ENTERTAINMENT

Ready to fall into art? 15 exciting exhibits showing in OKC this autumn

Oklahoman

From palm readings and family art-making to a car parade and performance art picnics, Oklahoma Contemporary Arts Center is welcoming the first weekend of fall in style.

The nonprofit arts center has an array of free festivities planned for its Sept. 23-24 Open House weekend. The Open House not only is celebrating the debut of a major exhibition of Mexican artwork but also serving as a sort of do-over two and half years after the grand opening of Oklahoma Contemporary's Automobile Alley headquarters had to be scrapped

"In a way, it's making up for lost time," said Director Jeremiah Matthew Davis. "We had planned for some amazing things to happen in March of 2020, and the COVID pandemic got in the way of those plans. But we're relaunching in some ways with this exhibition to make sure that everybody here in our community knows that this is their art center and we're open for business."

The sculpture "Breve historia del tiempo" by Mexican artist Gonzalo Lebrija's is installed Tuesday, Aug. 2, 2022, at Campbell Art Park at Oklahoma Contemporary Arts Center on Automobile Alley in Oklahoma City.

Oklahoma Contemporary is premiering Friday "La casa que nos inventamos: Contemporary Art From Guadalajara." It is showcasing about 50 conceptual artworks — from paintings and sculptures to installations and performances — created within the last decade by nearly 20 visual artists from or living in the capital and largest city of the Mexican state of Jalisco.

"This exhibition is many years in the making," Davis said. "We found a lot of parallels between the city of Guadalajara and the city of Oklahoma City."

But Oklahoma Contemporary's "La casa que nos inventamos" — the title is Spanish for "The House That We Invented" — isn't the only major art show building a buzz around town this fall.

From an intoxicating exhibit entirely soaked in tequila to works of glass art that resemble scenes from "Alice in Wonderland," here are 15 must-see art exhibits showing in OKC this autumn.

Renata Petersen's installation "Limpieza karmática express" is included in Oklahoma Contemporary Arts Center's exhibit "La casa que nos inventamos: Contemporary Art From Guadalajara."

1. 'La casa que nos inventamos'

When and where: Sept. 23-Jan. 9, Oklahoma Contemporary Arts Center.
Tickets: https://oklahomacontemporary.org.
What: The exhibit features works by Mexican artists who rose to international prominence in the 2000s such as Jose Dávila, Eduardo Sarabia and Francisco Ugarte, along with up-and-comers like Isa Carillo, Larissa Garza and Renata Petersen. Admission is free to Oklahoma Contemporary.

2. 'Aliento a Tequila (The Spirit of Tequila)'

When and where: Through Oct. 23, National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum.
Tickets: https://nationalcowboymuseum.org.
What: Drink in this exhibit all about the landscape, culture and traditions distilled into tequila, Mexico’s mestizo national drink, which dates back to the 1600s.

Oklahoma City Museum of Art Curator Rosie May talks about works by Richard Marquis during a media preview of the exhibit "Highlights from the Rose Family Glass Collection" Wednesday, August 31, 2022, at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art. The exhibit includes eclectic works from the recently gifted Jerome V. and Judith G. Rose Family Glass Collection.

3. 'Highlights from the Rose Family Glass Collection'

When and where: Through Jan. 15, Oklahoma City Museum of Art.
Tickets: www.okcmoa.com.
What: From wildly whimsical teapots that would look at home on the Mad Hatter's table to a smiling cast glass "Block Head" topped with a hefty copper brick, the downtown OKC museum is showing for the first time key pieces from the recently gifted Jerome V. and Judith G. Rose Family Glass Collection, which includes nearly 180 works by more than 80 artists.

4. 'Sombreros Texanas and Bosses of the Plains'

When and where: Through Jan. 8, National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum.
Tickets: https://nationalcowboymuseum.org.
What: This fashionable show styled from the museum's vast permanent collection looks at the the evolution of what is known today as a “cowboy hat." The exhibit includes hats from famous actors like John Wayne, Steve McQueen Tom Selleck and Bing Russell; rodeo performers such as Shirley Jauregui and Toots Mansfield; and Western musicians including Johnny Lee Wills and Gene Autry.

The Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art's immersive exhibit "Synesthesia," a colorful collaboration with the creative minds of OKC artist collective Factory Obscura., is seen Thursday, June, 23, 2022, in Norman, Okla.

5. Factory Obscura's 'Synesthesia'

When and where: Through June, Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art in Norman.
Information: https://www.ou.edu/fjjma.
What: Admission is always free to the University of Oklahoma's art museum, and in June, the landmark unveiled its new immersive exhibit "Synesthesia," a colorful collaboration with the creative minds of OKC artist collective Factory Obscura. The yearlong exhibit — inspired by work of Olinka Hrdy (1902–1987), an abstract painter and muralist who began her career as an OU student from 1923 to 1928 — provides children and adults alike ample opportunities to touch, crawl, explore and even make music.

6. 'Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel: The Exhibition'

When and where: Sept. 30-Dec. 4, Sailor and The Dock on Film Row.
Tickets: https://chapelsistine.com.
What: Part of a trend of immersive traveling pop-up exhibitions, it features near-life-size reproductions of one of the Western world's most renowned artistic achievements. Displayed in the new Film Row venue Sail & The Dock, 617 W Sheridan Ave., the exhibit lets art lovers come face-to-face with the famed frescoes that adorn the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel ceiling.

Acclaimed artist and Tulsa native Wilson Hurley speaks at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum Friday, October 7, 2005, in Oklahoma City, Okla. In the background is his monumental triptych painting "Arizona Suite," which depicts the Grand Canyon. Hurley died in 2008.

7. 'Looking Through the Windows to the West'

When and where: Through Feb. 19, National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum.
Tickets: https://nationalcowboymuseum.org.
What: Renowned painter Wilson Hurley's "Windows to the West" — five monumental triptychs portraying five iconic landscapes of the American West — has become the signature attraction inside the National Cowboy Museum's Special Events Center. This behind-the-scenes exhibit details the five-year creation of the 15 massive paintings through never-before-exhibited sketches, test canvases, mathematical diagrams and more.

8. 'The Horse's Landscape'

When and where: Through Nov. 10, Red Earth Art Center in BancFirst Tower.
Information: https://www.redearth.org.
What: Featuring works by Carol Armstrong, Diana Beach-Stamper, J. Dylan Cavin and Linda Kukuk, the exhibit depicts Native American horses, their riders and the West. Admission is free.

In an Aug. 28, 2008 file photo, acclaimed Iranian film director Abbas Kiarostami poses during the photo call of his movie "Shirin (My sweet Shirin)" at the 65th edition of the Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy. Kiarostami, whose 1997 film "Taste of Cherry" won the Palme d'Or, died Monday, July 4, 2016, in Paris, where he had gone for cancer treatment. He was 76.

9. 'Abbas Kiarostami: Beyond the Frame'

When and where: Oct. 15-April 9, OKC Museum of Art.
Tickets: www.okcmoa.com.
What: A multimedia survey of the work of the late Iranian filmmaker, photographer and visual artist Abbas Kiarostami, who died in 2016 at the age of 76, it will range from the acclaimed artist's early children’s films and graphic design work to his final completed short films and late-period photography.

10. 'First Americans Museum: New Acquisitions'

When and where: Through Dec. 31, First Americans Museum.
Information: https://famok.org/recent-acquisitions.
What: Admission is free to FAM's Community Gallery, where this new exhibit focuses on artworks donated by former federal judge, lawmaker and Oklahoma City University president Robert Henry, who gifted his Native art collection to the museum. The exhibit includes works by renowned Native artists like Acee Blue Eagle, Mars Biggoose, T.C. Cannon, Alan Houser and N. Scott Momaday.

11. Traditional Cowboy Arts Exhibition & Sale

When and where: Sept. 30-Jan. 2, National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum.
Tickets: https://nationalcowboymuseum.org.
What: The Cowboy's busy autumn wouldn't be complete without this long-running annual showcase for members of the Traditional Cowboy Arts Association, a collective of saddle makers, bit and spur makers, rawhide braiders and silversmiths working to preserve traditional Western crafts and elevate them into fine art forms.

"The Other Side of the Mountain" by Oklahoma artist MtnWoman Silver will be shown in an October exhibit at the Paseo Arts and Creativity Center.

12. 'Sunday Morning Meditations: The Power of Hope'

When and where: Oct. 7-29, Paseo Arts and Creativity Center.
Information: https://www.thepaseo.org.
What: Oklahoma artist MtnWoman Silver was inspired by mindful meditations during Sunday church sermons for the past 10 years to create the paintings in this new exhibit, opening Oct. 7 during the monthly First Friday Gallery Walk in the Paseo Arts District. The group exhibit “Multidimensional," including works by local artists artists Marylee Wright, Nicole Moan, Aztrid Moan and Jo Swigart, also will be on view in October at the Paseo Arts and Creativity Center, where admission is free.

13. 'Prismatic: A Faceted Experience of Color'

When and where: Through March, Science Museum Oklahoma.
Tickets: https://www.sciencemuseumok.org.
What: On view in the museum's smART Space galleries, the exhibit explores how color can sway opinion, communicate without words and even affect a person's body. It features works by interdisciplinary Oklahoma artist Sarah Hearn, Austin, Texas-based artist Laurie Frick and Auckland, New Zealand-based composer and media artist Jesse Woolston.

14. 'Destination Oklahoma'

When and where: Through Oct. 17, Oklahoma Contemporary.
Tickets: https://oklahomacontemporary.org.
What: Five artists living across Oklahoma created more than a dozen eclectic contemporary artworks that showcase the distinct cultural backgrounds coexisting at the crossroads of America. The exhibit includes photographs by September Dawn Bottoms, drawings by Ghazal Ghazi, paintings by Skip Hill and America Meredith and prints by Dan Lynh Phạm.

People visit the "Immersive Van Gogh" experience in Minneapolis. The popular art exhibit will make its OKC debut Dec. 14. Photo provided.

15. 'Immersive Van Gogh'

When and where: Dec. 14-Jan. 8, OKC Convention Center.
Tickets: https://www.vangoghoklahoma.com.
What: Oklahoma City is slated to be the 21st North American city to host a blockbuster traveling exhibition that takes people inside some of the most iconic artworks in the history of Western civilization.

Features Writer Brandy "BAM" McDonnell has covered Oklahoma's arts, entertainment and cultural sectors for The Oklahoman for 20 years. Reach her atbmcdonnell@oklahoman.com,www.facebook.com/brandybammcdonnell andtwitter.com/BAMOK. Support her work by signing up for herSee & Do Oklahoma newsletter andsubscribing to The Oklahoman.