As the National Weather Center Biennale opens for the first time, guests will have the opportunity to view all pieces of art on display and pick their favorites and also see the pieces the jurors deemed best in their respective categories.

The National Weather Center and the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art at the University of Oklahoma have teamed up with the Norman Arts Council to present the first international biennale.  The exhibition will be held at the National Weather Center Atrium beginning Earth Day, April 22, and closing June 2. The National Weather Center Biennale showcases art’s window on the impact of weather on the human experience through three media – painting, works on paper and photography. 

Narrowed from an initial pool of more than 700 pieces submitted by nearly 400 artists, 100 works were selected for display at the exhibition.  A panel of three guest jurors selected a winning piece from each of the three categories in addition to the overall Best of Show. Category winners will receive $5,000 each and the overall Best of Show winner will be awarded $10,000 and a full-page advertisement in an upcoming issue of Southwest Art Magazine.

The winning pieces are

Best of Painting

Tom Berenz

Madison, Wisconsin

Flooded Car Lot

Oil on panel

Best of Photography

Mitch Dobrowner

Los Angeles, California

Rope Out

Archival pigment photographic print on cotton rag paper

Best of Works on Paper

Tom Heflin

Rockford, Illinois

Approaching Winter Storm

Pastel on Paper

Best of Show

Elizabeth Patterson

Los Angeles, California

Pershing Square, Los Angeles

Colored pencil and solvent on Bristol vellum

The final jurors are Christoph Heinrich, the Frederick and Jan Mayer Director of the Denver Art Museum; Spencer Finch, an American artist specializing in glass and light installations; and Jacqui Jeras, a broadcast meteorologist with WJLA-TV in Washington, D.C.

The selected works, including the prize winners, will be featured in the biennale exhibition which is open to the public at no cost.  The exhibition officially opened on Earth Day, April 22, 2013, and will close June 2, 2013.  The exhibition is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday and 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday. Visitors will need to present a photo ID for entry.

The next National Weather Center Biennale will be held in 2015.  An initial call for entries will commence on Earth Day, April 22, 2014.  The opening of the second biennale will be on Earth Day, April 22, 2015.

Completed in 2006, the 244,000-square-foot National Weather Center building is the anchor of a unique research and learning community that includes the nation’s largest academic meteorology program; five National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration research, operations and support organizations; and more than a half dozen private weather and weather technology-related companies – all located within a few hundred yards of each other on the OU Research Campus in Norman, Okla. The central space for the exhibition will be the 9,600-square-foot atrium with gallery lighting and full security.

Additional information about the exhibition is available at www.nwcbiennale.org and the biennale’s Facebook and Twitter pages. The National Weather Center’s website is www.nwcnorman.org; the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art’s website is www.ou.edu/fjjma and the Norman Arts Council’s website is www.normanarts.org.