School of Visual Arts — Nona Jean Hulsey Art Gallery
The Nona Jean Hulsey Art Gallery, located in the Norick Art Center on the Oklahoma City University Campus, is the focus of the university's participation in the visual arts. The gallery provides a contemporary exhibition space for significant and challenging exhibitions by local and national artists and art organizations. The Hulsey Gallery affords the School of Visual Arts student educational opportunities related to collection management and exhibition of art in a professional gallery.
The mission of the Nona Jean Hulsey Art Gallery is to promote the understanding of and extend the audience for contemporary art, and to present exhibitions that inform, inspire and challenge the public, particularly students of Oklahoma City University. The Hulsey Art Gallery is an integral part of the School of Visual Arts, and it is used daily by visitors, students and faculty.
“Dystopian Hope”
March 13 - May 5
Artist talk at 6 p.m. March 23 with Virginia Wagner
Hulsey Art Gallery in the Norick Art Center, 1608 NW 26th St.
Featuring the work of three artists: Virginia Wagner, Sarah FitzSimons and Kyle Larson
Gallery hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Fridays
Curator and gallery director Heather Lunsford said the show strives to illustrate the ties between the artist’s view, the writer’s voice and the filmmaker’s perspective in the current climate of political upheaval, unprecedented weather events and deadly viruses. “Dystopian works ask ‘What if humanity cannot be rescued from its worst impulses?’” Lunsford said. “In this way, dystopian themes allow us to engage with and face the most difficult environmental, social and political issues in our times and grant us the permission to be scared and unsure, mortal and flawed. But there is a hopefulness in dystopian storytelling and art —showing us that it is possible to fight back against systems of wealth and power with compassion or empathy and help dismantle oppression and abuse.” Dystopia translates as “bad place” from ancient Greek, with the traditional interpretation of dystopian art forms as bleak warnings of the dangers of totalitarianism and how it leads to disaster. In many dystopian works, the viewer is presented with brutality or immoral circumstances that tend to offer an exaggeration of humanity’s fears. Dystopian narratives allow their creators to take threads of current reality and push them to their limit — apocalyptic climate change, coup, nuclear war, etc.