Hanging by a thread? Avoiding your taxes? Welcome to April 2025, where local artists are thoughtfully bringing us opportunities to consider the elemental forces that will be with us even after the 20-year-olds at DOGE have combusted.
Migration, interconnectedness, and renewal are strong themes in this month's new exhibits. Here's a look at what's on view this weekend and throughout the month—and if you really just need to see something on fire, swing by the Rabbit Hole at 8:30pm on Friday for Tulsa's first BUY OR BURN Art Auction, where all unsold art gets literally incinerated.
Friday, April 4
Exhibit Opening: "Full Circle" by Red Heat Collective
6pm at 108|Contemporary, 108 Reconciliation Way (through May 24)
Tulsa's Red Heat Collective does deep, playful, dynamic work with the earthiest of media: clay. In this group show, they bring their philosophy and practice of cyclical interdependence from their bustling Pearl District headquarters to downtown's fine craft gallery.
Exhibit Opening: "Flowers Shall Grow" by Mery McNett
6pm at TAC Gallery, 9 Reconciliation Way (through April 26)
Mery McNett has been one of Tulsa's most accomplished painters for years, with an eye for surreal color and a Lucien Freud-esque way with bodies. Her recent work on the subject of grief has been brutal, beautiful, and compelling. In this new exhibit, that raw feeling composts into bulges of fluorescence, uncanny spirit guides, and evidence of rebirth.
Exhibit Opening: "From West to West: A Cartographic Journey" by Oluwabanké Bajela
6pm at Living Arts of Tulsa, 307 Reconciliation Way (through May 17)
This exhibition visually charts the complex and personal odysseys of West African immigrants through textured, sculptural paintings and animations, creating a visual dialogue between ancestral traditions and contemporary realities.
Hip-Hop America: The Mixtape Exhibit
6pm at Woody Guthrie Center, 102 Reconciliation Way (through September 7)
This Grammy Museum-curated exhibit celebrates the multifaceted world of hip-hop through expansive exhibits on hip-hop music, dance, graffiti, fashion, business, activism and history. Memorabilia from the likes of LL Cool J, Biggie, Tupac and many more tell the story of hip-hop's lineage and legacy.
TU Visiting Artist Concert: Ensemble Dal Niente
8pm at Lorton Performance Center, 550 S. Gary Pl.
What's a concert doing on a list of visual art shows? The truth is, music like this is so vivid that it's basically sculptural. This Chicago-based group is a globally-acclaimed innovator in new chamber music. ("Dal niente" is Italian for "from nothing.") "Music isn't a thing," says an Ensemble Dal Niente member; "it's a process, a state of becoming." After Friday's art crawl, stop into TU’s performance hall to aurally integrate the sights you saw downtown with a program that includes a piece by our own Alican Çamci, Assistant Professor of Music and Film Studies at TU.
Saturday, April 5
Exhibit Opening: "Southern Ems" by Regina Dao, Nic Annette Miller & Đan Lynh Phạm
5pm at Positive Space Tulsa, 1324 E. 3rd St. (through April 26)
This month marks the 50th anniversary of the Fall of Saigon, and three Tulsa-based Vietnamese American artists are coming together to trace the impact of displacement and migration in the lives of their families. For this show, Regina Dao, Nic Annette Miller (Nguyễn), and Đan Lynh Phạm have curated and created works that reveal a shared connection of their family’s homeland in Southern Vietnam to the South of the United States off of Route 66.
Friday, April 11
Exhibit Opening: "Caterpillar Juice" by Caleb Burgess and Rochelle Hardman
5pm at Liggett Studio, 314 S. Kenosha (through May 1)
Inspired by the twelve steps of the hero’s journey, this dual exhibition unites two distinct artistic voices. One artist captures the vast landscapes that mirror our external challenges and environments, while the other delves into the emotional and psychological terrain of the human condition.
Tuesday, April 22
Exhibit Opening: "Curiosity"
5pm at TCC McKeon Center for Creativity, 910 S. Boston Ave.
"Curiosity" features the work of Johnnie Diacon, a renowned Mvskoke artist whose art has graced the cover of Joy Harjo’s recent book, appeared on Reservation Dogs, and been collected across the U.S. The exhibition also highlights the talents of TCC students, employees, and community artists. The opening reception includes remarks by Diacon, bites from Shawkat's, and dancers from four different traditions: Lexi Allen (Flamenco), Priya Raju (East Indian Classical Dance), Jessica Cajina (hip hop), and Mike Pasehtopa (Native performer and cultural educator).
Ongoing
"Los Nopales del Norte" curated by Rogelio Esparza
12pm-5pm, through April 6
Elevate East / Hannah Hall, 1801 S. Garnett Rd.
"Drift///Hold" curated by Ashanti Chaplin and Lindsay Aveilhé
12pm-5pm Thursday-Saturday, through April 18
ARCO Building, 119 E. 6th St.
Tulsa Artist Fellowship April Programming
April 4: First Friday Open Studios
April 9: Nakatani Gong Orchestra
April 19: Joy Harjo
April 24: LEYA
Tulsa Artist Fellowship Studios (109 M.L.K. Jr. Blvd.) & Flagship (112 N. Boston Ave.)
"Black Gold in Oil Town" (A History of Tulsa's Negro League Baseball)
12pm-5pm Wednesday-Saturday, through April 26
101 Archer, 101 E. Archer St.
"Samurai"
9am-5pm Wednesday-Sunday, through August 3
Philbrook Museum of Art, 2727 S. Rockford Rd.
Photography by Sebastiao Salgado & Luke Oppenheimer
11am-6pm Wednesday-Friday & 12pm-5pm Saturday, through May 17
The Hulett Collection, 1311 E. 15th St.
