MFA Inclusive Show: Lightwell Gallery at the University of Oklahoma
MFA Inclusive Show, Lightwell Gallery at the University of Oklahoma, installation view. From left to right, Benjamin Murphy, Marissa Childers, and Wesley Kramer.
From November 22 through December 14 we are presenting works by the current MFA students at the University of Oklahoma. It’s our first in person MFA show since 2019. Seeing the first year MFA student presentations in person was refreshing, compared to the virtual Zoom experience of 2020.
The show includes new works by:
Marissa Childers
Julie Clark
Danielle Fixico
Hannah Harper
Wesley Kramer
David Morrison
Benjamin Murphy
Craig Swan
Cody Wilson
Summer Zah
The Legend Of Okjökull, oil on canvas, 72 x 120 in, 2020.
For this show I exhibited my painting The Legend Of Okjökull. Although I completed the work last year, the MFA Inclusive Show was my first opportunity to present this painting in real spacetime. The Okjökull was a glacier in Iceland, northeast of Reykjavik. Over the past several decades the glacier has been subjected to warming summers. This once iconic glacier has melted away and now less than one square kilometer remains. In 2018 a memorial was held atop its remains. This painting remembers the former glacier and is based on NASA’s September 14, 1986 aerial photograph. I use formal elements to transform the aerial view of the glacier into a monument and sign of warning. The glacier is painted in purples, a color associated with nobility, dignity, grandeur, and magic. Yellow on the other hand is a color of contradictions. While yellow can suggest happiness, positivity, and loyalty, it is also a sign of instability, caution, and sickness. This painting is my largest to date at 72 x 120 inches.
Cody Wilson and I were interviewed by the Dean’s office for the exhibit. In the below video we discuss our work and the School of Visual Arts at the University of Oklahoma.