Art

This exhibition, open at OKCMOA, displays experimental artworks that yield illusionistic or even distorting effects that ultimately provide very different, at times almost hallucinogenic, experiences.

Screening on Thursday evenings in conjunction with OKCMOA's multimedia exhibition Kiarostami: Beyond the Frame (October 15-April 9), this retrospective film series highlights the poetic beauty, resonant humanism and formal experimentation of Iranian artist Abbas Kiarostami's work in cinema. | This series is presented in memory of Jeanne Hoffman Smith and in partnership with Janus Films. 

A new, historic exhibition of French art will open on August 20, 2022 at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art. The period from 1850 to 1950 was one of immense change in France. Arranged chronologically, the works in this exhibition explore these radical changes in French art over a span of only 100 years. 

Co-organized by the American Federation of the Arts and Tougaloo College, Art and Activism at Tougaloo College examines the birth and development of this unique collection—the first in Mississippi dedicated to modern art.

William H. Johnson celebrated Black activists and their accomplishments even as he acknowledged the realities of racism, violence, and oppression they faced and overcame.

Organized by OKCMOA in partnership with the Kiarostami Foundation, Kiarostami: Beyond the Frame is a multimedia, retrospective survey of artworks by acclaimed Iranian filmmaker, photographer, and visual artist, Abbas Kiarostami.

Highlights from the Rose Family Glass Collection provides visitors with a deeper contextual understanding of OKCMOA’s collection of Chihuly glass by showcasing the broader story of the Studio Glass movement that originated in America in the 1950s and continues to the present day. Visitors to OKCMOA will be introduced to highlights of the collection beginning Labor Day weekend 2022.

Ed Ruscha, Robert Indiana, and Andy Warhol will be the focus of a new Pop Art gallery on the second floor of the Museum, opening on January 30, 2022. Two newly acquired lithographs by Ruscha will be featured – Boom Town (2020) and Turbo Tears (2020).

Perception and Technique in Abstract Art presents longstanding Museum highlights by Sam Gilliam, Thomas Downing, Helen Frankenthaler, Sam Francis, Ellsworth Kelly, Gene Davis, Paul Reed, and Victor Vasarely.

A new, original exhibition of photographs by iconic sports photographer Walter Iooss Jr. will open March 5, 2022 at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art. The Perfect Shot: Walter Iooss Jr. and the Art of Sports Photography includes over 80 photographs spanning 50 years of Iooss’ career.

After relocating to Santa Fe, New Mexico, for a teaching position, American artist Fritz Scholder (Luiseño) stated he saw one too many over-romanticized and generalized depictions of Indigenous people “looking at the sunset.” With his Indian series, started in 1967, Scholder sought to replace the tourist-approved narratives perpetuated by white artists with the realities he witnessed every day. By combining realism and spirituality with vivid colors and expressive brushstrokes, Scholder created radical new imagery of modern-day Indigenous life. Fritz Scholder: Beyond Stereotypes features 10 prints and one painting from Scholder’s revolutionary Indian series.

Theseus and the Minotaur, Narcissus and Echo, the Judgment of Paris: these may be stories you know, or names you have heard. For millennia, Classical mythology has been a shared language through which artists can tells tales of heroism, love, vengeance, and more. From the frescoes of ancient Rome through the art of today, myths have served as an eternal source of inspiration.

Artists from around the world have long been captured by the enduring appeal of the Italian countryside. Its sweeping vistas, at times sprinkled with ancient ruins, make for an enticing subject for artists in a variety of mediums. American artists in particular traveled to Italy throughout the nineteenth century to study not only the great masterpieces of ancient and Renaissance art, but also to sketch and paint the campagna, or countryside, basked in a beautiful glow.

Featuring 99 paintings created between 1809 and the present by masters such as Winslow Homer, John Singer Sargent and Andrew Wyeth, For America: Paintings from the National Academy of Design opened November 6, 2021 at OKCMOA and runs through January 30, 2022. These masterworks provide a unique history of American art as told by many of the best-known American artists.

OKCMOA at 75 traces the history of the Oklahoma City Museum of Art from its founding through the present day. Through more than 40 newspaper clippings, photographs, letters, publications and the scrapbooks kept by the Museum’s first director, Nan Sheets, the historical exhibition explores the Museum’s rich past. OKCMOA at 75 will be on view in the Museum’s lobby and is free to visit.

The Painters of Pompeii: Roman Frescoes from the National Archaeological Museum, Naples will see a number of collection highlights travel to North America for the first time. Opening June 26 and running through October 17, this historic presentation of the art of painting in ancient Rome will be presented exclusively at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art before returning to Europe.

Featuring photographs given in honor of the Museum’s 75th anniversary, Shared Lives, Distant Places highlights contemporary photographers who employ different photography styles—documentary, photojournalism, and street photography—to capture the global human experience, offering alternative ways of seeing and understanding the people, places, and events that shape the world in which we live. The exhibition provides a glimpse into the everyday lives of people, conflicts, and historical events around the world at various moments in time, and explores the working process of six contemporary photographers. The exhibition will feature works by renowned photographers Donna Ferrato, Peter Turnley, Kristin Capp, Alen MacWeeney, Gary Mark Smith, and Robert von Sternberg.

The Beaux Arts collection is an especially playful and eclectic body of work that includes everything from an idyllic summer landscape by a master Abstract Expressionist to a kitschy 1980s "altarpiece" featuring a pair of photorealistic Dalmatians. In honor of the 75th anniversary of the Museum’s original fundraiser, the Beaux Arts Ball, OKCMOA will begin to present the entirety of its Beaux Arts collection in a series of exhibitions and permanent collection installations highlighted by Beaux Arts at 75.

Art with a History delves into the provenance of a number of diverse works of art from the permanent collection. Featuring a range of artworks, including paintings, sculptures, and works on paper, from the Renaissance to the twentieth century, this exhibition explores the unique ownership histories of each object and ...

In celebration of Oklahoma Contemporary’s inaugural exhibition, Bright Golden Haze, the Oklahoma City Museum of Art will present its own satellite exhibition, The Art of Light. Inspired by the exploration of light as a tool to create space, The Art of&...