2017

Concentric Squares

by Lane Banks

Visiting Dallas artist Lane Banks to bring Concentric Squares to Lightwell Gallery

NORMAN, Okla. – An abstract and geometric art exhibition is headed to the Lightwell Gallery at the University of Oklahoma School of Visual Arts. Lane Banks, a visiting artist from Dallas, will be displaying his ongoing series, “Concentric Squares,” Oct. 9 through Nov. 3. The exhibit opens with a complimentary reception set for 5 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 10.

The exhibition includes paintings that are all the same size, 30 inches square, and are entirely abstract and geometric.

“This work is a rejection of the recording of optical images, and is entirely invented, abstract and derived from mathematical relations and proportions,” says the artist. “The approach I use is systematic in that all aspects of the painting are determined before the work is begun, including the arrangements of planes and stripes and the hues and their placements within the painting.”

“None of the work is improvised. The work is truly abstract, in that it is entirely conceptual, and not derived from perceptual images that have been distilled to an essence,” Lane elaborates. “Most of the paintings in the series are truly concentric, in that they are symmetrical horizontally and vertically, with the stripes and planes moving away from a center point in alignment with the framing edge.”

Banks is a publicly commissioned artist with permanent installations at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport and Love Field Airport. He also teaches the history of modern art in the Continuing and Professional Education Department at Southern Methodist University. His work currently is included in the Biennial exhibition at the Museum of Geometrics and MADI Art in Dallas, and will be on display until Oct. 22.

Making Your Mark

Oklahoma Printmaking Network Statewide Exchange Portfolio

“Making Your Mark” collection of prints on exhibit at OU Lightwell Gallery

Aug. 15, 2017 (Norman, Okla.) – The Oklahoma Printmaking Network’s traveling exhibition of prints from artists across the state will be on display beginning Aug. 21 at the University of Oklahoma School of Visual Arts’ Lightwell Gallery.

The exhibition will run through Sept. 8, with a closing reception scheduled from 5 to 7 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 5, in the same location. A brief talk about the OPN will be delivered at the closing reception. Members of the public are invited to attend both the exhibition and reception. There is no cost to attend.

“The OPN is a virtual network of artists who identify as printmakers, no matter how traditional or conceptual their media and techniques,” explained Laurence Reese, founder and exchange organizer of OPN. “It was founded with the intent of connecting printmakers across the state. Initially an online listserv, the OPN started hosting physical events, including meetups, critiques and workshops.”

The portfolio of 25 prints featured in this exhibition range from lithography to woodblocking, from monotype to silkscreen, and many more. The artists range from students to career artists, and come from all across the state. The exhibition was juried by Catherine Prose, associate professor of printmaking at Midwestern State University, Texas.

“In part, this portfolio is a time capsule, and captures a glimpse of what kind of work is being made across the state,” Reese said. “Printmaking is a broad term for several specific techniques, but also connotes an approach to artistic practice.

“Printmakers are craftspeople, with oral and kinetic traditions,” he added. “There is a particular culture in the print shop, and bringing printmakers together, across distance and career levels, helps us see connections and collaborations form between previous strangers.”

GRAPH I

The Red Clay Faction welcomes Steve Hilton to the OU Lightwell Gallery

Members of the public and the University of Oklahoma community are invited to participate in the installation of Graph I in the Lightwell Gallery of the Fred Jones Center on the OU Norman campus. Steve Hilton and Dale McDonald will be installing an exhibition made from unfired clay, which will visually change and adjust to time and climate.

During the week of installation, March 27 through 31, students and members of the public are invited to come as many times as they like to help contribute to the project. The artists encourage everyone to have a hands-on influence concerning how the project evolves. The exhibition will feature work created during the installation week.

“As a ‘geologist’ and a clay artist, I have developed an appreciation for the anomalies in the many forms of life, clay, rock and soil covering the Earth’s landscape,” Hilton said. “I am intrigued by the way plants, animals and weather influence the Earth’s surface, by both erosional and depositional means. This fascination has become an integral part of my art.

“I am currently thinking about these iterations as I make my work – looking at nature as a fragmented or geometric shape that is repeatedly subdivided into parts, each a smaller copy of the whole,” he added. “The use of self-similarity in art allows me to interpret nature for the viewer and myself, with both of us seeing nature differently after spending time with my art.”

The exhibition will be on display April 3 through 14 in the Lightwell Gallery. An opening reception is planned from 5 to 7 p.m. April 4.

For more information about the Red Clay Faction or the ceramics program at OU, please contact Stuart Asprey, faculty sponsor, at stuart@ou.edu.

Character Play

Art of Writing in Contemporary China

NORMAN, OKLA. (Jan. 17, 2017) Visiting art historian Shaoqian Zhang will present “Character Play: Art of Writing in Contemporary China,” an exhibition featuring a diverse body of artworks from Chinese artists, Feb. 6 – 24, at the University of Oklahoma School of Visual Arts Lightwell Gallery.

Both traditional Chinese art formats and high-tech digital art and installations will be featured in the exhibition. An opening reception is scheduled from 5 to 7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 7. Admission to the exhibition and reception is complimentary.

The artworks in the exhibition expand the meaning and pictorial forms of the Chinese characters, but are made for global audiences to enjoy.

“Unique in their etymological origin, Asian characters have been evolving — from the earliest pictographs inscribed on oracle bones, through the invention of paper, and on to the digital format — and have endowed the culture with a distinguishable identity featuring a lineage of uninterrupted written history from its infancy,”  Zhang said.

“In Asia,” she added, “writing and calligraphy have also led directly to the development of many other forms of art, including bookmaking, seal carving and ornate paperweights. Calligraphy itself is considered to the highest form of Chinese art.

“The presented artworks in this exhibition question, imagine, envisage and contemplate a futuristic terrain of transmitting vehicles that challenge or reconfirm the existence of the Asian characters, particularly drawing inspiration from traditional bookmaking,” she elaborated. “We attempt to present a comparison between the pictographic Asian characters and Western languages, and to generate an interactive dialog between the artists and public audiences.”

Zhang added, “Through sharing different cultural experiences, we hope this exhibition will raise awareness of the issues surrounding globalization and cultural boundaries that we confront today.”

Zhang is an art historian specializing in East Asian art and architecture and an assistant professor of art history at the Oklahoma State University. She earned her bachelor of art degree from Beijing University, and master’s and doctoral degrees in art history from Northwestern University. Her research touches on a wide variety of visual culture materials, ranging from traditional East Asian print culture to contemporary art in China. In addition to writing and research, she also has served as curator for a number of exhibitions in both the United States and China.

She is collaborating with Mid-American Art Alliance as the guest curator of the traveling exhibition, “Vibrant Bounty: Chinese Folk Art from the Shaanix Region,” by writing exhibition labels, providing an introductory essay, advising on educational programs and delivering public lectures.