OKLAHOMA CITY – ArtNow, the periodic spotlight on all things moving and modern in the world of boundary-pushing artistic expression, has returned once again to Oklahoma Contemporary, this time with a focus on the possibilities of process and a near domination from Oklahoman artists.
Contemporary’s biennial (that’s every two years) exhibition of the most vital, visionary voices of modern art has become a staple of Oklahoma’s growing artistic influence, and with this year’s theme, “Materials & Boundaries,” guest curator Alexa Goetzinger and guest curatorial assistant Virginia Sitzes have created perhaps the showcase’s most powerful iteration yet.
It’s free and open to the public right now and running all the way to February 15th next year.
The featured artists for this new ArtNow installment were encouraged to emphasize the process and the physical materials themselves, but also to consider the boundaries at the edges of their works. Sometimes, that’s the way in which they hang or occupy their physical space, and sometimes it’s how a viewer interacts with the piece, blurring the lines between art and interactive multimedia.
And sometimes, it’s even about embracing the boundaries of time itself and accepting that even a work of staggering scale and emotional depth might only be temporary.
“We were really looking at duality in a lot of these pieces,” Goetzinger told media visitors during an early viewing of the exhibition on Tuesday morning. “And one of the big things that we were thinking a lot about was innovation versus tradition.”
Material concerns
That tension between tradition and innovation is present in practically every piece on display, with many of them zeroing in on time-honored techniques and materials and then redirecting the focus to the processes and productions of the piece.
A hanging pair of hand-knit, wool sweater works by OKC-based textile artist Kendall Ross blurs the line between traditional, utilitarian clothing and highly expressive, chaotic collage and diaristic text art.
A wall-hanging conceptual sculpture piece by Andy Mattern, an associate professor at Oklahoma State University, lays out an extended grid of simplistic, blank, white panels. As a series of ultraviolet lights bombard them, the panels each change, absorb, and present the light in various ways, revealing each panel to be a differently treated type of photo paper and emphasizing the different ways in which they react.
Some of the artists have even incorporated materials that everyday life would treat as waste or detritus, recontextualizing what we consider valuable as artistic material.
Hong Hong’s large, blue, handmade paper works are littered with the dirt, dust, and sediment collected from the Oklahoma wind, and Leticia R. Bajuyo’s mammoth “Loop: Gravity Repeated” is constructed entirely out of CDs, DVDs, and software discs that would otherwise be packing landfills in the modern avalanche of e-waste.
“It’s really pushing past the boundaries of what is art and what pieces can be shown in a gallery,” Goetzinger said, “and asking ‘how can you make this beautiful in a way that is different?’”
Interactive / Multimedia
More than ever before, this iteration of ArtNow invites guests to touch, manipulate, and interact with many of the pieces (often with curatorial support, of course.)
Conceptual sculptor Nic Annette Miller presents a suspended, still-life deconstruction of a beekeeper’s honeycomb paired with a wearable beekeeper’s veil, not only adding an audio component, but even recreating the sensory vibrations that accompany a bee’s buzz.
OKC arts giants Denise Duong and Gabriel Friedman offer a huge, enterable metal head/wooden confessional booth, inviting guests to enter, sit at a small desk, write their own secrets, regrets, or dreams on a scrap of paper, feed it immediately into a shredder, and then “leave lighter.”
Multimedia art makes an unexpectedly strong show as well, with Lindsey Cox including multiple works designed originally for her band stepmom, including the stop-motion video “Damage Control,” the deadCenter-winning clip for “Chaos Candy,” and even the pink slime-covered wall of glitching television’s from Factory Obscura’s “Profitopia” experience.
Even the Contemporary stairwell is incorporating creative multimedia art with musician Riley Joseph including a 24-minute, slowly developing piece of ambient music designed to reflect the evolution of a day.
Multimedia artist Aaron Jones incorporates all of these elements into his interactive “Quadraphonic Spring,” resembling a giant floating helmet and housing a self-contained liminal space of audio and projection when you step inside.
“These are asking ‘what is boundary between music and performance art?’” said Goetzinger, “and ‘how do we relate to that as human beings?’”
Personal stories
But of all the boundaries explored in the exhibition, the most powerful are surely the physical and emotional ones traversed and incorporated into the show’s most personal pieces.
Ebony Iman Dallas offers a selection of deeply felt works exploring not only her own experience as a Black Oklahoman, but the full scope of time and distance experienced throughout the rich Black History of our state, including an inventive hand-carved puzzle demonstrating attempts to cover up that history.
Tulsa’s Amy Sanders de Melo’s sprawling mixed-media wall installation “Myself” incorporates Braille to reflect her own experience living with hearing and vision loss.
Iranian-born Edmond-ite Behnaz Sohrabian even presents a series of expressively gestural and wildly colorful painted works that explore the nude female form, something that adds a sadly deeper and more defiant element to her art.
“This work that she’s creating is the reason that she’s no longer able to go back home to see her family members that are sick, that are still in Iran,” Goetzinger explained. “She could be executed for painting the female nude figure. And so this has a very personal element to it.”
But there is perhaps no single work in the exhibition that dominates the eye, the space, and even the heart quite like muralist Carlos Barboza’s staggering “What We Buried (We Became).”
The first-ever full-sized mural to adorn one of the gallery walls inside the Contemporary space, Barboza’s striking, vibrantly colorful work rises from the floor to the ceiling, presenting a frozen-in-a-moment snapshot of himself as a boy, the age at which he immigrated with his family from Costa Rica.
Each detail – the floral shawl that morphs into the American flag, the disembodied hands peeling a ripe orange, the melting bomb pop and even the evocative splash of red against his chest – represents the immigrant experience and expectation of ignoring the past to assimilate.
Goetzinger said she spoke often with Barboza as he was creating the piece in the gallery, even admitting to tearing up as she recounted the emotional insights into the work that he’d shared with her as he painted.
But maybe most surprising about the piece is that it’s fully intended to be only temporary.
“In the case of Carlos’ work, it’s very sad, but it’ll be painted over as we prepare for our next show,” Contemporary Executive Director Trent Riley told the media gathering. “I wish we could somehow just remove the entire wall, but I don’t even know what that would cost.”
More to discover
Even with all of the works recounted here, it may still only be scratching the surface of the number of pieces and artists featured in the show.
That the work on display is so wildly inventive, so emotionally or intellectually poignant, and so predominantly Oklahoman is itself a statement of the wealth of creativity and vision growing out of our modern culture, and of the remarkable artistic moment in which our state is currently living.
ArtNow 2025: Materials & Boundaries is open to the public now at the Oklahoma Contemporary Arts Center through February 15th, 2026.
Admission to Oklahoma Contemporary is always free. For more information, visit okcontemporary.com.
Brett Fieldcamp is our Arts and Entertainment Editor. He has been covering arts, entertainment, news, housing, and culture in Oklahoma for 15+ years, writing for several local and state publications. He’s also a musician and songwriter and holds a certification as Specialist of Spirits from The Society of Wine Educators.
