Community Calendar

For the first time in the region, Oklahoma Contemporary presents a monumental outdoor sculpture by Gonzalo Lebrija, one of the best-known contemporary artists living in Guadalajara, Mexico. Breve historia del tiempo (2020) is a 2,500-pound Plymouth Duster that appears to be suspended vertically over a pool of water. The sculpture is on loan from Mexico City’s famed La Coleccion Jumex. On view through March 27, 2023.

Breve historia del tiempo is presented in association with the exhibition La casa que nos inventamos: Contemporary Art From Guadalajara.

For more information: 405-951-0000, okcontemp.org/GonzaloLebrija

Image: Gonzalo Lebrija, Breve historia del tiempo.

Traveling from Aspen Art Museum, the exhibition Nature, Sweet Nature, by renowned artist Maren Hassinger, has been reconfigured to respond to the grounds of Oklahoma Contemporary. Nature, Sweet Nature is comprised of two installations constructed with galvanized wire rope. Garden and Paradise Regained will each stand in rows at relative human scale; one near the entrance to the art center and the other within the Sculpture Garden. Garden's uncoiled ends fan out like tall ornamental grass while Paradise Regained is comprised of lengths of industrial rope leaning in a single direction. The movement evoked by the slightly curving lines creates a kinetic effect. Rendering the metal malleable, Hassinger references the movement of reeds, grass and the wind itself. In particular, the dance of shadows cast on the ground by the curved lines of Paradise Regained will track the movement of time through the course of the day and over the year that it will be installed at Oklahoma Contemporary. The accessibility of the Sculpture Garden to visitors entering the building provides a space for what Hassinger underscores as “our tenuous relationship to nature,” connecting each viewer to what might be fragile or responsive in the interdependent nature of our ecosystem. Image: Maren Hassinger, Garden, 2020. Wire rope and concrete (144 units), 61.5 inches tall. © Maren Hassinger. Photo by Simon Klein, courtesy Aspen Art Museum.

Explore the distinct cultural backgrounds that coexist at this crossroads of the country. Featuring more than a dozen contemporary artworks, Destination Oklahoma expresses the beauty and charge of cultural connection, reflecting on the patterns of migration that have long shaped life in the state. The exhibition, which includes photographs, drawings, paintings and graphic works by a handful of artists living across Oklahoma, engages questions of cultural hybridity that converge in the state.

11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday | 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Thursday | Closed Tuesdays and holidays

For more information: 405-951-0000, okcontemp.org/DestinationOklahoma

Image: Skip Hill, Checkers. Image courtesy of the artist.

Featuring Sam Vaughn

For the first time in the region, Oklahoma Contemporary presents a monumental outdoor sculpture by Gonzalo Lebrija, one of the best-known contemporary artists living in Guadalajara, Mexico. Breve historia del tiempo (2020) is a 2,500-pound Plymouth Duster that appears to be suspended vertically over a pool of water. The sculpture is on loan from Mexico City’s famed La Coleccion Jumex. On view through March 27, 2023.

Breve historia del tiempo is presented in association with the exhibition La casa que nos inventamos: Contemporary Art From Guadalajara.

For more information: 405-951-0000, okcontemp.org/GonzaloLebrija

Image: Gonzalo Lebrija, Breve historia del tiempo.

Traveling from Aspen Art Museum, the exhibition Nature, Sweet Nature, by renowned artist Maren Hassinger, has been reconfigured to respond to the grounds of Oklahoma Contemporary. Nature, Sweet Nature is comprised of two installations constructed with galvanized wire rope. Garden and Paradise Regained will each stand in rows at relative human scale; one near the entrance to the art center and the other within the Sculpture Garden. Garden's uncoiled ends fan out like tall ornamental grass while Paradise Regained is comprised of lengths of industrial rope leaning in a single direction. The movement evoked by the slightly curving lines creates a kinetic effect. Rendering the metal malleable, Hassinger references the movement of reeds, grass and the wind itself. In particular, the dance of shadows cast on the ground by the curved lines of Paradise Regained will track the movement of time through the course of the day and over the year that it will be installed at Oklahoma Contemporary. The accessibility of the Sculpture Garden to visitors entering the building provides a space for what Hassinger underscores as “our tenuous relationship to nature,” connecting each viewer to what might be fragile or responsive in the interdependent nature of our ecosystem. Image: Maren Hassinger, Garden, 2020. Wire rope and concrete (144 units), 61.5 inches tall. © Maren Hassinger. Photo by Simon Klein, courtesy Aspen Art Museum.

Focusing on the artist’s body of work over the last 20 years, John Newsom: Nature's Course presents large-scale, richly textured, oil on canvas paintings of flora and fauna. The exhibition will include the brand-new, 9 x 18 foot Nature’s Course and Homecoming, another new painting referencing Oklahoma. Newsom’s work layers and combines elements of Abstract Expressionism, minimalist geometric shapes and hyperrealistic representations of animals to create complex allegories of the natural world. The mid-career retrospective of the Oklahoma-raised and New York-based artist runs March 24 to Aug. 15. Image: John Newsom, Love Flies In, 2005. Photo courtesy of the artist.

This exhibit features primary sources such as newspaper articles and yearbooks from the 1890s through the 1960s, providing evidence of Norman's more than 70 years of exclusionary, white supremacist practices and discussing the various people and organizations that challenged those practices throughout the years.

Through July 30, the exhibit will also include a sub-exhibit from the Oklahoma History Center called "All-Black Towns of Oklahoma", which illustrates that, while early Oklahoma could be a hotbed of racism, it could also be a safe haven for black families at that time.

Important Note: This exhibit examines difficult topics and includes historical sources that use language that was common at that time but is offensive and inappropriate today. We have made efforts to redact the most offensive language and to display graphic descriptions only on our website of resources for further learning, but please be prepared for the possibility of experiencing discomfort while viewing this exhibit and exploring this important but ugly time in the history of Norman and Oklahoma.

The Bearded Lady Project

July 2 – September 25, 2022

The Bearded Lady Project, a brainchild of paleobotanist Ellen Currano and filmmaker Lexi Jamieson Marsh, is aimed at challenging gender biases in the sciences, specifically paleontology. The project’s origins date back to a night when Ellen spoke to Lexi about her own experiences, and how she was not taken seriously by her colleagues. Half seriously, Ellen wondered whether her colleagues would appreciate her opinion if she had the right amount of facial hair. When Ellen woke up the next morning she saw a message from Lexi, “Let’s do this. Let’s get beards.”

So began the Bearded Lady Project.

In 2014, Ellen and Lexi teamed up with fine arts photographer Kelsey Vance and director of photography Draper White, and began travelling around the world to photograph, film and interview paleoscientists in the field and in their labs, highlight the work they do, and tell the stories of how they got to where they are.

To date the project consists of two parts. First, the feature film celebrating the unsung achievements of women in paleontology and revealing the obstacles they faced. Second, a photography exhibit that pokes a bit of fun at the burly-bearded male stereotype that has dominated the professional landscape of field-going scientists for far too long.

Beginning July 9 we will be showing feature presentations of The Bearded Lady Project documentary (52 minutes) in the Sam Noble Museum auditorium.

Show times are as follows:

Tuesday-Friday: 11 a.m.

Saturday: 11 a.m. and 2 p.m.

Sunday: 2 p.m.

Show times subject to change based on event schedules.

Funding to support the exhibition of The Bearded Lady Project at the Sam Noble Museum was provided by the Beth West Memorial Fund.

Explore the distinct cultural backgrounds that coexist at this crossroads of the country. Featuring more than a dozen contemporary artworks, Destination Oklahoma expresses the beauty and charge of cultural connection, reflecting on the patterns of migration that have long shaped life in the state. The exhibition, which includes photographs, drawings, paintings and graphic works by a handful of artists living across Oklahoma, engages questions of cultural hybridity that converge in the state.

11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday | 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Thursday | Closed Tuesdays and holidays

For more information: 405-951-0000, okcontemp.org/DestinationOklahoma

Image: Skip Hill, Checkers. Image courtesy of the artist.