Making the scene
ArtNow highlights the diversity of Oklahoma’s artists.
T hanks to Sarah Atlee, one wall of Oklahoma Contemporary Arts Center now bears an uncanny resemblance to a cracked smartphone screen.
Tantalizing images of a ripe tomato, a sushi sampler and a plump martini olive are streaked with angry lines of color and marred with pixelated squares, recreated in vibrant detail with acrylic paint on canvas.
“We like to take pictures of our food and put it on Instagram, right? Because we want everyone to know and everyone to share this wonderful experience we’re having … we present this sort of perfect experience through our snapshots or whatever. And I Brandy McDonnell bmcdonnell@ oklahoman.com started thinking about, well, sometimes those perfect experiences get interrupted or corrupted,” Atlee said.
“This illusion of perfection that we kind of present as part of our life online, I wanted to question that and use the medium of traditional still life painting to do that.”
The Oklahoma City painter is one of 24 artists from across the state featured in ArtNow, Oklahoma Contemporary’s annual fundraising exhibition. The exhibit is on view through Friday, when it will culminate with a closing-night party where every piece of artwork will be sold, with proceeds going to keep the nonprofit gallery’s exhibitions open to the public for free all year long.
“It’s a party with a purpose,” said Oklahoma Contemporary Communications Director Lori Brooks. “We will literally sell pieces off the walls, off models’ bodies, off the floor. Basically, if you can see it, you can buy it.”
Showcasing diversity
Co-curators Kelsey Karper and Jennifer Scanlan selected more than 200 works, including paintings, sculptures, photographs, jewelry, furniture, and, for the first time, fashion design, for ArtNow 2017.
“Part of our goal with the show was to really show the breadth of artmaking that’s happening in Oklahoma right now,” said Karper, a respected Oklahoma City-based independent curator, artist and project manager.
“We considered many, many, many artists for this exhibition. We looked at websites. We talked to our colleagues about what artists they think we should know about and be looking at. We went out and did a series of studio visits and actually went and met with the artists in their studios to see what they’re making and what they’re thinking about. … From all of that research and datagathering we selected this group of 24 artists that we thought really gave a good representation of the work that we saw.”
For Scanlan, who joined Oklahoma Contemporary last February as the nonprofit’s curatorial and exhibitions director, working on ArtNow was a kind of introduction to the state arts scene.
“I moved from New York, and I really wanted to get to know the artists in Oklahoma and see what was going on. I had the perfect co-curator with Kelsey because she is so deeply embedded in the art community and was able to introduce me to a lot of new artists,” Scanlan said. “I got really excited about what’s going on here.”
Innovating artists
ArtNow showcases the range of innovative styles and techniques many Oklahoma artists are using, from Tulsa painter Jim Polan experimenting with Skittles to generate enigmatic circles on his abstract canvases to Norman ceramic artist Stuart Asprey creating a porcelain version of brass knuckles, “which would be useful in a fight, but you just get one punch in,” Scanlan joked.
Cathleen Faubert, an assistant professor at the University of Oklahoma’s School of Visual Arts, concocted an evocative bottle of “olfactory art” to enhance her seascape photo taken off the coast of Nova Scotia. University of Central Oklahoma adjunct professor Lopeeta Tawde was inspired by bioluminescent marine life to create sinuous, sculptural jewelry that glows under black light.
Jessica Sanchez, a 2015 East Central University graduate, is exploring the human urge to stare at something repulsive with a series of colorful resin “lollipops” with fillings ranging from a razor blade to blow flies.
“In addition to the types of works that are included, we have a range in the ages and the career levels of the various artists. We were really interested in showing some great emerging artists,” Scanlan said.
Marking a first
While Atlee has been exhibiting her visual art across the United States for more than a decade, Sarah Nsikak, 25, also of Oklahoma City, is the youngest participant in this year’s ArtNow. She also is the first fashion designer to be featured in the exhibit.
“I’m so excited about it. I feel like it’s the biggest honor, and I’m really undeserving but I’m really thankful,” Nsikak said. “It’s a really cool experience.”
She is the owneroperator of the fledgling fashion brand Stone + Harper, which is named for two 19th-century civil rights activists.
“Lucy Stone was white, Frances Harper was black, but they both were part of the same organization. It just kind of shows what can happen when you’re fighting for human rights and equality,” she said.
“I wanted my business to kind of stand for that and be something … even though it’s not necessarily written across a T-shirt.”
ArtNow features Nsikak’s “Handmade Denim Wrap Jumper” with its hand-frayed details, a set of ceramic necklaces that are handcrafted down to the braided cord and an “Organza Overcoat” that she hand-printed with bold red flowers using hand-carved woodblocks. She will show off her block printing technique on linen and paper as part of Friday’s ArtNow closing party festivities.
“It’s an easy way to take something old and make it new again,” she said. “When I started, I knew that there was a big sustainability problem in the fashion industry. I thought there was a good way to love clothes and also not harm the environment— I just needed to figure out what that was. So, I started upcycling vintage clothing and that got me into sewing and designing just from recycled materials. A lot of what I do is sustainable fashion, and I do mix it with ethical fashion— knowing who made what you’re wearing.
“I’m the maker mostly — for now at least.”