JRB features painter, multimedia artist's works

Classic yet modern landscape, figure and floral studies and two abstractions symbolize the “Human” in a show by Behnaz Sohrabian.

Sohrabian's exhibit opens from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m Friday at JRB Art at The Elms, 2810 N Walker, with a show by Holly Wilson.

A native of Iran, and United State citizen since 2017, Sohrabian said she tries to “paint simply,” with “easy brush strokes” in her oils.

Ocean waves break on an empty beach, or pound off-shore rocks, suggesting a watery rendezvous in two big Sohrabian oils, both called “Didar.”

Sohrabian quietly reminds us that “I'm Human” in a fine small head-andshoulders self-portrait, augmented by six small, square oils of others.

Large oil nudes are another strong element in the varied work of Oklahoma City artist Sohrabian.

In one Sohrabian nude, a lady lying on her back toward us, becomes a “Tabula Rasa,” while a second evokes “The Flight of Time” as she disrobes.

Empty roads, green trees and reflecting waterways draw us into Sohrabian's oil landscapes, as do the red blossoms in a glass of water, in a floral study.

White areas and bravura brushwork enliven Sohrabian's two large, 48-by-48-inch abstract compositions called “Lady Justice” and “Giti.”

Tribal heritage

Wilson is a multimedia artist, based in Mustang, of Delaware Nation and Cherokee heritage.

Wilson said that as a “strategic trickster twist,” she sometimes features “children, often masked” in her work “to bring the viewer into my story.”

Describing masks as a way “to hide or obscure” intentions, Wilson said some of her works reference Delaware and Cherokee stories her mother told her as a child.

“They are also agents of transformation that allow one to become … powerful and sometimes dangerous,” as well as to “subvert narrative expectations.”

Wilson is showing bronze sculptures, several paintings and some photographs in her exhibit, which she calls “Seven Sides of the Self.”