The Oklahoma City Museum of Art presents Jonathan Hils: INTERSECTION, open through January 2, 2011.
The second installment of the NEW FRONTIERS: Series for Contemporary Art, INTERSECTION exhibits a selection of large-scale, hand-wrought automobiles by artist Jonathan Hils. These steel and aluminum sculptures express the artist’s interest in the American phenomena of oversized vehicles and society’s relationship with them.
Hils sculpture investigates the place where identity and the mythology of things intersect. He employs an intensive fabrication process that consists of thousands of welds—individually connected and metaphorically interwoven—to create luminous, large-scale representations of objects of American desire. Whether one identifies with automobiles—in this case, SUVs—as status symbols or as expressions of masculinity and power, Hils reconfigures and feminizes them, in part, questioning aspects of contemporary American culture and how we identify with it.
A native of New Hampshire, Hils is an associate professor of sculpture at the University of Oklahoma. He received his BFA from Georgia State University (1997) and his MFA from Tulane University (1999). Before coming to the University of Oklahoma, he served as an adjunct instructor (drawing and sculpture), studio manager, and technician at the College of Charleston School of the Arts in South Carolina. Hils received the 2005 Oklahoma Visual Art Coalition Fellowship (OVAC) for outstanding creative work in the visual arts. His sculpture is included in public and private collections and has been featured in solo and group exhibitions across the U.S.
NEW FRONTIERS: Series for Contemporary Art presents the work of individual contemporary artists and current perspectives in the field. The Series was created to provide a framework for the exchange of ideas between the Mu seum, artists, and the community. NEW FRONTIERS connects the Museum to the international dialogue on contemporary art and emphasize the impor tance of the art-of-our-time as a critical and dynamic part of our daily lives.
Image: Jonathan Hils, (American, b. 1970). Right Turn, 2005. Welded and coated steel
The Oklahoma City Museum of Art is located in the heart of downtown Oklahoma City’s Arts District, at 415 Couch Drive. Museum hours are Tuesday–Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Thursday, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.; and Sunday, noon to 5 p.m. The Museum is closed on Monday and major holidays. (405) 236-3100. Admission is $12 adults, $10 seniors, and military and students with ID. Children 5 and under and Museum members receive free admission. Cafe hours are Sunday Brunch, 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.; Monday, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.; and Tuesday–Saturday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. (405) 235-6262.
www.okcmoa.com
