Updated August 25, 2009.
“This is a great opportunity for our students to see clever appropriation and thoughtful construction merging into a experience that questions materials, motives and the nature of art to explore and evaluate art itself,” says Jonathan Hils, professor of associate professor of contemporary sculpture at the OU School of Art and Art History. “He engages installation art and sculpture in an energetic fashion.”
The School of Art and Art History is proud to present Jonathan Brilliant’s Goldsworthy of the Coffee Shop, with an opening reception from 6 to 9 p.m., on Friday, Aug. 28, in the Lightwell Gallery. Exhibit will continue through Friday, Sept. 25.
“For the Goldsworthy of the Coffee Shop project I assume the role of a British artist who gathers materials in his natural environment and uses them to execute a site-specific installation,” says Jonathan Brilliant, excerpt from artist statement. “In my version the natural environment is the coffee shop, and my materials are the to-go coffee cup and all its accoutrements. The resulting work is both ironic and labor intensive with a traditional craft based sensibility.”
Brilliant will begin constructing the work in the Lightwell Gallery Tuesday, Aug. 18, students will walk into a work in progress. Through the first week of classes, students will have the opportunity to assist Brilliant in the construction of the work and be able to speak with him about what his intentions are and how he arrived at this unique project.
Brilliant will also present an artist lecture at 1:30 p.m., Thursday, August 27 at in the Fred Jones Art Center. Both the lecture and opening reception are free and open to the public.
This exhibition will also be on display from 6 to 9 p.m., Friday, Sept. 11, for the 2nd Friday Circuit of Art. Most 2nd Fridays of each month from 6-9 p.m., the Lightwell Gallery, as a member of the Norman Gallery Association, opens its doors to participate in the 2nd Friday Circuit of Art. In coordination with other local galleries, CART, and the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, the 2nd Friday Circuit of Art transforms the entire city of Norman in to an arts district. Visitors are encouraged to ride the CART Trolley and experience cultural events across the city throughout the night. Stop by the Lightwell Gallery to visit, or revisit, Jonathan Brilliant’s installation.
“The Lightwell Projects bring emerging artists to OU who deal with installation art. The gallery space itself presents an eclectic venue for exhibiting artwork. Artists working today deal with ‘space’ in many varying ways and I hope this experience will allow the community an opportunity to see art presented in a very non-traditional and exciting way,” says Hils.
The reception is free and open to the public and the exhibition continues through Sept. 25. The Lightwell Gallery is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, and is located in the Fred Jones Art Center at 520 Parrington Oval, in the OU Arts District!
The University of Oklahoma is an equal opportunity institution. For accommodations on the basis of disability, please call the School of Art and Art History at (405) 325-2691. For more information, please visit, http://art.ou.edu/.