The Oklahoma Visionaries Exhibit

The Gallery at Liggett Studios, Tulsa, OK - October 13, 2023 -November 3, 2023

and Owens Art Space Museum in Guthrie, OK - March 15 - April 19, 2024

An Artist Talk by Paul Medina was presented on April 7, 2024

Penance (below) from The Oklahoma Visionaries Exhibit

Photography by Ann Sherman

Penance is a mixed-media sculpture by Oklahoma born artist, Paul Medina. Penance is a golden human figure balancing a large branch on its head with several thorns and a rose on a green wooden base.

"Penance, atonement, forgiveness...

All part of the human experience, some of the positive ones. I've been thinking about this a lot of late. We need more of it right now."

Penance is 33" x 10", mixed media on fired clay and wood, 2023

The Oklahoma Visionaries exhibit is the culmination of an eleven month search led by co-curators, Pam Hodges and Steve Liggett, to identify Visionary artists currently living in Oklahoma. The curators contacted art organizations, centers, galleries, and collectors, in 29 Oklahoma cities and towns and in four states. The search resulted in submissions from 57 artists. Finding artists who, by nature, are unconcerned with being found was a challenge unique to this endeavor.

The Oklahoma Visionaries exhibition features work by twenty, self-taught, Oklahoma artists. All have a drive that springs from a uniquely personal vision and a lack of concern for the mainstream art world. Life experiences that include marginalization also inform their art.

(The Oklahoma Visionaries Exhibit first showing was October 13, 2023 -November 3, 2023 at The Gallery at Liggett Studios, Tulsa, OK)

The Spaces In Between

December 2022 - January 2023

The Spaces In Between

An Exhibition of New Works at 1515 Lincoln Gallery Oklahoma City, OK

December 8, 2022 thru January 14, 2023

Photography by Ann Sherman

Artist's Statement

I am an artist who works in series. Sometimes the series lasts for a few years, some for decades. I either tire of the imagery or medium and feel the need to explore, change, and do something different. Once a series ebbs, I may spend a few months or years creatively playing, slowly developing new imagery, and many times introducing new materials as well.

This collection of work in this exhibition includes both works of a new series, and some of the pieces I played with in between one series and the other. Usually, no one sees these works. I decided to show these works in this show.

All the works speak to the sense of place and the comfort and security it can bring.

Some pieces are collage paintings of paper and various liquid mediums on canvas others are amulets/mobiles and made of low fired clay, acrylic paint, steel, and copper.