The Art 365 Show Will Go On

by Carleigh Foutch

Naima Lowe, Aren’t They All Just Love Songs Anyway?, five channel installation, shown as part of a featured exhibition in the Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition triennial exhibition Concept.

The next iteration of OVAC’s Art 365 is offering five lucky Oklahoma artists the opportunity to create meaningful pieces that impact and inspire the local art community. Ginnie Baer, Crystal Z Campbell, Naima Lowe, Mirella Martinez, along with artist duo Maggie Boyett and Marwin Begaye will all be receiving an honorarium of $12,000 to complete their respective projects.

“It is amazing to be able to offer this career-altering program during such a tumultuous time. Providing this type of financial support will hopefully give the artists flexibility in creating new ambitious work–especially by relieving some of the pressures related to supply/equipment costs,” said OVAC’s Associate Director, Alexa Goetzinger. The five artists will work in tandem with guest curator Grace Deveney to create a show that challenges audiences worldviews while simultaneously stretching the limits of what art can (safely) be, given the coronavirus pandemic.

“I am so grateful that we are able to continue forward, even in the midst of so much uncertainty,” Goetzinger said. “Working on a long-term project like this gives me hope that the future of the Oklahoma arts community is something spectacular.”

Deveney, who’s based out of New Orleans and is the Associate Curator of Prospect.5, is familiar with the Oklahoma art scene and the different artists that make it thrive so vibrantly. Each artist explores various facets of culture, humanity, and expression. One artist, Ginnie Baer, is creating a series of paintings entitled Silver Valley that she hopes offers a whimsical and temporary relief from the pain and loss that nearly everyone has experienced at one point or another (and, one could even argue is feeling right now amidst the pandemic).

“I’m interested in building a world within my paintings that feels comforting and peaceful, offering relief, at least temporarily, from conflict and pain,” Baer said. “I often incorporate glitter and colorful Washi tape into my paintings. Glitter serves both as a nod to a nostalgia for childhood as well as a visual celebration of negative ions—molecules that exist in lush landscapes and have been found to contribute to feelings of well-being. The Washi tape functions to break up the space

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: Ginnie Baer, Sparkling Valley Ridge, 2018, acrylic, watercolor and glitter on wood panel, 24” x 24” Maggie Boyett and Marwin Begaye, Dance Flooring sample design pattern, woodblock, 12’ x 15’

Crystal Z Campbell, MODEL CITIZEN: HERE I STAND, 2018-2019, sculpture installation: five dual-sided Banners (each banner is 24” wide and between 180” to 360” long), paint, three digital looping videos, three projectors, speakers with looping stereo sound, wood, drywall, live performance, 75 minutes, 3 performers and interpretative score of “Ol’ Man River” by James G Williams, 2018-2019 Mirella Martinez, Mexico I, II, III, 2019, handmade set of zines, 5” x 2”

and indicates a more man-made presence. Silver Valley will be a place for introspection, comfort, connection, and love—for ourselves and one another. I hope viewers might feel that these are places to rest, to ease their anxieties for a bit.”

As for the other artists, the worlds they’re planning to create offer additional insight and perspectives into the things that shape the world around us into a collective, collaborative viewing experience through a variety of mediums.

Crystal Z Campbell, a multidisciplinary artist, is creating a piece called Hi, Hi, Hi, Highway, which will be a performance-driven project merging histories, fantasies, and policies of the automobile, the street, and the highway in relation to Americana and displacement.

“Beyond the ability to develop research and produce work for a year, what I consider the gift of Art 365, is being able to work closely with curator Grace Deveney—having ongoing conversation with a contemporary art curator who lends a thoughtful and critical lens to the project at every stage,” Campbell said. “Through research, I hope to learn more about the long-term effects of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, and the strategies and policies that have maintained the damage done nearly a 100 years ago.”

Naima Lowe’s piece, Aren’t They All Just Love Songs Anyway?, explores the ubiquity, complexity, and intimacy of Black expression through a series of videos; Mariella Martinez’s Payne. will explore the ever growing Mexican/ Latinx community of the state by bringing together the imagery with other sourced material into a beautiful hand-bound book to tell the subjects’ stories of what it means to live in Oklahoma as a Latinx person; and Maggie Boyett and Marwin Begaye’s collective work, Body Acknowledgement: The Body as Land, will explore the cultural disparities between Indigenous and American social customs from the perspective of two Native Americans in a collaborative movement piece. “By incorporating the layers of Indigenous knowledge, personal-cultural narratives with physical movement and performance to my visual art vocabulary, it is pushing me beyond my comfort zone. I’m excited by the potential of developing different technical strategies while intuitively responding to the performance aspect of the collaboration,” Begaye said.

“Community and collaboration are two of my biggest motivators when I’m working creatively,” Boyett said. “The only downfall of collaboration is that sometimes you can get to a place where it feels like there are ‘too many cooks in the kitchen,’ but in the short time that Marwin and I have gotten to converse with Grace and the other artists on the show, I have this strong sense in my gut that their feedback and questions and suggestions are going to be so beneficial to the work we’re making this year.”

Marwin Begaye

Maggie Boyett

Crystal Z Campbell

Mirella Martinez Ginnie Baer

Naima Lowe

while transcending language and giving life to a visual representation of what it means to be an Oklahoman. With so much time and creative freedom to complete these pieces, these five artists are ready to hit the ground running to bring a truly unforgettable experience to life. While audiences have an inkling of what to expect come 2021, nothing can prepare them for just how inspiring the culmination of these exhibitions is going to be.

“I am most looking forward to making the work,” Baer said. “I’m also looking forward to working with Grace and communicating with the other artists involved—they are fantastic. OVAC is amazing. Specifically, Krystle Brewer and Alexa Goetzinger’s efforts toward this program, especially during such a challenging time.”

Martinez agrees: “I’m so honored and excited to participate in this program. It’s such a great opportunity to connect and grow with other Oklahoma artists and our curator, Grace. It’ll be a killer show, I know it.” For Goetzinger and the other OVAC staff, the excitement and gratitude of being able to put on a new Art 365 show is leaving everyone feeling the immense influence of just how important art is, and always has been.

“One day we will be on the other side of this pandemic, and we can get there by working together,” Goetzinger said. “The fact that Art 365 is still happening this year is a testament to OVAC’s core beliefs: Art is essential. Art provides value. Art raises the quality of life and creates a positive economic impact.”

OVAC congratulates the selected artists on this esteemed award and looks forward to watching their projects unfold over the next year. Additionally, OVAC would like to thank all of their generous sponsors who have made this incredible opportunity possible for these artists. This program is supported by MidAmerica Arts Alliance, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, National Endowment for the Arts, the Oklahoma Arts Council, George Kaiser Family Foundation, Kirkpatrick Family Fund, and Allied Arts.

Right now, this iteration of Art 365 will be on display in Tulsa from July 2 through August 6, 2021 at Living Arts, and in Oklahoma Cirty from August 19 through September 18, 2021 at Artspace at Untitled. If you’re looking to stay updated, or just looking for more information regarding Art 365, visit ovac-ok.org/art-365. n

Carleigh Foutch is a writer and activist living in Oklahoma City. She received her BA in Journalism from the University of Oklahoma and continues to write stories of all kinds in her spare time (although her favorite things to write are screenplays). To learn more about Carleigh and her work, visit carleighfoutch.weebly.com.