The Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition’s Momentum annually features Oklahoma artists ages 30 years and younger, working in diverse media. The exhibition presents a diversified look at the young artistic talent in Oklahoma. For 2021, Momentum changed to a longer exhibition format, to allow time and space for smaller groups of people to see the artwork over the course of two months.
From March 3 to 27, 2021 you can view Momentum at MAINSITE Contemporary Art Gallery in Norman, Oklahoma. The exhibition travels to Living Arts in Tulsa from April 2 to 23, 20212.
For this video, which originally premiered during the 2nd Friday Virtual Art Walk, we hear from the curators and three spotlight artists about this exhibition. Over the course of a week, I worked with the Norman Arts Council and the Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition on this series of interviews.
Pablo Barrera (Wixáritari) was Oklahoma Contemporary Arts Center’s inaugural Curatorial Fellow and has recently been named Associate Curator. He is OVAC’s Guest Curator for Momentum 2021. Kristin Gentry is an Owasso-based professional visual artist in the areas of relief and monotype printmaking, painting, jewelry, and photography. She is OVAC’s Emerging Curator for Momentum 2021.
Marium Rana (Tahlequah, OK) is a Pakistani-American ink and aqueous media artist. She enjoys working on paper for its versatility and ephemeral quality. Her contributions to the Momentum show are three double-sided scrolls that are suspended from the ceiling. These works are collectively known as “Awaiting Arrival”. These works reflect home as a place, period of time, and memory.
Andrea Duran-Cason (Norman, OK) is an interdisciplinary artist. She has spent most of her educational and professional career in the arts, winning numerous awards and achievements along the way. She earned her BFA from The University of Oklahoma with a focus on painting and printmaking and the human form. In 2018 she received her MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts where she shifted focus to installation, performance and relational aesthetics. Andrea currently works as a designer and screen printer for Massive Graphics and 2D Foundations Instructor at The University of Oklahoma.
Amber L. DuBoise-Shepherd (Shawnee, OK) depicts contemporary Native American narratives based on her family heritage of Navajo, Sac & Fox, and Prairie Band Potawatomi. Her mixed media pieces and oil paintings reference an illustrative quality. She has an Associates of Art from Seminole State College and completed her Bachelors of Fine Arts in Spring 2016 at Oklahoma State University.
Learn more about OVAC and Momentum at http://www.MomentumOklahoma.org
Thank you to the Norman Arts Council for sponsoring this video!
