‘Fragmentary Stories’
Flat faces and hands, made more expressive with charcoal, interact with more abstract backgrounds, in a show by Alicia “Saltina” Marie Clark, an Oklahoma City artist of Caddo ancestry.
Her “Fragmentary Stories” exhibit runs through March 31, at Paseo Art Space, 3022 Paseo.
A light blue serpent winds its head around the waist of a “Snake Woman with Seeds,” holding a two-leaf plant, in front of a grid, in one charcoal-acrylic.
A woman puts one hand on the shoulder of another in “Sister Pixels,” their boldly patterned blouses and shawls, both contrasting and blending into each other.
“The Hunters” are depicted sitting in front of a background that brings to mind animal or human bones in an acrylic, latex and charcoal painting.
Making Clark’s mostly black-and-white portrayal of the two male hunters even more dramatic is the work’s ornate gold frame.
Three men wear “Coyote, Buffalo and Rabbit” headgear, and stoic expressions, in front of black-and-white stripes, in another acrylic, latex and charcoal work.
A wife’s two large gold teeth or fangs seem to refer to Native American tribal tales in an acrylic-charcoal study of the “Boy Who Married a Mountain Lion.”
In Clark’s “Coyote as Imposter,” a woman wears a furry headdress and striped robe, while another couple’s headgear shows us the “Power of Buffalo and Bear.”
Also naively appealing are her small portraits of young people posing in front of random, child art scribbles.
The mixed media works of the artist, who calls herself “an illustrator with a desire to be a good painter,” are worth visiting during the show’s run.