Art Focus Oklahoma Summer 2017 by Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition

Art Focus

O k l aho 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 2 N o . 2

| Summer 2017

ROOTED, REVIVED, REINVENTED: BASKETRY IN AMERICA Curated by: Josephine Stealey & Kristen Schwain

JUNE 2 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; JULY 23, 2017 OPENING RECEPTION: June 2, 6:00-9:00pm CURATOR WALKTHROUGH: June 3, 1:30-3:00pm This exhibition is generously sponsored in part by the National Basketry Organization, the University of Missouri, the Windgate Charitable Foundation, the Center for Craft, Creativity, and Design, and numerous private donors.

White Oak Egg Basket, Leona Waddell

BOTH SIDES NOW: JOYCE SCOTT & SONYA CLARK AUGUST 4 - SEPTEMBER 24, 2017 OPENING RECEPTION: August 4, 6:00-9:00pm ARTIST TALK: August 5, 1:30-3:00pm All Souls Unitarian Church Interwoven, Sonya Clark. Photo credit: Taylor Dabney

Art Focus

Ok l a h o m a Volume 32 No. 2 | Summer 2017

R e v i e w s a n d P re v i e w s 4 KIKI SMITH AND PAPER: The Body, the Muse, and the Spirit by Emily L. Newman

LANDSCAPE OF A GHOST TOWN: Picher, Oklahoma: Catastrophe, Memory, and Trauma by Kyle Cohlmia

BOTH SIDES NOW by Alison Rossi

12 VISION BEYOND SIGHT by Karen Paul

14 FILM REVIEW: The Outsiders by Jill Hardy

15 FILM REVIEW: The Happy Film by Jill Hardy

F e a t u re s 16 CREATIVE RESONANCE by Karen Paul

20 INTERVIEW: Jessica Borusky by Krystle Brewer

15 GROTESQUE DELIGHTS: Jessica Sanchez by Olivia Biddick

24 EKPHRASIS : Summer 2017 edited by Liz Blood (top) On the cover: Todd Stewart, Storefronts, Connell Avenue, 2010, inkjet print, 40 x 50”. Image courtesy of the artist. (page 12) (middle) Kiki Smith, Untitled, 1990, lithograph on handmade Japanese paper, 35 3/4 x 36” (page 4) (bottom) Video still from Fleeting Light by Jacob Leighton Burns and Zachary Burns. Image courtesy of deadCenter Film Festival and the artists.

Support from:

26 OVAC News 28 Gallery Guide

Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition 730 W. Wilshire Blvd., Suite 104, Oklahoma City, OK 73116. PHONE: 405.879.2400 WEB: ovac-ok.org. Director: Krystle Brewer, director@ovac-ok.org Editor: Lauren Scarpello, publications@ovac-ok.org Art Director: Anne Richardson, speccreative@gmail.com Art Focus Oklahoma 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: 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.

2016-2017 Board of Directors: President: Susan Green, Tulsa; Vice President: John Marshall, Oklahoma City; Treasurer: Gina Ellis, Oklahoma City; Secretary: Michael Höffner, Oklahoma City; Parliamentarian: Douglas Sorocco, Oklahoma City; Ariana Brandes, Tulsa; Bob Curtis, Oklahoma City; Hillary Farrell, Oklahoma City; Jon Fisher, Moore; John Hammer, Claremore; Travis Mason, Oklahoma City; Laura Massenat, Oklahoma City; Renée Porter, Norman; Amy Rockett-Todd, Tulsa; Douglas Sorocco, Oklahoma City; Dana Templeton, Oklahoma City; Chris Winland, Oklahoma City; Dean Wyatt, Owasso; Jake Yunker, Oklahoma City. 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. © 2017, Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition. All rights reserved. View the online archive at ArtFocusOklahoma.org.

Kiki Smith, Born, 2002, lithograph, printed in color with silver leaf additions, on mold-made T. H. Saunders paper, 68 1/8 x 56 1/8â&#x20AC;?

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KIKI SMITH AND PAPER: The Body, the Muse, and the Spirit by Emily L. Newman

No material is off limits for internationally renowned artist Kiki Smith. Born in Nuremberg, Germany in 1954, Smith has the uncanny ability of transforming anything she touches and creating artwork that engages both tactile sensibilities and the broader human experience. Making art for over forty years, her work is two-dimensional and threedimensional, soft and hard, airy and heavy— essentially riddled with textural contradictions. But her exploration of the human body and the fragility of life unite her work. Growing up with two artists parents (opera singer and actress Jane Lawrence Smith and large-scale sculptor Tony Smith), Smith was constantly surrounded by art-making. But it was in the 1980s, she found her artistic voice in exploring bodily forms. She studied Gray’s Anatomy and even spent months training as an emergency medical technician in 1985; Smith was committed to understanding the interior of the body as well as the exterior. So not only does she explore life-casting, she also investigates bodily fluid, bones, organs, and more. In its breadth, Smith’s work is hard to describe. From full-size wax figures to details of body parts to jars collecting bodily fluids like blood, urine or tears, her work can be seen as encouraging the viewer to come to terms with the physicality and the fragility of our bodily form. In prints and drawings, she further translates these ideas, manipulating paper texture and altering the density of her line work. Smith’s work is unrelenting. Creating pieces that pull the viewer to them, they require careful consideration and examination that can result simultaneously in fascination and repulsion. Importantly, her work demands to be seen in person. By pursuing so many textures and visceral processes, the nuance of the pieces are often lost in reproduction. The upcoming exhibition at the Oklahoma State University Museum of Art, offers a unique and valuable opportunity to explore her work in depth. Smartly, curator Wendy Weitman has allowed Smith’s preoccupation with the human body to be at the core of the show, elaborating, “She is perhaps best known as an artist concerned with the joys and perils of humanity. The female figure, in particular, has pre-occupied Smith since the early 1980s. She has considered it from every possible

perspective—physically, culturally, historically, and personally. This exhibition looks at some of these perspectives—fragments of the female anatomy, studies of celebrated allegorical women, and finally, ghosts and surrogates of the female figure.” Her interest in fragility extends to materiality, creating variously sized pieces of materials as diverse as wax, plaster, ceramic, papiermâché, fabric, glass, bronze, steel, and more. In an attempt to create a focused look at an artist with such a large oeuvre, Weitman has focused on her works on and with paper, perhaps the most delicate of all her works. Including approximately 60 artworks, most of the exhibition will be drawings and prints, though it will include numerous examples of paper sculpture as well. Significantly, the works represent a broad range of her career from the 1980s into the 2000s. In looking at her work on paper, more specific themes begin to emerge. In her Untitled (1990, lithograph), large masses of lines are built up, creating a dense, formal mass, one that recalls a clump of hair, a foreboding cloud, or even a cluster of trees. But while this abstract print recalls more natural forms, Born (2002, color lithograph) engages Smith’s interest in fairy tales. Two figures draped in red hoods emerge out of a wolf’s stomach, clearly recalling Little Red Riding Hood. The red blood from the wolf that covers the figures’ skirts distinctly parallels the cloaks on the younger child and the older grandmother figure. The grandmother and the child touch each other, almost as if starting to embrace, creating a tender moment between two people. This sweet moment contrasts with the violent act of springing forth from the wolf’s innards. Born relies on a collective knowledge of folk tales combined with Smith’s interest in the physicality and tactility of the body. Vicky Berry, director and chief curator of the OSU Museum of Art, has recognized the importance of Smith’s work, but also her willingness to engage with the community, explaining “We are honored that Kiki Smith is interested in the academic environment— coming to spend time discussing her artwork and life as an artist with our students. In partnership with Dr. Jennifer Borland, we have integrated her students in her course

“Gender and Visual Studies” in the design of our programming. Her students will meet in the exhibition a number of times during the semester.” But not only will OSU students benefit from this challenging and inspiring exhibition, as the public gets to experience a powerful exhibition on an artist not frequently seen in this region. In fact, this exhibition is the third in a series of exhibitions entitled the “New York Project” which has worked to bring the work of significant living artists to Oklahoma State University. Previous exhibitions have included the work of James Rosenquist and Richard Tuttle. A must-see, Kiki Smith and Paper: The Body, the Muse, and the Spirit runs from August 9, 2017 to December 2, 2017 at the Oklahoma State University Museum of Art, located at 720 S. Husband Street in Stillwater. Upon closing, the exhibition will travel to Syracuse University Art Galleries in Syracuse, New York. In collaboration with the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art (FJJMA) at the University of Oklahoma, a roundtable conversation between Smith, Weitman, Jennifer Borland (Oklahoma State University Associate Professor of Art History) and Mark White (FJJMA director) will take place on September 22 at 3 pm in the FJJMA auditorium. More information, including details on programming and events, can be found at museum.okstate.edu. To see more of the artist’s work, visit pacegallery.com/artists/442/ kiki-smith. To celebrate and memorialize this important show, a catalog is being produced. n Emily L. Newman is presently Assistant Professor of Art History at Texas A&M University-Commerce, specializing in contemporary art, gender studies, and popular culture. Her current book, The Female Body Image in Contemporary Art: Fatness, Dieting, Self-Harm, and Eating Disorders, is forthcoming from Routledge in 2018.

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LANDSCAPE OF A GHOST TOWN: Picher, Oklahoma: Catastrophe, Memory, and Trauma by Kyle Cohlmia

Todd Stewart, Lytle Creek, 2008, inkjet print, 40 x 50”. Image courtesy of the artist.

Landscape art provides a framework in which our communities are contextualized. Landscapes are the physical and macronarrative in which we live our lives, portraying habitats that vary from mountains ranges, to flat deserts, under shady willow trees, or on the edge of the sea. While landscape artwork is often created as idealized settings free from manmade destruction, when a community’s physical infrastructure is shattered by environmental effects, leaving behind literal and figurative disarray, the landscape

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becomes a less-than-ideal place in which to live. Picher, Oklahoma: Catastrophe, Memory, and Trauma, an exhibition opening at the Fred Jones Museum of Art on June 13, 2017, intends to explore Todd Stewart’s photo-essay on the community of Picher, Oklahoma and the physical catastrophes the town has endured since the beginning of the 20th century. Stewart is the associate professor of art, technology, and culture at the University of Oklahoma School of

Visual Arts. His artistic endeavors left an impression with curator, Mark White, the Wylodean and Bill Saxon Director of the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, who explains his connection with Stewart in that “we work with both [Stewart] and the [art] school on a regular basis. This exhibition gives us the opportunity to continue collaborating with our neighbors next door.” Stewart’s images were inspired by the book, Picher, Oklahoma: Catastrophe, Memory,

and Trauma, published by the University of Oklahoma in 2016. As told from Stewart’s website, the story of Picher unfolds as this: on May 10, 2008, the town of Picher, Oklahoma was hit by an EF4 tornado. Destroying over 100 homes and killing six people, this was the last in a series of natural, environmental, and economic catastrophes to strike the town. A center of lead and zinc mining, Picher had been a boomtown in the early 20th century. By the time operations ceased over 10 million tons of ore had been removed from the area. Picher was a town that owed its birth to the mining industry, but when these companies left in the 1970’s, they left behind an environmental disaster. In 2006 the federal government determined the site was uninhabitable and began trying to buy-out homeowners and local businesses in an attempt to shut down the town. Many individuals refused to leave Picher—their ties to the place too great. The tornado broke even their resolve. Co-curator, Allison Field, Mary Lou Milner Carver Professor of Art of the American West, and Associate Professor of Art History at the University of Oklahoma states that, “Both the book and the exhibition examine the interconnected themes of memory, place, and identity. Picher’s story includes both long-term environmental trauma caused by the town’s mining industry, and the catastrophe of the 2008 tornado, which hastened the end of the town’s existence. Again, we examine the endurance of memory in the face of displacement and loss.” In photographs like, Lytle Creek, Stewart captures the traditional landscape found in Northeast Oklahoma; green trees border a creek, reflecting blue sky and clouds, however, within this photo, debris left from the Picher catastrophes ornaments the area, creating a sense of distress in an otherwise lush setting. In addition, the photo-essay includes images of found objects from the town’s rubble, such as Cardboard Fan, a hand-held fan with an image of Jesus on the front, and Blue Boy, a headless, ceramic figure of a boy dressed in 19th century, blue clothing. These landscapes and objects hint at a life-once-lived while narrating the reality of the disasters that haunts this Oklahoma ghost town. What the Picher, Oklahoma photo-essay seems to strive for is redefining the way we see landscapes and what happens when catastrophe strikes the land upon which we live, affecting the (continued to page 8)

(top) Todd Stewart, Blue Boy, n.d. ceramic. Image courtesy of the artist. (bottom) Todd Stewart, Cardboard Fan, Front, n.d. mixed media. Image courtesy of the artist.

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Chat Pile, 2008, inkjet print, 40 x 50”. Image courtesy of the artist.

memory of and inducing trauma within that community. White explains that, “We believe that the lessons of Picher still resonate today. The environmental damage done by unchecked mining effectively ended the life of this community. The photographs in the exhibition tell that story as well as the destruction caused by the 2008 tornado. We hope that the exhibit will urge visitors to consider the potential ramifications of our relationship to the environment and the death of

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a community.” Field adds that, “More broadly, I hope the exhibit will encourage visitors to consider the environmental stakes of extractive industries, and to make parallels with other toxic or abandoned sites. This exhibition questions how memories linger in such sites, through the material artifacts, structures, and landscapes left behind.” Picher, Oklahoma: Catastrophe, Memory, and Trauma opens June 13, 2017 at the

Fred Jones Museum of Art in the Nancy Johnston Records Gallery and runs through September 10, 2017. In addition to the exhibition, the Fred Jones Museum of Art will host a writing workshop titled, “Prompted: A Writing Workshop” on Friday, September 1 from 2:00 – 4:00 pm, as well as a closing reception on Thursday, September 7 at 7:00 pm. n

BOTH SIDES NOW by: Alison Rossi

Sonya Clark, Interwoven, 2016, American and Confederate Battle Flags unwoven and rewoven together on books by historian, Henry Steele Commager, on the Civil War, 4 x 10 x 7”. Photo by Taylor Dabney.

Woven, unwoven, knotted, textured, embroidered, braided. Beaded, twisted, intertwined, stitched, melded, printed. Artists Sonya Clark and Joyce J. Scott are separated by a generation but their works share a technical virtuosity and tactile appeal. Viewers will revel in the ingenuity of the objects these artists create long enough to be smacked with the often bracingly honest inquiries and assertions embedded within each one. Both Sides Now: Joyce J. Scott and Sonya Clark displays the work of two brilliant, internationally-celebrated artists who boldly engage with materials, the past, and their culture to forge a path for understanding race, identity, and gender issues through frank dialogue.

Joyce J. Scott, a 2016 MacArthur Fellow and a United States Artist Fellow whose meticulous work is featured in numerous museum collections and in the landmark PBS television series Craft in America, resides in Baltimore. The artist chose to exhibit her work at Tulsa’s 108|Contemporary in part because of the gallery’s location in the former Black Wall Street region. The 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, the Trail of Tears and other tragic, racially charged events as well as troubling stereotypes generated throughout American history and culture haunt her splendidly rendered artworks. Milk Mammy II, a hand-blown Murano glass figure bound within the seemingly endless, intricate

webs of scintillating beads, wire, thread and plastic dice, recalls the black wet nurse slave. While mired in the past, the content of this work undeniably resonates with contemporary society’s systemic perpetuation of race, class, and gender divides that affect domestic and childcare professionals. A large-scale installation entitled Lynched Tree attests to the artist’s innovative and meticulous application of beading and skill in amplifying its dramatic qualities. At first glance, exuberant, whimsical and candy-colored, this grotesque scene depicts a naked woman hanging upside down by her heels—glimmering, beaded corpse and blown glass innards splayed out. The viewer (continued to page 10)

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is caught between the gorgeousness of the work and its brutality. Scott manages to venture into disturbing and difficult territory not just with her self-professed “beauty as a ruse” approach, but also because of her witty banter. Two monoprints from 2012, Obama Bugs and Buddha Obama, impress iconography from popular culture onto the former president’s serene and dignified face. Though the visual effect may be humorous, the images powerfully conflate identity, race, and politics. Sometimes playful, always stunning, Scott’s works incite reflection about the identity and folly of self and society. Like Scott, Sonya Clark gravitates toward art forms traditionally associated with the female domain and cleverly heightens their expressive potential. A Richmond-based artist whose acclaimed work is internationally exhibited, Clark received the 2016 Anonymous Was a Woman Award and is a 2017 Affiliated Fellow of the American Academy in Rome as well as a United States Artist Fellow. Primarily a textile artist, Clark finds inventive, often elegant ways to convey both personal and broader cultural narratives. Hair is the medium and the inspiration point that unifies a portion of Clark’s work. Pearl Necklace, an object laden with class and gender associations, is presented as an ebony strand of perfect spheres formed from hair. Themes of heritage, race and feminine identity are also echoed in Rooted, Uprooted, a pair of sculptural works evocative of trees. Thick, twisted braids of black yarn multiply into extensively woven root systems. One dangles from the vast

Joyce Scott, War Baby, 2014, hand-blown Murano glass processes with beads and photograph, 14 ½ X 18 X 15”. Courtesy of Goya Contemporary Gallery and the artist.

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Sonya Clark, Straight Ways. Image courtesy of the artist.

roots while the other is suspended between two rectangular forms. In Cornrow Frenchbraid, two textiles feature flawless handwork and contrasting color and texture that pay homage to a traditional hairstyle while Straight Ways may refer to the practice of black women going through great lengths to strengthen their hair. These provocative works converse with one another and with visitors and present challenging questions about the deeply ingrained racism in our culture. Black and white Prismacolor pencils with erasers supplanted by hair (titled Erasure) punctuate this dialogue; Interwoven and Unraveled may provide some suggestion about how to proceed forward. Clark has worked repeatedly with Confederate flags and reminds viewers that these woven works that can also be unwoven. Painstaking efforts transform these banners into delicate emblems of racism as well as fully unraveled piles of string sorted by color. Interpreted metaphorically, these works reveal that prejudices can be untangled but the process is arduous and the threads of history remain. Extensive exhibition-based programming for Both Sides Now: Joyce J. Scott & Sonya Clark includes a public opening on August 4, 6-9 pm at 108|Contemporary, a public talk by Joyce J. Scott on August 5 at 1:30 pm at All Souls Unitarian Church in Tulsa, a lecture by Sonya Clark at 108|Contemporary at 1:30 pm on September 23, and a panel presentation, music in the gallery and film screenings throughout the run of the exhibition. Partners for programming include the John Hope Franklin Center for Reconciliation, Oklahoma Center for Community and Justice and All Souls Unitarian Church. Both Sides Now: Joyce J. Scott & Sonya Clark will be shown from August 4 –September 24, 2017 at 108|Contemporary, 108 E. MB Brady St., Tulsa, OK 74103. Hours are 12–5 p.m. Wed–Sun. The exhibition sponsor is the John & Robyn Horn Foundation with a generous gift from Robin Ballenger and a supporting grant from Friends of Fiber Art International. n

Joyce Scott, Milk Mammy II, 2012-2014, hand-blown Murano glass processes with beads, wire, thread and plastic dice, 28 ½ X 7 ¾ X 7 ¾”. Courtesy of Goya Contemporary Gallery and the artist.

Alison Rossi is an art historian, educator and independent scholar.

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VISION BEYOND SIGHT By: Karen Paul

Video still from Dig It If You Can. Image courtesy of deadCenter Film Festival and the artists.

From its humble beginnings in 2001 as a one-night screening of local films, Oklahoma City’s deadCenter Film Festival has fully matured into the largest film festival in the state, now spanning four nights of films and film-related activities. Each year, the deadCenter Film Festival, held this year June 8-11, 2017 in Oklahoma City, brought together more than 30,000 attendees to view the works of local filmmakers alongside some of the nation’s premiere films. In the last 16 years, more than 1,600 films have been shown at the festival, making it the place for Oklahoma filmmakers to reach audiences interested in high-quality films. To be selected for deadCenter, each film must pass a rigorous selection process. Each film is reviewed multiple times by a panel of screeners before the final selections are made. During the four-day event, deadCenter showed selected films and hosted a series of special public events and educational opportunities for filmmakers, ultimately generating a spirit of community excitement and support for the filmmaking industry in Oklahoma.

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In addition to a line up of works from nationally recognized filmmakers, this year’s festival also included several major works from Oklahoma artists, giving local artists the opportunity to have their films shown alongside a slate of films that includes works from all corners of the globe. I Stand: Guardians of the Water, directed by Kyle Kauwika Harris, was one of the centerpieces of this year’s festival. Harris, who is an Oklahoma filmmaker and member of Choctaw Nation, profiles several Native Americans at Standing Rock Reservation as they peacefully protest the Dakota Access Pipeline. Through in-depth interviews and footage of the demonstrations, Harris’ film offers a new perspective on one of the nation’s most controversial issues, and examines the importance of Native American traditions in modern society. His film showed multiple times throughout the festival. deadCenter also included films from several Oklahoma filmmakers who have deep ties to the state’s arts community, helping raise

the visibility of both art forms outside of their respective, traditional audiences. To kick off the festival, deadCenter screened a series of art films from Tuesday through Thursday at Individual Artists of Oklahoma in Oklahoma City. This series included Princesshood, directed by Ashton Arnoldy. Princesshood debuted earlier this year at OVAC’s Momentum Ada film and new media festival, and another film by Arnoldy, Ouroboros, was featured in Momentum OKC. Two Okie-focused film segments, Okie Shorts and Okie Not So Short Shorts, provided a venue for emerging local filmmakers to showcase their works. This year’s Okie lineup included two films that bridge the gap between traditional studio art and filmmaking. Dig It If You Can is a documentary directed by Oklahoman Kyle Bell and produced by Oklahoman artist Steven Paul Judd. This documentary paints a portrait of Judd’s journey as a self-taught, Native American artist. The film takes a creative look at the

artist’s creative imagery which integrates pop culture, street art, and Native American symbolism. The film also examines Judd’s larger cultural statements about the conflicts between indigenous and modern pop culture. Fleeting Light, by Jacob Leighton Burns and Zachary Burns, was the world premiere film continuation of Zachary Burns’ recent photography project, “Fleeting Light” which was created in conjunction with NewView Oklahoma. Burns, who is visually impaired in his left eye, worked with 12 visually impaired students over a six week period to help them create photographic works. Through their photography, Burns’ students were able to share their view of the world with the sighted world. In the process, the students were empowered to show that vision goes beyond sight. Jacob Leighton Burns and Zachary Burns also had another short film at deadCenter. Let the Bodies Hit the Floor was originally created for the Oklahoma City chapter of the 48hr Film Project, where it was selected as Best Film, in addition to several other awards. The film has since played in multiple film festivals in Oklahoma and Filmapalooza in Seattle, WA. Helping artists share their stories is central to deadCenter’s mission to support Oklahoma’s filmmaking movement from concept to screen. This year’s panel discussions included: Writing, Rewriting and Developing Scripts; Casting: Film & Television; Directing Films; Creating the Animated Feature Trolls; Creating Music for Films; Acting in Films: Leading Men; and Women in Film and Television. By connecting local filmmakers to the global filmmaking community, deadCenter is serving as a catalyst for the arts in Oklahoma, opening doors for new artists and breaking down barriers between artistic media. For more information on the 2017 deadCenter Film Festival, including a complete schedule of films and events, please visit their web site at deadcenterfilm.org. n Karen Paul is an Oklahoma native who has written for Art Focus Oklahoma since 2009. She has a Master’s degree from the University of Oklahoma’s Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication. You may contact her at karenpaulok@gmail.com.

(top) Video still from Let the Bodies Hit the Floor. Image courtesy of deadCenter Film Festival and the artists. (bottom) Video still from Fleeting Light. Image courtesy of deadCenter Film Festival and the artists.

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FILM REVIEW: The Outsiders by: Jill Hardy

“When I stepped out into the bright sunlight from the darkness of the movie house…”

Coppola film--it’s a vessel for Hinton’s story, told the way it is in the book. The story’s simple dialogue and teen-angst filled yearnings are very faithfully portrayed on the screen, and yes, it can seem emotionally heightened. But Coppola also filmed with a 60s era feel that almost feels like an homage, and as a style, it’s a perfect format for the dialogue and acting. If you remind yourself of this, it works as an experience.

If you immediately recognize those words, you may not have to be told that this year marks the 50th year since the publication of The Outsiders, S.E. Hinton’s beloved novel about troubled teens in 1960s Tulsa. Circle Cinema in Tulsa hosted an event on May 6th and 7th which featured screenings of Francis Ford Coppola’s movie based on the story as well as a visit from three of the film’s stars; Ralph Macchio, Darren Dalton, and C. Thomas Howell. In 2005, the film was remastered and almost 22 minutes of footage was put back in. This is the version screened at the event, and it’s also available on DVD--Coppola called this re-worked version “The Complete Novel.” The reintroduced elements do add something to the story, but not enough to change the overall tone. In fact, even the soundtrack edits and additions add dimension; nothing feels stretched or extraneous. If you’re a Coppola fan, you may be puzzled by The Outsiders. It doesn’t look or feel like one of his movies at first glance—in fact, some people are surprised to find out he directed it. The rich cinematography is there, but The Outsiders as a Coppola film is mostly a unique animal. It could even be argued that the simmering intensity that you see in Apocalypse Now or The Godfather, with tension just under the surface, has its opposite in The Outsiders’ sometimes melodramatic dialogue and acting.

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Everything from the remarkable skies to the dialogue is pretty faithfully transferred from novel to screen. One of the most glaring differences, of course, is the choice to cast Matt Dillon as Dallas, who is described in the book as having light blond hair, but Hinton herself is said to have recommended him for the role, and Dillon truly inhabits it— from his first appearance to his scenery chewing last scene. This was a breakout movie for most of the stars—if you were looking for a teen idol in the 80s, The Outsiders was one stop shopping.

But remember, this is a movie about teens. Generally there is a truth that’s mostly accepted amongst those who love both books and novels; the movie is usually a work all on its own. For better or for worse, fans of a book have to reconcile favorite parts from the story being left out of a movie, due to time or story arc constraints. There are some things you just can’t show on a screen; you have to read them. The Outsiders is one of those rare cases, however, where the director does a great job of actually translating, rather than creating something new based on the book. This might be one of the reasons this doesn’t look like a

But just like the novel, the movie has a following for more than the cast, or the acting, or the director—it’s the message that hits home. “Stay gold” may seem like a sappy catchphrase to some, but the lesson of The Outsiders’ continued popularity at its golden anniversary is...sometimes a little sentimentality is what we need. n Jill Hardy writes and lives in south Oklahoma City. She can be reached at hardyjilld@gmail.com.

FILM REVIEW: The Happy Film by: Jill Hardy

Screened as part of the The Architecture & Design Film Festival held at Circle Cinema in Tulsa, Stefan Sagmeister’s The Happy Film is both a paean to artistic design and an examination of personality, life events, and the meaning and source of happiness. In short...it’s a tall order for a documentary. I work as a copywriter, and therefore have a great deal of appreciation for good design, both as an art lover, and someone whose paycheck depends on the symbiosis between words and images to get a point across. But if I’m being honest...I don’t follow many designers, personally, or even have a working knowledge of names in the field. However I figured it was worth a look when my son--a graphic design major--mentioned this film and seemed a little star struck about its creator, Stefan Sagmeister. I was also intrigued by The Architecture & Design Film Festival, which is (I was surprised to learn) the country’s biggest film festival showcasing architecture and design. If you’re an admirer of architecture, this festival offers multiple films about these facets of visual art, as well as opportunities to interact with filmmakers, and other social events. If you’re not particularly interested in design, and you’re wondering if a documentary created by a designer will hold your attention, don’t worry. The Happy Film is visually compelling, from the opening credits to the last images. The movie only briefly touches on Sagmeister’s reputation and background, and simply shows the audience his work, through vignettes of him and his business partner Jessica Walsh working in their New York studio and in scenes where you witness The Happy Show, the art exhibition connected with the film. This is part of the genius of the film; it shows you Sagmeister’s quest, as much as it talks about it. Shots of him attempting to lift himself into the air, via balloons and failing; or standing on a busy street, handing flowers to pretty women he’d like to talk

to (and getting both refusals and smiles). These are images that drive home the movie’s purpose, and give you a visual representation of what he’s trying to do—get happy.

working in the arts, who gets to take a yearlong break every few years and go to a place that can be a veritable paradise on Earth and try to figure out what would make him happier.

There are three main parts to the film, three pathways that Sagmeister tests in his journey to find out if he can actually orchestrate his own happiness like he can plan out a design project.

Then something happened...during the course of the movie, one of the directors dies.

The first potential solution is meditation. Sagmeister takes a sabbatical every seven years, and when the movie opens, he is on one such yearlong break, in Bali. To be honest, when I saw this, I rolled my eyes. This film caught me at a time in life where I had just spent a year working three jobs (as a single mom) to get myself and three children above the poverty line. I had just come through a situation that had reaffirmed to me--painfully-that there is still much that keeps art and the world it opens from being readily accessible to those who aren’t in a particular financial demographic. So it put me off at first, to see a wealthy man

This unexpected turn stunned me momentarily, then reminded me of a very valuable truth that has helped me in times past, when struggling to reconcile class issues; money isn’t everything. Money cannot buy happiness, and it can’t even really buy the things that you think would produce it. (Read: A meditation retreat in Bali.) I was able to see Sagmeister’s experiment with different eyes after that. His attempts to find bliss through mindfulness, and then therapy, and finally (prescription) drugs aren’t things that everyone can afford, it’s true, but his search is something that resonates. Filling in the spaces between the stages of Sagmeister’s happiness solutions are conversations with social psychologist Jonathan Haidt, author of The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom. Haidt serves as a barometer of sorts, balancing Sagmeister’s observations and attempts with reminders about the overarching purpose behind what he’s doing. Kind of like Jiminy Cricket with a PhD. I’m going to spoil the ending a bit by revealing that there is no revelation. Sagmeister makes some discoveries, and we get to witness some growth (and some questionable decisions), but in the end there really is no clean discovery of personal nirvana. However this makes for a perfect ending for a film about discovering how to be happier, if you understand that it really is not something that has a specific recipe. Or a design. n Jill Hardy writes and lives in south Oklahoma City. She can be reached at hardyjilld@gmail.com.

re v i e w

CREATIVE RESONANCE by Karen Paul

Resonator Art Space, the metro’s newest art gallery and collaborative art space, is challenging traditional ideas of artists and exhibition spaces as it removes many of the creative restrictions artists face as they begin to share their works publicly. Located in a large warehouse on north University Avenue in Norman, Resonator is deliberately creating a gray area between traditional non-profit arts spaces and DIY galleries. This new space is led by a core group of volunteers, including Laine Bergeron, OU printmaking professor Curtis Jones, and artist Jenna Bryan. Together these artists are establishing an avenue for introducing new artists to the community, with a special

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emphasis on their chosen media, which includes print, sculpture and digital art. “We saw this artist-led concept in other communities across the country,” Bergeron said. “We know it worked well there, and thought it could be useful here.” Bergeron and the other co-founders know that their space fills an interesting role in the art community by intentionally remaining on the fringes of mainstream exhibition spaces, but integrating traditional gallery operations and collaborative artist studio spaces. “If we’re a little separate from the mainstream art world, then we can serve as a bridge between the DIY community and the traditional arts community,” Bergeron said.

Resonator’s 3,600 square foot exhibition space includes industrial looking white walls, which make installations challenging given the scale of the space. The Resonator team knows that with each exhibition they schedule, the pieces must be integrated with the space in a way that will not make the pieces look isolated, especially when they are site-specific works. “We intentionally make sure that our artist space does not distract from the work on display,” Bergeron said. The Resonator founders draw on their personal experience as both creators and curators to be respectful and protective of the works they select. Even though the physical space is sometimes challenging to work within, the benefits of the

Images courtesy of Resonator Art Space.

space far outweigh any limitations. The ample space allows for the on-site creation of multiple works, in addition to providing opportunities for curated exhibitions of all types and scales. One of Resonator’s core goals is to empower artists to develop art in a venue outside of the mainstream with as few creative restrictions as possible. Generally, the only primary rule is that any visual exhibition or artistic performance must be inclusive and respectful. Pieces may be challenging to viewers, but they may not be intentionally hateful or demeaning to any group of individuals. “If we respect the space, the art in it, and our attendees, then other people will respect it,” Bergeron said.

Bergeron credits the success of Resonator to the founders’ motivation to be as creatively open as possible. “When we don’t have to answer to anyone in a creative sense, then we can invent what we want to have happen without restrictions,” Bergeron said. Through their personal experiences showing works of art in other exhibition spaces, the Resonator team’s trust and curatorial skills are also growing as the space matures. The founders intentionally work to create their ideal creative and exhibition experience. “The space has given us the confidence to give our artists creative license,” Bergeron said. “If you don’t clip people’s wings, then they will

do something awesome. They will develop something amazing.” The creativity at Resonator has developed into a regularly curated series of events that showcase new artists. Resonator’s leadership will often reach out to artists that they know, but are not currently known in mainstream arts circles, and ask them to create works that display a certain feeling or concept that serves as the unifying element for each of their monthly events. New Media Sundays incorporate experimental visual projects paired with music equipment such as synthesizers. By giving attendees the opportunity to play instruments, attendees not (continued to page 18)

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(continued from page 17)

only participate in the artistic experience, they help create it as well, building a time-specific installation that can never truly be replicated in the future.

Monthly art shows are planned in conjunction with the Norman Arts Council’s Second Friday Art Walk, expanding the art walk’s impact beyond downtown Norman.

On the second Wednesday of each month, Ether Explorations provides a showcase for experimental art that has an avant garde focus. In the Ether Explorations setting, artists often display more intimate, subjective pieces that are paired with ambient music. The digital works incorporate multiple elements such as poetry, film, and other media elements into the monthly show. The Resonator team often outreaches to specialized artists in the community to encourage them to participate in exhibitions.

“We’re trying to lay the groundwork, so that once we’re gone, other people can build on Resonator’s success,” Bergeron said. “We want the people who come after us to continue creating a more accessible arts community.”

18 f e a t u re

For the founding members of Resonator, what they are currently doing will only continue to grow bigger as national and international artists become connected to the space. With many members of the global art community interested in working at the space, they see tremendous potential

in the future, which may include artist residencies where residents can work with the community to create public art pieces. For more information on Resonator Art Space’s upcoming exhibitions and events, please visit their web site at resonator.space, or their Facebook page at facebook.com/ resonatorart. n Karen Paul is an Oklahoma native who has written for Art Focus Oklahoma since 2009. She has a Master’s degree from the University of Oklahoma’s Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication. You may contact her at karenpaulok@gmail.com.

OU SCHOOL of VISUAL ARTS, DEGREE OFFERINGS: BA

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Jessica Borusky by Krystle Brewer

Royal Void

is the first in a series of performative works, which will examine relationships between western art history and mythologies, the turn of the 20th century American West, contemporary social culture in the

Royal Void

Items present: Dyed-Blue Fountain Royals Flag Attached to Strap-on Vest from Queer-a-Fest Destiny Barbecue Sauce on hands Black Pants 3-year-old Doc Martin Shoes Socks and underwear from an ex-girlfriend

middle of the U.S., and personal narrative/queer identity. collapses temporal and spatial relationships through the act of performing for camera in a public park wearing a strap-on with a flag affixed, about to fall into a cold fountain, arms raised, hands covered in meat sauce in praise. Knowing that the readership may extend beyond regionalism, I hope perform imagined American narratives and their dislocating experience. This dislocation, while historic and contemporarily real, can also become a site for humor; creating an entry point by which to discuss survival. The following writing will be illustrated as groups of words or information, so as to better reflect the interconnected relationships I am hoping to build through a spatial/temporal collapse between imagery, history, identification, and performance. This exercise may not work. The process of this project is to push the relationship between my visual and writing practice.

Leap into the Void by In October 2015, the Yves Klein was fountains in Kansas City produced in October were dyed blue, in order to 1960. The image is a support the team. Kansas photomontage and City is home to over 200 constructed to make fountains. The only city in Klein appear as if the world with more flying in space. The fountains is Rome. Many void is a reference to of these fountains produce Zen-like state of fresh water. The fresh water being. In October of 2015, the fountains date back to the Kansas City Royals win theturn of the 20th century, World Series. when travelers used the fountains to nourish horses

The fountain pictured can be seen from the highway and is located at a series of strip malls. The strip mall and the big-box retail store have become iconic images of the American Skyline. Often, these retailers are known for consistency and dependability rather than originality of product. Set behind the figure, the image becomes a sharp contrast between normal conduct and non-normative behavior. Did you like moving those straps

around my thighs? Adjusting the little royal dick-flag? Hands close toward seams? Did you like screaming? Bent knees and pressed ankles into reverberating black. I liked your hands near me, pulling and tightening: making sure I would stay. I watched those hands today, how they connect to

wrists and forearms that I might imagine pulling flesh off of. Like Klein’s image, I have enlisted the help of others to produce the image: Wolfgang Bucher, Lauren Schrader, and Anthony Vannicola; Tim Amundson for editing. Unlike Klein’s image, the figure’s physical hesitation denotes the void is not the Zen-like state. Rather, the void suggests an endless water-loop for recreation. The recreation of baseball, sex as recreation. The martyr. The patron saint of red-white- and royalblue, pissing into the fountain. The VOID here is beige and asphalt, the synchronistic failure phallus: unusable, pleasurable, profane, timely, and fleeting; enveloping the most

Royal Void

uninteresting components of the work. is pointless, but not without nods to the past/present history(ies). The figure here conjures up several performance artworks at once (do not forget your and national narratives of success and progress, and individual shortcummings. Let us hope the VOID may offer more than (in/de)flation and retention.

Naumans, McCarthies, Mendietas, Schneemanns, and Benglises), regional

Jessica Borusky, Royal Void, 2016-2017. Image by Lauren Schrader.

This month, Living Arts welcomes aboard Jessica Borusky from Kansas City as their next Artistic Director. Having had the opportunity to work with Jessica before through OVAC’s Oklahoma Art Writing and Curatorial Fellowship, I was eager to catch up with them and ask a few questions about how their work, background, and vision will influence this next chapter of Living Arts. In addition to your practices of curating, writing, and educating, you also have a very vibrant artistic practice. I’ve noticed that the body and your personal experiences seem to be a central part of this practice. Can you talk more about that and how those things help you navigate your current themes? The body, and thereby, our personal experience is fundamental to the ways in which we understand others, the world, and ourselves: time/space/memory. The body is the site/locus from, and by which, we gain knowledge(s)- spoken, seen, heard, felt, taught, learned, unlearned. All creative practice, regardless of physical or experiential output, forms from and materializes through the body. However, for some creative practices, the body

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functions as content for aesthetic production. My body/personal experience within my artistic practice allows me to, simultaneously, unpack difficult theoretical, political, historic, and contemporary subject matter- through time/space collisions of the physical, linguistic, memetic, visual, aural, and personal condition that is the body in performance. We all navigate our everyday through the use/nonuse of our bodies and their inherent connection to our personal and collective past(s); I simply attempt to humorously and emotionally reconsider this experience by way of highly codified performances. My aim is to offer, through the performing body, new ways of engaging traumatic experience(s) that we may singularly/collectively undergo. It also seems that your background in teaching at the college level and critical literature have had an influence on your practice. How do bring those aspects into your work? In any creative practice, we have spheres of audience: those that witness the work and are intimately connected to myriad references, altogether; those that witness the work and may engage the content by way of aesthetic/

stylistic choices (and, here, we can define aesthetic broadly, as this term develops differently depending on the genre of thinking/making); those that come upon the work and stay, or leave; those that are deeply affected by the work but cannot qualify it in linguistic terms; and more and more, etc. I am interested in all of these spheres, and consider my best work to engage different spheres of audience, at once. So, in that sense, I do not value a kind of audience over another; however, there are ways in which I engage critical/queer-feminist theory with my performances through language, physical expression, and content that may be read as an index for that academic lexicon. In this way, someone versed within art history, critical and queer-feminist theory, may unpack my work in a particular way, and I create work in order to speak back and with that [academic/embodied] praxis. Your focus in performance and installation, as well as some of the themes you explore, seem to be very in line with Living Arts’ tagline to show “art that makes you talk.” How do you see your experiences and practice informing your new role as Artistic Director?

Jessica Borusky, Jumping Off, 2015. Image by Tim Amundson.

While my experience as an artist within the fields of expanded media and practice connect to the mission of Living Arts, I consider my experience as a performance and public art curator, writer, and educator to really cement how and what I may offer Living Arts as the Artistic Director. These roles have offered me the opportunity to learn how to facilitate compelling experiences between audience and artist, ones that promote critical thinking, consideration for the artwork, artistic development, and care. Curation has a capacity to encourage new ways of imagining how we relate to ourselves: as thinking, making, and caring bodies. Creating aesthetic experiences that produce affectual connectivity between and among artists and viewers is paramount to my curatorial/writing (and inherently educational) platform; and I believe this is, ultimately, connected to the role of Living Arts within the Tulsa/ Oklahoma/national creative community: how can Living Arts continue to promote thoughtful, challenging, yet ultimately affectually meaningful conditions and care for artists/viewers? And, I believe my experiences through aesthetic production and facilitation will adhere, and add to, this mission.

What are some of the aspects of this new role that most excite you? I am excited to listen and learn. Living Arts of Tulsa has such a rich history within the Tulsa arts community, as well as within the greater performance art community, nationally. I am honored and thrilled to be a part of these histories (and futures) within the role as Artistic Director. I am excited to listen to the Living Arts community, the Tulsa community, and the larger new genre/live art community and learn from these interstices; And, respond to (in caring and critical ways) needs, wants, and desires: assessing structures, programs, and partnerships; forging and imagining new ways to continue this everexpanding field with inventive and inviting organizational and aesthetic practices. I know you are familiar with the arts in Oklahoma and have several ties here. Can you tell our readers about your experiences in the arts in the state? As an OVAC Oklahoma Art Writing and Curatorial Fellow alum, I have had the experience of working with several Oklahoma writers, curators, administrators, and artists.

I have worked closely with Laurence Myers Reese and MAINSITE Contemporary Art in Norman, Oklahoma through our cocuratorial project: T(r)opical B(r)each in 2016, and have curated Oklahoma artists through my work in Kansas City under the moniker Flesh Crisis. A quality I have been able to identify about Oklahoma’s creative culture is that artists and audience alike are excited and elastic regarding artistic vision and support: there is an openness toward different, or non-static, works of art. This openness materializes through financial and emotional support between and among artists, audiences, and patrons. In this way, Oklahoma’s reception toward new vision(s) within the arts is palpable and quite thrilling, and I am looking forward to work within, learn from and grow, within the folds of Tulsa and Oklahoma’s creative culture. To learn more about Jessica Borusky’s work, visit jessicaborusky.com n Krystle Brewer is executive director at OVAC as well as an artist, writer, and curator. She can be found at krystlebrewer.com

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GROTESQUE DELIGHTS: Jessica Sanchez By: Olivia Biddick

Jessica Sanchez, Lollipop Collection (detail), 2016, resin, miscellaneous objects, each 2 X 3”

Artist Jessica Sanchez won top survey artist honors for Momentum OKC 2017 earlier this year. She won the Curator’s Choice award, which had over forty talented artists participating, ultimately because of her vision as well as execution according to Kyle Cohlmia; curator of exhibitions, University of Central Oklahoma Melton Gallery and emerging curator for this year’s Momentum OKC. Momentum OKC is an annual exhibition specifically for artists of all mediums age thirty and under, sponsored by the Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition. It is a way to provide exposure and key exhibition experience for young artists. 2017 was the 16th anniversary of the exhibition. When asked about her experience with Momentum, Sanchez says “It was surreal and humbling. I never expected to receive support like I do from OVAC. They continue to surprise me with their opportunities and recognition. I’m thankful for everything they have done for me and the arts in Oklahoma.” The winning title to the piece is, appropriately, Lollipop Collection. The piece consists of an assortment of heart shaped resin “lollipops” encasing insects and other equally unappealing, unappetizing objects (hairball, cigarette butt, etc.) frozen in the brightly colored confections. The only nonheart shaped candy was a larger, neon green

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cube with an arthropod mid-backbend inside, wrapped classically in cellophane. The candies were displayed upright with simple, suspended Plexiglas and wooden shelves. They almost appear to be floating in air. The heart candies, in varying shades of pastel, have a delightful effect at first glance. Their colorful silhouettes reflect off the white gallery walls behind them. As you approach, however; the dialogue evolves from “Cute!” to “Is that...a rotten tooth inside that lollipop?!” then to something in the vein of, “Yes, yes it is. Huh, gross.” Sanchez describes her art as having “a sickeningly sweet feel.” Her aesthetic stays “bright and soft” but primarily serves as a vehicle for, her favorite, the more grotesque parts. “The harsh contrast creates a push and pull of reactions and usually starts some interesting conversations,” says Sanchez. “Her piece encapsulated a perspective that seemed to permeate the rest of the show— one that said as much about the artist as it did about any particular subject matter. That piece was playful, self-conscious, and self-aware in its angst and teasing in its enticement,” says Curator of Momentum OKC 2017, Kate Van Steenhuyse. The idea of juxtaposing the full spectrum of senses, from the pleasant to the vile, is

a familiar trope in art, but that does not make the initial shock any less severe. “I love when I get to witness the reactions of people viewing my art for the first time. Whether it makes them smile or gag, hopefully they enjoy the experience,” says Sanchez. Lollipop Collection was a departure from Sanchez who is “a painter at heart.” The very nature of it, an installation, was another unique layer for the winning piece. “I think it’s important for young artists to expand their ideas beyond 2D. There’s a lot of opportunity for installation work right now, and I think it also challenges audiences to look at art in a unique way,” says Cohlmia. Other works by Sanchez are formidable paintings with themes and tones not too dissimilar from the nasty candies—some otherwise yummy looking food paired with insect(s) or another repelling counterpart. Each painting’s name is deliciously tongue and cheek as well. A painting of french fries, a replica of the famous ones from McDonald’s minus the golden arches, plus a couple of needles thrown in the mix, is called I’m Druggin’ It. Her work encapsulates widely and wildly ranging subjects: Edward Scissorhands, a pattern of colorful pills, a cat skeleton. Like the rest of her body of work, they are all capable of being perceived as adorable or

Take Only Pictures, Kill Only Time, Leave Only Bubbles Crystal Z. Campbell

August 31 - September 21, 2017 Archival images, projections, sculpture, video and sound works borrow cues from medical history, disease and disability for Campbell’s first solo exhibition in Oklahoma. Campbell engages with the perception of space and disability, the tension of normalcy and the ethics of medical history. Crystal Z. Campbell is a visual artist and writer of AfricanAmerican, Filipino & Chinese descents. Campbell uses art as a tool and history as material to rupture collective memory, imagine social transformations and question the politics of witnessing.

Jessica Sanchez, Lollipop Collection, 2016, resin, miscellaneous objects, each 2 X 3”

dark or both. When talking about her influences, Sanchez says: “Color is essential to me and inspires my artwork in many ways. That’s one reason why I’m drawn to pop art. As cliché as it sounds I draw inspiration from everywhere. I can find a rusty screw on the ground and get inspired or I can see a slice of cake on a restaurant menu and dream up its perfectly disgusting companion. It’s all about bringing your daily life into your art and your art into your life.” Following the support and laurels of Momentum, Sanchez is continuing to work on paintings as well as larger-scaled resins created with her own molds. “Momentum is an OKC staple. It provides these young adults with the opportunity to see their work in a larger context of our state’s community,” says Cohlmia. Qualifying artists interested in applying can find information on Momentum OKC 2018, available on OVAC’s website in the fall. For more on Jessica Sanchez’s work, visit jessicasanchez.net. 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.

Artist Lecture: August 31st 5:00 p.m. in Phillips Hall. Jerri Jones Lecture Hall - room 211. Reception: August 31st 6:00-7:00 p.m. Alexandre Hogue Gallery.

Eloquent Craftsman: Tom Manhart and His Students Thursday, October 5 - 26, 2017 Alexandre Hogue Gallery TU campus.

Friday, October 6 - 26, 2017

Living Arts in The Brady Arts District

This is a retrospective of the work of Tom Manhart, Professor of Art at the University of Tulsa School of Art, and many of his students. Tom Manhart was a professor of art at TU between 1963-1993. His artwork was very important in breaking through the barrier between the “Craft” and “Art” Worlds. Manhart’s exhibitions curated by Steve Liggett MA (1977). Reception: October 5th 5:00-7:00 p.m. in the Alexandre Hogue Gallery Please follow us on Facebook For more information, visit www.cas.utulsa/edu/art/ or call 918.631.2739 • TU is an EEO/AA institution

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EKPHRASIS: Summer 2017 edited by Liz Blood

Artist Betty Refour is the

THAT TIME WHEN I LOST YOU

caretaker of her sister, Rose, who has autism. Her painting, “She Must Like Girls,” is about

It might have seemed perfectly ordinary for someone else to let go in that bustle of bodies,

the assumptions made about

give way to the crowd’s demand

others’ sexuality, inspired by

pressing in all directions, its lonely

the times Betty and Rose have been yelled at for holding hands

calling to be one and many, but for me, as I felt the last of your fingers

in public. Here, poet Jenny Yang Cropp considers how isolated and vulnerable conformity can make us feel.

slipping away, I believed (and if I can be honest here, still believe) we were one cell split against our will or perhaps an atom fissured, the immensity of it, radioactive hurt and heat and light. Then I could see all those dark and creeping corners exposed, each body a threatening edge I would have to

Poet Bio: Jenny Yang Cropp’s newest

chapbook, Not a Bird or a Flower, is forthcoming from Ryga: A Journal of Provocations this summer. Her full-length collection, String Theory, was a 2016 Oklahoma Book Award finalist. She teaches English and creative writing at Cameron University Artist bio: Betty Refour’s work is an

hurl my own against, whatever it takes to get through, and then, if I could just find you again, I thought, I would attach my body to yours, like those ancient arthropods with their broods tethered like kites trying to survive these primordial seas.

exploration of color and shapes. She enjoys the endless possibilities that color presents and her intent is to encourage thought and dialogue. Refour lives in Oklahoma City, where she shares a studio with her sister, Rose.

(opposite page) Betty Refour, She Must Like Girls, acrylic on canvas, 36 x 24”

ekphrasis

OVAC NEWS

SUMMER 2017

Momentum Ada was a film and new media festival in Ada, OK May 2017. There were cash prizes selected by curators Samantha Dillehay and Brian Cardinale-Powell. The show highlighted two Spotlight Artists, Julius the Robot, and Laurence Reese who received $1,500 and curatorial guidance. The survey featured art from artists age 30 and under from the following states: Oklahoma, Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, and Texas. For more information on the event, visit MomentumOklahoma.org.

Executive Director, Krystle Brewer

Art 365 is an exhibition from the Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition which offers five Oklahoma artists a year and $12,000 to create innovative artwork in collaboration with a nationally recognized curator. The artists work with a guest curator for one year to create a body of original artwork for the exhibition. The 2017 Art 365 artists are Narciso Arguelles, Pete Froslie, Andy Mattern, Amy McGirk and James McGirk, and Kelly Rogers. The exhibition is showing in Norman at MAINSITE Contemporary until August 11 and will move to the Hardesty Arts Center in Tulsa later this fall. For more details, visit art365.org. This past May, we held our fourth Collector Level Membership + Community Supported Art (CSA) Launch Event. Collectors attended a reception with the artists and received an original piece of artwork. The program connects 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 the fall. For more information, or to sign up, please visit ovacok.org/become-a-collector.

ovac news

24 Works on Paper, the biennial travelling exhibition of work by living Oklahoma artists returned again to open to the public in Guymon, OK in August 2016 and will continue its tour around the state through January 2018. The next stops on the tour include the Ponca City Art Center in Ponca City, OK June 23 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; August 5, 2017 and the Eleanor Hays Art Gallery in Tonkawa, OK August 11 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; September 23, 2017. 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. SAVE THE DATE! 12x12 Art Fundraiser is Friday, September 29, 2017 at 50 Penn Place. For more information, visit 12x12. org. Art People

OVAC is thrilled to announce our new Executive Director, Krystle Brewer. Brewer comes to us most recently from her role as Exhibitions Director at 108 Contemporary in Tulsa. She holds a BFA in studio art from Oklahoma City University and an MA in art history from Oklahoma State University. n

Thank you to our new and renewing members from February to April 2017 Jo Ann Adams Mary Alaback Samantha Arnold Alfredo Baeza Tommy and Tahlia Ball Mattie Barlow Joshua Benson Lori Billy Steve Brown Carie Antosek Calvery Paxton Cavin Dayton Clark Carolyn Click Karen L. Collier Janey Carns Crain Jeremy Cunanan

Bryan Dahlvang Ebony Dorsett Alana Embry Marianne Evans Kandyce Everett Ashley Farrier Diane Glenn and Jerry Stickle Gabrielle Guyse Kristina Haden Peter Hay Darby Heard Hailey Helmerich Michelle Hendry Michelle Himes-McCrory Pauline Honeycutt

Jonathan Johnson Joni Johnson Karen Kirkpatrick Melanie Krcilek Jessica Legako Janice Mathews-Gordon Heather McCoy Mat Miller Eric Chance Mobbs Anne Motley Holly Moye romy owens Kylie Parker Martin Peerson Anthony Pego Angela Piehl

Guy Ragland Stephanie Ruggles Amy Sanders Amanda Sawyer John and Mary Seward Virginia Sitzes Stephen Smith Charles Steelman Adam Stewart Amber Tardiff Megan P. Thompson Alexander Tomlin Christian and Alesha Trimble Jordan Vinyard Mark Waits

Evan Ward Katrina Ward Mo Wassell Corazon S. Watkins Danielle Weigandt Nathan Scott Wiewel Brendon Williams Devon Wilson Christina Windham Thomas Young

AUG 21 – OCT 20 | 2017 OPENING RECEPTION SEPT 1, 6 — 8 PM [ HULSEY GALLERY HOURS ] Monday — Friday | 9 to 5 PM Located in the Norick Art Center 1609 NW 16th Street, OKC 73106

ovac news

Gallery Listings & Exhibition Schedule Ada

Claremore

Chris Ramsay May 25 – July 14 The Pogue Gallery East Central University 900 Centennial Plaza (580) 559-5353 ecok.edu

Foundations Gallery Rogers State University 1701 W Will Rogers Blvd (918) 343-7740 rsu.edu

Alva Photography July 7 – 31 Artists Now and Then August 4 -24 Native American Art September 1 – October 2 Graceful Arts Gallery and Studios 523 Barnes St (580) 327-ARTS gracefulartscenter.org

Ardmore

Juxtaposition: Skip Hill & Todd Gray July 1 – September 1 Living Ghosts: Parker Seward & Laura Schechter September 5 – October 28 The Goddard Center 401 First Avenue SW (580) 226-0909 goddardcenter.org

Bartlesville Exhibit: Frank Lloyd Wright Journey to the Prairie June 2 – August 27 Price Tower Arts Center 510 Dewey Ave (918) 336-4949 pricetower.org

Chickasha Contemporary Works by Bert Seabourn June 10 – July 14 The Artwork of Joeallen Gibson August 26 – September 15 2017 Seven-State Biennial Exhibition September 23 – October 20 Nesbitt Gallery University of Science and Arts Oklahoma 1806 17th St (405) 574-1344 usao.edu/gallery/ schedule

gallery guide

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

Duncan Real Cowboys Exhibit May 2, 2017 – December 31, 2018 Chisholm Trail Heritage Center 1000 Chisholm Trail Pkwy (580) 252-6692 onthechisholmtrail.com

Durant Centre Gallery Southeastern OK State University 1405 N 4th PMB 4231 (580) 745-2000 se.edu

Durham

Stephen Schwark July Realist Project Group August Joan Frimberger September 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 (800) 877-5010 oc.edu

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

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

Guymon

Metcalfe Museum 8647 N 1745 Rd (580) 655-4467 metcalfemuseum.org

All Fired Up Art Gallery 421 N Main (580) 338-4278 artistincubation.com

Edmond

Idabel

Donna Nigh Gallery University of Central Oklahoma 100 University Dr (405) 974-2432 uco.edu/cfad Barbers in Edmond: A Historic Trade February 21 – December 16 Edmond Historical Society & Museum 431 S Boulevard (405) 340-0078 edmondhistory.org

Jade April 18 – July 15 Seats of Power August 22 – October 22 Selected Treasures form the Museum’s Collections I, II, and III Through October 8 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 discovermgp.org

Norman Downtown Art and Frame 115 S Santa Fe (405) 329-0309

Variations on Themes July 14 – August 25 Bert Seabourn September 8 – October 29 The Depot Gallery 200 S Jones (405) 307-9320 pasnorman.org

Oklahoma City

Acosta Strong Fine Art 6420 N Western Ave (405) 453-1825 johnbstrong.com [ArtSpace] at Untitled 1 NE 3rd St (405) 815-9995 1ne3.org

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

Brass Bell Studios 2500 NW 33rd facebook.com/BrassBellStudios

Jacobson House 609 Chautauqua (405) 366-1667 jacobsonhouse.org

Contemporary Art Gallery 2928 Paseo (405) 601-7474 contemporaryartgalleryokc.com

Picher, Oklahoma: Catastrophe, Memory, and Trauma June 13 – September 10 Journey Toward an Open Mind Through July 9 Joe Andoe: Horizons April 21 – September 10, 2017 Body June 23 – December 30, 2017 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 Art 365 June 9 – August 12 MAINSITE Contemporary Art Gallery 122 E Main (405) 360-1162 mainsite-art.com Moore-Lindsey House Historical Museum 508 N Peters (405) 321-0156 normanmuseum.org

Nasty Women June 22 – July 30 Current Studio 1218 N Penn Ave (405) 673-1218 currentstudio.org Alicia Saltina Marie Clark + Josh Garrett June 8 – July 9 The Natural World July 13 – August 6 Marissa Raglin + Issac Diaz August 10 – September 3 DNA Galleries 1705 B NW 16th St (405) 371-2460 dnagalleries.com Exhibit C 1 E Sheridan Ave Ste 100 (405) 767-8900 exhibitcgallery.com Cowboys & Indians by Oklahoma Hall of Fame members Harold T. “H” Holden and Mike Larsen April 20 – August 26 Gaylord-Pickens Museum, home of the Oklahoma Hall of Fame 1400 Classen Dr (405) 235-4458 oklahomahof.com

Grapevine Gallery 1933 NW 39 (405) 528-3739 grapevinegalleryokc.com Howell Gallery 6432 N Western Ave (405) 840-4437 howellgallery.com Anita Caldwell-Jackson July 7 Jerron Johnston August 4 Andrea Kissenger September 1 In Your Eye Studio and Gallery 3005A Paseo (405) 525-2161 inyoureyegallery.com Individual Artists of Oklahoma 706 W Sheridan Ave (405) 232-6060 individualartists.org Take Home a Nude July 7 - 30 Larry Hefner and Behnaz Sohrabian August 4 – 27 Janet O’Neal and Jim Keffer September 1 – October 1 JRB Art at The Elms 2810 N Walker Ave (405) 528-6336 jrbartgallery.com Kasum Contemporary Fine Art 1706 NW 16th St (405) 604-6602 kasumcontemporary.com Lowell Ellsworth Smith: My Theology of Painting Through July 9, 2017 National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum 1700 NE 63rd (405) 478-2250 nationalcowboymuseum.org Shingle Works/ Paul Medina September 9 Nault Gallery 816 N Walker Ave (405) 642-4414 naultfineart.com Nona Hulsey Gallery, Norick Art Center Oklahoma City University 1600 NW 26th (405) 208-5226 okcu.edu

Inasmuch Foundation Gallery Oklahoma City Community College Gallery 7777 S May Ave (405) 682-7576 occc.edu Kehinde Wiley: A New Republic June 16 – September 10 The Complete WPA Collection: 75th Anniversary Through July 2 The Modernist Spectrum: Color and Abstraction Through December 31 Dale Chihuly: Magic & Light Through July 1, 2018 Oklahoma City Museum of Art 415 Couch Dr (405) 236-3100 okcmoa.com Coded_Couture June 29 – August 10 Guerilla Art Park June-August Oklahoma Contemporary Arts Center 3000 General Pershing Blvd (405) 951-0000 oklahomacontemporary.org Oklahoma State Capitol Galleries 2300 N Lincoln Blvd (405) 521-2931 arts.ok.gov Yeon Ok Lee “Hidden Reality” June 2 – July 1 Paseo Art Space 3022 Paseo (405) 525-2688 thepaseo.com Red Earth 6 Santa Fe Plaza (405) 427-5228 redearth.org smART Space Science Museum Oklahoma 2100 NE 52nd St (405) 602-6664 sciencemuseumok.org Summer Wine Art Gallery 2928 B Paseo (405) 831-3279

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

Ponca City

Tulsa

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

Rooted, Revived, Reinvented: Basketry in America June 2 – July 23 Both Sides Now: Joyce Scott and Sonya Clark August 4 – September 24 108|Contemporary 108 E MB Brady St (918) 895-6302 108contemporary.org

Shawnee The Art of Jaime Arrendondo May 13 – July 1 Mabee-Gerrer Museum of Art 1900 W Macarthur (405) 878-5300 mgmoa.org

Stillwater Gardiner Gallery of Art Oklahoma State University 108 Bartlett Center for the Visual Arts (405) 744-4143 art.okstate.edu Oklahoma and Beyond: Selections from the George R. Kravis II Collection February 28 – July 8 Contingent Structures: Recent Ceramics by Brandon Reese July 20 – October 28 Kiki Smith and Paper: The Body, the Muse, and the Spirit August 8 – December 2 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

Tahlequah Spider Gallery Cherokee Arts Center 212 S Water Ave (918) 453-5728 cherokeeartscenter.com

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

aberson Exhibits 3624 S Peoria (918) 740-1054 abersonexhibits.com Black Bodies in Propaganda: The Art of the War Poster Through July 9 The Power of Posters: Mobilizing the Home Front to Win The Great War Through July 9 Plains Indian Art: Created in Community Through August 27 Textured Portraits: The Ken Blackbird Collection February 26 – August 27 The Essence of Place: Celebrating the Photography of David Halpern Through December 31, 2017 Gilcrease Museum 1400 Gilcrease Road (918) 596-2700 gilcrease.utulsa.edu Dermis: Wa’ad Almujalli July 7 – August 20 Paper Murals: Blake Conroy July 7 – August 20 FiberWorks 2017 August 4 – September 29, 2017 The Art of NEOWTA – Turned to Perfection: from Nature to Art September 1 – October 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 Alexandre Hogue Gallery University of Tulsa 2930 E 5th St. (918) 631-2739 utulsa.edu/art

Holliman Gallery Holland Hall 5666 E 81st Street (918) 481-1111 hollandhall.org Absolute Abstraction June 29 – August 19 New Works September 14 – October 7 Joseph Gierek Fine Art 1342 E 11th St (918) 592-5432 gierek.com Retro Liggett, a Look at 25 Years of Steve Liggett’s Work Installation work by Taro Takizawa June 26 – July 20 Oh, Tulsa! Biennial August 4 – 24 Test & Samples by Eliz Brown Perceived Contrasts by Haley O’Brien Installation work by Carrie Dickason September 1 - 22 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 Game On! May 6 – February 4, 2018 Philbrook Downtown 116 E MB Brady St (918) 749-7941 philbrook.org Papel Chicano Dos May 4 – September 3 Hope & Fear June 24 – November 12 Philbrook Museum of Art 2727 S Rockford Rd (918) 749-7941 philbrook.org

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gallery guide

(continued from page 29)

Brummett Echohawk May 1 – August 1 Pierson Gallery 1307-1311 E 15th St (918) 584-2440 piersongallery.com Ann Boos Davis July 9 – September 15 Urban Art Lab Studios 2312 E Admiral Blvd (918) 747-0510 urbanartlabstudios.com Ships Passing in the Night: A Sculptural Installation by Megan Mosholder July 7 Tulsa Artists’ Coalition 9 E MB Brady St (918) 592-0041 tacgallery.org

Summer Camp Art Exhibit August 19, 1pm – 3pm WaterWorks Art Center 1710 Charles Page Blvd (918) 596-2440 waterworksartcenter.com

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

Woodward Plains Indians and Pioneers Museum 2009 Williams Ave (580) 256-6136 nwok-pipm.org

Tulsa Performing Arts Center Gallery 110 E 2nd St (918) 596-2368 tulsapac.com

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

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

PATRON $250 · · · · ·

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

FELLOW $150 · · · · ·

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

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

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?

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

Kehinde Wiley (American, b. 1977). Morpheus (detail), 2008. Oil on canvas, 108 x 180 in. (274.3 x 457.2 cm). Collection of Laura Lee Brown and Steve Wilson, 21c Museum Hotel, Louisville, Kentucky. Â© Kehinde Wiley

Art Focus

Ok l a h o m a

Annual Subscriptions to Art Focus Oklahoma are free with OVAC membership. OVAC Quarterly Grants

for Artists Deadline

Jul 22:

OVAC Annual

Members’ Meeting

Aug 11:

Art 365 closing reception

at MAINSITE

Sep 29:

12x12 Art Fundraiser

Behnaz Sohrabian, Pink #2

Elizabeth Hahn, Nuclear Blanket

Jul 15:

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.

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

Visit ovac-ok.org to learn more.

JULY

THE NUDE SHOW OPENING: FRIDAY, JULY 7TH, 6-10 PM ON VIEW UNTIL SUNDAY, JULY 30TH

AUGUST

LARRY HEFNER & BEHNAZ SOHRABIAN OPENING: FRIDAY, AUGUST 4TH, 6-10 PM ON VIEW UNTIL SUNDAY, AUGUST 27TH

Larry Hefner, Great White

2810 N. WALKER | 405.528.6336 | JRBARTGALLERY.COM

SUNDAY, JUNE 11 10:30 AM - 1:30 PM