Art based on South Africa's Xhosa people wins top OU prize

abandoned school in the old oil town of Skedee, near Tulsa, are from Sams' “Evidence of Man” series.

Lindsay Petersen offers us six untitled color photos “comparing the differences and simularities” of several scenic locations. Petersen won the $600 MJJMA Museum Association Award for the photos of subjects ranging from rock formations, trees and water falls, to the ocean.

Christy Phelps, in her $500 Ben Whitney Docent Award-winning entry, asks us to keep “An Open Mind.” Phelps painted MRI scan images (including a benign pituitary tumor she has) on a blue plaster cast skull, to create her docent award-winning sculpture.

Winning the $500 Susan Baley Docent Award was Stephanie O'Donnell for “Fluctuations,” a rope shape, tied with string, atop a tall wood and steel stand. O'Donnell said “Fluctuations” attempts to challenge “norms of discarded materials in our society.”

Another notable work is “The Haircut,” by Sarah Valentine, a vertically hung oil canvas, which won the Excellence in Painting award. In Valentine's surreal oil, the beaks of two turquoise birds become scissors cutting off her curly locks, which seem to ascend toward the moon or sun overhead.

The 105th Annual OU School of Visual Arts Student Exhibition, guest jurored by California artist Gerald Clarke, is highly recommended. Admission is free. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays; 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Thursdays; and 1 to 5 p.m. Sundays. Call 3253272 or go to www.fjjma. ou.edu for information.

— John Brandenburg, for The Oklahoman

A large, rough-surfaced, round ceramic vase or jug, has won the top cash prize in a student show at the University of Oklahoma. Simphiwe Mbunyuza won the $1,000 Oscar Jacobson Award for the work, based on the culture of the Xhosa people in South Africa wh Simphiwe Mbunyuza won the $1,000 Oscar Jacobson Award in the University of Oklahoma School of Visual Arts exhibition for work based on his native people in South Africa.