Art Focus Oklahoma May-June 2016

Art Focus

O k l a ho m a V i s ual A r ts C oal i t i on

Ok l a h o m a Vo l u m e 3 1 N o . 3

May/June

2016

Art Focus

Ok l a h o m a

from the editor

Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition 730 W. Wilshire Blvd., Suite 104 Oklahoma City, OK 73116 ph: 405.879.2400 • e: director@ovac-ok.org visit our website at: ovac-ok.org Executive Director: Holly Moye director@ovac-ok.org

I see this issue as a living documentation of our current temporal position in the annual calendar. Traversing the boundary between two seasons of warmth and rebirth, we head into summer with a wealth of art on our hands from artists who, much like the passing of the seasons, find themselves at a critical juncture.

Among those are the artists featured in the Concept exhibition, which opens at the Hardesty Arts Center on June 3. Curated by Adam Welch from Pittsburg, Concept will feature the work of four Oklahoma artists and four exchange artists from St. Louis who have received guidance and funding to pursue innovative project ideas. Alongside the eight Focus artists, 27 Oklahomans will participate in a survey exhibition showing some of the most current and relevant work happening in the state right now.

As we move forward, some things to also look forward to include our upcoming 24 Works on Paper exhibition (call for entry open until June 1) and of course, our annual 12x12 Art Fundraiser. You can also be on the lookout for a big announcement in the next issue of Art Focus Oklahoma, in newsstands July 1.

Sincerely,

Lauren Scarpello publications@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 Anonymous letters will not be published.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.

OVAC Board of Directors July 2015–June 2016: Renée Porter, Norman (President); Susan Green, Tulsa (Vice President); Michael Hoffner, Oklahoma City (Secretary); Gina Ellis, Oklahoma City (Treasurer); Bryon Chambers, Oklahoma City; Bob Curtis, Oklahoma City; Hillary Farrell, Oklahoma City; Jon Fisher, Moore; Titi Fitzsimmons, MD, Oklahoma City; Ariana Jakub, Tulsa; John Marshall, Oklahoma City; Travis Mason, Oklahoma City; Laura Massenat, Oklahoma City; Amy Rockett-Todd, Tulsa; Douglas Sorocco, Oklahoma City; Dana Templeton, Oklahoma City; Chris Winland, Oklahoma City; Dean Wyatt, Owasso.

The Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition is solely responsible for the contents of Art Focus Oklahoma. However, the views expressed in articles do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Board or OVAC staff.

Member Agency of Allied Arts and member of the Americans for the Arts. © 2016, Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition.

All rights reserved.

View the online archive at ArtFocusOklahoma.org.

Support from:

On the cover: Summer Wheat, Boots, 2015, acrylic and oil on canvas

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contents

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Concept Focus: Oklahoma Artists Renee Montgomery discusses the four Focus projects from Oklahoma in this year’s Concept exhibition.

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Concept Focus: St. Louis Artists Lucie Smoker introduces us to the four Focus projects from St. Louis in this year’s Concept exhibition.

11 Space and Color and Movement: Leon Polk Smith Mary Kathryn Moeller reviews the prolific history of the Oklahoma-born artist.

12 Bringing the Milkmaid to Life Karen Paul welcomes us into the house that Summer Wheat built.

14 Philip Van Keuren’s Murmurations Olivia Biddick reviews Van Keuren’s unique photogravures.

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F e a t u re s 15 From Incubation to Creation: Guymon’s Artist-in-Residence

Program Featuring Josh Hogge Molly O’Connor takes us on a trip to Guymon to visit the All Fired Up Art Gallery.

16 Spotlight Artists: Momentum OKC 2016 Catherine Shotick reflects on her recent experience as the Momentum OKC 2016 Emerging Curator.

18 The Passed Torch: Anna Rutherford and the Impact of David Phelps Corinne Kannenberg shows us the value of mentoring relationships.

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21 Rose and Betty Refour: A Tale of Two Sisters Molly O’Connor sits down for a visit with the two artists.

24 Ekphrasis: Art & Poetry A. W. Marshall writes a modern folktale inspired by a Sean Eldridge painting.

Business of Art 26 Ask a Creativity Coach: Can’t Stop This!

How to stop yourself from being your own worst enemy.

27 OVAC News

(p. 4) Glenn Herbert Davis, WEST TULSA SPENT most of this drawing is not mine, 2011, Installation and Performance (p. 11) Leon Polk Smith, Untitled, 1942, Drawing

28 Gallery Guide

(p. 18) Anna Rutherford, String Theory, oil on canvas

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CONCEPT FOCUS: Oklahoma Artists

by Renee Montgomery

Andy Mattern in his studio painting his large-scale work entitled Waiting, Wanting, Wishing

Andy Mattern

Multi-media artist Andy Mattern often examines the promises and failures of technology. Mattern has historically worked with random objects so ubiquitous we normally overlook their visual interest—such as gum on the ground. In his 2012 series Sidewalk Ghosts Mattern created graphite rubbings of discarded chewing gum on NYC sidewalks—a statement about individuality and anonymity.

In other works, Mattern looked at the quotidian aspects of media and technology. A 2009 photo series entitled Remote dealt with the complications of simply activating electronics, while the 2012 series TV captures the dissolving mesh pattern appearing on early tube TV screen just before the screen goes dead.

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For his Concept exhibition entry, Mattern, Assistant Professor of Photography at Oklahoma State University, has selected another commonplace of technology—this time one loaded with relevance: the spinning wait cursor found in Apple OS X software signaling that the system is unresponsive (or the “spinning beach ball of death” as it is known colloquially). In this large-scale work entitled Waiting, Mattern will enlarge and reproduce the multi-color rotating symbol in paint, and then affix the symbol to a spinning motor and wall mount.

Upon approaching the gallery, viewers will see the rotating vortex the same size it appears on

a laptop screen. The spiraling painted color segments will mesmerize, and recall Marcel Duchamp’s low tech mechanical RotoReliefs. But as we get closer we will realize that Mattern has made the Apple busy-signal massive, and has slowed down the rotation speed—echoing the overwhelming impact the tiny symbol has on our emotions while awaiting it on our computer screens.

While everything from commerce to intimate communication is busily being digitized in our global culture, Mattern is interested in converting the virtual back into the physical. By artistically translating the prosaic Apple symbol into analog media and making it the centerpiece of a gallery installation, Mattern will force us to

consider technology’s escalating meaning on our lives. He will portray one of our new icons, a silly little symbol, to have growing control over our everyday emotions and ability to produce and communicate.

will respond with a site-specific shed structure providing roughly 1,000 brooding sites each for the once common, highly beneficial brown bat, as well as for the endangered, solitary, non-colonizing bee.

At a time when social thinkers evaluate the Digital Divide and the deleterious impact of technology on face-to-face communication, Mattern’s work will stand out as a comment on the promises and limitations of technology in general. It recalls the American Realists’ portrayals of the machine gear as symbolic of the excitement of the Industrial Age, but also a reminder of the era’s grinding social impact and failure to deliver on all its promises.

The attic of the shed will be filled with grooved, tightly spaced baffles for bats to propagate.

The shed exterior will form an ecosystem of a bored-log woodshed for bees, featuring a rain collection system, live pollinating plants, mud, and water.

Glenn Herbert Davis

“My work is a continuing study of the theoretical and practical relationships between the individual human body and (contrived) systems,” writes the artist Glenn Herbert Davis, “an emphatic but reasonable statement about the struggle of the human body to endure and thrive within the systems to which it is subject.”

Davis will add additional components in which birds, mice, and feral cats will be encouraged to shelter. Following the showing of the constructions in St Louis, they will be permanently relocated outdoors on Davis’ property in West Tulsa where they will be put to use as an animal domicile and brooder.

Like prior works, broods will be assembled from Glenn Herbert Davis, Nest, 2013, installation detail

materials such as salvaged wood lumber, metals, masonry, furniture, burlap, twine—but Davis also wants to integrate materials modified by animals, for instance, a post scratched by a farm animal. Davis is influenced by animals that engineer their environments in marvelous ways, such as the bowerbird whose nest includes an impressive display of found trinkets. broods’ multiple parts will be intentionally constructed in awkward areas of the building, like an animal would opportunistically situate its home.

Anh-Thuy Nguyen

Assistant Professor of Photography at Rogers State University since 2015, AnhThuy Nguyen investigates cultural identity in her multi-disciplined canon of work, consisting of photography, video, installation, performance and sound. “After all,” AnhThuy explains, “it is our own culture and (continued to page 7)

Underneath Davis’ quirky, tinkered large-scale constructions composed of vernacular furniture, utility architecture, reclaimed lumber, and sundry bric-a-brac lies a considerate, sociallydriven statement. For instance, in the 2008 Track aNd Trolley performance-installation at Living Arts Tulsa, Davis, suspended from the ceiling, moved within the off-beat deck-like structures, repairing or modifying sections, designed to generate respect for the act of physical labor and the often perilous jobs of construction workers.

In Davis’s words, he “uses ‘serious’ studio practice, material knowledge, craft, and social consciousness, while simultaneously deploying the grounding effects of bench top pragmatism, tomfoolery, and a base physical awareness of the human body and its vulnerable nature.”

Entitled broods, Davis’ imaginative work in the Concept exhibition will be comprised of three different shed or “nest” structures responding to the plight of certain animal species under the contrived systems of man in this Anthropocene epoch. Asking himself the question “what would artwork be for another animal?” Davis

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(continued from page 6) cultural differences that dictate how we behave toward others.” Nguyen is known for her evocative images including subtle but often disturbing references to her Vietnamese background. For example, in the photograph series Thuy and Doll Nguyen examined the loss of innocence and home, the haunting destruction of homeland in Ghost Towns Series, and cultural alienation in the videos Thuy and Rice (2011) and Processing of Affection (2011).

In her provocative Concept installation entitled Citizenship Anh-Thuy will introduce the timely topic of immigration and inclusion. Reflecting her own history coming to the US from Vietnam in 2006, Nguyen’s interactive multimedia work will specifically address the process and qualification system for naturalization.

Gallery visitors will be encouraged to participate in a staged scenario with a mock US Immigration official who will administer the interview with US civics questions actually required of those who seek citizenship status. Before entering a private examination room, a full-face color photograph will be taken of each volunteer applicant. Following the scoring of the sample test questions given one-on-one by the “immigration agent,” cards stamped “pass” or “fail” will be posted in

the gallery along with the applicant’s photo.

Four 20x24 inch screenprints of all 100 test questions will be displayed in the performance installation as well.

While the issue of screening immigrants coming into the country has become a political hot potato, Anh-Thuy’s work will examine the ultimate naturalization process, “Does remembering answers to 100 questions earn you US citizen status?” AnhThuy’s revealing performance installation will challenge us to examine our own commitment to democratic ideals.

How many of us ‘born-Americans’ are up to the task of answering 100 civics questions publically? And the next logical question: how many of us would mind our voting record being made public? Her commentary recalls her video Hoa Lo Prison, Hanoi Hilton citing the contradictions experienced by a cultural outsider looking in.

Nguyen also queries whether speaking English is an appropriate qualification to gain full membership in America? In response to the part of the real interview testing English proficiency, the artist will create a three-channel video loop with affecting images of her repeating: “I am a Vietnamese” and “I am an American.” The

Anh-Thuy Nguyen, R145 G146 B174, 2016, archival pigment print

voice-over statements will demonstrate a deep understanding of the original tenets of the country’s founding—that immigrants should be seen simply as “Americans.”

Heather Clark Hilliard

Curiosity and the exploration of ideas and materials has always been the driving force behind Heather Clark Hilliard’s multimedia art. For instance, Hilliard spent years studying international dye processes working with master dyers and tracking down dye stuffs from across the country. Studying piano for the last six years, Hilliard believed it was important as a visual artist to experience another art form. The result has been a new body of work with a compelling sensory integration of music and sound.

Hilliard first experimented with sound in installations called The Bell Project and the Chromatic Fantasy, drawing connections between music and color. In the latter work, Hilliard devised the hues to correspond to the pitch and rhythm based on Bach’s fugue of the same name even though the sound is ultimately silent or transparent to the viewer. Hilliard’s work in the Concept exhibition will represent a new direction based on twelve-tone theory.

Conceived in the early twentieth century by Arnold Schoenberg and others, as a system to break away from traditional harmonic compositions, twelve-tone theory forms the foundation for composing atonal music.

Central to atonal composition are “tone rows,” an ordering of pitches so that all twelve notes in the chromatic scale are given equal emphasis and harmonies are precluded.

Tone rows are then assembled in a table or matrix where adjacencies of notes emerge that sound dissonant or clashing to Western ears.

Hilliard perceived this formal matrix line diagram—where circles of keys come in and begin to connect and a web network or matrix is formed—as so beautiful and fascinating, it deserved to be translated into a visual form. Challenging Hilliard was the question of how to see the hearing element? How does sound change into visual abstraction? And what materials and colors could best express the “ephemeral and

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fleeting tones that are not even comfortable to hear?”

Hilliard’s answer will be the sophisticated work entitled Ossia, the word for an Italian musical instruction meaning an alternative way to play a passage. With her translation of twelve tone theory into a visual web of contrasts, patterns, lines and sound, Hilliard will triumph in her goal of “finding a different way to hear a piece of music or sound.”

Like great music, her installation—called a movement—will be predicated on an objective formulaic level, but will also work subjectively in the saturation and clashing of colors, textures, and punctuations of line and shapes, as the artist aims for a “visceral understanding of shifting aural and visual forms in the third dimension.”

Correlating each pitch to a particular color, Heather Clark-Hilliard, Chromatic Fantasy, 2014, installation detail her experiments will harken back to history of the study of synesthesia, including Kandinsky’s art theories, but surpassing the early Expressionists in the complex levels of aural experience.

Concept opens June 3 at the Arts and Humanities Council of Tulsa’s Hardesty Arts Center (AHHA), 101 E Archer St. in Tulsa, ahhatulsa.org, and September 2 at the Luminary, 2701 Cherokee St. in St Louis, Missouri, theluminaryarts.com. n Renee Montgomery previously worked as the Assistant Director at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, dealing with exhibitions and collections, and now works in Oklahoma museums and institutions teaching children.

The University of Tulsa Graduate Program in Art A working community of students, faculty, visiting artists and scholars Want to study art in a vibrant, interdisciplinary program that will challenge you to become the best artist you can be? Come to TU! We have a dynamic faculty who will work with you one-on-one to realize your vision. We’ll prompt you to situate your work within historic and contemporary practices and give you room to grow in one of our studios in the downtown Brady Arts District or in Phillips Hall at the School of Art. Check us out now!

We can’t wait to see what we’ll create together.

For more information, visit https://graduate.utulsa.edu/ or call 918.631.2739 Rings, 2015

Nancy Andrasko MFA Ceramics

TU is an EEO/AA institution

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CONCEPT FOCUS: St. Louis Artists

by Lucie Smoker

Searching for a sense of belonging, captivated by lives that changed forever when people migrated from homelands to faraway places, four artists from St. Louis will bring explosive explorations of “home” to Tulsa’s AHHA Hardesty Arts Center on June 3rd. They will join OVAC’s Concept exhibition of Oklahoma art, creating a miniature migration themselves.

I spoke with the artists as most were initiating their projects. Curator Adam Welch advised me to, “Revel in this stage of the process where stress and fun begin to co-mingle as an intriguing pool of possibilities.”

Cole Lu

Cole Lu found a certain irony in her United States Immigration and Naturalization 0-1 Artist Visa. It defined her as an outstanding “alien” possessing extraordinary ability. A queer, female, Taiwanese artist living in the Midwest, Lu finds herself feeling like an outsider in her chosen St. Louis community. Confronted daily by a certain “positive racism” that defines Asians as mild, chill, and intelligent yet keeps them at a distance, she experiences a negative stereotype of her sexuality.

Having lived in many places and emigrated herself, Lu found synergy in an excerpt from the dystopian novel, Taipei by Tao Lin, “Thinking the word ‘somewhere’ meditatively as both placeholder and ends.”

To Lu, they are like instructions for using a fork. Everywhere she goes, this piece of her childhood, the very object used to nourish her identity, carries an alien marker, as if to say, this is strange, but we can explain it.

Through that quote, she hopes to challenge our utopian definitions of “home.” As an outsider finding success in St. Louis, she asserts that a certain identity and sense of place can come from cross-cultural translation, taking the time to truly understand each other. These overlapping interpretations of her environment become her new home. The passive statement by Lin seems to sum up her concept, but she had to find a way to express it.

It’s a conceptual short-circuit that seems to defy any notion of normalcy, of fitting in, yet defines her everyday “home.”

Lu chose to work in neon, vinyl words and an RGB light spectrum of red, blues and greens. Propelled by her concept, she follows inspiration past her own practice of not creating Asian art just because she is Asian.

Her intuitive process kept bringing her back to it, to her family and her personal history.

In the end, she will create an object that seems to define her feelings of displacement, a neon package of chopsticks with instructions.

Untitled, Cole Lu, 2016, Neon, glass, electrical components

Addoley Dzegede

Addoley Dzegede exists because people from Ghana, Czechoslovakia, Finland, and even Cleveland, Ohio followed their dreams. They found acceptance, love, hope, and eventually home in each other.

“So much of history is people’s individual stories that happen in the time and place they came from. I’ve always been interested in my family. It seems amazing that history and circumstance collided to allow me and my siblings to come into existence. Everyone, it seems, was leaving somewhere to end up somewhere else, and I thought it would be interesting to make a project about what pushed my mother to leave, considering she hadn’t been many places.”

The first thing people want to know when they visit her studio is not about her work, but rather about her name and history. She is creating an interactive, wooden wall sculpture of a house, based on her mother’s childhood home. Each room will contain pieces from her history, her mother’s story, and a concept of nomadic community.

As people made lives together in places far from their respective homelands, the notion of home itself became more abstract. Through the lens of being visitor and citizen, outsider and insider, Addoley is creating a handcrafted aesthetic to reflect the unpolished nature of daily life. Batiked fabrics will be set out to open and touch, an art book will be ready to read and ponder, and wooden architecture will contain a diverse collection of objects and video created by work of the human hand.

Yet her art focuses on systems that are deeply in need of mending. In the four years that she has lived in St. Louis, the dichotomy of “us” and “them” in our culture has led to a painful

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condition of un-belonging for any who do not “fit.” Her art and her mother’s story suggest a more approachable community, one filled with hybrid identities that can provide inspiration to all of us.

Centering on the roles of intuition, gut feelings and dreams that propel us to make life-altering decisions, Dzegede’s multisensory exploration will suggest a home we can build for each other—if we open up.

Dzegede says, “My mother simply wanted to see the world. She isn’t the bravest person, so it definitely was quite an undertaking.” It turned out to be much more approachable than she may have imagined.

Catalina Ouyang

“When I was in my tweens,” says Catalina Ouyang,” I made a point of having only white, predominantly blonde friends even though, or perhaps because, my school had a fairly large East Asian population. I thought my fair-haired cohorts could camouflage me. It hurt my mother. We argued about it constantly. I was embarrassed by her accent and the way our house smelled.”

Ouyang grew out of that pre-teen angst.

Now a rising star in the St. Louis art scene, she carries guilt, confusion, and unresolved conflict as part of who she is, a perpetual and perpetrating Chinese American woman in a sort of cultural limbo. About twice a week, sometimes more, she is asked where she is really from. It’s an unending disruption to her daily life, preventing her from ever feeling just American—though she is, second generation.

Catalina explained, “Almost every man who flirts with me turns out to have dated or is currently dating an East Asian woman.

All the guys with ‘yellow fever’ see us as interchangeable slit-eyed dolls.” By age twenty-one, she only dated white guys. It disturbed her--but at the same time, she can’t remedy sexual preference. So she even feels colonized by her own desire.

The concept of sexual colonization pervades her fiberglass, Blue Boy pop art sculptures as they work almost in collage with (continued to page 10)

(top) Addoley Dzegede in studio creating paper stencil images for batik, 2016 (bottom) Catalina Ouyang, Blue Boy (No. 2 Pencil), 2015-2016, extruded polystyrene, gypsum, resin, plaster, steel, enamel paint, spray paint, pastel

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(continued from page 9) corresponding Chinese grid-paper paintings.

She lays out her most intimate feelings of humiliation, attachment and pain in these “cute, retaliatory,” oddball creations.

What I see in this work is race fatigue. An exhaustion of the micro-aggressions, ethnic fetishes, and feeling of being voyeur in a world that doesn’t get her. Yet she succeeds in expressing her pride and strength. The grid paper from a Chinese writing exercise book holds peepholes into her psyche as if inviting real communication, understanding, and perhaps intimacy. “Home” will be the partner who gets that someday.

Meredith Foster

Meredith Foster’s creative process is based in an ongoing multi-media studio practice interacting with the land, interpreting its use, and the understanding its resulting processes of transformation. For the Concept exhibition, she will bring in a new dimension—the railroad.

Once a major conduit for waves of humanity looking for a new home and a better life, the abandoned railroad right-of-ways hold a sort of Mother Nature’s history of the people who traveled through each place. They plant communities they once introduced, and the resulting ecological succession can be followed by a careful observer as surely as a map.

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Foster collects both indigenous and invasive plant material, sifted ash and charcoal made from them, and configured them into a floor-based topographic map. Subtle shifts in elevation, waterways, and infrastructure provide the foundation for a topography of layers and stenciled images referencing where each plant material was collected. What a strong reminder that our presence, our grid, have reshaped and repopulated the world we consider wild around us. Fact is, very little of the land is untouched by humans.

As curator Adam Welch says, “Some [of the artists] have been expanding the scope and dimensions of their works while others are distilling down complex concepts into tighter or more condensed pieces. Since many things are in this state of flux it sort of forces me to be limber in my thinking about their work and the whole of the exhibition. Amending, editing, and adjusting pieces are natural aspects of making.”

The St. Louis cohort promise to surprise us with fresh perceptions of “home” that just might make a difference in the way we reach out and connect. Ironically, these insights will be brought to us from outside, not to be invasive, but to share a sense of belonging in this nomadic life. They inspire us to look deep within nature and the most important people around us to understand them and find a home. The best part is sharing the adventure.

Meredith Foster, from Stateline, 2013, sifted ash and charcoal made from indigenous and introduced plant material

Concept opens June 3 at the Arts and Humanities Council of Tulsa Hardesty Arts Center (AHHA), 101 E Archer St. in Tulsa, ahhatulsa.org, and September 2 at the Luminary, 2701 Cherokee St. in St Louis, Missouri, theluminaryarts.com. n Lucie Smoker is a suspense author, poet and freelance writer. Check out her latest words at luciesmoker.wordpress.com

Space and Color and Movement: Leon Polk Smith

by Mary Kathryn Moeller

Highlighting a number of works from an unprecedented gift by the artist’s foundation, the Oklahoma State University Museum presents Leon Polk Smith: Back to Oklahoma.

This gift of over 700 works on paper significantly enhances a key element of the museum’s collection that is works by modern and contemporary Oklahoma artists. The exhibition demonstrates the breadth of Smith’s career and his contribution to postwar American abstraction.

Leon Polk Smith was born in 1906 near Chickasha one year before Oklahoma’s statehood. He attended Oklahoma State College, now East Central University, earning a degree in English. Both of Smith’s parents were part Cherokee though he grew up around the Chickasaw and Choctaw tribes. Having grown up as part of a Native American community, Smith drew upon this particular aesthetic environment for inspiration. In his earliest abstract work of the 1930’s he aimed to capture the high quality craftsmanship of Native American art that he much admired as well the simplicity and directness of design.

The most significant element in his work which can be traced to his early life in Oklahoma is an obsession with space. In his paintings and prints, Smith created wide expanses of space and color as an homage to the plains and prairies of Oklahoma. In 1985, Smith stated, “[My work] is full of that open space and the big sky feeling….I suppose the source of my inspiration is likely space: space and color and movement.” All three of these elements Smith discovered in his first exposure to the work of Piet Mondrian in 1936. Smith stated that it was Mondrian’s interchangeability of form and space that galvanized him. The experience of seeing Mondrian served as catalyst for his own creative process.

Yet there were other artistic influences on Smith such as Léger, Arp, and Brancusi. In a 1993 interview Smith reflected on the general perception of his work having sprung directly from Mondrian. “That’s what they want,” he observed, referring to viewers. He argued that Brancusi was more of a significant influence on his work because Brancusi did not write great philosophical treatises. “I do not like artists who are always talking about their art and giving

reasons for it philosophically,” Smith declared.

The interviewer asked, “So theoretical writing, like Neo-Plastic theory, doesn’t interest you?”

“Waste of time,” Smith acerbically asserted.

Smith did acknowledge having read Mondrian and van Doesburg’s theories early on, but had no wish for his work to be associated with their writings.

In the mid-1950’s, Smith moved away from Mondrian-inspired geometric abstraction to become one of the founders of Hard-edge painting and an antecedent to Minimalism. He influenced artists such as Ellsworth Kelly who first visited his New York studio in 1955 after returning from his studies in Paris. Other artists visited his studio in the 1950’s such as Agnes Martin, Jack Youngerman, and Robert Indiana.

During this time Smith began to experiment with “tondos” or round paintings. The rounded canvases heighted the paintings’ “objectness”, which would later become a specific concern of Minimalists. Smith often gave his works titles taken from the Southwest. The titles Okemah and Pontotoc came from, respectively, the city of Woody Guthrie’s birth and the county in which Ada, OK is situated. While recognizable to those familiar with Oklahoma, New York viewers in the 1950’s would likely have found them as abstract as the works themselves.

In 1968 Smith received a fellowship to create work at the Tamarind Lithography Workshop in Los Angeles. Tamarind helped bring about a revival in lithography and printmaking in general in the 1960’s. Smith created sixteen works during his time in LA, such as the silkscreen Tamarind A. This work, like many labelled as Hard-edge abstraction, is filled with sharply delineated areas of color. A bright redorange fills the entire surface area, except where an elongated green triangle crosses over. One point of the triangle touches near the midpoint of the left side of the print. The other ends stretch across the surface, complicating the concepts of form and space. With the lessons of Mondrian fully realized, Smith’s prints of the 1960’s and 1970’s are swollen with buoyant color and a suppleness of line.

The exhibitio n at OSUMA will showcase a selection of pieces from the overall gift which spans from 1938-1995. Included in the gift are some of Smith’s earliest works such a 1930’s

Leon Polk Smith, Untitled, 1968, cardboard drawing

watercolor still life and early pieces of figurative and surrealist images. The collection also includes a number of images drawn on a variety of nontraditional materials such as the backs of envelopes, sandpaper, and book covers.

The exhibition is curated by Arlette Klaric, PhD, Associate Chief Curator and Curator of Collections. Leon Polk Smith: Back to Oklahoma opens on May 31 until September 3. A special reception is scheduled for Tuesday, August 16 from 5-7pm.

The Oklahoma State University Museum of Art is located at 720 S. Husband in Stillwater.

For more information call 405-744-2780 or go online at museum.okstate.edu. n Mary Kathryn Moeller is curator, writer, and educator. She is available via e-mail at mkmoeller77@gmail.com.

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Bringing the Milkmaid to Life

by Karen Paul

as the class structure portrayed within. This structure starts with the realization that the woman portrayed was a domestic who likely had no real voice in life. Wheat’s work brings the milkmaid to life, giving her a voice in the modern context of this constructed space.

Additional works in the exhibition are various mixed media pieces unified by an often unconventional use of paint. For Wheat, the various media methodologies that she uses are simply a deck of cards from which to draw inspiration to create different installation spaces. She sees the various media, not as different processes, but rather as paint that is translated into different methods.

Wheat’s use of various media examines the dichotomy of using artifact imagery as a crossover element to connect the present and past. By infusing together various elements and images, Wheat builds traditionally flat pieces into multi-dimensional, highly textured works.

For instance, in Rainbow Arcade, a series of faux stained glass windows made of Mylar and resin create a kaleidoscope of color, echoing Wheat’s personal relationship with Oklahoma skies, and setting the tone for her examination of life in the round. To create her windows, Wheat incorporated objects from daily life and used black paint as the final element to chisel out the window subjects. Wheat does not see her application of negative space as the final element as being non-traditional; it is simply a process she has always utilized in her work.

Summer Wheat, Cabinet, 2015, acrylic and oil on canvas

Inspired by Johannes Vermeer’s The Milkmaid, Summer Wheat’s Pry the Lid Off is a complex exhibition serving as a love letter to her hometown of Oklahoma City. By offering a space for deep contemplation into the milkmaid’s existence, Wheat, who now resides in New York City, examines the world beyond the surface of Vermeer’s painting with a series of site-specific installations at Oklahoma Contemporary.

Wheat, an Oklahoma native, infuses various media and images in an exhibition that, despite its complex themes, remains welcoming to viewers. Wheat’s work is

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based on her worldview that everything can be thought of in the round—everything is connected in some manner. She believes that none of us are separate from the space in which we exist, an idea that she examines by creating elements that are at once both singular and multiple at the same time.

This concept of connectivity plays out in seemingly endless ways. Wheat begins by creating an opportunity for the viewer to step into four rooms of the Milkmaid’s personal chambers to dissect and ask questions of Vermeer’s painting. She guides us through the underlying questions of the painting, such

The stained glass pieces were created in Wheat’s studio in New York City, using a section of white floor and smaller windows to construct her individual window panes. As a whole, these pieces bathe the viewer in a world of color and serve as a barrier from the outer world to the inner world, where viewers are treated to scenes from the milkmaid’s life; these scenes incorporate personal elements from Wheat’s own experiences in Oklahoma.

In Inheritance, vessels in the milkmaid’s cupboard were created out of wood panels that were hand cut in Oklahoma. These panels are backed by a white wall. By using the white wall as positive space to create the primary image, Inheritance explores her idea of our surroundings as inseparable from our selves.

Three tapestries in Wheat’s exhibition literally

create another material world for viewers to experience. By pushing layers of paint through window screens, Wheat creates fabric type elements in Nightshade, Strawberry Sun, and Valley of Life with small mixed media elements like stones.

Three additional works, Cabinet, Yellow Trousers, and Boots create the wardrobe section of her exhibition. Cabinet shows a series of personal effects including jewelry and clothing. Yellow Trousers was inspired by a personal story told by her father about her grandfather.

Boots includes a series of bows, boots, and clothes selected by Wheat because they reminded her of Oklahoma. By incorporating many of the processes, themes and elements found throughout the show, Boots creates an overall symmetry to Wheat’s exhibition, serving as the final bookend of the experience she has created for viewers.

Pry the Lid Off will on display at Oklahoma Contemporary from February 25 – August 12, 2016. A series of special events are also planned in conjunction with the exhibition, including visual and performance art presentations in June 2016. Details will be posted at oklahomacontemporary.org. n A graduate of the University of Oklahoma’s Gaylord College, Karen Paul is a freelance writer based in Oklahoma City. You may contact her at karenpaulok@gmail.com

(left) Born and raised in Oklahoma City, Summer Wheat now lives and works in New York. She returned to Oklahoma City for this site-specific installation. (right) Summer Wheat’s faux stained-glass panels cover the windows and doors of Oklahoma Contemporary’s entryway. The panels are Mylar painted with enamel and resin. Rainbow Arcade, 2016.

Mylar paper, enamel paint, resin, scotch tape.

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Philip Van Keuren’s Murmurations

by Olivia Biddick

all the technical possibilities available through modern photography. When you don’t know everything about a particular medium, you are freer to experiment when creating something. “The creation is more about the moment, the feeling, the emotion, and because of that the end result is often times better,” says Warriner.

Van Keuren prefers the historic process used to make a photogravure because it better serves the art. In the early days of photography, photographers weren’t seen as artists, but as camera operators. The operators were there to serve the subject, a vehicle for the camera to “capture an image in a time that is now gone,” says Van Keuren.

Philip Van Keuren, Snowstorm, 2016, photogravure

Philip Van Keuren’s Murmurations consists of 40 copper photogravures, produced from an antiquated printmaking technique that etches film negatives onto copper plates. All 40 works are currently showing at [Artspace] at Untitled—displayed all on the same wall, much like a flock of birds. These works are a part of an ongoing series called Toward What Sun? The exhibition is curated by Untitled’s Laura Warriner and Rebecca Bloodworth.

Warriner, the gallery’s founder, first met Van Keuren a few years ago when he visited in support of his friend and fellow Southern Methodist University faculty member Jay Sullivan, who was showing work there. Laura was immediately impressed by Van Keuren’s photogravures, which she experienced to be “beyond photography.”

Van Keuren was already an established artist and poet when he started using a camera in 1991 while teaching a two-week SMU course hosted in New York City. Since then, every time he teaches in New York he takes a few photos. These photos make up the majority of the images in Towards What Sun? though some were taken in Europe.

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He gravitates toward the photogravure process because of the grittiness this method provides as opposed to the slick look of today’s modern photography. Most of his photos are taken outdoors, in the winter, when no one is around. The resulting stillness and solitude allow the viewer to feel the power of the captured moment—to feel the world contained within the image with patience and unfettered observation.

The gravures lack acute detail, but that does not diminish the depth of the images’ stories.

There is a sense of familiarity and intimacy involved in the scenes. They instantly feel as though they are from another time with their classic compositions and subdued mood.

The photography is not about him as an artist, but about the art alone. It’s a medium that allows him to “leave the ego behind,” because over the years Van Keuren has intentionally not dedicated time to explore

The collection has slowly evolved over the past fifteen years and has “no natural end.”

Van Keuren references Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass, a collection of poems that began as a pamphlet containing only a handful that eventually grew into a book of over a hundred poems, to describe his lifelong project. An exciting prospect, considering there are images in this series that are still yet to be revealed.

Murmurations is on view at [Artspace] at Untitled through May 14. For more information, visit artspaceatuntitled.org. n Olivia Biddick is the Office/Production Coordinator at CVWmedia in Norman. She has a BA in Journalism with an emphasis on Broadcasting and Electronic Media from the University of Oklahoma. Contact her at olivia.biddick@gmail.com Philip Van Keuren, Fountain, 2016, photogravure

From Incubation to Creation: Guymon’s Artist-in-Residence Program Featuring Josh Hogge

by Molly O’Connor

In 2003, civic and arts leaders in Guymon, Oklahoma pioneered a new concept in the heart of No Man’s Land by launching an art incubation space right on Main Street. Located in the back of the All Fired Up Art Gallery, the workspace currently co-exists side by side with the exhibition space. The Artist Incubator program was designed and implemented to provide opportunities for emerging artists at the beginning of their careers and to increase local revenue. However, throughout the span of the program, the incubator space has created numerous benefits to the town of Guymon and the entire region.

Doris Henderson serves as the grants writer and finance director for Artist Incubator, Inc. and was instrumental in the progression of the program from the early stages. She has seen first-hand how the program has impacted the local economy. The sales tax from the art sales has benefitted the City of Guymon; artists are also able to earn a living wage from their work and make purchases in the community.

“OPSU (Oklahoma Panhandle State University) art instructors saw a need to keep students from leaving the state after graduation. They saw a great opportunity through the arts to grow art as a category and a business.”

leaders to develop plans to expand the program. More workspace will be added to accommodate additional artists. And, the incubator initiative folds nicely into the larger efforts to strengthen Guymon’s capacity to attract cultural tourism as an arts destination.

“The vision is to have thirty art galleries in the City of Guymon to attract potential commerce to purchase art where otherwise travelers merely pass through Guymon to Taos and Santa Fe to purchase art.”

It may not happen overnight, but perhaps Guymon will eventually attract art patrons from Santa Fe and Taos to do their shopping in the Big Sky Country of the Oklahoma Panhandle. Why not? The sky’s the limit. n 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.

Josh Hogge, Trials of a White Knight, 2014, mixed media

Amidst the large equipment, potter wheels and kilns, Josh Hogge can be found seamless shifting from artist to teacher. A graduate of Oklahoma Panhandle State University’s art program, Hogge has served as the artist-in-residence for over a year. Hogge’s style, which he refers to as hyper-realistic, includes ceramics, paintings and mixed-media sculpture. Hogge applied for the residency program after graduating college, and was selected by a jury for the opportunity. He credits the residency for his smooth transition as a college student into a full-time artist.

“The gallery has helped a lot. I know I wouldn’t be able to do all that I am able to do without this experience. And it’s cool to be in the small community where this is happening, because you see how this is really building up.”

Henderson feels that Hogge was an excellent choice for the participating artist. His work has been well-received by the community, and he has developed a devoted number of patrons.

“Because the community likes Josh’s work so much, Josh has been very marketable to the community as a potter and artist, especially for commissioned pottery work.”

In addition to utilizing the residency to create new work, Hogge helps operate the kilns and teaches art classes to children and youth from the local region.

“Using Josh as a teacher for children has been a beneficial addon for the program. We have learned that getting and keeping kids involved is a great roadway into the hearts of parents and the community. And now plans are evolving to hold art lessons for children more consistently.”

The success of Guymon’s Artist Incubator, Inc. has pushed local

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15

Spotlight Artists: Momentum OKC 2016

by Catherine Shotick

After moving to Oklahoma City in 2013, it didn’t take long before I heard about the Momentum OKC exhibition, an annual art show organized by the Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition for artists ages thirty and under. Over the next two years, I participated by attending the exhibitions, and was thrilled to learn I had been chosen to be this year’s Emerging Curator.

Working alongside Lead Curator Trent Lawson, our first responsibility for curating the exhibition was selecting the Spotlight artists.

Acting as the center showpieces for the larger survey exhibition, each of the three selected Spotlight artists receive an honoraria and curatorial guidance to help make their proposed projects a reality.

We had almost forty Spotlight entries from which to choose, and the abundance of originality and artistic talent presented for consideration was invigorating. Curating, of course, is very subjective, and while there was some animated conversation between Trent and I as we worked together to narrow down the submissions, we made a great team and had remarkably similar viewpoints throughout the decision-making process. In the end, the three artists we selected—Klair Larason, Haley Prestifilippo, and Gloria Shows—all submitted strong, innovative, and intriguing proposals that left us both wanting to see more.

This year’s Spotlight artists for Momentum OKC were chosen not only because their proposals were conceptually and visually striking, but because each one clearly described how they wanted to take this opportunity to push themselves in order to create something new and fresh, not only for the exhibition but also in order to advance their personal artistic portfolios. Trent and I saw great potential in these young artists, and we were impressed by their originality and creativity.

The curators and artists met for the first time as a team in early January to talk about initial ideas and visions, followed by more in-depth individual studio visits a few weeks later. One of the most rewarding aspects of working with the Spotlight artists was seeing how their projects developed from when they were first selected to the completed project at the opening night of the exhibition.

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Spotlight Artist Gloria Shows in her studio. Photo courtesy of the artist.

Each one of them started and finished their projects ambitiously, and the natural editing process only tightened and strengthened the end results. Although all three artists are working in strikingly different media, there were some common threads tying their Spotlight works together, specifically ideas of growth, identity, and destruction.

Klair Larason, of Oklahoma City, is certainly not new to Momentum—now 22; her first artwork was accepted into the exhibition at the age of 14. Looking both outward and inward, Larason seeks to answer questions of origin and intervention through her artwork.

With an interest in images of nature’s course being disrupted or destroyed by man, such as with deforestation or oil spills, Larason feels a parallel to these global matters in her own life experience.

Adopted at birth, Larason considers her life now in contrast to the life she could have been living with her birth family in Costa Rica.

“In my own life,” she said, “I experience an upheaval over whether or not I belong in the environment in which I was born.” Larason’s biggest concern for her Spotlight piece was the time restraints while working with a tedious and unconventional medium: gum wrapper foil. Made by slowly cutting and piecing together the foil onto a large piece of wood, her

completed work, A Boundary of Man, Animal, and Intervention, depicts a wild Costa Rican rainforest scene. The natural foliage and animals have been recreated from a man-made, brightly colored synthetic packaging material, visually blurring the distinction between origin and human intervention.

Haley Prestifilippo, of Norman, Oklahoma, is an artist who creates very detailed and complicated drawings of animals residing within fantastical environments. Usually working with a tightened style following a strict set of guidelines, Prestifilippo wanted to “loosen up” for her Spotlight project and experiment with ideas of growth and destruction, both within her drawing style and within the actual existence of the artwork itself.

Comprised of three large graphite drawings, her Spotlight project Before it Disappears incorporates sweeping erasure marks that create an overall sense of movement along with a slight blurring effect. However, to experiment further with the idea of growth and destruction, Prestifilippo included a fourth drawing set up on an easel in the gallery which she invited exhibition viewers to erase.

Maybe slightly timid at first to participate in this act of destruction, viewers had almost erased the entire drawing by the end of the

first opening night, leaving behind only a ghostly impression of what it once was. “The two disparate concepts [of growth and decay] are inextricably enmeshed through the endless continuum of life and death,” said Prestifilippo.

“I attempt to capture this oscillation between the beautiful and the repulsive, allowing the viewer to inhabit and contemplate this moment of transition on their own.”

Gloria Shows, of Edmond, Oklahoma, who works mainly as a woodcut printmaker, surprised us with her proposal to create a largescale installation using embroidery, a medium she had never used before. Wanting to explore further the theme of internal environment and personal identity, Shows created an immersive installation incorporating two cultural symbols important to her: poppies and cherry blossoms.

“These floral symbols highlight the themes of transience,” said Shows, “and the cycle of life and death which are essential to personal growth.” Having grown up in a military family, Shows spent most of her childhood overseas in Japan and England and struggles to answer the questions about where she comes from and where she belongs, as well as internal versus external perceptions.

After building a wooden frame in the shape of a house, Shows hung curtains of embroidered sheer fabric both within and surrounding the structure. When walking in the center of the house, there is a sense of privacy and internal ease amongst the floating beauty of the delicate curtains, yet one experiences a feeling of isolation and detached surveillance when standing outside of the structure. The shadows and layers created by the overlapping embroidered and painted curtains only added to the complex radiance of the installation.

The entire Momentum OKC experience has been one I will never forget. There is so much artistic talent in Oklahoma and it was an honor to work with just a few of those artists. It is truly invigorating to witness the growth of young artists, and I am already looking forward to seeing next year’s exhibition. n (top) Spotlight Artist Klair Larason in her studio. Photo courtesy of the artist.

Catherine Shotick is a curator and art historian.

She is available via e-mail at cshotick@gmail.com

(bottom) Spotlight Artist Haley Prestifilippo in her studio. Photo courtesy of the artist.

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THE PASSED TORCH: Anna Rutherford and the Impact of David Phelps

by Corinne Kannenberg

Anna Rutherford, Big Thoughts, 2016, oil on canvas

As many artists could attest, the leap from art student to career artist is a big one. For young Tulsa-based artist Anna Rutherford and many others, a mentor helped to facilitate this education.

After a short stint as a graphic design major, Rutherford transferred to Oklahoma State University where she studied bronze casting and painting, and graduated with a BFA in 2013. During her senior year at OSU, Rutherford says that she called renowned

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Oklahoma City-based sculptor David Phelps and pointedly asked to intern for him.

On her very first day, she explains, “he handed me a torch and said, ‘Go out and patina this bronze.’” Phelps trusted Rutherford, often allowing her to work directly on his sculptures rather than merely “sweeping his studio floors,” as she puts it. The significance of the internship to Rutherford, however, was about more than just adding to the skills she learned in college. Instead, Rutherford asserts, Phelps

offered her what her degree did not: “He walked me through what it is like to be an artist and succeed.”

In the end, Rutherford left the internship with two major revelations. On the one hand, working with Phelps exposed the intense physical demands of sculptural work.

For Rutherford, who was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) as a child, this was an important discovery. On the other hand, seeing Phelps’ established studio practice also

showed her just how difficult it could be as a young artist to make a living on the same kind of time-intensive, large-scale sculptural work for which Phelps is famous.

Ultimately, Rutherford decided that the physical and economic tolls of sculpture were too much, and she returned largely (though not exclusively) to painting. Her revelations were not just confined to medium, however: “Integrating myself with someone successful in precisely what I wanted to do,” she explains, “forced me to think about the universality and sell-ability of my own work.”

Since so much of the work in her senior show was about her battle with RA (hauntingly beautiful and grotesque paintings of broken bodies), Rutherford had to think about a way to speak to a broad audience while staying true to her artistic voice. Because, as she puts it bluntly, “who really wants to have a painting of a broken back in their living room?”

Now, just over two years since her internship with Phelps, Rutherford has certainly begun to taste the success she worked so hard to secure. Her paintings have been shown in numerous exhibitions in Oklahoma and Kansas, and she is a featured artist at Royce Meyers Art Limited gallery in Tulsa, for which she creates colorful abstract paintings in acrylics and mixed media. She also continues to develop her own body of work, which could be best described these days as abstract figurative paintings: luminous oil paintings depicting bodies suspended, stretching and flowing within abstract apparatuses, such as Big Thoughts.

She admits that she cannot escape from RA’s influence on her work, even while consciously trying to “not be so much in people’s faces about it.” Painting, too, requires a certain level of physicality that she admits can be difficult some days. She also uses her own body as a model, swollen joints and all. But, as much as she is still establishing her own style and career, she is certain that she is “light years ahead” of where she would have been had she not worked with Phelps.

For his part, Phelps is no stranger to the mentor/mentee relationship. Rutherford was neither the first, nor the last of the young

artists Phelps will work with, and he has also benefited from the help of mentors early on in his career.

Phelps graduated from California’s Humboldt State University with a BFA in ceramics.

He was not immediately convinced to go to graduate school, but had a change of heart after being actively recruited in 1980 by distinguished artist Ken Little, then Professor of Ceramics at the University of Oklahoma. In David Phelps, Pastoral Dreamer, 2003, bronze casting Norman, Little and Phelps “made a strong adjacent studio in his building in 2012. connection,” and Phelps has helped Hackler transform her Phelps credits much of his early successes as passion for art into a career, and their well as his turn to bronze sculpture to Little’s shared studio space has become a creative influence. community wherein they can bounce ideas Phelps’ work pulls heavily from his childhood off of one another. in Roberts Island, California and the Phelps explains that while he has some formal emotions he experienced growing up in a experience teaching in a university setting, place terrorized equally by both flooding and he finds mentorships and internships to be drought. Thus, his most recognizable works much more meaningful – both for him and are those with figures partially submerged the young artist. As far as his method, there into whatever surface they are placed, be is little in terms of regularity or procedure. it cement gallery floors or grass, such as in Rather, Phelps says, “I listen to and sense Pastoral Dreamer. what they need, and some more than others For him, these kinds of sculptures, detailing let me know what it is that they want” out of in bronze only that which is above the a working relationship. surface, allow for the “active participation” It is clear that what Phelps and other established of the viewer who must complete the piece artists have to offer emerging artists is profound. themselves. Phelps’ witty sense of humor Certainly, not all are willing or able to take is also present in some of his more playful on the responsibility and time commitment works, which often depict larger-than-life inherent in mentoring. But if Rutherford animals and everyday objects. and Phelps’ relationship is any indication, it He now creates these sculptures out of a seems evident that mentorships are mutually large, industrial studio in Oklahoma City beneficial, both for the mentee teetering at the and has worked there ever since purchasing onset of their career, and the mentor who also the building in 2008. He is also currently certainly gleans some insight along the way. n working with another mentee, sculptor Christy Hackler, who moved into the

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Rose and Betty Refour: A Tale of Two Sisters

by Molly O’Connor

at their grandparents’ home, the same home where they now reside. Left to their own devices, they would stretch out across the floor, filling the hours and numerous notebooks with sketches. It was then and there that they both discovered a mutual love for drawing. Betty’s early work included repetition of geometric shapes. Later, she developed a fascination with fashion and begin to use images from magazines as a guide for clothing design. Rose tended to sketch organic creatures and faces. Today her signature works are portraits of a woman’s face with a cigarette pursed between her lips. Betty believes that Rose’s affinity for this image is rooted in memories of their grandfather who could often be found enjoying a cigarette.

Upon graduation from high school, Betty ventured off to Arlington, Texas to attend Bauder Fashion College. The two year program provided Betty with in-depth training in clothing construction and design, but when she graduated, it was difficult to find opportunities for work.

“I started doing illustrating for other designers to help them get their products on the market.

It was mostly free-lance and marketing. So, I really didn’t take it too seriously.”

In addition, Betty worked as a flight attendant for American Airlines. An injury on the job prevented her from working for an entire year.

Much to her dismay, her doctor refused to allow her to return to work.

Rose Refour, Nobody Died and Made Me Queen, I Was Born a Queen

It’s a crisp late winter night in Oklahoma City, and two sisters, Rose and Betty Refour, sit together in the living room of their historic home. A flame in the wall furnace dances as Betty shares stories about their family, the home and the artistic path that she and her sister Rose have followed. The walls and mantle, which are adorned with several of the sisters’ paintings, illustrate their evolution as artists and their vibrant imaginations. While Betty talks, Rose sits

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quietly and plays a video game, aware of the conversation, but not involved in it.

Diagnosed with autism as a child, Rose’s communication has predominantly been non-verbal. At the time of Rose’s diagnosis, the lack of knowledge and understanding about autism led to social stigma, and therefore, she and Betty were prevented from playing or socializing with other children. Instead, they spent days on end

“I broke down. I wasn’t sure what I would do.

She saw some of my pictures of my drawings and said ‘THIS is what you will do! Why don’t you take up painting?’ I wasn’t sure I could make art a career, but I left there and bought canvas the next day.”

Betty signed up for a painting class and gradually developed her own style of abstract painting, which sometimes incorporates the floating geometric shapes that were key in her early foundation of drawing. She credits Paul Klee, Mark Rothko and Wassiliy Kandinsky as artistic influences. Several of Betty’s paintings, such as “Station Wagon” (continued to page 22)

HEAD TO TOE: THE WEITZMAN ART SHOE COLLECTION, CANDACE KLING, AND HARRIETE ESTEL BERMAN June 3 - July 24, 2016 Art & Sole Book Signing with Jane Weitzman: June 2, 7:00 PM Opening Reception: June 3, 6:00 – 9:00 PM Artist Talk: June 4, 1:30 PM - 2:30 PM 108 East M.B. Brady Street, Tulsa, OK 74103 www. 108contemporary.org Image: Jane Carroll, Decked in Dahlias Design by Cristina Moore, Third Floor Design, University of Tulsa School of Art

U N I V E R S I T Y

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art.uco.edu

A R T S

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ART

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University of Central Oklahoma | Department of Art 100 N. University Dr. | Edmond, OK 73034 (405) 974-5201 21

(continued from page 20)

(right) Betty Refour, Ray of Hope. (left) Rose Refour, Carmen

are inspired by fond memories of her childhood and her loving grandparents.

artwork to cope with the stress and pain of watching her mother’s declining health.

A fellow flight attendant who also happened to be an interior designer requested that Betty’s paintings be displayed in the newly built showcase homes and apartments in Dallas. Exposure of the paintings to a home-buying audience was a good thing: people bought the artwork and there was a growing demand for Betty’s paintings. She joined an artist co-op and sought new opportunities for exhibitions. Her first major exhibition took place at Dallas City Hall and she was contacted by a gallery representative in Savannah Georgia, where her work was represented for over a year.

“I was having a hard time functioning and navigating the role of cancer caregiver. I just started drawing. It helped me work through that dark time.”

“Things were going good. People were buying my work and the phone was ringing! It was totally surreal.”

Betty made the decision to go back to school for graphic design, but shortly after starting the program she learned that her mother had been diagnosed with cancer. Betty returned to Oklahoma City to assist her mother and care for Rose. The abrupt change caused her to put her artistic career on hold. However, Betty turned to her

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It was also during this time that Betty explored new opportunities to share her artwork online. Through Etsy and Ebay, she became successful in selling notecards that were reproductions of her paintings and drawings. Due to the strong values instilled in her by her grandparents, Betty made a point to donate up to fifty percent of the profits to charities that supported cancer research or services for people with autism. Shortly after creating an online presence for her work, Betty was contacted by a representative at Ebay because they wanted to share her story. In addition, a cancer research foundation in Canada contacted Betty to license and purchase 2,000 of her cards wholesale to give as gifts to their major donors and supporters.

The online ventures proved to be successful for Rose’s work as well.

Upon returning to Oklahoma City, Betty steered Rose to transition

1 NE 3rd St

OKC,OK 73104

405.815.9995

Sc re e np ri nt in g De my st i fi ed C ar ve & P ri n t I I M on o pri n t i n g P l e in A ir E t c h in g B oo kma ki n g Z in e M ach in e n t ro t o Dig it al P h o t o g ra ph y I nt P os t P rod u ct io n : Ph ot o Edi t i n g X erox L it h o gra ph y C ardma ki n g O p e nin g Re cept ion: May 26 th at 5p m

For more infor mation on our programs and exhibitions, please call us or visit our website: 1ne3.or g.

from drawing to painting. Betty also began to incorporate some of Rose’s sketches into her own paintings and notecard designs. People from all over the country contacted Betty because they wanted to include Rose’s work in their exhibitions.

“I was getting so much feedback from families around the world, telling me that the work and what we were doing to raise awareness was so inspiring. To me, it was how we were raised, to always give back if you can. It didn’t seem like we were doing anything special. But people thought that.

Rose was in shows all over, even two in London, and her work was selling.”

In addition to selling art online and building awareness about autism, the internet has been a key in Betty and Rose’s connection to the local art community.

Through Myspace, Betty learned about the Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition (OVAC).

She began volunteering and meeting other artists. Eventually, Betty placed images of her work on OVAC’s online virtual gallery where it brought her new opportunities for exhibitions and art sales.

Currently, Betty is preparing a new series of work for an upcoming exhibition with fellow Oklahoma City artist, Amena Butler, at 1219 Creative in Oklahoma City. Opening in June, 2016, Betty’s new collection of paintings is centered on the theme of “Encounters.”

“The concept of encounters is interesting and fascinating to me. How we meet people, or how people see us. The preconceived notions and judgements we have about each other.”

them and help them put proposals together so they could get into shows locally and nationally.” n 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.

The home that Betty and Rose share is steeped in happy memories and continues to provide a place for their creative development. Betty envisions new opportunities to support important causes through her artwork in the future. Long term goals include partnering with others to provide art experiences to people with developmental disabilities.

“I would like to open a space where we could offer classes. Maybe start out here in the house. I have people contact me and ask me to work with their family members who have autism. I would like to mentor

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EKPHRASIS: Art & Poetry edited by Liz Blood

Two curious imaginations collide in this installment of Ekphrasis. A.W. Marshall responds with a narrative poem to the bizarre and surreal meeting of the two creatures in Sean Eldridge’s painting.

Poet A.W. Marshall has lived in Oklahoma for the last nine years, but grew up on the beaches of Southern California. His collection of short stories, Simple Pleasures, was published in 2015

by ELJ press. For the last five years, he has been writing a novel, Hendo, about a half man, half rabbit hybrid who survives in 1850’s California by assimilating with Chinese Immigrants.

Oklahoma City-based artist Sean Eldridge began sketching and experimenting with paint at age six. His art is inspired by cartoons he watched while growing up, comic strips, graffiti, and the Old Masters. In 2012, he painted two murals at The Red Cup in Oklahoma City. As an artist, his goal is to present the world in a comical and questionable way, providing a moment of escape from the everyday.

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Cacklin’ They tore open pet cats, turned guts into string.

Tore feathers from Cacklin’ corpses for beds.

Ripped down Cacklin’ trees, just to burn.

Put mother…a stew.

Me don’t go to forest for them.

WHAT lives in forest.

WHAT hunt all.

Me hunt WHAT. They only see WHAT meat me drag back. Me go to hollow of one tree to eat in dirt.

They understand nothing.

In forest me keep out WHAT. From Cacklin’ home, not them safe.

Me strip bark from saplings to scatter in Cacklin’ circles.

I yank down elk from hills and leave split and wailing.

Me squawk and howl from top of water tower.

Me live warning

If You Give a Monster a Cookie, acrylic on canvas, 18 x 24 inches

Me protect Cacklin’ home.

Where me brothers. Me mother. Me trees, cats, nests, rain puddle wishing nights, eggs, clucking sprigs, rain bathing, rushing locust springs, for killing WHAT as family should, for scraping beaks, for a full nest, full hope, full feathers, cooing over Cacklin’ lets, all tut-whit-ta-whooing over first flights, clicking grey grey remembrances, to whooing the wind, to scratching the one tree, to fish winters and rabbit summers, to WHAT fires, to roost love, preening, cawing, ruffling together into giant Cackling mist of feather, to not alone.

Me remember.

Never for them.

Me own ghost, yeah.

e k p h r a s i s 25

ASK A CREATIVITY COACH:

ASK A CREATIVITY COACH:

Got Talent? Motivation Matters More

CAN’T STOP THIS!

by Romney Nesbitt

Dear Romney, Some artists struggle with procrastination but my problem is just the opposite— I overwork my paintings. Any tips?

-Overworkaholic

Dear Overwork, You’ve just taken a breath to admire your latest piece and think, “Hey, this is good. I think it’s finished.”

But before you can walk away feeling satisfied, you hear a voice that sounds like that of your mother’s. Not so fast, Buddy. You missed something.

Look at that spot.

“What spot?” You squint. “Oh, I see it now.”

The spot your Inner Critic just pointed out is about the size of your thumbnail. Nothing anyone would notice, in fact you didn’t see it yourself until…but now you can’t see anything but that spot. Without stopping to consider whether this criticism is valid, you take your Inner Critic’s word as Truth with a capital T and dig in. You repaint that spot, and a few other spots that needed just a little more work. Uh oh. Within minutes you’ve repainted over all the fun and freshness and you’re left with regret.

Sound about right? I’ve done it too.

Overworking is a common problem for artists and it’s fairly easy to fix, just keep reading, but overworking is not the real problem--the real problem is fear. Fear that your painting can’t be finished because it isn’t supposed to happen like this—with joy and satisfaction. Fear that your painting can’t be done because you’re not a real artist like your peers who took the right courses, have the best gallery, blog regularly, sell out the wazoo etc. etc. Overworking happens when you listen to fear (aka your Inner Critic) instead of believing in the talent in you that deserves to been seen. Talent with a capital T. That talent gives you all kinds of power. You can declare a painting finished without anyone’s approval, even if there’s a tiny, small-asyour-thumbnail-spot that’s not exactly perfect.

“I understand that,” you say, “but it all happens so fast. I don’t even realize what I’ve done until it’s too late.”

So, slow down.

Post these steps next to your easel.

26 b u s i n e s s o f a r t

Listen carefully. When you hear yourself say “I think this painting may be finished,” stop. Turn the painting to the wall or take it to the garage for 2448 hours. Do whatever you have to do to keep your painting safe.

Distract yourself from thoughts about your painting. Take a shower, take a walk, take out the trash. Watch a funny TV show and laugh.

Start something new and inconsequential. Think still life sketch. Twenty minutes tops. This is the artistic equivalent of cleansing your palette.

When the day or two has passed put your painting on the easel. Now you’ll see your piece with new eyes. Maybe it really is finished, if so, congratulate yourself. You were right all along.

Not quite finished? What exactly does it need? Color? Contrast? Hold your painting in front of a big mirror. This reverse view sometimes makes the problem spot appear.

Do a test run. Try your solution on a piece of tracing paper. Tape the paper to the canvas and evaluate. If you’ve solved the problem then you can touch the canvas.

Curb your enthusiasm by using a timer. Limit your painting time to five minutes followed by one solid hour of no-painting time. Repeat as needed.

This economy of effort will keep you in control.

The creative process is about learning what works and what doesn’t. You know enough to be in charge of your own creative process. After all, you’re a real artist.

Romney Nesbitt is a Creativity Coach and author of SECRETS FROM A CREATIVITY COACH. She welcomes your comments and questions at romneynesbitt@gmail.com. Book her to speak to your group through OVAC’s ARTiculate Speakers Bureau.

OVAC NEWS

MAY | JUNE 2016

Anyone is welcome as a member (if you’re not one yet), whether an artist or art fan. Join online at ovac-ok.org or call us at 405-879-2400. Save the date for OVAC’s Annual Member Meeting, which will be held July 23 in Tulsa. This gathering will give people a chance to meet fellow members and have some fun while learning more about what OVAC has been up to this year. Members receive notice in the mail and information will be on our website.

This past November, we held our first Collector Level Membership + Community Supported Art (CSA) Launch Event. Collectors attended a reception with the artists and received their first piece of original artwork. The program is a new way to connect art buyers with local artists. Through the CSA Program, collectors will receive 2 original pieces of art annually

by Oklahoma artists and enjoy all of the additional benefits at the Patron Member level. The next Launch Event will be held in May. For more information, or to sign up, please visit ovac-ok.org/become-a-collector.

We had a blast at the 2016 Tulsa Art Studio Tour. Many thanks go to the featured artists and the energetic committee led by Grace Grothaus Grimm and Steve Tomlin. Audiences got to see the working studios of 13 artists. The Tour is made

possible through the generous support of the George Kaiser Family Foundation and the Oklahoma Arts Council. Also thank you to top sponsors TPSi and Walsh Branding, among many others. See more at TulsaArtStudioTour.org.

The 2016 Concept exhibition presents an evocative investigation of contemporary artists in Oklahoma, along with a regional artist exchange. Concept contains two exhibition components. The Survey is a competitively selected exhibition of artwork in all media, selected by guest Curator Adam Welch (Pittsburgh, PA), from artist submissions. Focus is a curated group exhibition of new work by 4 Oklahoma artists and 4 artists from partner city St. Louis, MO. Focus artists are selected by the guest curator from proposals and receive an honoraria and curatorial guidance to create new work to debut at the exhibition. The next installation of Concept will open in June 2016 at AHHA in Tulsa. The Focus exchange will open in September 2016 at The Luminary in St. Louis, MO.

January 2018. Applications for entry are now open through June 1, 2016. Visit 24Works.org for more information.

The next quarterly deadline for all OVAC Grants is July 15. Applications are accepted monthly on the 15th for Education Grants. All other grant categories are reviewed quarterly. Please visit ovac-ok.org/ programs/grants for a complete list of the available opportunities.

Art People Oklahoma Contemporary recently welcomed Artistic Director Jeremiah Matthew Davis and Curatorial and Exhibitions Director Jennifer Scanlan. Although born and raised in Oklahoma, Davis joins Oklahoma Contemporary directly from New York. He was mostly recently resident dramaturg at Woodshed Collective. Scanlan is originally from St. Paul, Minn., but has spent the last 16 years in New York.

For the past three years she has been working as an independent curator.

24 Works on Paper, the biennial travelling exhibition of work by living Oklahoma artists will return again to the public in Guymon, OK in August 2016 and continue its tour around the state through

Thank you to our new and renewing members from September and October 2015 Kayleigh Adamek Graceful Arts Gallery Sally Bachman Mattie Barlow Catherine Barrett Doug Bauer Tessa Bayne Joshua Benson Lori Billy Julie Marks Blackstone Michelle Bradsher, Blue Tree Studio Steven Cain Carie Antosek Calvery Chris Cameris Joshua Cassella Paxton Cavin Ben Chaney Karam Cheong Dayton Clark Carolyn Click

Oliver Coburn Sadawna Coburn Janey Carns Crain Jeremy Cunanan Amber DuBoise Ashley Farrier Tom and Jean Ann Fausser Joey and Al Frisillo Charles Gierman Tony Grider Kristina Haden Sue Hale Kirkland and Julia Hall Nancy Harkins Peter Hay Alexis Hazel Darby Heard Hailey Helmerich Mycah Higley Michael Hoffner Pamela Husky

Sterling Jacobs Didier Jegaden Jim and Laurie Keffer Katelynn Knick Judy Laine Virgil Lampton J Mark Larson Trent Lawson Beverly Layton Melinda LittleCook Lana Lopez Jan Maddox Heather McCoy Mandy Messina Earl and Marie Miller Martin Mireles Diane and Ellen Moershel Ella Moore Anne Motley Ann L Neal Nina Nguyan

romy owens Kylie Parker Martin Peerson Katie and Chuck Pernu Eric Piper Tessa Raven Bayne Betty Refour Kendra Roggow Cathy J. Rowten Roger Runge Amy Sanders Ann Saxton Stephen Schwark Kerri Shadid Jim and Melanie Shelley Lucas Simmons Virginia Sitzes Glenda Skinner-Noble Robert Smith Barbara Stearns Levescu Charles Steelman

Shauna and James Struby Logan Sweetwood Patrick Synar Amber Tardiff Russ Teubner Skip Thompson Megan P. Thompson Cindy Van Kley Paul Walsh Katrina Ward Evan Ward Danielle Weigandt Nathan Scott Wiewel Brendon Williams Michael J. Wilson and Bonnie Amspacher Devon Wilson Christina Windham Jennifer Woods Thomas Young Malcolm Zachariah

o v a c n e w s 27

Gallery Listings & Exhibition Schedule Claremore Ada The Pogue Gallery East Central University 900 Centennial Plaza (580) 559-5353 ecok.edu

Alva Nwosu Student & Alumni Art May 6 Art on the Salt Fork June 3rd Nescatunga Juried Arts and Fine Crafts Show and Sale June 4th, 10am-4pm Graceful Arts Gallery and Studios 523 Barnes St (580) 327-ARTS gracefulartscenter.org

Ardmore Goddard Center’s 46th Annual Juried Exhibit May 21st 2-4pm Permanent Collection May 24th- June 30th 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

Broken Bow Forest Heritage Center Beaver’s Bend Resort (580) 494-6497 beaversbend.com

Chickasha 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

Rogers State University 1701 W Will Rogers Blvd (918) 343-7740 rsu.edu Wolf Productions: A Gallery of the Arts 510 W Will Rogers Blvd (918) 342-4210 wolfproductionsagallery.com

Davis Chickasaw Nation Welcome Center 35 N Colbert Rd (580) 369-4222 chickasawcountry.com/explore/ view/Chickasaw-nationwelcome-center

Duncan Chisholm Trail Heritage Center 1000 Chisholm Trail Pkwy (580) 252-6692 onthechisholmtrail.com

Durant Southeastern OK State University 1405 N 4th PMB 4231

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 5x5 Art Show and Sale April 29- May 1st Fine Arts Institute of Edmond 27 E Edwards St

(405) 340-4481 edmondfinearts.com Melton Gallery University of Central Oklahoma 100 University Dr (405) 974-2432 uco.edu/cfad University Gallery Oklahoma Christian University 2501 E Memorial Rd oc.edu

Norman

Oklahoma City

The Crucible Gallery 110 E Tonhawa (405) 579-2700 thecruciblellc.com

Acosta Strong Fine Art 6420 N Western Ave (405) 453-1825 johnbstrong.com

Dope Chapel 115 S Crawford (580) 917-3695 Downtown Art and Frame 115 S Santa Fe (405) 329-0309

El Reno

Dreamer Concepts 428 E Main (405) 701-0048 dreamerconcepts.org

Redlands Community College 1300 S Country Club Rd (405) 262-2552 redlandscc.edu

Firehouse Art Center 444 S Flood (405) 329-4523 normanfirehouse.com

Guthrie Hancock Creative Shop 116 S 2nd St (405) 471-1951 hancockcreativeshop.wordpress.com Owens Arts Place Museum 1202 E Harrison (405) 260-0204 owensmuseum.com

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 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 discovermpg.org

Jacobson House 609 Chautauqua (405) 366-1667 jacobsonhouse.com Fred Jones Jr Museum of Art 555 Elm Ave (405) 325-4938 ou.edu/fjjma Lightwell Gallery University of Oklahoma 520 Parrington Oval (405) 325-2691 art.ou.edu MAINSITE Contemporary Art Gallery 122 E Main (405) 360-1162 normanarts.org Moore-Lindsey House Historical Museum 508 N Peters (405) 321-0156 normanhistorichouse.org Dances With Brushes May 13th- June 30th The Depot Gallery 200 S Jones (405) 307-9320 pasnorman.org

[ArtSpace] at Untitled 1 NE 3rd St (405) 815-9995 artspaceatuntitled.org Brass Bell Studios 2500 NW 33rd Contemporary Art Gallery 2928 Paseo (405) 601-7474 contemporaryartgalleryokc.com DNA Galleries 1705 B NW 16th St (405) 371-2460 dnagalleries.com Exhibit C 1 E Sheridan Ave Ste 100 (405) 767-8900 chickasawcountry.com O. Gail Poole: Rediscovered Oklahoma Master May 12 – July 30 Gaylord-Pickens Oklahoma Heritage Museum 1400 Classen Dr (405) 235-4458 oklahomaheritage.com Grapevine Gallery 1933 NW 39th (405) 528-3739 grapevinegalleryokc.com Howell Gallery 6432 N Western Ave (405) 840-4437 howellgallery.com In Your Eye Studio and Gallery 3005A Paseo (405) 525-2161 inyoureyegallery.com Individual Artists of Oklahoma 706 W Sheridan Ave (405) 232-6060 iaogallery.org

Beth Hammack Brian Rapp May 6 – May 29 Prix De West June 3 - June 26 JRB Art at The Elms 2810 N Walker Ave (405) 528-6336 info@jrbartgallery.com Kasum Contemporary Fine Art 1706 NW 16th St (405) 604-6602 kasumcontemporary.com Revision: Contemporary Navajo Weavings from the Pam Parrish Collection Through May 8th National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum 1700 NE 63rd (405) 478-2250 nationalcowboymuseum.org Nault Gallery 816 N Walker Ave naultfineart.com Nona Hulsey Gallery, Norick Art Center Oklahoma City University 1600 NW 26th (405) 208-5226 okcu.edu Oklahoma City Community College Gallery 7777 S May Ave (405) 682-7576 occc.edu OKC Museum of Art Our City, Our Collection: Building the Museum’s Lasting Legacy March 12 - August 31 The Modernist Spectrum: Color and Abstraction Through December 31 415 Couch Dr (405) 236-3100 okcmoa.com Oklahoma Contemporary Arts Center Summer Wheat: Everything Under the Sun Through August 3000 General Pershing Blvd (405) 951-0000 oklahomacontemporary.org

Oklahoma State Capitol Galleries Patricia Isbell (North Gallery) April 4 - June 5 Keith Murray (East Gallery) April 11 – June 12 Nicholas Bayer (Governor’s Gallery) April 18 – June 19 2300 N Lincoln Blvd (405) 521-2931 arts.ok.gov

Red Earth Master Artist 30 Year Reunion Show March 1 - June 30 Red Earth 6 Santa Fe Plaza (405) 427-5228 redearth.org

Paseo Art Space 3022 Paseo (405) 525-2688 thepaseo.com

Summer Wine Art Gallery 2928 B Paseo (405) 831-3279 summerwinegallery.com

Randall Barnes May 6 - May 30 Marilyn Artus June 3 - June 25 The Project Box 3003 Paseo (405) 609-3969 theprojectboxokc.com

Satellite Galleries Science Museum Oklahoma 2100 NE 52nd St (405) 602-6664 sciencemuseumok.org

Tall Hill Creative 3421 N Villa The Womb 25 NW 9th St wombgallery.com

Park Hill

Stillwater

Tonkawa

Cherokee National Historical Society, Inc. 21192 S Keeler Dr (918) 456-6007 cherokeeheritage.org

Tour De Quartz May 16 - June 17 Intrigue and Impressions: 25 Years of Printmaking June 22nd- Aug 5th Gardiner Gallery of Art Oklahoma State University 108 Bartlett Center for the Visual Arts (405) 744-4143 art.okstate.edu

Eleanor Hays Gallery Northern Oklahoma College 1220 E Grand (580) 628-6670 north-ok.edu

Piedmont Red Dirt Gallery & Artists 13100 Colony Pointe Blvd (405) 206-2438 reddirtartists.com

Ponca City Ponca City Art Center 819 E Central (580) 765-9746 poncacityartcenter.com

Shawnee Mabee-Gerrer Museum of Art 1900 W Macarthur (405) 878-5300 mgmoa.org

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

March 6 – June 26 Gilcrease Museum 1400 Gilcrease Road (918) 596-2700 gilcrease.utulsa.edu

Tulsa Head to Toe: The Weitzman Art Shoe Collection Candace Kling Harriete Estel Berman June 3 – July 24 108 Contemporary 108 E MB Brady St (918) 895-6302 108contemporary.org Aberson Exhibits 3624 S Peoria (918) 740-1054 abersonexhibits.com Showing the Hand of the Artist: The Draftsmanship of William R. Leigh

Recent Works: Patrick Gordon April 1 – May 22 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 Senior Show April 28 Alexandre Hogue Gallery University of Tulsa 2930 E 5th St. (918) 631-2739 utulsa.edu/art

(continued to page 30)

OKLAHOMA VISUAL ARTS COALITION PRESENTS

JUNE 3 - JULY 2 3, 2016 Arts & Humanities Council of Tulsa Hardesty Arts Center OPENING RECEPTION // Friday, June 3 2016 6-9PM

SEPTEMBER 2 - 30, 2016 The Luminary // St. Louis, MO Encounter artists' current perspectives through a survey and artist exchange with The Luminary, St. Louis, MO.

Guest curated by Adam Welch FOCUS ARTISTS

OKLAHOMA: Glenn Davis, Heather Clark Hilliard , Andy Mattern, Anh-Thuy Nguyen ST. LOUIS, MO: Addoley Dzegede, Meredith Foster, Cole Lu, Catalina Ouyang

SURVEY ARTISTS

C ONCE P T- OK .ORG

Curator Adam Welch selected work by an additional 22 artists to highlight current art making in Oklahoma.

g a l l e r y g u i d e 29

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 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 Lovetts Gallery 6528 E 51st St (918) 664-4732 lovettsgallery.com

Off the Wall Through June 5 Cady Wells: Ruminations Through October 2 Philbrook Downtown 116 E MB Brady St (918) 749-7941 philbrook.org A Place in the Sun: The Southwest paintings of Walter Ufer and E. Martin Hennings May 29th- Aug 28th First Person: Remembering Little Big Horn June 11th – Nov 20th 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

Tulsa Artists’ Coalition 9 E MB Brady St (918) 592-0041 tacgallery.org Tulsa Performing Arts Center Gallery 110 E 2nd St (918) 596-2368 tulsapac.com

Plains Indians and Pioneers Museum 2009 Williams Ave (580) 256-6136 pipm1.info

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

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 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

30

ARTS DISTRICT

Woodward

FELLOW $150

· · · · ·

For more information about art classes, please see our website.

The Gallery at Wilburton 108 W Main St (918) 465-9669

PATRON $250

· · · · ·

22 Galleries, 80 Artists

Wilburton

Collector Level + Community Supported Art (CSA) Program $1,000 ($85 a month option)

· · · · ·

Local and national art, great food, art classes and plenty of shopping!

Waterworks Art Studio 1710 Charles Page Blvd (918) 596-2440 cityoftulsa.org

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.

· · · · ·

EXPERIENCE THE HISTORIC PASEO!

· Same benefits as Individual level. All Student members are automatically enrolled in Green Membership program (receive all benefits digitally).

#FirstFridayPaseo

405.525.2688 www.thepaseo.org

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

Art Focus

Ok l a h o m a

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.

Non Profit Org. US POSTAGE PAID Oklahoma City, OK Permit No. 113

Visit ovac-ok.org to learn more.

June 1: 24 Works on Paper Application Deadline June 3: Concept opens at AHHA July 15: OVAC Quarterly Grants for Artists Deadline July 23: Save the Date: OVAC Annual Member Meeting (Tulsa) Aug 19: 24 Works on Paper opens in Guymon

MAY BETH HAMMACK ~ BRYAN RAPP

OPENING RECEPTION: FRIDAY, MAY 6

6 - 10 P.M.

JUNE “PRIX DE WEST” CHRISTA BLACKWOOD

OPENING RECEPTION: FRIDAY, JUNE 3

6 - 10 P.M. Gallery Hours: Tue - Sat 10 am - 6 pm Sun 1 pm - 5 pm Christa Blackwo od

Beth Hammack

JRB ART

AT THE ELMS

Bryan Rapp

2810 NORTH WALKER

JRBARTGALLERY.COM

405.528.6336