Awarding Excellence By Laurence Myers Reese
Jason Wilson, Far and Wide, Acrylic on canvas, 36” x 36”, 2018.
Every year, the Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition offers four awards of unrestricted funds to artists: two Oklahoma Visual Art Fellowships of $5,000 and two Student Awards of Excellence at $500. These awards are given to highlight art being made in the state, as well as to support artists’ careers. The awards are chosen by a juror from out of state, changing year to year. This gives the pool of applicants a chance to show their work to a new audience, and to have their work viewed by a qualified out-of-state curator. This year’s juror was Leesa Fanning, an independent curator and the previous curator of contemporary art at the NelsonAtkins Museum in Kansas City, MO. Fanning was tasked with selecting only four artists out of over 55 applicants. This was a difficult feat according to her. But in the
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Taylor Painter Wolfe, Low Water Marks, handmade, hand-dyed felted wool and thread, 45” x 40”, 2018.
end, Fanning said her process was to look at consistent images, strong workmanship, and clear statement that reflect the work. She was also interested in artists who were “doing something unusual or innovative,” said Fanning.
The 2019 Fellowships were awarded to Jason Wilson (McAlester) and Taylor Painter-Wolfe (Tulsa). Painter-Wolfe’s work uses textiles and fabrics informed by geography, while Wilson is inspired by the Native American quilting patterns of his grandmother. Taylor Painter-Wolfe draws from aerial photography of landscapes to create shapes and colors through fiber work. Using handdyed felted wool, Painter-Wolfe creates vibrant compositions of the world from
above. Her work often deals with areas affected by climate change. By taking macro images of the landscape and reducing them to smaller, fabric works, Painter-Wolfe’s work is digestible, cozy, but not meant to be easy. “My intent is to create a simplified and thought-provoking way to view land, our impact on it, and relationship to it,” says Painter-Wolfe. “Painter-Wolfe has a deep and fundamental understanding of materials,” says juror Leesa Fanning. “She celebrates wool’s imperfections and...subtly remind us of our relationship to the earth.” Jason Wilson grew up watching his
grandmother quilt, and continues to be inspired by her patterns. His paintings are geometric and use hard lines and bright colors. This optical art is inspired by traditional