OKLAHOMA CITY, OK.- The Oklahoma City Museum of Art celebrates two new contemporary exhibitions this winter including, “Chuck Close: Works on Paper” and “Come on Down” by Lisa Hoke. Museum visitors will be immersed in a colorful site-specific installation by Lisa Hoke in the Museum’s third floor gallery while seeing the variety of techniques by well-renowned artist Chuck Close from noted collector Jordan D. Schnitzer of Portland, Oregon.
“These two exhibitions will be an exceptional opportunity to see a major exhibition by Chuck Close—one of America’s most celebrated living artists—and new work by Lisa Hoke—an artist who has been rapidly gaining the attention of the art world though her site-specific installations,” said OKCMOA President and CEO E. Michael Whittington. “The Chuck Close exhibition also inaugurates a relationship with Jordan Schnitzer—a business leader and philanthropist from Portland, Oregon, who has assembled one of the country’s most significant contemporary works on paper collection.”
Jordan D. Schnitzer added, “I am very pleased to continue our relationship with Michael Whittington in his new position as President and CEO of the Oklahoma Museum of Art. This exhibition is incredible! I cannot imagine anyone who walks through this show not being moved by the brilliance of this artist.”
“Chuck Close: Works on Paper”
December 13, 2013-February 16, 2014
American artist Chuck Close has been a leading figure in contemporary art since the early 1970s. Celebrating years of the artist’s printmaking career, “Chuck Close: Works on Paper,” from the collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and his Family Foundation, includes etchings, linoleum cuts, lithographs, screen prints, woodcuts, and paper pulp multiples. The featured artwork includes self-portraits of the artists, and portraiture of family and friends including Alex Katz, Robert Rauschenberg, Janet Fish, Philip Glass, Keith Hollingworth, Kate Moss, and Brad Pitt, among others.
Originally associated with photorealism, Close's rigorously systematic approach and often visibly gridded formats are similar to those who emerged alongside him in the late 1960s.Though Close is known primarily for his contribution to the history of large-scale painting, he has played a significant role in innovating new methods for printmaking. He made his first print in 1972 and since then has explored the possibilities and limits of the print medium. Close constantly challenges conventional practices and continues to follow the bold trajectory he set for himself nearly five decades ago. When viewed together, his self-portraits are more than just a microcosm of his work at large—they are a timeline of an ongoing investigation of print-making, of materials, and of personal biography.
Close is one of the most highly regarded and influential late twentieth century American artists. He has been the subject of major retrospectives from the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the Walker Art Center, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Close is represented in the collections of major museums throughout the world. Support for the exhibition has been made possible by the Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation.
“Come on Down” by Lisa Hoke
December 13,2013-April 13, 2014
Organized by the Oklahoma City Museum of Art, “Come on Down” by New York sculptor Lisa Hoke, features a site-specific contemporary mural installation in the Museum’s third floor galleries and is on display December 13, 2013–April 13, 2014. The monumental wall sculpture, measuring fifteen feet high and spanning more than 150 feet, incorporates an assortment of every day materials—from recycled paper and product packaging to plastic cups—which serves as a vehicle of color to attract the eye and challenges the irony of mass production in America.
“The visual beauty and title of this exhibition presents multiple meanings. Every one of these packages involve people sitting down and discussing, ‘what’s going to make somebody come on down and buy this?’” explained Hoke. “Color is the thing that makes my heart pound. It’s not the logo; it’s not the printing; it’s the thrill of the color. And I can’t really explain that. It just—it’s a love mixed with over stimulation.”
Hoke begins the creative process in her studio by making 3 x 3 foot assemblages which are then connected into voluminous color patterns; though she creates these small sections in advance, they are placed spontaneously during installation. The visitor experiences complete immersion into a vast color field—the closer the inspection, the more recognizable elements begin to emerge.
