Art Focus | Spring 2023

SPRING 2023

A PUBLICATION OF THE OKLAHOMA VISUAL ARTS COALITION

CONTENTS // Volume 38 No. 2 // Spring 2023

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LETTER FROM THE EDITOR JOHN SELVIDGE

Q&A Emergent Truths // In the Studio with Tai Tindall AYANNA NAJUMA

REVIEW Reframing the Gaze // Kiarostami Beyond the Frame at OKCMOA JOHN SELVIDGE

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PROFILE Branches of Council Oak // Bobby C. Martin’s Family Snapshots RENEE FITE

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FEATURE Come as You Are // Allison Ward’s HAPPY BIRTHDAY at Positive Space Tulsa ELIZABETH J. WENGER

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REGIONAL PREVIEW Imago Dei // Lives of the Gods: Divinity in Maya Art at the Kimbell OLIVIA DAILEY

26 ON THE COVER // Alison Ward, PRODDED, 2020, encaustic wax, collage medium, 48” x 48”, page 18.

MIDDLE // Abbas Kiarostami, Regardez-moi, digital photograph, from Charles Le Brun, The Crucifixion with Angels, 1661, Louvre Museum, Paris, page 10.

BOTTOM // Bobby C. Martin, Mvskoke Hymns #2, 2021, encaustic, oilstick, collage on paper mounted on birch panel, 8” x 8.5”, page 14

Support from:

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EKPHRASIS The Final (?) Installment WITH LIZ BLOOD

OVAC NEWS // NEW AND RENEWING MEMBERS

Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition PHONE: 405.879.2400 1720 N Shartel Ave, Ste B, Oklahoma City, OK 73103.

Web // ovac-ok.org Executive Director // Rebecca Kinslow, rebecca@ovac-ok.org Editor // John Selvidge, johnmselvidge@outlook.com Art Director // Anne Richardson, speccreative@gmail.com Art Focus is a quarterly publication of the Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition dedicated to stimulating insight into and providing current information about the visual arts in Oklahoma. Mission: Growing and developing Oklahoma’s visual arts through education, promotion, connection, and funding. OVAC welcomes article submissions related to artists and art in Oklahoma. Call or email the editor for guidelines. OVAC welcomes comments. Letters addressed to Art Focus 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 won’t be published. Please include a phone number.

2022-2023 BOARD OF DIRECTORS // Douglas Sorocco, President, OKC; Jon Fisher, Vice President, OKC; Diane Salamon, Treasurer, Tulsa; Matthew Anderson, Secretary, Tahlequah; Jacquelyn Knapp, Parliamentarian, Chickasha; John Marshall, Past President, OKC; Marjorie Atwood, Tulsa; Barbara Gabel, OKC; Farooq Karim, OKC; Kathryn Kenney, Tulsa; Heather Lunsford, OKC; Kirsten Olds, Tulsa; Russ Teubner, Stillwater; Chris Winland, OKC The Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition is solely responsible for the contents of Art Focus. 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. © 2023, Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition. All rights reserved. View the online archive at ArtFocusOklahoma.org.

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LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

The energy springtime brings makes it my favorite season, especially after what seems—to me, at least—to be the longest. Despite its occasional charms, I’ve never been much of a winter fan, and so the manifest sense of the earth’s grand wake-up call, as March turns into April, comes not a moment too soon and feels like deliverance, like the world’s balance finally set right.

With so much excitement in the air, it only makes sense to go outside and celebrate, meet friends on a sunlit patio and enjoy being alive. But I find that spring also carries a vital challenge within it, an urgency that often reminds me of Voltaire’s seasonally-apt advice to grow and tend our gardens, especially in light of the indifference and even cruelty of so much of the world around us.

Because even as the breeze blows through my window, I’m writing this in the shadow of yet another mass shooting at a school, this time in Nashville. Politics notwithstanding, we clearly have work to do. Even as we celebrate this season, we must keep winter’s wisdom with us as we mourn the losses that, in our own lives or collectively, continue to define us. For our most difficult legacies to make their impact truly felt, we have to recognize them honestly, mourn them ROBIN CHASE

as necessary, and eventually learn to claim them as our own.

Through our art, we can do this by paying mindful tribute, by pushing back hard against time and forgetting. In its own way, all the art represented in this issue of Art Focus does this, whether through the visceral, uncompromising commemoration of loss in Allison Ward’s multimedia work (p. 18), Tai Tindall’s abstract paintings that excavate historical and personal legacies (p. 6), or Bobby C. Martin’s complex explorations of individual and tribal identities through family iconography (p. 14). Further afield, the Kimbell’s upcoming exhibition of Maya art (p. 22), offers a thousand-year-old glimpse of human myth-making, and I hope that my own attempt to engage with OKCMOA’s Kiarostami retrospective (p. 10) in some small way helps testify to the departed filmmaker’s monumental, genre-bending work.

The season calls us—in many ways. Thank you for reading.

—John Selvidge

JOHN SELVIDGE is an award-winning screenwriter who works for a humanitarian nonprofit organization in Oklahoma City while maintaining freelance and creative projects on the side. He was selected for OVAC’s Oklahoma Art Writing and Curatorial Fellowship in 2018.

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L E T T E R F RO M T H E E D I TO R

CLAY AROUND IN STUDIO SCHOOL Ceramics Drawing Fiber Painting Jewelry And more

Four- and eight-week classes Evening and weekend workshops okcontemp.org/StudioSchool

11 NW 11th St., OKC | okcontemp.org | @okcontemporary

feature

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Tai Tindall, Congo Square 9: That Which Memory Carried Across The Atlantic, acrylic on canvas, 16” x 16” | Lindsay Peterson

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IN THE STUDIO

EMERGENT TRUTHS // IN THE STUDIO WITH TAI TINDALL

by Ayanna Najuma

Tai Tindall is a self-taught visual artist who was raised in

to move around the canvas as it lay on the ground and

Queens, New York. After her undergraduate work at Oral

apply paint from different angles. The drip-pour technique,

Roberts University, Tindall received a master’s degree in social

splashes and seemingly moving lines of his action

work from the University of South Carolina before returning

paintings provided me a visually engaging experience—

to Tulsa in 2005. Today, she is inspired by the city’s energy and

one that still now motivates me to ask, “Am I engaged

credits the Black Moon Collective for providing a welcoming

creatively in my work? Am I truly connected to its energy

space for her to sharpen her artistic vision.

and the power in my own expression?” Making sure I

As a painter, Tindall works in an abstract mode but does so to engage the interconnectedness of mind, body, and spirit and

experience that kind of personal connection with my work has guided me toward abstract art.

explore subjects meaningful to her in the realms of history,

Abstract art is much like jazz; there is a perfect interplay

human behavior, social justice, and family. For this installment

of structure and chaos. I find viewing abstract art to be a

of “In the Studio,” she shared with us a work in progress,

starting point for ideas, for emotions to emerge. A viewer

Listening for the Voice of My Matriarch, dedicated to her

can connect to its colors and textures and interpret the

grandmother Blanche Mays and featuring a vibrant pink that

creative process for themselves. I primarily work with

Tindall says can be read to represent female empowerment.

acrylics and prefer wood panels, which hold up very well

Similarly, many of her other works pay tribute to those whose

to layering with drip-pour as well as removing layers with

legacies inspire her.

a sander for interesting, highly textured results. Like life,

How did your artistic journey begin?

As a child, being creative was part of who I was. Sitting down and painting was therapeutic for me. Later, I took a trip to Dallas to see a Jackson Pollock exhibition and learned about his process, how he enjoyed the freedom

there are layers of expression that present themselves differently depending on where you are in your life. I continue to explore new mediums and materials that best serve my work.

How does your social work connect to your artistic practice?

It is an integral part of my journey. I give my clients the opportunity to tell and embrace their own stories in a safe space based on how they are processing their feelings at the time. That is my way of being of service to them. I feel the same about how my art can be interpreted or received. There are layers of exploration, and people can discover their own conclusions through that process and how they are impacted.

Tai Tindall | Tony Li

CONTINUED IN THE STUDIO

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Tai Tindall, Over 35 City Blocks – Black Excellence in Greenwood Tulsa, 2021, acrylic on wood panel, 48”x48” | Lindsay Peterson

What other influences have been important?

as they endured systemic oppression—the major theme

My paternal grandmother, Susan Robinson Tindal,

in this series.

instilled in me a strong sense of awareness and pride regarding where we came from. In the summers, when I visited my grandparents in Rock Hill, South Carolina, she took me to the church she attended and reminded me of the work that my great-great-grandfather, a slave, had done in laying the foundation to build it. Those summers, I was encouraged to continue my education

35 City Blocks: Black Excellence in Greenwood Tulsa was conceived during the centennial of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre and inspired by a John Hope Franklin speech I once heard addressing the significance of selfempowerment. The textures and layering in the first piece in this series speak to the facts about the massacre that were hidden for several years and the quest for the truth. A

and found myself reading Up From Slavery by Booker T.

great deal of reflection and thought was given to what the

Washington. Also, a lot of my work has been influenced

founders of Greenwood envisioned as they saw what was

by poetry I’ve read.

predominantly flatland at the time and how their hopes

Could you talk about your paintings inspired by

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Tai Tindall, Work in progress: Listening for the Voice of My Matriarch, 2023, acrylic on canvas, 16”x16” | Image provided by the artist

and dreams would come to life.

Washington? As well as other series you’ve done?

In 2018, I visited Congo Square in New Orleans’

The paintings in my Meditations on the Life of Booker T.

Armstrong Park. It is a place where people of color,

Washington series each highlight character traits he exhibited

enslaved and free, gathered to dance, worship and buy

on his personal journey out of slavery to becoming a renowned

and sell goods. With the Congo Square series, I want to

educator and leader. In A Flame Within, orange is used to signify

communicate the spirit of that place. My use of blue

courage and fire, his determination to persevere against all

signifies water, an ocean crossed on slave ships, as

odds. This piece reminds me of the strength of my ancestors

well as rivers crossed or followed in search of freedom.

IN THE STUDIO

Tai Tindall, A Flame Within: Meditations on the Life of Booker T. Washington, 2019, acrylic on canvas, 20”x20” | Lindsay Peterson

Yellow represents the light of love, community, and the spirituality of the African American experience. My color choices are often intuitive—again, I’m always looking for what keeps me engaged. I am always looking for complex moving and dancing lines, but these can be calming as well.

AYANNA NAJUMA is an award-winning journalist, art advisor, curator and public arts professional who has also been a public relations specialist for over 30 years. Her writing has appeared locally and nationally. She has been a civil rights activist since the age of seven when she sat-in with a group of children at Katz Drug Store in Oklahoma City in 1958, two years before the sit-ins in Greensboro, North Carolina. She speaks around the country on race and culture issues and those that impact women and minorities.

The University of Tulsa’s School of Art, Design, and Art History creates opportunities for students to apply what they are learning in the classroom through meaningful hands-on experiences. Last fall, undergraduate students curated the exhibition Hogue 125 Original: Sinister Beauty, which showed 8 decades of work by the renowned artist Alexandre Hogue and launched a series of events to celebrate what would be Hogue’s 125th birthday. This spring semester, a companion exhibition titled Hogue 125 Inspired: Oklahoma Landscapes ran January 19 through March 9, 2023. The exhibition, conceived of and juried by graduate students, includes the work of 25 artists who explore physical and cultural landscapes.

In both exhibitions, students realized different aspects of mounting an exhibition, such as programming, promotion, registration, and interpretation. Their work included examining archival documents in the university’s Special Collections, selecting works for inclusion in the exhibitions, writing didactic labels, crafting promotional statements, determining the gallery layout, and creating engaging programming.

These types of mentored experiential learning are one of the reasons why the School of Art, Design, and Art History has a 100% career outcomes rate for 2020–2021.

IN THE STUDIO

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REFRAMING THE GAZE // KIAROSTAMI: BEYOND THE FRAME AT OKLAHOMA CITY MUSEUM OF ART

by John Selvidge

Museumgoers attending OKCMOA’s recent Kiarostami:

were offered an inspiring new vista for considering the

Beyond the Frame may have noticed a poignant framing

Palme d’Or-winning filmmaker as not reducible to a

device as they crossed the exhibition’s threshold. Outside

specific medium, but as an aesthetic polymath whose

the gallery’s main door, acclaimed Iranian filmmaker’s

vision encompasses a range of expressive possibilities.

Abbas Kiarostami’s first short, Bread and Alley (1970), played on a 12-minute loop. Once inside the exhibition proper, viewers were immediately confronted by his last film, Take Me Home, completed the year of his passing in 2016.

Thanks to OKCMOA’s retrospective of his films, screened in conjunction with Beyond the Frame at the museum’s in-house theater, I decided to springboard from OKCMOA’s stellar programming to my own self-imposed Kiarostami syllabus. Filling in the gaps of the films I couldn’t attend

Shot on celluloid, black-and-white and neo-realist in

with the help of the Criterion Channel—at $11 a month,

style, Bread and Alley follows a young boy on his way

still the best streaming platform for my money, and for

home and dramatizes his fearful encounter with a street

those who missed Kiarostami at OKCMOA, most of his

dog. While this film plays on our sympathies with both

films live there—I eventually watched more than a dozen

boy and dog in a mode of traditional filmic storytelling,

features and as many shorts. I also read Godfrey Cheshire,

Take Me Home consists of a series of more than one

the preeminent writer on Kiarostami, who introduced the

hundred of Kiarostami’s still photographs, taken mainly of

film series with a generously accessible lecture. I wish I

outdoor staircases in southern Italy, which are brought

had the space to relate more of what I learned about

to life by a digitally animated soccer ball moving

the scope of Kiarostami’s filmmaking, his panache as a

through them. As the fabricated “ball” rolls and bounces

photographer, his soulfulness as a storyteller, and the

for 16 minutes through these static images, it draws the

complexity of his national, international, and conceptual

viewer’s eye along a continuous downward trajectory

frames of reference, but several of Beyond the Frame’s

from staircase to staircase through a delightfully

majestic moments are worth remarking on briefly.

impossible cityscape, its motion seemingly as playful and free as a soul in flight.

Comprising twenty life-size images of doors that Kiarostami photographed in his native Iran, France,

From one perspective, these two films couldn’t be more

Italy, and Morocco before altering them digitally (mainly

different, but from another they can be understood as

by adding locks) and printing them on canvas, Doors

variations on a theme central to Kiarostami’s films, that

Without Keys presents illuminated surfaces that seem

of a restless journey or quest, one undertaken simply but

to ask urgent questions about the inaccessible worlds

that grows more complex as it strives for resolution. For

beyond them. Accompanying ambient noises, like

Kiarostami: Beyond the Frame, juxtaposing them from the

birds chirping and muffled voices, and short poems by

outset helped establish a unity across the artist’s work

Kiarostami, written on the exhibition’s mazelike walls

as a filmmaker, photographer, and visual and conceptual

and reminiscent of Rumi or Hafez, gave a metaphysical

artist. In this spirt, viewers familiar with Kiarostami

grandeur to the experience of standing on the other side

OPPOSITE PAGE // Abbas Kiarostami, stills From Shirin, 2008, 92 minutes | JS

CONTINUED

REVIEW

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LEFT // Abbas Kiarostami, still from Sleepers, 2001, 93 minutes | JS

own works can be heard in Cheshire’s characterization of Kiarostami’s artistic sensibility as “forever in transit” and his oeuvre as a “cinema of questions.”

Fundamental to Kiarostami is the insistence that his art literally depends on members of his audience to complete it. Two works in the exhibition play with this idea by depicting the audience’s gaze directly. The first, the film Shirin (2008), concentrates exclusively on women’s faces for 92 minutes as they watch a film in a theater—or even more intriguing, the fabricated illusion of a film, never seen by Shirin’s audience, that does not actually exist despite the soundtrack and dialogue we hear or the shifts in light and color we see on its alleged audience’s faces as they react to it. The second, a series of photographs collectively titled Regardez-moi, captures museum visitors as they contemplate widely celebrated artworks from the Western canon and, through the camera’s eye, become merged with them to some degree. As amusing as these photos are, they can inspire a little vertigo. If, in some sense, we always of something unknown and ineffable. I’m reminded of

stand within our minds at the threshold of our eyes, as

the young boy’s devoted search for the correct door in

our gaze constructs the world, then entering the frame

Kiarostami’s feature Where Is the Friend’s House?, or the

ourselves and getting caught in the act of looking can

gate in Close Up that seems to divide two worlds and

seem uncanny. Or, like some half-aware dream of the

emblematize desire.

world meditating upon itself, it might just feel like

We might get a glimpse of that beyond with Sleepers,

merrily bouncing home.

Kiarostami’s 2001 video installation that gives a nod to Warhol by projecting, onto a mattress at the viewer’s feet, a 93-minute film of a couple sleeping. Very possibly a vision of paradise—or at least souls at rest, free to dream. It’s worth meditating on how Kiarostami, as reported

Kiarostami: Beyond the Frame and the Kiarostami Film Retrospective were shown concurrently from October 15, 2022, to April 9 at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art.

by Cheshire, wanted to leave space for audiences “to dream their own dreams—even to take naps” while watching his films. Further echoes of the filmmaker’s non-determinative relation vis-à-vis audience to his 12

REVIEW

JOHN SELVIDGE is the 2023 guest editor for Art Focus.

TOP // Abbas Kiarostami, Regardez-moi, digital photographs | JS; RIGHT // Abbas Kiarostami, Regardez-moi: from Claude-Augustin Cayot, The Death of Dido, 1711, Louvre Museum, Paris; BOTTOM LEFT AND RIGHT // Abbas Kiarostami, Doors Without Keys, digitally altered photographs printed on canvas and multimedia installation | JS

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BRANCHES OF COUNCIL OAK // BOBBY C. MARTIN’S FAMILY SNAPSHOTS

by Renée Fite

According to artist and educator Bobby C. Martin, art

Martin is forthright about his religious beliefs. “The power,

speaks directly to the human heart in ways only art can.

mercy, and peace that come from faith in a person, Jesus

It can give voice to those without voices by revealing

Christ, who came to take away the sins of the world,” he

stories that can only be told visually.

says, “is a compelling, personal experience that transcends

In his art, Martin explores the human condition through the complex identity of a man who was raised deeply

Nonetheless, the photographs he works with have very

immersed in Indigenous culture as well as the Baptist

personal meanings for him. He feels blessed to have been

churches on the Mvskoke (Muscogee) side of his family.

surrounded and supported by strong women throughout

His work has always had a political undercurrent, but

his life. In Martin’s art they function almost like religious

more recently he’s realized the responsibility to tell

icons—not to worship, but to remember fondly as faithfully

his own story as a mixed-blood Native person in an

looking out for his wellbeing—and also like a lifeline for him

increasingly fractious U.S. culture. This outlook has led to

to a history that he didn’t discover until well into adulthood.

deeper explorations of identity politics and how they play out in everyday Indian communities like the ones where Martin grew up in northeastern Oklahoma. His recent work probes deeper into the messy gray areas of Native identity, individually and communally—not to shock or divide, Martin says, but in an attempt to find a common ground of shared experience.

“As an artist, sometimes you find your subjects, and sometimes your subjects find you,” he maintains. Thirty years ago, Martin never dreamed that turning a few old family photographs into art would lead to a career-long fascination with these frozen images of the past, images that even today he has yet to grow tired of exploring.

“These snapshots have been my constant companions through countless re-imaginings as monumental paintings or tiny etchings, as drawings or installations and video projects,” Martin says. “These images of close kinfolk and distant relatives have become icons for me, symbols of a Native American identity not seen as ‘traditional’ but just as

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cultural boundaries and tradition.”

“These images have become a source of inspiration, pride and ultimately identity,” Martin says. “I have come to realize there is an almost universal recognition among viewers of my work that evokes memories of their own families’ pasts. This common ground of family memory has been a wonderfully satisfying by-product that I never expected when I began using these images.”

Martin cites the influence of Dutch and Flemish Renaissance masters like Jan van Eyck and Johannes Vermeer because of their attention to detail but also more contemporary artists like Edward Hopper and Jasper Johns. He’s inspired as well, he says, by his friends in the Indigenous art world and what they have accomplished with their work.

Though Martin lives in West Siloam Springs, he has been a professor of Visual Arts at John Brown University in northwest Arkansas for 15 years where he teaches printmaking and serves as gallery director. Martin previously spent eight years as a professor at Northeastern State University in Tahlequah.

valid and vital to me—a tradition of Indian Christianity and

“I enjoy being around young people who are figuring out

mission schools that has been a part of my family history

their creative paths,” he says. “Their energy helps keep me

for generations.”

creative.”

PROFILE

CONTINUED

Bobby C. Martin, Mama & Me at Onapa, 2021, compressed charcoal and gold leaf on mulberry paper mounted on panel, 36”x27” | All images of artwork courtesy of the artist

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Bobby C. Martin, Surrounded

by Herron Ladies at the Camphouse, 2021, compressed charcoal and gold leaf on mulberry paper mounted on panel, 24” x 36”

A citizen of the Muscogee Nation, Martin is currently

Native-themed altarpieces as a kind of sacred art and

working on a mural for the entrance of Council Oak Compre-

perceive how their personal as well as universal value is

hensive Healthcare in Tulsa, the tribe’s flagship hospital

relevant to struggling with eternal questions. They also

facility. It’s the largest project he’s worked on to date.

desire to spread awareness of the role Christianity continues

“I’m deeply grateful to my tribe for the opportunity,” he says. I’m honored to create a welcoming artwork that tells the story of Council Oak, a historic tree that marks not only the rekindling of our tribe after forced removal, but

to play among Native peoples and even inspire viewers to think about faith’s relevance to their own lives. For Martin, this legacy does not need to be at odds with Native traditions; it can even further one’s experience of them.

encompasses the founding of Tulsa. The perseverance of

“Knowing I share that same fundamental faith with my

our people is an epic adventure that I’m proud to tell in

ancestors only deepens my understanding and my love for

mural form. To be located in a place of healing makes it

our Creator God,” he says.

even more special.”

Additionally, a three-person traveling exhibition with friends Erin Shaw (Chickasaw) and Tony Tiger (Sac & Fox/ Muscogee/Seminole), entitled

Altars of Reconciliation is

currently touring the country. It focuses on these artists’ shared but unique experiences as Native Americans and Christians. Currently in Wyoming, it will travel to Connecticut this spring and remain on the road until 2025.

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After participating in the Oklahoma Arts Council’s Leadership Arts program, RENEE FITE founded the Arts Council of Tahlequah and now serves as president. She is Managing Editor of the Stilwell Democrat Journal and the Westville Reporter and also writes for the Claremore Daily

The rich history of Native churches has been rarely

Progress. She loves watercolor and dreams of more time for

examined in the art world, particularly with regard to

stained glass, pottery, and basket weaving. Most of all, she

conflicts among tribal peoples about questions of faith. The

loves being a mother of five, a grandmother of six (so far)

Altars artists hope viewers experience their contemporary,

and married to John, a musician, for 40 years.

PROFILE

TOP LEFT // Bobby C. Martin, Aunt Inez #3, 2021, etching, aquatint, encaustic, 24k gold leaf on paper mounted on birch panel 9.5” x 6”; TOP RIGHT // An image from the traveling exhibition Altars of Reconciliation; MIDDLE // Bobby C. Martin, Clyde the Big Red Indian Decolonises Tulsey Town, 2021, drypoint and digital on BFK Rives paper, 18” x 24”; BOT TOM // Bobby C. Martin in his studio with his monoprint Carr, Mabel 9230 | Renee Fite

COME AS YOU ARE // ALLISON WARD’S HAPPY BIRTHDAY AT POSITIVE SPACE

by Elizabeth J. Wenger

Allison Ward has been a mainstay of the Tulsa art

ideas of hereditary mental illness,” Ward said, “particularly

community for several years now. As one of the curators

to female aspects of that struggle.”

behind Art House Tulsa, Ward has dedicated much of her time to displaying other artists’ work. Now, however, she is stepping out of the curator role with her first solo exhibition HAPPY BIRTHDAY to explore themes of hereditary mental illness and addiction, focusing especially on bipolar disorder. Opening April 15, the show features a large-scale

Ward’s sonic background comes to the fore in these videos through her soundtracks. One includes a lullaby, while the other is a patchwork of vocalization and found audio— essentially field recordings from Ward’s life. Throughout the show, sound will be a constant feature, accompanying

installation, video pieces, an interactive floral sculpture,

viewers along their visits.

and encaustic wax paintings.

Her special attention to audio elements is no coincidence.

For the artist, this exhibition is the culmination of years

Before focusing on visual art, Ward was the frontwoman

of journaling and ideating. Centering on the suicide of a

for the touring punk band Tom Boil—and, with degrees in

close friend on Ward’s birthday, the show strikes a curious

both vocal performance and music, she understands how

tonal note through a reckoning with the darkness of death

to use sound to create a mood.

and the vital joy of celebrating life with a birthday. These experiences comingle through the show’s multimedia elements.

Ward’s interactive floral sculpture also features sound. Her work as a florist by day has intersected with her artistic and musical talents in flower arrangements that emit various

Proper to its name, the show is built around a large-scale

noises when viewers touch the petals. The sonic floral

installation of a birthday scene of candles on pedestals of

installation at HAPPY BIRTHDAY is her newest iteration of

various heights, but this seemingly cheerful set forms the

this type. In the past, Ward experimented with live flowers

background to works of more gravitas. Ward typically uses

tied to a MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) that’s

darker colors in her work, but this show’s inciting event

extremely versatile for manipulating music and sounds.

requires expressive balance and striking juxtapositions.

Live flowers worked well for shorter-term installations, but

“It’s all about contrast,” Ward said. “I want it to feel eerie

they grew thin and pale after an evening of being touched.

and confusing.”

Contrast especially plays out in avant-garde videos that place somewhat gruesome scenes against bright sets. In

This time, Ward will use artificial flowers painted with conductive paint that, when touched, produce singular sounds from a pad of vocal cues.

one video, an umbilical cord ties Ward to a coffin full of

While the video and floral pieces employ their own internal

blood and milk. In another, she cooks in a kitchen while

sound elements, overall the show will feature an ethereal

wearing a wig attached to baby dolls that sit in high

soundtrack playing throughout its space. Along with

chairs. These uncanny videos explore grief and pain

Ward’s encaustic wax paintings, these elements contribute

through visceral performance. “[The videos] reach back to

to an immersive experience in the intimate gallery.

CONTINUED

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F E AT U R E

Stills from Allison Ward’s video installations/performances Had Her Cake, Symbiotic, and Death, 2023 | Images courtesy of the artist

F E AT U R E

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ABOVE // Allison Ward, Proverbial Drip 1, 2022, encaustic wax and mixed media, as shown at OKno1, Tulsa; LEFT // Allison Ward, SOLD//SPENT, 2020, encaustic wax and collage medium, 48” x 48”, as shown at Liggett Studio, Tulsa; OPPOSITE PAGE // Positive Space Tulsa, 1324 E 3rd St.

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F E AT U R E

Ward has worked with encaustic wax previously, notably in her work at group shows. In HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Ward’s encaustic wax paintings are meant to convey the extreme highs and lows of bipolar disorder. “Living with chronic mental handicaps can be just a long period of on and off, dark preceded by light,” Ward said. “A never-ending carousel ride of good and bad, angelic and evil, sweet and rotten.”

With a two-sided 6x4 foot canvas, Ward enacts this binary.

ELIZABETH J. WENGER is a writer and journalist from Tulsa, OK. She has been covering Oklahoma arts and politics for ASLUTZINE since 2020. Currently an MFA candidate at Iowa State University, Wenger’s work has appeared in essaydaily.org, The Hopper Magazine, Huck Magazine, and more. Wenger’s creative non-fiction essays explore various ideas of “the natural” in politics, technology, art, and the built environment.

Melting wax candies on one side represent the highs. On the other side, the lows are represented with rotting meat formed with wax molds.

Ward’s curatorial past has helped her to “see a space and see what’s possible within it.” From the outset, Ward has been determined not just to curate a show, but also a mood. “I want to create a feeling and particular sense within the art’s space,” Ward said.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY is on display at Positive Space in Tulsa from April 15 through May 20. Gallery owner Nicole Finley opened Positive Space in September of 2022 with the goal of showing and supporting womxn artists.

As Finley explained, “Positive Space Tulsa believes the letter ‘x’ in womxn recognizes all women, including gender expansive identities. Positive Space Tulsa is for women, nonbinary, genderfluid, genderqueer, and agender artists (excluding those who identify as male or as men).”

“As an artist I understand the challenges of exhibiting work in galleries—the fees, the process, the gatekeeping, etc.,” Finley said. “That can, for most artists, seem daunting and, quite possibly, unfair. As a woman, I certainly understand that gender inequality is and has been a glaring issue in the art world.”

Ward submitted her work to the gallery soon after she heard about it, thrilled by the space itself and the motivation behind it. For her, the practice of art has long been a form of catharsis. Now, through experiencing the dissonance and contrast at work in HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Ward hopes her audience will achieve a similar kind of catharsis in their engagement with her art.

Allison Ward’s HAPPY BIRTHDAY can be seen from April 15 through May 20 at Positive Space Tulsa.

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Censer Stand Palenque, Chiapas, Mexico, 7th-8th century, ceramic, 26” × 14 9/16” × 6 5/16”, Museo de Sitio de Palenque Alberto Ruz L’Huillier, Secretaría de Cultura– Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia

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P ERGEIVOINEAWL P R E V I E W R

IMAGO DEI // LIVES OF THE GODS: DIVINITY IN MAYA ART AT THE KIMBELL

by Olivia Dailey

The groundbreaking exhibition Lives of the Gods: Divinity in

creature emerging from a flower, suggesting rebirth. He is

Maya Art comes to the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth

reborn again and again, every year like the harvest staple.

from May 7 to September 3. The exhibition is a partnership between The Kimbell and The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, where it debuted last year. The show consists of almost 100 artifacts from ancient Maya cities in present-day Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico dating to the Classic period (A.D. 250–900) and loaned by museums from all over the world.

Seven themes organize the exhibition: Creations, Day, Night, Rain, Maize, Knowledge, and Patron Gods. Together, these groupings of artifacts explore the roles that gods played in ancient Maya culture. Expect to see detailed sculptures, ornaments, and ceramics telling a range of stories—not just about the gods, but also humans interacting with and sometimes even impersonating them, blurring the lines between royalty and divinity.

Unique to Classic period Maya art, compared to art made elsewhere during this time, is that artists often signed their work. Recent discoveries in Maya hieroglyphs made it possible for Lives of the Gods to credit four ancient artists for the first time in a major exhibition. The presence of signatures signifies something about how ancient Maya valued artists and scribes, and these discoveries lead both to answers and more questions to discover.

“It’s a revelation,” says Jennifer Casler Price, Curator of Asian, African, and Ancient American Art at the Kimbell for almost thirty years. Price acquired four pieces on display in Lives of the Gods for the Kimbell, and this is her third Maya exhibition at the museum. Since the last one in 2010, much progress has been made in discovering and deciphering the glyphs painted and carved in the

Many gods in the Maya pantheon paralleled the lives of

Classic artworks.

people in terms of birth, living, aging, and dying. No god

Many of these pieces, due to their unwieldiness and

represents that human parallel better than the Maize

priceless value, are traveling for the first time—and likely

God. According to the Maya creation story, the gods

their last. Notably, Stela 51 from the Museo Nacional de

tried to make humans first with clay, then wood, both

Antropología in Mexico City is made of limestone (a stela

yielding poor results. Those creatures were awkward

is a carved stone slab) and stands at nearly twelve feet tall

and did not recognize their creators. Wanting to create

to portray Yuknoom Took’ K’awiil, king of the ancient city

intelligent beings capable of worshipping them, the gods

of Calakmul.

kept at it. Their third attempt used maize (aka, corn) and was successful.

As the first thing visitors see in the exhibition, Stela 51 embodies many qualities of Maya art highlighted in this

Humans are created and sustained by maize. Other

show: a high level of detail, hieroglyphs, and a strict power

symbols of life and abundance, like jade and cacao, appear

dynamic. K’awiil shares his name with the Lightning God,

with the Maize God. He is seen in many iterations, from

linking the king to the divine and…wait, is that a person

a hunky young man with a bouffant of corn silk to a tiny

lying beneath the king’s feet? Oh yes, gods and humans are CONTINUED

REGIONAL PREVIEW

23

LEFT // K’in Lakam Chahk and Patlajte’ K’awiil Mo[...] (Maya sculptors, active 8th century), Throne 1, A.D. 785, Piedras Negras, Petén, Guatemala, limestone, 59”× 79” × 79” | Museo Nacional de Arqueología y Etnología, Guatemala City, Ministerio de Cultura y Deportes de Guatemala; RIGHT // Sak[...] Yuk[...] Took’ and Sak [...] Yib’ah Tzak B’ahlam (Maya, active 8th century), Calakmul, Mexico, Stela 51, A.D. 731, Limestone, overall with concrete base. 11’ 7” × 64.5 × 32”, Museo Nacional de Antropología, Mexico City, Secretaría de Cultura– Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia

interconnected, and the human rulers played a role in

out through art. Ancient Maya city states created some

connecting the gods with their community, flexing their

of their most impressive work right before falling silent;

power along the way while cementing it in sculpture. The

the end of the era was also the apex of the era. Although

glyphs—surprisingly cute by modern standards, almost

many Maya cities fell at the end of the Classic period, in a

like bubble graffiti with faces—reveal the name of two

sense their people and culture live on today. One can find

sculptors.

a reminder of what can change and what stays the same,

A throne from the city of Piedras Negras, made during the prolific late seventh century and restored by The Met,

of our mortality and our connection to the spiritual and natural worlds.

features a limestone back with a striking composition: a

The Kimbell, celebrating its 50th anniversary through

supernatural creature whose eyes frame two men looking

October, has been a longtime Fort Worth gem that’s

at each other.

only a train or car ride away. The permanent collections

“You have not only the heads of two figures, definitely

Gods—visible from May 7 through September 3—is a rare

rulers,” says Price, “but as prominent as these heads are,

opportunity to see world-class masterpieces that are

there are the signatures as well—the glyphic signatures

hardly new, but most likely new to us.

and grounds are reason enough to visit, but Lives of the

of the artists very prominently displayed.”

While this show’s works and subjects may appear esoteric, they might inspire in its viewers a recognition of human

24

resilience that can be universally understood. It’s human

OLIVIA DAILEY has a BA in Journalism from the University of

nature to ponder complex questions like, “Why are we

Oklahoma. She works as a media production coordinator in

here? How can we control our fate?” and to tease them

Norman.

REGIONAL PREVIEW

LEFT // Whistle with the Maize God Emerging From a Flower, Mexico, A.D. 600-900, Ceramic, pigment., 8.125” x 2” x 1.5”, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, The Michael C. Rockefeller Memorial Collection, Bequest of Nelson A. Rockefeller; MIDDLE // Maize God, Copan, Honduras, A.D. 715, limestone, 35” × 22” × 12”, British Museum, London; RIGHT // Censer Stand Probably Palenque, Chiapas, Mexico A.D. 690-720, ceramic, pigment, 44” × 22” × 12.25” | Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas

R E G I O N A L R E V I E W 25

EKPHRASIS // THE FINAL (?) INSTALLMENT A CONVERSATION IN WORDS AND PICTURES with Liz Blood

We at Art Focus wish to thank Liz Blood for all the insight,

After all these years, any bright ideas about how images

humor, and hard work she brought to her “Ekphrasis” column

and poems work together?

over the years. For a proper send-off, we asked her to reflect

Poems often come alive through their images, and images

on her experience.

through their poetry. They work together in infinite ways,

How long have you been doing Ekphrasis? And how did you get the idea?

Since July 2014, Ekphrasis has been published in every

showing us how to connect the disparate and find or make meaning from their encounters. Ekphrasis is metaphor in action. Poet Mary Ruefle said, “Metaphor is not, and never has been, a mere literary term. It is an event...an exchange

issue of Art Focus except one for a total of 38 installments.

of energy between two things. If you believe that metaphor

I got the idea from The New York Times’ T Magazine, which

is an event...then you must conclude that a certain

used to commission a work of visual art after a poem. I did

philosophy arises: the philosophy that everything in the

it the other way around—asking a poet to write from an

world is connected...If metaphor is not idle comparison, but

artwork. I think T Magazine started their column in 2013

an exchange of energy, an event, then it unites the world by

and retired it in 2017. I feel great and high-horsey about

its very premise—that things connect and exchange energy.”

outlasting them.

So as you move on from Ekphrasis, what are you working

What do you hope readers have taken from it?

on now?

I hope that readers have sensed more about the connection

I’m devoting more time to my own creative work, which

of things, of our world. It’s easy to feel disconnected, which

includes writing in multiple genres, book- and zine-making,

lends itself to hopelessness. But as I’m trying to remind

and curating. I’ll be opening my first art show as sole curator

myself constantly, and as abolitionist Mariame Kaba coined, “Hope is a discipline.” Connection and meaningmaking are why we’re here, and they are the things that will keep us here.

in June at Flagship, the Tulsa Artist Fellowship’s gallery in the Tulsa Arts District. That show, currently untitled, will let several of my interests intersect: contemporary visual art, Oklahoma artists, arts writing and curation, and nature and our place within it.

Can you share a time when your experience of a visual art work was affected by a poem, or vice versa?

Yes, a recent example is LeAnne Howe’s response “As” to Rhiana Deck’s painting New Growth in the Spring 2022 issue. While Rhiana’s painting flung us into the presence of springtime, LeAnne took us back 100 years to the

26

LIZ BLOOD is a writer, editor, and arts worker. A lifelong Oklahoman, her work focuses on place, memory, contemporary art, and, increasingly, the environment. She

1918 pandemic. So many of these pairings have had this

is a multi-year recipient of the Tulsa Artist Fellowship

dizzying effect on me. It was a treat every single time,

and its Arts Integration Award, which she used to make

never knowing what I’d get back—I was always surprised

the “Creative Field Guide to Northeastern Oklahoma,” a

and reminded of our unique and personal ways of viewing

200-page book celebrating the region’s biodiversity and

the world. I’ll miss it.

featuring more than 50 Oklahoma artists and writers.

EKPHRASIS

TOP // Laura Da’s “Sustainers” and Yatika Starr Fields’ White Buffalo Calf Women, AF Fall 2017; MIDDLE // Leanne Howe’s “As” and Rhiana Deck’s New Growth, AF Spring 2022; BOTTOM // Lauren Zuniga’s “In the End, We Always Get the House” and JP Morrison Lans’ Bluebeard’s Wife Eating a Pomegranate, AF Jan./Feb. 2015

EKPHRASIS

27

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OVAC N E W S As we approach our 35th year of serving Oklahoma’s visual arts community, OVAC continues to invest in opportunities for artists and the public to connect in ways that benefit local economies and also our quality of life. However, we don’t do it alone. We belong to a network of nonprofits, business leaders, and arts advocates who help cultivate a stronger arts ecosystem.

In March, OVAC celebrated the 22nd year of Momentum, our annual exhibition that uplifts Oklahoma’s young artistic talent. Thanks to the event committee, venue partner Sailor & the Dock, and our many sponsors, this year we featured over 100 works by 41 artists under the age of 30.

Through Momentum, OVAC plays a critical role in supporting artists in their work as they connect with a comprehensive support network and reach new audiences.

This spring, we have other enriching opportunities to share with you. On April 18, we are gathering with fellow arts champions Oklahomans for the Arts, and many others, for Arts & Culture Day at the Oklahoma Capitol to promote policies that support the arts and increase public funding.

We encourage you to learn more about this ongoing conversation at ok4arts.org.

Also in April, applications opened for the 2023 Thrive Grants program. Through a partnership with the Andy Warhol

MEMBERS Chel Adler Anita Albright Mary Jane Alexander Kylie Anderson Maria Anderson Elliott Andrew Marilyn Artus Marjorie Atwood Whitney Batres Sarah Bear Michael Bendure DiAnn Berry Hayden Bilbrey Julie Boyd Julia Boydston Bobbi Bresett Larry Bristow Teran Brown Lauren Bumgarner Timothy Bush Kuwantu Cammon Michael Campo Mallory Cantrell Bryan Cardinale-Powell Jennifer Casey

Amber Casper Hannah Cerne Robin Chase Mark Cheek Terry Clark Aaliyah Climes Hailey Clooney SaDawna Coburn Judith Coker Shelly Collins Cori Crawford Jack Crouch Raven Crowl Peter Cullum Madeline Curry Bob Curtis Carrie Daley Abby Davenport Ross DeFehr Jenny Dillon Amber DuBoise-Shepherd Sarah Dumas Madison DunnMcLaughlin Aimee Eischen

Foundation of Visual Arts, Thrive offers grants of up to $10,000 for artist-led, collaborative projects that are accessible to the public.

On April 17-21, the 2022 Thrive awardee Art Friends hosts a free Rebecca Kinslow, workshop series with daily online Executive Director programming on topics such as art practice and business development.

In May, we begin accepting applications for the next cohort of the yearlong Oklahoma Art Writing & Curatorial Fellowship program for those who desire to expand their art writing and curatorial practices and participate in the current contemporary art dialogue. And then the Tulsa Art Studio Tour will return June 3–4, 2023. In an open-house style, this event showcases the talent of artists who live and work in Tulsa. Artists are now being recruited and tickets will go on sale in early May. Artists who participate in our programs credit OVAC with being key to their success. We encourage you to stay informed about opportunities like these by following us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter so you too can benefit from OVAC’s programs and services.

Best for the springtime, Rebecca Kinslow, Executive Director

NEW AND RENEWING MEMBERS D E C E M B E R 2022 T H R O U G H F E B R U A RY 2023 Christopher Eldridge Brenda Esslinger Kris Fairchild Jenna Feezel Firehouse Art Center Cynthia Fletcher Lauren Fourcade Susan Foust Jeremy Fowler Cindy Fox Barbara Gabel Paige Gaglio Erin Gericke Madelyn Goodnight Taylor Graham Destiny Green Sheree Greider Jean Griffin Luke Gronemeyer Sue Hale Chase Hall Amy Hanson Lindsay Harkness Alysha Harmon Carla Hefley

Calli Heflin Aditi Heins Michelle Herholdt Pamela Hodges Theresa Hultberg Lauren Hutson Carleisha Jackson Jonathan Jimenez Julius Johnson Zoe Jones Lilly Klontz Wesley Kramer J Mark Larson Jay Laxton Gentry Leach Jenny Lee Lauren Lester Jaquelin Lopez Annie Lovett Alexis Lyons John Marshall Bobby Martin Tara Mason-Harris Annie Matthews Heather Mayes

Terry McGraw Dominique McPhail Erin Merryweather Aubrey Mills Dragana Milovic Lumen Miramontes Oscar Molina Nichole Montgomery Kathleen Myers Lawrence Naff Alexis Nelson Kris Newlin Rhonda Nolen Oklahoma Academy of Classical Art Kirsten Olds Keith Oler Hayley Owen David Padgett Taylor Painter-Wolfe Duncan Payne Zoe Peters Dan Lynh Pham Matthew Phipps Gerald Piper

To join or renew your membership, visit ovac-ok.org/membership-form or call 405-879-2400, ex. 1.

Spencer Plumlee Mia Pons Cheryl Price Kelley Queen Chris Ramsay Dylan Richardson Alberto Rivas Benjamin Roberson Jessica Roberts Delaney Rumsey Ruth Sanchez Katherine Sanders McKenna Sanderson Ryan Sandfort Madeleine Schmidt Neka Schultz Candace Shanholtzer James Shelley Emily Singleton Laura Smith Iryna Snizhenko Bob Sober Douglas Sorocco Juliana Spencer Allyson Stumpf

Kindra Swafford Jordan Tacker Jackie Teague Candace Telford Doyle Terry Russ Teubner Elizabeth Thomas Verdean Thompson Tylor Traxler Audra Urquhart Melanie Valentine Natasha Van Gorder Shantel Wallace Carol Webster Shanley Wells-Rau Treka Wenner Marjorie Wetwiska Christopher and Lori Winland Madison Winter Dean Wyatt Annaly Xiong Malcolm Zachariah Zach Zecha

OVAC NEWS

29

EXHIB ITI ONS

RENT THE G ALLERY

CHECK OUT ALL THE AMAZING THINGS HAPPENING AT LIVING ARTS THIS SPRING. SCAN THE CODE TO LEARN MORE AND TO FIND OUT OTHER WAYS YOU CAN CONNECT WITH US AND THE TULSA ARTS COMMUNITY!

OPPORTU NITIES

EVENTS

PASEO ARTS & CREATIVITY CENTER Two Art Galleries | Gift Shop | Photography Studio 10 Artists’ Studios | Art Workshops 3024 Paseo, Oklahoma City, OK 73103 30

Tues-Fri 11am-5pm Sat Noon-5pm

thepaaok.org 405.525.2688

Express Employment Professionals has been finding job seekers work since 1983 across North America, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand.

Express delivers hope through employment.

UPCOMING EVENTS //

3/64/21

24 Works on Paper Spider Gallery, Cherokee Arts Center, Tahlequah

4/1

Thrive Grants Application Opens

5/18

Art Crit Night 21c Museum Hotel OKC

6/1

Thrive Grants Application Closes

6/36/4

Tulsa Art Studio Tour

6/26- 24 Works on Paper 8/4 Thomas K. McKeon Center for Creativity, Tulsa Community College Metro Campus

1720 N Shartel Ave, Suite B Oklahoma City, OK 73103 Visit ovac-ok.org to learn more.

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