Artists are bringing the kind of heat we actually appreciate to downtown this First Friday. We've got the full list of exhibits and activations right here, along with a new show on First Saturday at Positive Space. Also! Sunday, August 3, is your last day of all time to catch the "SAMURAI" show at Philbrook that made The Pickup's Z.B. Reeves achieve transcendence. Let's get into it!
First Friday x Record Club: Street Art Edition
Guthrie Green, 111 Reconciliation Way
August 1, 6pm
This edition of Record Club dives into the global language of street art, from Banksy to RETNA to REVOKE. Tulsa’s own Clean Hands Army will turn Guthrie Green into a living canvas with a live, collaborative mural experience. DJ Doc Free will be spinning deep cuts from hip-hop icons like Madlib, MF DOOM, and Peanut Butter Wolf—the soundtrack behind modern muralism. The Guthrie Green vendor market will be out in full force for First Friday, too.
Tulsa Artist Fellowship Open Studios
Tulsa Artist Fellowship Archer Studios, 109 MLK Jr. Blvd. E.
August 1, 6pm
The Cherokee Art Market teams up with TAF for this month's First Friday. Try your hand at soap sculpting, shop original artwork, and connect with Indigenous artists Julie Daugherty, Scott Middleton, and Kristin Gentry. Also in TAF's Archer Studios, take in the new exhibition Re:Collection by Rehab El Sadek in the first-floor gallery, a DJ set with Minneapolis-based Justis Brokenrope (Sičháŋǧu Lakȟóta), and work in progress for the Oklahoma Contemporary biennial by Hong Hong.
One block west in the TAF Flagship gallery (112 N. Boston Ave.), experience the Spatial Poems exhibit in a fresh way with "With Simone," a live performance of a Fluxus movement score, from 6:30-7:30pm.
"Without The Divine" by Olivia Maday & "Twilight Language" by Josiah Bolth
Living Arts of Tulsa, 307 E. Reconciliation Way
Exhibit opening: August 1, 6-9pm
On view through August 23
Two emerging artists are ready to blast you into the depths at Living Arts this month. Based in Boston, Olivia Maday holds an MFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University and works in video, sound, and installation. Her new exhibition contextualizes the myth of The Rape of Persephone within a contemporary framework, examining its enduring influence on the representation of female subjectivity in Western art and culture. New Orleans-based painter Josiah Bolth probes the frontiers of the modern American psyche by engaging the spirits that inhabit our inner landscapes. “Assigning names and characteristics to these spirits,” he writes, “gives people space to more readily slay the demons and seek the assistance of angels.”
"Still" by Lissa Hunter, Jane Sauer, Jo Stealey & Carol Stein
108 Contemporary, 108 Reconciliation Way
Exhibit opening: August 1, 6-9pm
On view through September 20
Art friendships are something special, and the art that comes out of them reflects individual and shared perspectives that shift and deepen over time. In this group show, these artists—friends over several decades—“tell stories through objects that are intended to capture still shots from our ongoing experiences … stories of objects themselves (Hunter), issues of compassion and social justice (Sauer), celebration of the mundane (Stealey) and glimpses of the psychological landscape (Stein).”
“The Zürich 7” by Kristen Lese
TAC Gallery, 9 E. Reconciliation Way
Exhibit opening: August 1, 6-9pm
On view through August 23
Through paper and canvas art with digital and virtual enhancements, “The Zürich 7” illuminates the lives of seven women who, in the late 1860s, defied societal norms and the closures of medical schools to women by confining themselves to Zürich to pursue their medical dreams.
MOVEMENT :: A Fashion Art Exhibition
101 Archer, 101 E. Archer St.
Exhibit opening: August 1, 6pm
On view through September 26
The Native Fashion Arts Collective presents MOVEMENT (in place / in thought / in time / physical), a fashion art exhibition featuring work by 14 Indigenous artists including Anita Fields and Wendy Ponca.
Outside the Tulsa Arts District:
"Earth Speaks" by Rachel Rector
Belafonte, 306 S. Phoenix Ave.
Exhibit opening: August 1, 6pm
On view through August 30
Rachel Rector continues her dialogue with the soft wisdom of earth through this immersive photographic installation, rooted in "the quiet, tactile process of camera-less image-making. This process is slow and intentional, created through direct collaboration with nature," she explains. "Using sunlight, water, chemistry, and organic materials, this exhibition captures the deep stillness of our Earth, made visible through a slow, elemental process." "Earth Speaks" features large-scale cyanotypes, darkroom prints on stone and glass, blind nature boxes, and a handprinted cyanimation.
Written Quincey Presents "En Aart Exibishon"
10 N. Greenwood Ave., Suite B
August 1, 5pm
Stop by the GreenArch building for a First Friday pop-up art event curated by poet Written Quincey, with performances starting at 8pm. The show features paintings, photographs, and spoken word flow.
The Market In Owen Park
6pm at Drifters Theater, 1305 W. Cameron
It might be "just like a mini mall," but we're including it here because: look at these artists! Come by for art, music, vinyl, vintage and handmade goods, plus BBQ, beer, espresso, and DJ sets by Brian Horton, Warren Realrider, and Jesse Aycock.
First Saturday:
"Between Now and Next" by Cassidy Frye
Positive Space Tulsa, 1324 E. 3rd St.
Exhibit opening: August 2, 5-8pm
On view through August 23
"Between Now and Next” is Tulsa-based sculptor, ceramicist, and printmaker Cassidy Frye’s look at liminal moments, represented in craft. “Much like a house,” she writes, “we are constantly in a state of construction. A home isn’t finished when building is completed; it continues to change and settle with time. We temporarily occupy spaces where we construct our lives.... At a moment’s notice this house can be gone but the memories remain. The way a house is built can be compared to the way we build relationships bit by bit and those relationships are just as fragile. What is important are the moments between and how that time is spent.”
