklahoma Artist of the Year. Carol Beesley graduated from UCLA in 1973 and is now an emeritus professor in studio art and art history at the University of Oklahoma.
Winter’s Thaw 36 x 36 in. Acrylic and spray paint on canvas
Tom Berenz Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA Born in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, Berenz earned an MFA at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and is currently an Assistant Professor of Painting and Drawing at the University of Wisconsin - Parkside. The paintings of Tom Berenz appear in many public collections including Aurora University, Ripon College, and Northwestern Mutual. Berenz lives and works in Milwaukee, WI and regularly exhibits throughout the United States. “My paintings are about my relationship to the world around me; cerebral and physical, intellectual and visceral. I use the disaster motif as a metaphor to discuss personal, sociopolitical, environmental, and ideological issues. Through the motif of disaster, I explore the existential self and examine personal narratives, with some being more literal and others more enigmatic. Notions of loss, place, memory, space, and time are central as I reexamine personal experiences from my past and present. The imagery is in constant flux, but always returns to a pile. A pile is everything and it is nothing. It is a mound that once was and now isn’t; a mass of information, both physical and metaphysical, organized and chaotic.” 17
Rain Check 18 x 24 in. Acrylic on canvas
John Boone Brooklyn, New York, USA John Boone was born in Princeton, New Jersey in 1951. He is an artist who works exclusively with words usually painted in an invented digital font. His artworks look as if they are the result of precise technical presentations packaging vauge colloquial expressions. Boone started with performance art, moved on to text paintings with images, then painted sci-fi control panel cartoons, before he began the direction of text only work in 1993. In addition to painting, John Boone has flown text signs behind airplanes first in New England with “Hey You” and then in Berlin, Germany with “Just Wondering.” In 1999 he completed eight murals of children’s signatures in etched glass blocks for the Hudson Bergen Light Rail System in Jersey CIty, NJ. In 2001, Boone had a residency at 18
the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center in Italy where he did work on his series, “Taste Suite,” a group of paintings describing sensations of taste. In 1996 Boone created a recipe for a spice blend. He designed the packaging, the graphics, did the legal work, and sold it in gourmet stores in New York and New England. The product’s name was “Uh Huh.” It won national prizes for beef and pork. The artist always thought of Uh Huh as an affordable endless edition multiple. It was exhibited in Rome as sculpture. John Boone has been showing around New York, around the U.S. and internationally for over 30 years. He programmed a message reader with expressions about time for an eight-minute program for an art and technology show at
Connecticut College. He has painted two outdoor murals, one in Williamsburg, Brooklyn titled, “Ten Landscapes Going Around a Corner,” which is a collection of colloquial expressions about idyllic landscapes painted around a corner in the industrail neighborhood of East Williamsburg Brooklyn. The other was a mural in Jersey City called “Txt Msg Sampler,” which focused on two cell phone key pads. He designed a prayer flag on silk for the opening of the Rubin Museum, which is now part of their permanent collection. He made a compass of four sandblasted granite rectangles for “Sculpture Key West,” which is now in the collection of the Key West Botanical Garden. In 2011, he was included in a show about portraiture, Face Off: Portraits by Contemporary
Artists at the Lyman Allyn Museum. Boone’s contributions were colloquial phrases as states of mind. More recently, Boone has had two solo shows at One Art Space in New York where he exhibited a variety of colloquial expression paintings. Last year he completed a commission about the future for Devries Corporation for their New York offices. His work is in the collection of the Bellagio Study and Conference Center, Franklin Furnace, MoMA, the Rubin Museum, and the New Jersey State Museum. Boone’s work is also in many private collections around the world. John Boone lives in Brooklyn, NY with his wife, Jenny Dixon.
PHOTOGRAPHY
One Thousand Days Later: Kiowa County 48 x 32 in. Photograph
M.J. Alexander Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA M.J. Alexander is an author, poet, playwright, and photographer who documents people and places of the Great Plains and American West. The International Photography Hall of Fame describes her as “combining the vision of an artist with the skills of a storyteller.” Her work has been featured in more than 20 solo shows; highlighted on national magazine covers; and exhibited, published, performed, and recorded here and abroad. Her books have won gold medals from the Oklahoma Center for the Book and for Best Regional Non-Fiction from the Independent Publishers Awards. An Oklahoman since 1998, Alexander is a native of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, a veteran of The Associated Press in New York City, 58
and former chair of the journalism department of St. Michael’s College in Vermont. She has won fellowships from Hedgebrook of Whidbey Island, Wyoming’s Brush Creek Foundation for the Arts, and the American Press Institute, and been recognized by the Society of Professional Journalists, the UNESCO-sponsored World Humanity Photography Awards, the Great Plains Journalism Awards, Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition, and the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers. She is a graduate of Vassar College and Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. She looks for the extraordinary in the everyday, and gravitates toward projects that explore the ancient, the overlooked, and the underestimated.
Pray for Rain 20 x 30 in. Photograph 59
Underwater Picnic 12 x 20 in. Digital print on canvas
Fran Barton Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA Fran Barton resides in Oklahoma City and Cochiti Lake, NM. She is attracted to color, form, and movement in the world, and her photography seeks to capture the artistry 60
inherent in nature, as well as the created artistry of man. Art is communication, and through her images she seeks to communicate the grandeur and power of
the world we live in, which sometimes goes unnoticed in our hurried lives. She received a MFA in dance from the University of Oklahoma and since beginning
her career as a full-time photographer in 2012, she has participated in juried exhibitions like Paseo Arts Association: PhotoFest, Goddard Art Center Photo Biennale 2015, and more.
WORKS ON PAPER
Carbon Hypostasis 53 25 x 20 in. Charcoal and dye on paper
Thaddeus Beal Waban, Massachusetts, USA Thaddeus Beal left the practice of law in the mid-1980s and went to art school as an antidote. Postmodernism – newly arrived in Boston – was the last thing a recovering lawyer needed: too many words, too self-conscious, and too political. After a brief stint as an Abstract Expressionist, he abandoned self-referential narrative and turned to the infinite. He immersed himself in Islamic patterning, non-linear physics, and a search for wholeness that is always on the lookout for beauty. His work seeks to capture the underlying vitality — the dynamic evolving energy – that we instinctively sense in nature. His practice is calculated to uncover this immanent structure. It begs for accidents, for irregularities, for 86
changes in direction. And the viewer is invited to provide more, as he does when watching clouds in the sky or running water in a stream. As a painter, Beal’s limited color palette has the effect of emphasizing patterns while implying distance, timelessness and nostalgia. As a draftsman, his latest work has suppressed rational patterning and relies instead on pattern merging from dusting charcoal over solvent-soaked paper. Just plain paper, simple charcoal and dye derived from coal tar. He has won three Massachusetts Cultural Council fellowships, one from the New England Foundation for the Arts and several others for international residencies. His work is in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Carbon Hypostasis 41 14 x 21 in. Charcoal and dye on paper
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Shine 47.5 x 33 in. Mixed media on paper
Judith Brandon Cleveland, Ohio, USA “I was conceived at a picnic and arrived by accident in 1963 Indianapolis, IN. I attended St Joan of Arc grade school in Chagrin Falls, OH was asked to leave in seventh grade, then forwarded to Chagrin Falls Middle and High Schools before graduating from the Cleveland Institute of Art in 1987. I still live in Cleveland, OH with my partner of 27 years, two cats and a dog named Ed. I am represented by the best in the Midwest, Kenneth Paul Lesko Gallery in Cleveland, OH Emotion is the engine and weather is my vehicle. Focusing on techniques and materials, I investigate the dynamics of weather and landscape, including 88
the emotional effect of how we cope with catastrophe and the loss of control over our environment. Through this investigation and experimentation I am able to navigate an interpretation of landscape and weather without being hindered by the historical reality of a particular event. Rather than presenting a factual reality, I fabricate an illusion to awaken the realms of our imagination. Each piece has a story and an emotion within it. Through thoughtful crafting and layering, the pieces reveal themselves as tornadoes, ocean swells, light pillars, and storms and I love drawing on paper.�
THE NATIONAL WEATHER CENTER BIENNALE
ART’S WINDOW ON THE IMPACT OF WEATHER ON THE HUMAN EXPERIENCE
NATIONAL WEATHER CENTER BIENNALE THE UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA NORMAN, OKLAHOMA 2015
THE UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA