About the Exhibition
THE GALLERY @ Mayfest is a new concept exhibition and an official element of the 2022 Tulsa Mayfest, Tulsa’s largest arts festival. Each work in the exhibition has been thoughtfully created by an artist currently working in the Tulsa community.
Fifty four local artists responded to ahha Tulsa’s open call seeking new and innovative works of art. Of these entries, an independent jury selected twenty works to be included in the exhibition. The artists not only represent a wide range of aesthetics and media; some are established artists, and others are showing their work in a gallery for the first time.
For over 25 years, Tulsa Mayfest hosted an invitational gallery that displayed work by local artists for one week during the annual festival. As Mayfest evolved, organizers wished to find a new avenue to share contemporary local art, and THE GALLERY @ Mayfest was born.
Please note: Jury members who submitted work were recused from their own evaluation. Scores were not shared among jurors. We believe this process allowed for honest scoring and selection.
About the Jurors
Francheska Alcántara is an artist who lives and works in the Bronx, New York. “I am connected to the intersection of gesture, ritual, myth and re-interpretation of signifiers in Caribbean culture and the diaspora. By this I mean, interrogating artifacts and interactions within the realm of domestic and public life that have specific social meaning in this culture. It is in these interactions that cultural norms and traditions live. My aim is to utilize the subjective experience that resides in these traditions to explore slippages of the self while also expanding on our capacity for pleasure, love and intra-connections.” More about Francheska at https://francheskaalcantara.com/
Byron Shen holds a Bachelor of Arts in English and Creative Writing from Juniata College in Pennsylvania and a Master of Fine Arts in Drawing/Painting from Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan. He lives in Tulsa where he teaches art at the Middle & Upper Schools along with being the Holliman Gallery Coordinator at Holland Hall. His awards include a New Forms Initiative Grant from the NEA and Rockefeller Foundation, the Vila Garner Metzger Award, the Jingle Feldman Grant, Award of Merit OVAC Painting Biennial II, and the Award of Merit IAO Mixed Competition.
It has been said his painting works within the space between the human and the spiritual with increasing directness and grace. His work defines an energy of being. – J. Vogh
His work is represented at M. A. Doran Gallery in Tulsa, Oklahoma
Teresa Valero, a native of Venezuela, is a Professor Emerita at The University of Tulsa where she was the Director of the School of Art, Design and Art History. She was co-founder and Creative Director of Third Floor Design, a student-run design studio that provides high-quality design services for nonprofit organizations in Tulsa and surrounding states. In 2013 Valero received the Governor’s Arts and Education Award for her contributions to the Arts in Oklahoma.
She works as a photographer and graphic designer, winning many awards in advertising and design, some include the Tulsa Addy Awards, Graphex, and Creativity Today. Valero’s photographs have been exhibited in Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Arizona, Texas, Georgia and Arkansas; overseas her work has been seen in Venezuela, Spain, Lebanon, Syria and Canada.
She has curated many exhibitions including the Little Black Dress: New Takes on a Timeless Classic and OUR Journey to America, a documentary photography show that is housed at the YWCA Multi Cultural Center. She firmly believes in giving back to one’s community whatever that might be.
