Visual Arts

Philbrook REVIEW: Blooms Beckon while Surprises Intervene

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From Art in Bloom to The Leap into The Sun & a Nick Cage Soundsuit the Unexpected Awaits

By Glenda Rice Collins (Updated April 14, 2024)

Tulsa, Okla., USA — Last Weekend’s Art in Bloom at Philbrook Museum of Art served as the appetizer to a feast of an ever-inspiring array of eye candy and surprises as visitors stroll through the stately old mansion and reserve time for the resplendent formal gardens outdoors. The recent extravaganza of indoor blooms served to whet the appetite for current events NOW!

TODAY: ¡Descubra!: Celebrating Cultural Identities

Sunday, April 14
1:00pm – 5:00pm—FREE!*
*Capacity is limited. Advance tickets are highly recommended. View Events Details at: https://philbrook.org/calendar/descubra-celebrating-cultural-identities-2024-04-14/ Today celebrates the ongoing special exhibition Collidoscope: de la Torre Brothers Retro-Perspective Continuing through April 25

Collidoscope: de la Torre Brothers Retro-Perspective—a title that plays with the words “kaleidoscope” and “retrospective”—features dozens of colorful multi-media blown-glass objects and elaborately framed lenticular prints that span the spectacular, genre-defying careers of artists and brothers Einar and Jamex de la Torre. Born in Guadalajara, Mexico (1963 and 1960, respectively), Einar and Jamex de la Torre have for decades lived, worked, and collaborated on both sides of the San Diego/Tijuana border. 

Surprises Intervene!

As I ventured into Philbrook last Sunday to catch a view of the temporary creative display of blossoms indoors, I was stopped in my ever-rushing footsteps to ponder some surprising and unexpected visual delights as I entered the first familiar gallery located on the indoor blooms-exhibit pathway.

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On Collaboration: Preston Singletary ‘in his own words’ at Oklahoma City Museum of Art

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Raven and the Box of Daylight continues through April 28, 2024

By Glenda Rice Collins

Oklahoma City, OK, USA — At a recent Oklahoma City Museum of Art news media preview, multi-media artist, diligent glass designer and evocative contemporary musician Preston Singletary responded to my questions by giving enthusiastic credit to the importance and power of COLLABORATION! (Videos follow).– His dazzling Raven and the Box of Daylight immersive exhibition opened here November 11.

The same day, Singletary was featured during the innovative Native Sound Summit at the First Americans Museum and in a public, evening discussion with Dr. Miranda Belarde-Lewis during the intermission of his 10-piece band’s, Khu.éex’ Performance presentation.

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Review: “Diego Rivera’s America” enriched by recent SoNA concert at Crystal Bridges museum

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By Glenda Rice Collins

Bentonville, Ark., USA — Masterfully curated by award-winning Mexican conductor and educator Felipe Tristán to evoke themes from Diego Rivera’s “quintessential nationalist style,” the Symphony of Northwest Arkansas (SoNA), under the baton of SoNA music director Paul Haas, presented the recent, impressive concert collaborative, I Paint What I See, featuring diverse music by six distinguished Mexican composers who represent a contrasting variety of significant styles and evolving themes found in Mexican classical music. Bravo!

The June 30 evening concert took place in the scenic Great Hall of the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, where the Diego Rivera’s America exhibition continues through July 31, 2023.

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The Frida Effect: Final Days at Philbrook for Kahlo-Rivera Mexican Modernism exhibits

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*Community Dialogue Opportunity Scheduled for September 10:

How Frida Taught us to Paint Our Realities — Details follow.

By Glenda Rice Collins (Updated September 2, 2022)

Tulsa, Okla., USA — Last call: FRIDA KAHLO, DIEGO RIVERA, AND MEXICAN MODERNISM continues through September 11, 2022 at Philbrook Museum of Art, featuring: exemplary originals of iconic Frida’s paintings, videos of her beloved Casa Azul residence, and garden (as shown in banner image above), examples of her authentic, heritage-inspired attire, wall-sized reproductions of Rivera’s famed murals, and the couple’s unique Mexican garden-inspired influences visible throughout Philbrook’s vast gardens this summer.

The Philbrook gardens currently bloom with Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera-inspired plantings, and quotes. Photo by Glenda Rice Collins.

Born into a privileged Mexican lifestyle, the well-educated Frida Kahlo studied to be a doctor, but suffered severe injuries and life-long pain from a traffic accident in her youth, becoming broken, at times bedridden, and yet determined to express herself through her groundbreaking paintings, activism and political involvements. (See also: https://glendaricecollins.com/2019/10/11/the-art-of-recovery-part-ii-inspiration-from-frida-kahlos-garden-path/).

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OKC: Get your GLOW on at Scissortail Park this weekend

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Compiled by Glenda Rice Collins — Updated April 7, 2022

Community Celebration at Scissortail Park to feature lighted hot air balloons and drones!

Scissortail Springtime in the Park at Dusk: Photo by Glenda Rice Collins.

Oklahoma City, Okla. USA–In conjunction with the currently engaging GLOW interactive, lighted exhibition (continuing through April 10) Allied Arts and Inasmuch Foundation will present a community celebration on Friday, April 8, 7 – 11 p.m. at Scissortail Park, –featuring: a hot air balloon night glow, a synchronized drone light show, glow-in-the-dark art from local makers, live performances, music, food trucks and more. The event is free and open to all ages.

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Ansel Adams in Our Time: New Views Reflected Politically

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Iconic images illuminate current social issues through a contemporary lens.

By Glenda Rice Collins

Bentonville, Ark., USA — With memorable images of vast American landscapes now threatened with climate change and exploitation, Ansel Adams in Our Time continues at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, through January 3, 2021. The changing landscapes are now reflected among works by his notable peers, past and present.

“All Art is Political” –Hank Willis Thomas

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Crystal Bridges debuts The Momentary, Part I: Political Themes Anew

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By Glenda Rice Collins       (Updated February 28, 2020)

Bentonville, Arkansas, USA — While a continuing celebration of community and diversity Lauren with artswirled around Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art (CB) last weekend, as The Momentary, a new satellite museum venue for contemporary art debuted, –political themes loomed large within State of the Art 2020, the new venue’s inaugural exhibition, currently housed within both CB museum locations.  Time Being named the theme for diverse performances at the newly re-purposed Kraft cheese factory, located near the popular 8th Street Market food hub, hangout destination. The synergy now expands!

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Renegades: From Bruce Goff to Sondheim & Lorca 2020

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Renegades 2020

Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, University of Oklahoma, Norman

By Glenda Rice Collins    (Updated 2-16-20)

Norman, Okla. — Definitions of ‘renegade’ run the gamut from rebel, traitor, and betrayer to the more appropriate concepts for my recent University of Oklahoma arts district observations: revolutionary, radical, and runaway, to define artists, architects, and dramatists, along with musical theater themes and characters.  Continue reading →

Dance in 2020: Consider the Culture; The medium is the massage

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By Glenda Rice Collins, Updated 1-3-20

Bartlesville, Okla., USA — As media and culture analyst, author Marshall McLuhan said decades ago, “The medium is the massage…it does something to people. It takes hold of them. It rubs them off, it massages them and bumps them around, chiropractically, as it were…The poet, the artist, the sleuth – whoever sharpens our perception tends to be antisocial; rarely “well-adjusted,” he cannot go along with currents and trends…There is absolutely no inevitability as long as there is a willingness to contemplate what is happening.”  Continue reading →

The Art of Recovery, Part I: From the Beach to Christ Cathedral

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By Glenda Rice Collins   (Updated September 27, 2019)

Bartlesville, Okla., USA — Personal injury along with physical and mental duress can derail the best of intentions for a fulfilling life. To restore a semblance of “balance,” — Get thee to a beach, and get back to the arts!  Continue reading →