On a Roll: Martin, Whitis & Youngblood Selected for Momentum Tulsa Spotlight by Kerry M. Azzarello
Art lovers of all ages are invited to view, purchase and experience artwork at the Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition’s Momentum Tulsa: Art Doesn’t Stand Still, an exhibition showcasing Oklahoma’s emerging young talent. Celebrating its 10th year of moving audiences and propelling artists’ careers, Momentum Tulsa features Oklahoma artists 30 years old and younger working in all media including 2-D and 3-D art, film, installation, performance and more. Momentum Spotlight is a special component of the exhibition, which provides selected artists the opportunity to realize larger-scale artistic endeavors. This year’s Spotlight artists are Leigh Martin, Stuart Whitis and Molly Youngblood. The three projects were chosen out of a competitive application field by Guest Curator Emily Kern, Executive Director of 108 Contemporary, and Emerging Curator Krystle Brewer, Art History graduate student at Oklahoma State University. According to Brewer, each proposal was reviewed against three major criteria: “professionalism and quality of submission, how interesting and intriguing their ideas are, and lastly how probable their idea is to be carried out and function in the gallery space in the way they proposed.” The curators worked intimately with the artists over a period of three months to transform the proposals from concept to reality. The finished projects are on display October 12th-25th at Living Arts, a cross-discipline gallery dedicated to the development and presentation of contemporary art in Tulsa. Leigh Martin: Saprobia An organism that derives its nourishment from nonliving or decaying organic matter is known as a saprobe. A 29 year old, Oklahoma City-based artist intrigued by self-sustaining cycles is known as Leigh Martin. Equal parts fiber artist and nature enthusiast, Martin blends her passions in unique creations that often mimic ecosystems. In past work, such as the Decomposition Colony series, Martin creates an environment populated with realistic, knitted replicas of fungi alongside actual living components. It is only after closer inspection that viewers realize the fungi are man-made.
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Saprobia, Martin’s Spotlight project, deals specifically with nutrients’ role in forest life cycles – how organisms grow, die, decay and are reborn in new forms. She creates saprobic fruiting bodies using fiber as well as “foraged materials and pigments from an individual species of tree for each type of fungi created.” The result is a stunning interpretation of nature’s symbiotic processes. Both educational and aesthetically pleasing, Martin’s pieces also encourage increased interactions in the natural world. Wonder and surprises are everywhere; one simply has to take a look. Stuart Whitis: Vagua Bisbille Stuart Whitis, a 29 year old Norman artist, is using his Spotlight project to expand upon ideas and techniques originally developed while working on his MFA at the University of Oklahoma. Paintings by French Academic artist William Adolphe Bouguereau are reimagined through a painting process that involves the digital corruption and recombination of the originals. Whitis’ intricate tessellation combinations provide a multitude of tonal variations, while a luminous effect is obtained by flaking oil paint from top layers to reveal an underlying fluorescent substrate. The finished product can be seen in pieces such as Aubergine Passe. Whitis’ Spotlight project was a welcomed challenge. He explained, “With Vagua Bisbille I want to extrapolate the process into four layers. This means I’ll be painting four versions of the same painting on top of each of other at various levels of corruption and distortion.” Additionally, the work’s dimensions have been greatly expanded in order to fully encompass the viewer’s visual field. Whitis enjoys the labor-intensive process required to make paintings that include nearly a million pixel points of light. Molly Youngblood: Semblance of Society The human persona fascinates Molly Youngblood, a 22 year old Norman native and recent University of Oklahoma graduate. In previous work, such as her [headspace] series, she explores “the thoughts and anxieties one deals with in their own selfdefinition.” Each black and white large format photograph is created using a multiple exposure technique during the darkroom
printing process that results in a single, distorted composite image. For her Spotlight project Semblance of Society, Youngblood ambitiously opts to arrive at a composite image based on personal experiential data. She fictitiously alters her outward appearance before (think Cindy Sherman) then actively performs inside the Oklahoma subcultures of hunting, farming, gambling and spirituality. Equipped with an open mind and genuine curiosity, Youngblood blurs her own identity into an artistic ethnographer of sorts. Acceptance or rejection from these communities takes a backseat to her higher goal – critically challenging perception versus reality. Having obtained a deeper understanding of the complexities behind the people and ideas associated with each subculture, Youngblood presents her findings to Momentum Tulsa visitors through a multi-media display of photographs, video, audio, artifacts and performance. These Spotlight projects are featured alongside individual works from emerging artists across the state. Music, performances and interactive elements planned by the Momentum Tulsa committee, headed by co-chairs Julianne Clark and Val Esparza, round-out the exhibition. The opening event for Momentum Tulsa will be held on Saturday, October 12th from 8 pm-Midnight at Living Arts, 307 E Brady St, Tulsa. Tickets can be purchased online and at local retailers for $7 or at the door for $10. The exhibition will be on display October 13th-25th with free gallery hours TuesdaySaturday 1-5 pm and Thursday 1-9 pm. For more information, visit www.momentumoklahoma.org. To learn more about each Spotlight artist, go to www.cargocollective.com/bromeleighad, www.stuartwhitis.com, and www.mollyyoungblood.com. n Kerry Azzarello currently serves as OVAC Operations Manager. Her own creative momentum is fueled by art, architecture, traveling, writing and amazing people. She can be reached at office@ ovac-ok.org.