(left) Joshua Meier, Claremore, Perhaps This Time, Silver Gelatin, 20”x24” (right) Kathleen Rivers, Ada, Skin, Maps, Stamps, Paper Scraps, Old Books on Paper, 42”x58”
OVAC FELLOWSHIPS
Investing in Artists by Kelsey Karper The Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition (OVAC) presents the Oklahoma Visual Arts Fellowship, providing two awards of $5,000 each to Oklahoma artists. The 2009 recipients are Kathleen Rivers, Ada and Frank Wick, Norman. New this year, OVAC also granted two Student Awards of Excellence of $500 each. Those were awarded to Riley Harmon, Shawnee and Joshua Meier, Claremore. OVAC is dedicated to supporting visual artists living and working in Oklahoma. The Fellowship awards are given to recognize past achievement and future promise and can be used as the artist’s needs require.
Kathleen Rivers is Associate Professor of Fine Art at East Central University in Ada. She received her MFA from University of South Carolina. Her current artwork is inspired by memories of home and travel. Intricate collages representing nests are made up of papers and other items that were fated for a trash bin, woven together as a bird weaves and constructs their home. More about Rivers can be found on her website at www.kateriversart.com.
Christopher Cook selected the awards as guest curator. Cook is curator of the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art in Kansas City, Missouri. He has organized nearly 30 exhibitions, received his MA in art history, theory, and criticism from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and his BA in art history from the University of Florida, Gainesville.
Frank Wick received his MFA in sculpture from the University of Miami and his MA in design from the University of Iowa. His work has been exhibited across the country and internationally. Wick uses humor in his installations and conceptual pieces as a way to engage audiences in his commentary on life and the world around him.
In his curator’s statement, Cook stated his excitement at discovering that Oklahoma is peppered with exceptional artists, stating that “there were numerous applicants that deserve special recognition...In the end, however, I was most captivated by the complex collages of found detritus by Kathleen Rivers and the witty and provocative sculptures of Frank Wick.”
Riley Harmon recently graduated from the University of Oklahoma with a BFA in Media Art and will pursue an interdisciplinary MFA from Carnegie Mellon University in the fall of 2009. Harmon works in a variety of forms and materials with his current art informed by topics in psychology, philosophy and computer science, often using unlikely materials such as discarded DVD players, computers and objects from his daily life. More about Harmon can be found on his website at www.rileyharmon.com.
Addressing the applicants to the Student Awards of Excellence, Cook said he was “impressed by the caliber of artists that applied. I selected
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artists Riley Harmon and Joshua Meier as this year’s award recipients. Their work is visually sophisticated and conceptually rigorous. Take heed, their careers will be ones to watch!”
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