Illuminations: Rediscovering the Art of Dale Chihuly

On view through April 8th, 2012

The Oklahoma City Museum of Art’s collection of glass by American artist Dale Chihuly reopened New Year’s Eve. Exhibited on the third floor, ILLUMINATIONS: Rediscovering the Art of Dale Chihuly presents a fresh look at the Museum’s popular Chihuly collection. Redesigned in collaboration with Chihuly Studio, the newly installed galleries will incorporate a unique design that features a three-dimensional approach to viewing some objects in the collection. The presentation will allow visitors to explore the large Float Boat and Ikebana Boat installations from all sides as well as includes viewing slots for the Reeds.

ILLUMINATIONS will be accompanied by a special exhibition on the third floor titled Chihuly: Northwest. On view through April 8, 2012, this exhibition will include glass sculptures by Chihuly inspired by Native American baskets; Chihuly’s personal collection of Native American textiles as well as photographs by Edward S. Curtis from The North American Indian Portfolio; and recent examples of Chihuly’s White series.

In 2002, the Oklahoma City Museum of Art inaugurated its new home in the Donald W. Reynolds Visual Arts Center with an exhibition of glass and drawings by Dale Chihuly. Bolstered by enormous public support, the Museum purchased the exhibition, which included works from Chihuly’s best-known series and was anchored by the 55-foot Eleanor Blake Kirkpatrick Memorial Tower in the Museum’s atrium.

About Dale Chihuly

Dale Chihuly’s well-grounded academic and practical background includes a B.A. in interior design from the University of Washington, a M.S. in sculpture from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a M.F.A. in sculpture from the Rhode Island School of Design, and honorary doctorates from the University of Puget Sound and the Rhode Island School of Design. He also was awarded a Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation grant for work in glass and studied at Italy’s prestigious Venini glass factory on a Fulbright Fellowship.

Chihuly’s work is included in over 200 museum collections, including the Oklahoma City Museum of Art, and he has received world renown for his extensive glass series, international projects, and large architectural installations such as the Museum’sEleanor Blake Kirkpatrick Memorial Tower. The Museum’s collection represents over three decades of Chihuly’s finest work and heralds this brilliant luminist as the most important artist working in glass since Louis Comfort Tiffany.

CITY ARTS CENTER

Miradas

Ancient Roots in Modern and Contemporary Mexican Art
from the Bank of America Collection

February 14 – May 4, 2012

Celebrating and examining works by artists on both sides of the Mexican and Mexican-American border, this exhibition reveals the social ideas and educational theories taken up by modern Mexican artists at the end of the Mexican Revolution.  This unique survey of over 90 works includes paintings, prints and photographs created over the past 80 years.

Featured in this exciting exhibition are works by some of the best-known Mexican artists: Diego Rivera, Rufino Tamayo, Gabriel Orozco, Manuel Alvarez Bravo, David Alfaro Siqueiros and Gunther Gerzso, as well as Mexican-American artists such as Judithe Hernandez, Roberto Juarez and Robert Graham, and American artists who worked in Mexico such as Edward Weston, Paul Strand and Harry Callahan.

Visitors of the Miradas exhibition will have the opportunity to observe the works of many artists who have been attracted to and inspired by Mexico’s ancient civilizations and modern theories alike.

The exhibition is part of Bank of America’s Art in Our Communities program and curated by Cesáreo Moreno of the National Museum of Mexican Art in collaboration with Bank of America’s curatorial staff..

IAO

Ben Pendleton & Kevin Thomas Exhibitions

FEBRUARY 10th – MARCH 3rd

Individual Artists of Oklahoma will exhibit the work of two emerging artists, Ben Pendleton and Kevin Thomas, this February. Ben Pendleton will present a body of mixed media work that featuring photography entitled Beyond the Borders. Kevin Thomas will exhibit a series of paintings which explore the concept of 3=1. Beyond the Borders and 3=1 will open with an artists’ reception on Friday, February 10th from 6:00 to 9:00pm. The exhibitions will remain on display through March 3rd, 2012.

Born and raised in Oklahoma, Ben Pendleton earned an associate degree from Oklahoma City Community College in the area of film and video production. Pendleton spent the following four years working part-time as an editor, camera operator, camera assistant, production assistant, photographer, and field producer. After realizing that he had been working in the process of other people’s artwork and not producing his own work, Pendleton quickly stopped freelancing and got a steady full-time job. At this point, he began showing more of his own work in group exhibitions throughout Oklahoma City.

When producing his own work, Pendleton embraces as many different types of material as he feels fits his work. He rarely produces more than one or two pieces with the same material, visual aesthetic, or subject. With Beyond the Borders, Pendleton mined his fascination with old photographs and his own childhood memories. “It’s great to look at old photos and imagine putting yourself inside that moment,” states the artist. He asks himself a series of questions including, “What were the people like? What was happening before, after or while the pictures was taken? How do people in this picture remember this moment?” The installations, Pendleton has created around the photographs are attempts to experience what it was like to be in these photographs. Using a variety of media, he surrounds the photographs with objects that convey the atmosphere of the image.

Kevin Thomas is an Oklahoman artist and art educator. Since 2003, he has taught at Edmond Santa Fe High School. He pursued his undergrad studies at Oklahoma Christian University. In 1998 he received his MFA in illustration, painting and drawing from Savannah College of Art and Design. In 2010, he received his Master of Education in Education Administration from the University of Central Oklahoma, and is currently pursuing an Education Doctorate in Education Administration.

Of his work to be exhibited at Individual Artists of Oklahoma, Kevin Thomas explains, “The works in 3=1 convey a constructivist sense of reality. This philosophy denotes that personal experiences make up our realities. There is a universe full of many pathways, from which each of us must choose.” The paintings will represent pathways intertwined from the aspects of the body, mind, and soul. Thomas continues, “Body, mind, and soul represent the three facets of humanity, 3=1. The thinking process involved in the conceptualization of these paintings denotes a controlled chaos, similar to that found in life. The rhythmic flow demonstrated in each painting is a reflection of my deeper insight and understanding of reality.”

The exhibitions of Ben Pendleton and Kevin Thomas will open in conjunction with the photography of Jeff McCullough in the IAO Project Space.

7 EPIOSODES |  3PM to 6PM