As artists, we often spend so much time developing styles and creative voices that it can be difficult to then pivot toward the professional side of things like pitching and promoting works to gallery administrators or non-profit boards.
So it can feel like a breath of fresh air to find a gallery that is itself run by a group of working artists from that same ground-level creative scene.
That is the Uncanny Art House on Norman’s Main Street, a recently christened gallery and creative space owned and operated by a collective of photographers, painters, video artists, and more who have all not only come up through the Norman arts scene, but who are all also still actively working and creating in the same community that they’re now showcasing on their own gallery walls.
That includes artists like photographer, designer, and videographer Chase Spivey, who hopes that the group’s own presence in – and understanding of – the state’s artistic community can make them more approachable than other galleries for young upstarts and outsiders.
Chase Spivey: That’s how we’re doing things differently, is like we're just providing a space for anybody, you know.
If you are making art that is good and want to sell some, we'll provide you a retail space for that. And if you want to have a show, then you approach us with an idea for a show.
Brett Fieldcamp: The Uncanny team decided to forgo the non-profit, board-directed model in favor of running a gallery that allows them more freedom to showcase the artists and styles that they believe in.
According to co-owner and multimedia artist Julius, their for-profit model also allows them to more directly uplift and support young artists in the community, and to show them the importance of compensation and the viability of making a living in the arts.
Julius: I think that pretty much everybody in our group, we all bought into the trope of like, “oh well, I'm a starving artist.”
But as time has gone on and I've grown, that idea, I want to squash it, and I want to show artists, especially younger artists, who are up and coming, that there are spaces that exist that they can actually get their work shown, get the experience of being in a gallery, working around other artists, dealing with gallery management, and what that all looks like.
Brett Fieldcamp: Even some of the Uncanny team themselves were new to those kinds of experiences when they launched their first space in a back alley walkup in Norman in mid-2023.
Dubbed The Uncanny Alley, the unique speakeasy-style gallery was conceived by Spivey and fellow photographers Jesse Edgar and Dylan Johnson as a hyper-indie photo studio and party space, but it quickly grew into an artistic hotspot for Norman that catered to the hunger for more showcases of the city’s more esoteric art and outsider performance.
Chase Spivey: Like a kind of a photo studio-ish place where sometimes there were bands and sometimes there were parties and people just kind of paid what they wanted to, and it was like a really vibey cool place.
And that's kind of what Uncanny started becoming. We had, you know, great artists come in. We had great musicians, and then, yeah, it just evolved.
Brett Fieldcamp: That evolution saw the expansion of the team, bringing on other Norman and OKC-based artists like Julius, Jennifer Burwell, and Annatova Neches, and eventually a big move into a much more visible, public-facing space right on Main Street in September of last year, a move that has allowed them to grow as organizers and curators, but also as both members and leaders in the city’s arts community.
Julius: Moving into this space from the alley, yes, it was fun. Okay, there was a lot of fun to be had, but the space needed to mature a little bit and be in a place where we could grow into it.
It's very exciting and really incredible, the amount of support that we've received. We have already made it into the next year, as far as booking, like, the main exhibitions.
Chase Spivey: And we have to force some shackles on ourselves, otherwise 2026 would be booked already, too.
Brett Fieldcamp: That rapidly filling calendar is set to continue highlighting the team’s commitment to showcasing the kind of art that you might not normally expect in a gallery setting, but also their commitment to showcasing and encouraging the full spirit of Oklahoma’s arts scene.
Chase Spivey: I’m looking forward to bringing more people in to do workshops and stuff, like turning it into a little bit more of an education space.
We're trying to focus a little bit more on, like, more different shows, you know, a little bit more innovation. I would really like to see non-conventional mediums be showcased here, like new media, you know, and projection mapping. We talked about doing a food-based show, like inviting local chefs. We're having a tattoo show here in August.
So I want it to be an interesting space. We've got to, you know, keep nurturing it, respect that and, like, turn it into something that is like really generating a lot of positivity for the arts in this community.
Brett Fieldcamp: To keep up with exhibitions and events at the Uncanny Art House, or to get involved yourself, visit uncannyarthouse.com.
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