art 365

February 28 - May 10, 2014

Art 365 is an exhibition from the Oklahoma Visual Arts coalition which offers five Oklahoma artists one year and $12,000 to create innovative artwork in collaboration with a nationally recognized curator. The artists work with the guest curator for one year to create a body of original artwork for the exhibition.

Artists: Bryan Cook, Cathleen Faubert, Eyakem Gulilat, Alexandra Knox & romy owens

This year's Art 365 introduces us to new and exciting artwork created by five artists who set out to challenge the vision and scope of their artistic practice in a dynamic partnership with the Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition (OVAC).

A journey undertaken can assume many forms and the scale of its encounters can be grand or small. For this project, each artist has embarked on a unique, adventurous journey. While four of the artists traveled to regions both near and far to gather images, experiences, knowledge, and materials for the works presented in the exhibition, all of the artists have made new discoveries and gained fresh perspectives. While one artist's inner quest to define a purposeful, creative life has been graciously transformed into an immersive space for others to experience quiet communion and contemplation, they each have expanded the edges of their artistic and personal realms in courageous ways.

One remarkable and common theme present throughout the exhibition is a deep interest in place. The artists give shape to questions that help us understand how place informs our personal and cultural identity and how we sometimes gain from it a sense of belonging, an understanding of home or notions of a homeland. In photography and installations, the artists explore personal, familial, natural and cultural histories and ecologies as they consider the many ways we can survey and understand place - a particular landscape - and our connection to it.

Over the course of the past year, these five creative practices have shifted and expanded to include new and innovative approaches to thinking and making work. With direct support from OVAC, our project has been generously shaped by inspiration, extraordinary vision, opportunity, conversation, and the shared knowledge of many. From all accounts, it has been a journey well taken.

Raechell Smith // Guest Curator // Art 365