NORMAN, OKLAHOMA — Once a year, a gallery inside the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art is transformed into an exhibition space for students at the University of Oklahoma. The 102nd Annual School of Art and Art History Student Exhibition opens with a complimentary public reception at 7 p.m. Thursday, April. 21. The exhibition remains on display through Sunday, May 15, in the Nancy Johnston Records Gallery.
Visitors to the guest-juried show can expect to see top student works in multiple mediums, including photography, design, video, sculpture and painting.
“This year we are privileged to have a wonderful guest juror, Joy Reed Belt,” said Bette Talvacchia, director of the OU School of Art and Art History. “Her expertise and enthusiasm will certainly put together a great exhibition. Also, there is strong material to work with from the students. The works submitted present a rich spectrum of subjects and materials; nevertheless, related thematic concerns emerge upon close consideration.”
Belt is the owner and director of JRB Art at the Elms in Oklahoma City.
As part of the reception, an awards ceremony is scheduled for 8 p.m., during which students will be honored with prizes, including the top award, the T.G. Mays Purchase Award, which is offered to a student whose artwork becomes a part of the museum’s permanent collection.
“In addition to honoring student achievement, this exhibition serves as a reminder of the history of the university’s art museum and its generous benefactors,” said Mark White, the Wylodean and Bill Saxon Director of the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art.
“The T.G. Mays Purchase Award and the Oscar Jacobson Award, which was endowed by Dr. Mark Allen Everett, honor longtime supporters of the University of Oklahoma and its art museum. The annual student exhibition reminds us of these and other donors whose decades-long legacies continue in the form of student distinction.”
The opening reception will feature music and a photo booth by Nexus Productions.
A mini-exhibit by Todd Stewart, associate professor of art, technology and culture, and Robert Bailey, assistant professor of art history, both at OU, also will be unveiled during the student exhibition opening.
Last year, OU School of Art and Art History faculty and students visited sites in the Great Basin, Mojave and Sonoran deserts, where human beings have significantly marked the land in artistic, scientific, militaristic and economic ways. Erratic Fieldwork: Doing Art and Art History in the Anthropocene presents images, objects, texts, sounds and an accompanying index that explores the processes through which human beings shape their surroundings as compiled by the students and faculty from this trip.
Support for the Fieldworks exhibition was provided by the Kirkpatrick Foundation, the OU Humanities Forum, the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art and the School of Art and Art History.
Additional information about the OU School of Art and Art History is available online at www.art.ou.edu. The Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art’s website is www.ou.edu/fjjma.
The Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art is located in the OU Arts District on the corner of Elm Avenue and Boyd Street, at 555 Elm Ave., on the OU Norman campus.
Admission to the museum is complimentary to all visitors, thanks to a generous gift from the OU Athletics Department. The museum is closed on Mondays. Information and accommodations on the basis of disability are available by calling (405) 325-4938.
Photo: The annual OU student art exhibition returns to the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art with a public, complimentary opening reception Thursday, April 21. The 102nd Annual School of Art and Art History Student Exhibition features dozens of works in multiple mediums by students from the OU School of Art and Art History, several of whom will receive awards during the opening reception. Logo designed by OU visual communication junior Michele Archambo.
