Art Focus Fall 2022

Untitled (detail), by Donald G. Longcrier

Twelve

(detail), by Rick Bywater

12

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR LIZ BLOOD

Q&A Imagined Futures: In the Studio with Curator Lindsey Aveilhe ANGELA HODGKINSON

EKPHRASIS A Picture and a Poem TOM FIELDS AND CHELSEA T. HICKS

FEATURE One Curator: 24 Works on Paper KERI SMITH & MICHAEL R. GRAUER

PREVIEW Center for Queer Prairies Studies at ahha ELIZABETH WENGER

REVIEW Faces on the Wall: Eliseo Casiano’s The Light at ARTSPACE at Untitled OLIVIA DAILEY

REGIONAL PREVIEW Speaking with Light: Contemporary Indigenous Photography at Amon Carter Museum CASSIDY PETRAZZI

OVAC NEWS // NEW AND RENEWING MEMBERS

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

Web // ovac-ok.org

Executive Director // Rebecca Kinslow, rebecca@ovac-ok.org

Editor // Liz Blood, lizblood87@gmail.com

Art Director // Anne Richardson, speccreative@gmail.com

Art Focus is a quarterly publication of the Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition dedicated to stimulating insight into and providing current information about the visual arts in Oklahoma. Mission: Growing and developing Oklahoma’s visual arts through educa tion, promotion, connection, and funding. OVAC welcomes article submissions related to artists and art in Oklahoma. Call or email the editor for guidelines. OVAC welcomes comments. Letters addressed to Art Focus are considered for publication unless otherwise specified. Mail or email comments to the editor at the address above.

Letters may be edited for clarity or space reasons. Anon-ymous letters won’t be published. Please include a phone number.

2022-2023 BOARD OF DIRECTORS // Kirsten Olds, President, Tulsa; Diane Salamon, Treasurer, Tulsa; Jon Fisher, Secretary, OKC; Jacquelyn Knapp, Parliamentarian, Chickasha; Douglas Sorocco, Past President, OKC; Matthew Anderson, Tahlequah; Marjorie Atwood, Tulsa; Barbara Gabel, OKC; Farooq Karim, OKC; Kathryn Kenney, Tulsa; Drew Knox, OKC; Heather Lunsford, OKC; John Marshall, OKC; Russ Teubner, Stillwater; Chris Winland, OKC

The Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition is solely responsible for the contents of Art Focus . However, the views expressed in articles do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Board or OVAC staff. Member Agency of Allied Arts and member of the Americans for the Arts. © 2022, Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition. All rights reserved. View the online archive at ArtFocusOklahoma.org.

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

Happy Fall, readers! This is my last issue as guest editor of Art Focus Thank you for reading me and the writers who’ve brought you arts criticism and news over the past twelve months. My year as guest editor mirrored my year as a regular human being living on planet earth in 2022: it was full of challenge and growth, demanding that I engage with the present, think critically, and seek out the positive.

I’m passing the guest editor torch to my longtime friend and talented writer, John Selvidge. He’s a self-described “introvert, screenwriter, sometimes performer and conceptual what-have-you, freelancer, arts enthusiast, and humanitarian.” I’ll vouch for those things! Before we were colleagues in OVAC’s Art Writing and Curatorial Fellowship program, we were members of a secret dinner club in Oklahoma City. Sorry, I can’t divulge its secrets!

This morning, to celebrate and commemorate my last issue here, I purchased an individual membership to OVAC. For $45 (plus the $1.31 processing fee) I’m now an official member, which means helping to provide the means for artists to be successful right here in our home state. Will you join me?

Benefits include, among other things, one free ticket to  Momentum and a year-long subscription to Oklahoma Today, another of our state’s foundational magazines. Plus, an OVAC membership means I’ll receive Art Focus directly to my house, so I can keep up with what is sure to be another interesting year looking at our vibrant, statewide arts scene.

I hope you enjoy this issue, full of previews, reviews, and interviews showcasing the diversity of talent and interest we have here: Indigenous photographers taking control of their communities’ narratives (see Ekphrasis, pg. 10, and our regional preview, pg. 24), artists privileging precious, present-day moments while also expanding their technique (pg. 20), and a variety of artists, curators, and community-connectors imagining our futures while considering the past (see pg. 6 and 16). Last but not least, we’ve also got a preview of OVAC’s touring exhibition, 24 Works on Paper (pg. 12), which opened in late September.

Thank you, again. It’s been a pleasure.

Liz Blood

Melissa Lukenbaugh, Tulsa Artist Fellowship

IMAGINED FUTURES: IN THE STUDIO WITH CURATOR LINDSAY AVEILHÉ

By Angela Hodgkinson

Lindsay Aveilhé is an independent curator based in Tulsa. She spent 16 years cutting her curatorial teeth in New York City and, in 2021, at both the height of the pandemic and the natural bookend to a decades’ worth of work for the estate of the world-renowned conceptual artist Sol LeWitt, she made the prodigal return to Oklahoma. She’s been getting to know the state’s artistic landscape ever since. Aveilhé was recently named guest curator of Oklahoma Contemporary’s next ArtNow biennial, which will show in 2023.

You have a varied background in the curatorial, editorial, and archival practices of art. How do you describe what you do?

The description or title I use often changes with who I am talking to. I generally say I am an independent curator, writer, researcher, editor, or some variation thereof. If I am talking to someone in the tech world, I’ll talk about my work with Microsoft on the Sol LeWitt mobile app or the work I am doing with them now for the rebranding of their arts & culture initiatives. If I am talking to an artist, I’ll stick with independent curator.

What’s it been like being back in Oklahoma?

Something about coming back to where you’re from and trying to reinvestigate or discover things for the first time has been really fulfilling. When I first got back, I thought, “Let’s see what’s going on in the art world… What’s the artwork look like? What are the institutions like? Is there space to create new things?” And I think I’m still in the middle of that process.

I am very interested in unpacking what is happening in Oklahoma artistically and that includes understanding the institutions, the funding, how people are collaborating,

and how are people not and why. What is working and what can be improved are equally important questions.

You worked as the editor on a longterm two-volume publishing project, the “Sol LeWitt Wall Drawing Catalogue Raisonné.” How did this large scale application of your skills prepare you for the work you’re doing now curating the upcoming ArtNow exhibition?

I have a certain knack for big, complicated projects. I love artists and I love storytelling, so regardless of what I’m working on, these are the common threads in what I do.

Generally, I’m drawn to artists that investigate, whether that’s conceptually or materially. I like art that starts with a question or a problem. The work doesn’t need to present an answer or a resolution, because the process of asking is just as important.

Can you talk a bit about your conceptual philosophy and approach with ArtNow?

The title of the exhibition is The Soul is a Wanderer, inspired by a poem by Joy Harjo. The theme of the exhibition really came out of conversations I had very early on with a few artists. I then came across Joy Harjo’s poem “A Map to the Next World,” and so much of what she covers in the poem resonated with me on a personal level but also with the topics that had come up in my conversations with artists.

It really is about journeys, personal or physical, and how we can get lost, overcome, and the importance of finding our own way. We are commissioning artworks from artists across Oklahoma for it. I really love the opportunity to work in this way, so that the artworks are conceptually cohesive, although they will range in medium.

Independent curator Lindsay Aveilhé stands in front of a Sol LeWitt wall drawing at Crystal Bridges museum in Bentonville, Arkansas | Courtesy of Lindsay Aveilhé

Working with poetry or published text, there’s a bit of space for artists to interpret and work with that, but there’s still a level of cohesiveness, especially when they might be creating new work. So the jumping off point for the exhibition is the poem, which is about being in Oklahoma, being an ancestor, being of the land, and our responsibility for mapping our futures.

I love the idea of giving Oklahoma artists the space to explore their own imagined futures, which are often born out of a feeling of the opposite—that there is not or has not been an obvious future for many people living here.

A lot of artists that I speak to, they’re from here or they live here and they’re invested here, despite the issues and problems. And to think through what it means, to have power through their artwork to create narratives or to address problems and to be very aware of what’s happening and to still choose to be here—that’s, I would say, the central premise of it.

Are you working on anything else in Oklahoma?

I just joined the board of the Bruce Goff Center for Continuous Present, which hosts the annual Goff Fest in Tulsa. The second annual Goff Fest will take place in December of this year. I’m excited to work with them and dream big for its future across Oklahoma.

ANGELA HODGKINSON is a lifelong creative whose personal work emerges from a long line of artists, designers, and crafters on both sides of her family tree. A sixth-generation Oklahoman, her Arapaho ancestors were relocated here after surviving the Sand Creek Massacre. She lives in Oklahoma City with her husband and two sons.

TOP // Lindsay Aveilhé meets with ceramicist and artist, Isaac Diaz, in his Oklahoma City studio. | Angela Hodgkinson; LEFT // Aveilhé visits the studio of artist in Sicily, Italy | Courtesy of Lindsay Aveilhé

The University of Tulsa’s School of Art, Design and Art History is an intimate school where students are encouraged to thrive as an individual with their own goals, talents and vision.

Thanks to TU’s excellent resources, faculty and staff, senior Caroline Cox (art and art history double major) was able to begin an independent research project her sophomore year that focuses on 16th-century Italian Renaissance Altarpieces, many of which have had their individual panels broken apart and housed in various collections around the world. The project, In Situ, is a part of the Tulsa Undergraduate Research Challenge and seeks to reconstruct altarpiece paintings in their original location using digital techniques and virtual reality. Caroline received the Jerri Jones Research Award, as well as funding from TU’s research office, enabling her to travel to Italy over the summer to conduct onsite research for her project with her faculty advisor Dr. Maria Maurer and fellow student investigator, Kami Jurenka. While in Siena and Florence, the team photographed works and explored archives, granting Caroline the opportunity to see works of art that she had only seen in photographs. “Seeing the artwork I have researched for years in person was an experience unlike any other. Viewing work in person is crucial for art history research and I am grateful I was able to engage with the art meaningfully.” Additionally, she spends time in the studio creating work that has been selected for the Gussman Juried Exhibition each year she has attended TU.

Caroline has also had the opportunity to develop professionally during her time at TU. In her junior year, Caroline worked at 108 Contemporary as a D’Arcy Facilitating Arts Intern, where she learned valuable skills regarding gallery management and community engagement. “I loved working at 108 because it helped me figure out my career aspirations and make valuable connections in the Tulsa Arts District.”

Caroline is involved across campus as a University Ambassador, Peer Mentor, study abroad, and was a 2021 fellow for the Oklahoma Center for the Human ities. She has received an honorable mention in the Women and Gender Studies Essay Contest and has plans to present her research at upcoming conferences. “I love that TU has given me opportunities both within and outside of the art field so I can pursue a wide variety of educational interests.”

Check out our most recent activities at @utulsaart and utulsa.edu/art.

For more information, visit www.utulsa.edu/art or call 918.631.2739

TU is an EEO/AA institution

ABOVE // The opening of Sol LeWitt: Lines, Forms, Volumes, 1970s to Present at Galleria Alfonso Artiaco, Naples, Italy. 2019; BELOW // Screen grabs from the Sol LeWitt mobile app by Microsoft, as authored by Lindsay Aveilhé.

TOM FIELDS is a Cherokee and Muscogee Creek photographer living in Oklahoma. His photographs are both personal and community-oriented, carrying a narrative of generations past and future. They are about cultural traditions, identity, and spiritual beliefs, each intersecting within the Native American experience.

CHELSEA T. HICKS has been published in Poetry, The Paris Review, McSweeney’s, The Believer, Indian Country Today, and elsewhere. She is a Tulsa Artist Fellow and holds an MFA in creative writing from the Institute of American Indian Arts. She is an enrolled citizen of the Osage Nation and belongs to Pawhuska District.

Ekphrasis is an ongoing series joining verse and visual art. In each installment, a poet responds to an artist’s visual work. Here, writer Chelsea T. Hicks responds to Tom Fields’ photo of a young girl at the Osage Gourd Dance. Hicks wrote her response poem in Osage before translating it to English. Both versions are seen below.

how I will carry myself

Chelsea T. Hicks

carry yourself humbly, they said sitting there we’re going to dance it’s summertime, we enjoy it today i am grateful to the people who provided me with my clothes have good ways, they said sitting there

i want to make a good path we are gathering together and we’re going to dance the people they see me

Wazhazhe know i am here

i am Creek my mother she married an Osage man take care of each other, they said sitting there so i will carry myself

i want to make a good path to take care of each other how shall i? i’ll consider it and now we’ll dance i’m thankful they all came along this path

i want to get good from this now we’re going to dance

ONE CURATOR : 24 WORKS ON PAPER

Introduction by Keri Smith, Curator’s Statement by Michael R. Grauer

The biennial 24 Works on Paper exhibition is Oklahoma’s only traveling art show featuring works on paper by artists living and working in the state. The artworks represent artists of differing ages, methods, and backgrounds unified by a single element—paper. As the title implies, exactly 24 works on paper by 24 artists are included.

The exhibition is managed by the Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition and travels to 10 Oklahoma locations over 18 months. Artists working in any 2D medium, from anywhere in the state, may submit up to three pieces for consideration as long as each piece incorporates paper as the primary support or material. Competition for the exhibition this year was stiff, with over 150 works submitted by 60 artists. Selections were made by the 24 Works on Paper 2022–2024 guest curator, Michael R. Grauer.

Grauer is the McCasland Chair of Cowboy Culture and Curator of Cowboy Collections and Western Art at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City. He holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in painting and a Bachelor of Fine Arts in art history from the University of Kansas; a Master of Arts in art history from Southern Methodist University; and a Master of Arts in history from West Texas A&M University. He began his career at the Smithsonian American Art Museum and has been a curator of art for 35 years. He has curated over 150 exhibitions on Western art, culture, and history and authored 70 publications. He was the University of Kansas Kress Foundation Department of Art History’s distinguished alumnus for 2012. His recent book, Making a Hand: The Art of H. D. Bugbee, received the Western History Association Wrangler Award for Best Western Art Book for 2020.

Now in its fifth installment, 24 Works on Paper will be on public display at ten different locations from August 2022–February 2024. Each venue is free to visit, but hours may vary by location. Learn more at www.ovac-ok. org/24-works-on-paper.

Curator’s Statement

I was humbled and thrilled to be asked to curate this year’s 24 Works on Paper exhibition. I believe works on paper are the most approachable and connective of all art forms. By that I mean, everyone uses or has used paper; not everyone uses oil or watercolor paints or bronze or stone. That familiarity engenders a connection, a conduit between the artist and the viewer in a fundamental way that most art forms cannot or do not achieve.

Michael R. Grauer, 2022–2024 24 Works on Paper guest curator. | Courtesy of Michael R. Grauer

TOP // Scarlet Rock Hosseini, Faith in Blue, 2022, watercolor, 16” x 20”;

RIGHT // Mazen Abufadil, The Death of Marat, 2022, photo-fresco, lime plaster, pigment, paper, 9 ¾” x 9 ½”

I always loved to draw. Consequently, every scrap of paper I could find as a child had a drawing on it. Every schoolbook, every notebook, and even assignments turned in to the teachers were often covered with illustrations. The old wood-pulp papers always had a specific smell and the tactile sounds of pencil on paper made a lasting impression on me. By high school, I had graduated to “real” art-making materials when I was introduced to Conte crayon and toothed papers.

The texture of the paper suddenly took on its own life and became as much a part of the art as the marks on it. While my first BFA was in painting, my medium of choice was chalk pastel on pastel paper. I would have majored in drawing as I loved graphite sticks, smeared with an old Pink Pearl eraser and my fingers, but my undergrad school had no major for drawing.

Likewise, I would have minored in printmaking had that been allowed, as I spent about half my time in the printing shops. Intaglios involved grinding my own colors, applying asphaltum, using a deft hand and touch for wiping the inked plates, and selecting the right papers. The physical act of running the aquatint sifter and the intaglio presses was incredibly compelling. Then, hefting the freshly-inked lithographic stones onto the presses for a run and grinding those limestone slabs down to remove the old images was extraordinarily satisfying in a way that was similar to drawing.

Moreover, my work as an art historian and museum curator has intentionally focused on works on paper. The majority of the over 4,000 works of art by Frank Reaugh (1860-1945) for example, were composed with his own homemade pastels and papers specially prepared with gum Arabic and pumice. I wrote a biography on Mr. Reaugh after studying over 600 of his pastels for some 30 years. The printmaking renaissance in the US in the 1890s and again in the 1930s—especially in lithography—provided yet another opportunity to focus on works on paper. Finally, historic and contemporary photography in the American West is a sub-area of my curatorial work.

I have juried many contemporary art exhibitions in my career, looking for several things, namely: originality, professionalism, and hard work. While I believe all

art-making is ultimately derivative, each artist’s voice or vision is unique. Nobody can be entirely objective and immune to art made before them. If an artist wants their work to be taken as seriously as they consider it, then that artist should take the time to prepare and present any work of art submitted to competition as cleanly and clutter-free as possible, i.e., ready to hang. Finally, having facility is wonderful for an artist. But using one’s facility is easy and lazy and not art making. I want to “feel” the struggle to find a solution even if there is no visible sign of that struggle.

Finally, gimmicks have no place in serious art. They are ultimately superficial. Social statements are fine, but they are not, in and of themselves, art. To shock is simply another gimmick. But using one’s facility and gifts and struggle to make that statement with a work on paper is the most challenging and compelling art form of all.

24 WORKS ON PAPER

KERI SMITH is the Programs and Exhibitions Manager at OVAC.

2022-2024 Schedule

August 1 - September 9, 2022: Southwestern Oklahoma State University, Weatherford, OK

September 26 - November 2, 2022: Eleanor Hays Gallery, Northern Oklahoma College, Tonkawa, OK

November 12 - December 20, 2022: Leslie Powell Gallery, Lawton, OK

January 16 - February 24, 2023: The Wigwam Gallery, Altus, OK

March 6 - April 21, 2023: Spider Gallery, Cherokee Arts Center, Tahlequah, OK

May 8 - June 16, 2023: Gardiner Gallery of Art, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK

June 26 - August 4, 2023: Thomas K. McKeon Center for Creativity, Tulsa Community College Metro Campus, Tulsa, OK

August 14 - September 29, 2023: COMING SOON!

October 16 - November 24, 2023: Centre Arts Gallery, Southeastern Oklahoma State University, Durant, OK

December 9 - February 14, 2024: Gaylord-Pickens Museum, home of the Oklahoma Hall of Fame, Oklahoma City, OK

Laurel Payne, Marching through time endlessly waking, reaching, sleeping, dreaming, dying, 2022, watercolor, coffee, tea, 19” x 22”

QUEER OKLAHOMA’S PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE: CENTER FOR QUEER PRAIRIE STUDIES AT ahha

By Elizabeth Wenger

The Center for Queer Prairie Studies (CQPS)—which will open its first official exhibition of the same name at ahha in Tulsa this December—is a new endeavor, though it highlights a longstanding element of Oklahoma culture: queer lives and their histories.

Tulsa Artist Fellow Karl Jones conceptualized CQPS in 2021 after co-planning the inaugural Goff Fest, an architectural festival and celebration of foundational architect Bruce Goff, whose gay identity was obscured in Oklahoma where he both taught and created. Learning this history spurred Jones to dive into Oklahoma’s hidden queer history—and the Center for Queer Prairie Studies was born.

Jones describes CPQS as “a collaborative parafiction, community art, and archive project that seeks to reimagine and reframe historical narratives, celebrate the creative present, and explore the radical futures of LGBTQ2+ people on the prairie.”

By uncovering and archiving queerness that exists and has existed here, Jones seeks to engage Oklahomans with their history in a new way.

Though he’s from Tulsa, Jones spent much of his adult life on the East Coast. When we spoke, he reflected on “gay brain-drain,” or the mass exodus of queer people from middle-America to the coasts. When Jones left Oklahoma, it was in part so he could push himself as an artist, but also to find a place where he could more authentically be himself. Now, he hopes to highlight Okie queerness so that others like him might feel more welcome.

“History is in the framing,” Jones said. “It’s exciting for me to be part of a project that reimagines people who have always been from here, but their histories might have been

obscured for one reason or another. Often times because they were gay, or because they, like me, chose to leave.”

Jones recounted discovering the paintings of Charles Bell in New York City. Bell was born in Tulsa but, like Jones, left for New York in search of community. Finding Bell’s work outside of his hometown stirred Jones to reflect on the queer creatives of Oklahoma’s past. Goff and Bell are just two such artists. Jones also spoke of Lynn Riggs and Billy Tipton.

“What if there were an uninterrupted line of legacy for queer people in this part of the country?” Jones asked. “What if someone like me didn’t have to move to the east coast to meet other gay people and learn about gay history and gay power … The gay revolution didn’t only happen in those big cities. Power was built locally too.”

Not solely focused on history, Jones is also engaging the queer present and looking forward to a queer future. To do this, he says, CQPS must be highly collaborative and engaged in community building.

“I’m incapable of making art without collaboration,” he says, emphasizing that queerness belongs to no one, but is made up of many actors.

Jones, who views himself as much an arts worker and community organizer as an artist, has collaborated with Tulsa Artist Fellowship, ahha Tulsa, Studio 66, the Bruce Goff Center for the Continuous Present, the OSU Center for Poets and Writers, and the University of Tulsa for CPQS events. By putting queer-centered art and events out for the broader community, Jones hopes to build a more inclusive environment in Oklahoma.

“Art helps people feel welcome and seen in the community,” Jones said. “It also inspires them to want to do something.”

TOP // Karl Jones and collaborators at a queer history puppet making workshop; LEFT // Collage from “Fags in Ecstasy” series by Bradford Lovett; BELOW // Queer Shrine, installation by Arlowe Clementine

TOP // Collaborators at a Center for Queer Prairie Studies installation at Tulsa Artist Fellowship; LEFT // Tulsa Queer Polaroid Project | Karl Jones; OPPOSITE PAGE // Kevin Adkisson, Britni Harris, Stevie Cisneros Hanley, and Benjamin Brown dressed as Bruce Goff buildings and interiors at Goff Ball 2021

The exhibition at ahha, Center for Queer Prairie Studies, is co-curated by Jones and Rogelio Esparza, ahha’s new exhibitions manager, and will be divided into three sections. The first section, Queer Pasts, will include archival images and immersive historical sets.

“Think of something like a historical home tour with a mix of authentic furniture, recreated to look like a pioneer home,” Jones said. “But these spaces will look like a gay man’s study, a drag queen’s lipstick smudged vanity, or a lesbian couple’s living room with queercoded portraits on the wall.”

Work from contemporary queer Tulsa artists will represent the Queer Presents section, including the “Fags in Ecstasy” collage series by Bradford Lovett, and the Tulsa queer community polaroid series by Jones. And for the Futures section, Jones described “events and radical imaginings of what queer prairie life could be.”

Five public programs during Center for Queer Prairie Studies at ahha will include Goff Ball, which Jones describes as “a beaux-arts architecture party where people dress like buildings,” a queer history puppet workshop, a drag queen Christmas pageant, a public gallery talk, and a queer ballroom dance event set in a reimagined gay piano bar.

Through the exhibition and these community events, CQPS hopes to engage its audience with queer history and invite them to participate in the making of the queer present. Both queer people and their allies interested in joining CQPS’s work are encouraged to participate. Center for Queer Prairie Studies at ahha opens December 2 and will run through January. Goff Fest will be held December 1–4. Visit goff-fest.com for more details.

ELIZABETH WENGER is a writer and journalist from Tulsa. She writes about Oklahoma politics, culture, and art.

FACES ON THE WALL: ELISEO CASIANO’S THE LIGHT AT ARTSPACE AT UNTITLED

By Olivia Dailey

Eliseo Casiano’s paintings of loved ones were on display in a solo exhibition titled The Light, August 20–September 24 at the Press Gallery in ARTSPACE at Untitled in Oklahoma City.

The show’s nine paintings of Casiano’s family and friends, ranging from 12”x16” to 18”x24” in size, have a lively quality. Brightly colored dots cover their faces, a pointillism-and-Ben-Day-dots mashup that creates a glowing effect. Casiano’s art students inspired him to explore in his own work how colors can interact and create tension.

“[The paintings], they kind of buzz,” says Casiano. “I was originally trying to make them feel luminous, like there’s a light shining from them. But if you look at them, your eyes go back and forth from the simultaneous color contrast.”

Shifting focus to see either the forest or the trees—the faces or the dots—provides an exciting viewing experience.

The three slightly-larger paintings are bolder and more abstract. There’s Brick House , where a man blends into a red brick wall because his skin dons its same pattern. In Cadmium , the artist paints himself in a neon Play-Doh blue against his favorite color, a cadmium red floral background. Radiate is the most stylized. The nighttime scene employs a night-vision palette and a swirl of dashes circling a woman’s head, which reads like a timelapse of the night sky. Like with Brick House, the patterns on the faces make it difficult to imagine the real person behind the portrait.

This solo how, held in downtown Oklahoma City, along with this Art Focus article, feels like a full circle moment to Casiano. An Oklahoma native and East Central University graduate, he got his start as a professional

artist in Oklahoma, and in his words, “OVAC helped me a ton.” He recalled the first art show he showed in, OVAC’s Momentum, as a college student: overdressed, sweaty, and wearing shoes that pinched.

His nine works were on display in ARTSPACE’s Press Gallery, which is situated between the Main Gallery and studio space, making it a place where the professional and student meet. Besides its galleries, ARTSPACE has educational and community outreach arms, offering classes, workshops, and mentorship programs, which is why Casiano’s work is a good fit.

“Eliseo Casiano is a young and emerging artist who can inspire our Mentorship students who work in the Press Studio,” says ARTSPACE’s Cori Crawford.

Casiano is in his second year teaching Introduction to Visual Arts, Painting, and Drawing at Lyon College in Batesville, Arkansas, where he is internalizing the lessons he teaches, like the power of undiluted color. He credits his career in education with reminding him to remain teachable, open to relearning his style and technique. In keeping with the tradition of his mentors, he gives credit where credit is due.

“I tell my students, ‘I did this because I saw how awesome it was [when you did it].’”

Casiano’s gentle and kindhearted approach with his students can be seen in his portraits, too.

“I take painting so seriously, but we’ve all experienced unprecedented times, you know, we’ve all heard that. Life goes on outside of a painting classroom.”

The pandemic gave many people, Casiano included, the reminder that life is short and to not take loved ones for

TOP LEFT // Eliseo Casiano, Brick House, 2022, acrylic on canvas, 18” x 24” ; TOP RIGHT // Eliseo Casiano, Cadmium, 2022, acrylic on canvas, 18” x 24” ; BOTTOM RIGHT // Eliseo Casiano, Radiate, 2022, acrylic on canvas, 18” x 24”

granted. Until recently, Casiano primarily painted family members, usually ones who have departed. Now, he’s painting more family and friends from the present-day based on iPhone photos instead of grainy prints. He paints wedding and baby portraits as gifts for friends, mementos from his generation’s current stage of life. His paintings act as a way to preserve a memory of someone and a way, as Casiano says, to say, “I care about you. I want this dignified image of you that I share with the world.”

Casiano’s work, with its atypical use of color, is ambitious and sophisticated. Though a small show, the portraits range from impressionistic, like Radiate , to quite realistic, like Snare Drum and SLC . They all bring to bear the individuality of the subject, and remind of the uniqueness of each human.

“I’m definitely trying to capture their likeness,” Casiano says. “But in these paintings specifically, I want them to shine. I care about these people. I really want them to shine.”

OLIVIA DAILEY has a BA in Journalism from the University of Oklahoma. She works as a media production coordinator in Norman.

Eliseo Casiano, Snare Drum

Eliseo Casiano,

Eliseo Casiano, Nets, 2022, acrylic on canvas, 12” x 16”;

A WIDER APERTURE: CONTEMPORARY INDIGENOUS PHOTOGRAPHY AT AMON CARTER MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART

By Cassidy Petrazzi

Centered in the frame, sitting outside of his home in Hominy, Oklahoma, is Everett Waller. Chairman of the Minerals Council at Osage Nation and a Hominy Whipman, Waller takes a drag from his cigarette, eyes focused on something out of view. He wears a crisp white Oxford shirt, a bright red textile around his waist, and his tightly-braided dark hair reaches the middle of his torso. This commanding photograph, Everett Waller, (Hominy Whipman), 2021, by Ryan RedCorn (Osage), provides the viewer with a powerful record of status and personhood.

RedCorn’s image is one of many to be shown in the forthcoming exhibition Speaking with Light: Contemporary Indigenous Photography at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art opening October 30, 2022 and running through January 22, 2023. Co-curated by John Rohrbach, the Carter’s senior curator of photography along with Will Wilson, artist and photography program head at Santa Fe Community College, the exhibition features the work of over 30 Indigenous artists spanning the past thirty years.

The exhibition is situated within several contexts: the response to Indigenous activism in the 1960s and 1970s, particularly the rise of the American Indian Movement (AIM) and a Pan-Indian reaction to settler colonialism; the shift towards postmodernism characterized by a critical move away from dualistic, hierarchical, and universal narratives; and the practice of an earlier generation of Indigenous artists who expressed their sovereignty and perspective through photography charged with an activist-documentary spirit. Artists such as Zig Jackson (Mandan/Hidatsa/Arikara), Hulleah

Tsinhnahjinnie (Taskigi/Diné), Shelley Niro (Member of the Six Nations Reserve, Turtle Clan, Bay of Quinte Mohawk), and Tom Jones (Ho-Chunk), provide a stable foundation for which a younger generation of artists have looked to and built from.

Expanding on his father’s extensive collection of Osage portraits taken largely between the 1870s and 1930s, RedCorn seeks to create historical documents by photographing Osage landscapes, buildings, and portraits that provide evidence of persistence, power, and community. Laced with the complicated relationship between sovereignty and exploitation that is so often present in historical images of indigenous people, RedCorn ’ s images counter ethnographic romanticism. He sees himself not as curator, but as a collaborator with the individuals he photographs.

In a recent interview, RedCorn said, “Because there has been a lot of interference from non-indigenous photogra phers about how to curate indigenous images, I usually do not weigh in on any of that [decisions about dress, stance, props]. I tell the people that I’m collaborating with, and I consider them collaborators because I can’t make these images without them, what the project is, how I think about it, and that I am making a historical photographic entry of these individuals and families. It’s up to them how they want to be seen.”

The exhibition’s 70-plus works are broken up into five sections, presenting a spectrum of stories that expand the American visual vernacular through an Indigenous

Ryan RedCorn (Osage), Everett Waller, (Hominy Whipman) , 2021, dye sublimation print on polyester fabric | All Images courtesy of Amon Carter Museum of American Art

lens asserting individual and collective expression, sovereignty, and legacy. The exhibition closes with an interactive display from Indigenous Photograph, a global database of Indigenous photographers. Speaking with Light brings together photographs, videos, three-dimensional and multimedia works, and digital activations that speak to the energetic state of contemporary Indigenous practice. Along with RedCorn, included in this exhibition is the work of Cara Romero (Chemehuevi), Sky Hopinka (Ho-Chunk Nation/Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians), Kali Spitzer (Kaska Dena/Jewish), Sarah Sense (Choctaw/Chitimacha), and Wendy Red Star (Apsáalooke), among many others.

When asked what the viewer should grasp in this exhibition, co-curator Wilson prioritized the diversity and vibrancy of the work coming from so many perspectives, and for one to “think critically about what it means to be an American and what that experience might be like for Indigenous people.” At its core, this exhibition is about identity.

“

BOTTOM LEFT // Sky Hopinka (Ho-Chunk Nation/Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians) (b. 1984), Teją. The Sea. It’s neither our name for the great lakes or lesser lakes. It’s the sea, and we said we were from the north and from the salt. It’s too much right now. Too much like learning that my father performed the Breathings his entire life. I have recordings of him, and I heard them when I was little, and I said them myself. , 2020, inkjet print with etched words; BOTTOM RIGHT // Kali Spitzer (Kaska Dena/Jewish), Audrey Siegl , 2019, dye coupler with audio

Much of U.S. identity is built on the notion of liberty,” Rohrbach said, “but this show takes a different take on identity as not individualism but rooted in community in the broadest sense.”

Indeed, this expansive definition of identity as community is embedded in RedCorn’s work and portrait of Everett Waller. His work is for his children and community and is meant to be an expression and testament to an enduring power. “The flow of that power has always been going the wrong direction,” RedCorn said. “I want to tilt it back the other way.”

CASSIDY PETRAZZI is an art historian, freelance curator, and writer. She lives in Tulsa with her husband, twin boys, and dachshund.

TOP LEFT // Cara Romero (Chemehuevi), Evolvers, 2019, inkjet print; LEFT // Zig Jackson (Mandan/Hidatsa/Arikara), Indian Man on the Bus, Mission District, San Francisco, California , 1994, inkjet print; OPPOSITE PAGE: TOP // Sarah Sense (Choctaw/Chitimacha), Cowgirl, Custer, and Young Impressions, 2018, woven archival inkjet prints on bamboo and rice paper, wax;

OVAC

It is a pleasure to introduce myself as the new Executive Director of OVAC. I am honored to join this organization and its strong, 34-year-long legacy of growing and developing the visual arts in Oklahoma. I look forward to partnering with our board of directors, staff, membership, and our many dedicated and passionate supporters.

A huge thank you to our 2022 12x12 Art Fundraiser volunteer committee who made the event a tremendous success. From soliciting sponsorships, to moving exhibition walls, and hanging artwork, Emily Rothrock Tate (Co-Chair), Caroline Cohenour (Co-Chair), Karis Chambers, Jon Fisher, Trent Lawson, John Marshall, Benjamin Murphy, Helen Opper, Rita Ortloff, Kerri Shadid, Sylvia Shirley, and Jim Weaver were superstars.

In August, OVAC announced the awardees of $60,000 in Thrive Grants. This annual program, funded by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, supports innovative, artist-led projects engaging communities in collaborative arts experiences. Congratulations to awardees Francheska Alcantara, Shelby Head, Erin Latham, Debra Martin-Barber, Katelynn Noel Knick, Helen Opper, Gregg Standridge, and Katrina Ward. Their projects will range in outcomes from highlighting the arts as a healing tool, exploring the complexities and interconnectedness of racial identity, and empowering emerging artists though a workshop series and creative network that supports professional development and breaks down geographical barriers. The Thrive grants

MEMBERS

Sharon Allred

Kristy Andrew

Zach Burns

Katy Casillas-Gray

Justin Cherwink

Rick Cotter

Bryan Dahlvang

Adrienne Day

Becky Deed

Madeline Dillner

Jean Ann Fausser

Jon Fisher

Whitney Forsyth

Dan Garrett

Kristin Gentry

Alexa Goetzinger

Jean Griffin

Sue Hale

Betty Hancock

Patricia Harper

Janet Hawks

Lizzie Hensley

Geoffrey Hicks

Pamela Husky

program will have a pivotal and residual impact on these artist’s careers as well as the populations they serve. OVAC’s annual Momentum exhibition—featuring a diverse look at Oklahoma artists aged 30 and under working in a variety of media—will return in March 2023. Applications are open for eligible artists and curators through November.

Art enthusiasts across Oklahoma can presently enjoy our 24 Works on Paper exhibition, Oklahoma’s only traveling show of living artists. The exhibition will show through 2024 at 10 galleries. (See the schedule on pg. 15.)

Please join OVAC in recognizing Liz Blood for her year of service as our inaugural Art Focus guest editor. We are grateful to Liz for sharing her talents with our readership and look forward to continuing to enjoy her signature feature, “Ekphrasis.” We are pleased to announce that writer John Selvidge will take on the role of guest editor in 2023, continuing Art Focus’s mission to tell the story of Oklahoma’s incredible artistic talent.

Warm Regards, Rebecca Kinslow Executive Director

NEW AND RENEWIN G MEMBERS

JUNE 2022 THROUGH AUGUST 2022

Judith Ide Diana J. Smith

Robert James Sharyl Landis

Trent Lawson

Emma Leach William Livingston Cynthia Marcoux Debra Martin-Barber Janice Matthews-Gordon Kayla Maxwell Michelle Metcalfe

Roxxann Murphy

Denise Paglio

Caroline Patton

Karen Paul Jamie Pemberton

Nancy Peterson Nicole Poole Cristiana Prado Lynn Questell Urban Renewal

Rita Rowe

Diane Salamon

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

Hershel Self Polly Sharp

Keri Smith

Colleen Stiles

Steve Tomlin Vallaree Torneden

Sean Tyler Candacee White

Keith Wolfe

Rebecca Kinslow, Executive Director

BECOME AN

INSIDER.

KIAROSTAMI BEYOND

Immerse

9/26

UPCOMING

24 Works on Paper opens at Eleanor Hays Gallery, Northern Oklahoma College, Tonkawa, OK

10/1

10/15

Momentum Exhibition applications open

Grants for Artists and Art Crit Night Deadline

10/28 ASK Workshop

11/12 24 Works on Paper opens at Leslie Powell Gallery, Lawton, OK

11/29

Art Crit Night at Hotel 21c, Oklahoma City

1720 N Shartel Ave, Suite B Oklahoma City, OK 73103

Visit ovac-ok.org to learn more.