2009 Visual Arts Fellowship Awards and Student Awards of Excellence
In addition, I am honored to partake in a new chapter of the Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition’s fellowships—the inclusion of awards for two students at undergraduate or graduate level. Considering this is the first year for this award, the field of artists was modest. Nonetheless, I was impressed by the caliber of artists that applied. In this category, I select artists Riley Harmon and Joshua Meier as this year’s award recipients. Their work (new media and photography respectively) is visually sophisticated and conceptually rigorous. Take heed, their careers will be ones to watch! In closing, I would like to thank all of the artists participating in this year’s fellowship competition. Your work brought me much pleasure and reminded me that smart work is being produced everywhere. I believe it. Christopher Cook Curator Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, Missouri
On the cover: (Top) Frank Wick, Norman, Nobody Said Life Was Fair, Braille text spelling: Nobody Said Life Was Fair, painted fiberglass, 6’x8’. (Bottom) Kathleen Rivers, Ada, Wrapper, Maps, stamps, paper scraps, old books, candy wrappers on paper, 42”x58”
730 W. Wilshire Blvd, Ste 104 Oklahoma City, OK 73116
Now, after carefully reviewing the artist submissions of the Oklahoma Visual Arts Fellowship, I am thrilled to discover that, like Missouri, Oklahoma is peppered with exceptional artists. Certainly, I am very pleased to be exposed to the diverse visual interests, formal skills, and socio-political concerns of the artists that currently reside in Oklahoma. My charge as guest curator to select only two fellowship recipients was not an easy one. In fact, there were numerous applicants that deserve special recognition even though, in the end, they fell short. In no particular order, the painted-wood constructions by Nicholas Bayer are an interesting amalgamation of pop aesthetics and folk sensibility that reflect ambiguous social power structures. Moreover, the intelligent paintings
and installations of Liz Roth address timely issues of consumerism, ecology, and sustainability. Artists Tommy White, Angela Piehl, Curtis Jones, Narciso Argüelles, and Tracy Harris also deserve special attention for their extraordinary artistic merit. In the end, however, I was most captivated by the complex collages of found detritus by Kathleen Rivers and the witty and provocative sculptures of Frank Wick. In many ways, the works by these two artists speak to the individual and the collective by subtly distilling the enigmatic nature of the human condition.
OKLAHOMA VISUAL ARTS COALITION
a mus e um curator specializing in contemporary art, I feel privileged, and humbled at times, to have the opportunity to travel and experience art, to engage and collaborate with practicing artists, and to actively participate in the collective world of ideas. During my career of looking at art—high and low, far and near—I am constantly amazed of the great proliferation of advanced ideas and creative practices that comprise the art communities thriving beyond the familiar centers of the art world, such as New York, Los Angeles, London, Berlin, and Paris, among others. This perhaps should come as no surprise considering the truly global existence that defines contemporary society. Indeed, I was completely surprised (and elated) when I moved to Kansas City three years ago to find myself in the throes of a vibrant community of visual and performing artists and, with time, I soon learned that the entire state of Missouri was bubbling with serious artists actively shaping our visual culture. As
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Curator’s Statement
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