Mad about mod Flea market event is highlight of Oklahoma Modernism Weekend
Treasures hide among Craigslist listings and the inventories of small-town thrift shops, but some are in plain view — say, sitting out on someone’s porch, where anyone can see them.
It still takes a knowing eye, and it helps to know someone, to effect a rescue.
Case in point: The fab orange chair in Michael Hopkins’ living room. It’s a sleek knockoff of a Herman Miller lounge chair design, circa 1956, that Hopkins said friends of his literally found on a porch. They knew he was a collector.
“The couple that had it ... didn’t want to sell it at first. But he went into the house and asked, and he got it for 60 bucks,” Hopkins said.
Hopkins offered to buy it from his friends, but they waved off the offer. “They said, ‘Micheal, just take it. I knew you would want it.’ ”
Like a lot of collectors, Hopkins sometimes finds himself with more treasures than space, though, so he’ll be among vendors taking part Saturday in the Mod Swap, the opening shot in the Oklahoma City Foundation for Architecture and Okie Mod Squad’s third annual Oklahoma Modernism Weekend in the Gold Dome at NW 23 and N Classen.
The Mod Swap opens at 8 a.m. with vendors from across Oklahoma and the region selling midcentury pieces from furniture to art to small items in the state’s only all-modern flea market.
The public is invited to bring vintage rides — cars, bikes, trailers, motorcycles — to the Wheel-o-Rama. Park in a prime spot in front of the iconic Gold Dome for interesting photo opportunities.
For details and to buy tickets, go to www.okcmod.com and click the “Events” tab.
The weekend also includes the Mod Home Tour on Sunday, but it sold out in just more than 24 hours, said Lynne Rostochil, co-founder of the Okie Mod Squad.
Interest in the event keeps growing, Rostochil said.
“The more years we do it, the more word gets around, and luckily, the tour has a little bit of steam behind it, so people want to go,” she said. “So we sold out pretty quickly. We’re very excited about that.”
‘The perfect place’
In general, Modernism Weekend is attracting more vendors and more attention than ever. This despite a lastminute change of venue that landed it in the Gold Dome. Or maybe it was because of the change, Rostochil said.
The geodesic dome was built in 1958 from a design by futurist and architect Buckminster Fuller.
“I think people drive by that building all the time, and maybe they’ve always admired it, but they’ve never been inside,” she said. “So I absolutely think having it there has spawned a lot of interest in the modernism. Can you think of a better place to have it? It’s the perfect place.”
For Hopkins, 48, the love of vintage furniture is tightly intertwined with a love of vintage vehicles that goes back to childhood. Family members, he said, joke that he’s reincarnated from another, older soul.
“I was all about the ’50s and ’60s,” he said. “And I was a car nut.”
But he got into midcentury design furniture when he and his wife, Jennifer Hopkins, bought a circa 1955 home on Oklahoma City’s north side.
“We walked into the house, and it was like a time capsule,” he said. “There was still furniture in the house. And I said, ‘I want the house if I get the furniture.’ And they threw in the furniture with the house.”
Hopkins and his wife moved into their current home, 3704 N Quapah Circle, in 2011.
“From that point on, it’s been an obsession,” he said with a laugh.
The 3,400-square-foot uber-modern design by architect Thomas Goto, built in 1964, wraps around a central courtyard. Thick wood paneling in the living area and shag carpeting in the basement provides a perfect backdrop for midcentury modern design.
For Rostochil, the appeal of such design is obvious.
“Midcentury modern is fun and accessible,” she said. “It’s simple, it’s not too intimidating. So I think there’s an ease about it that really appeals to people now, especially midcentury modern architecture.
“Everything’s so busy and so chaotic, so if you walk into midcentury modern house, you just breathe a sigh of relief. It’s calm, and it’s orderly, and it makes sense.”
Saturday lectures and presentations are:
• 11 a.m.: Karen Oyerly, of the OKC Modern Quilt Guild, will give a free talk about how traditional techniques are used to create unique and thoroughly modern quilt designs that fit in perfectly with midcentury and contemporary surroundings.
• Noon: University of Oklahoma Professor Angela Person will give a free talk on architect Bruce Goff’s global influence on architecture instruction and practice in relation to the French Beaux Arts model, which focused on studying classical architecture, and the German Bauhaus model, which melded industry and abstraction in architectural design. Goff became head of OU’s architecture department in 1947.
• Flashback Fashion Show takes place in three waves at 12:30, 1:30 and 2:30 p.m.: Mid-20thcentury couture at its finest, with rare pieces from personal collections, as well as curated items from the Junk Fairy at Bad Granny’s Bazaar in the Plaza District.
• 1 p.m.: Okie Mod Squad’s Lynne Rostochil will present histories of domed architecture around Oklahoma, focusing on the Gold Dome, then lead a tour of the building. Cost for the lecture and tour is $10 per person.
• 3 p.m.: Photographers Tim Anderson and Nick Leonard will give a free presentation on their adventures roaming the country and taking photos of iconic roadside architecture and signs in Oklahoma.