This year marks the 33rd Tulsa Artists’ Coalition (TAC) juried exhibition. Selected from many submissions, the objects on view represent 99 recent work by 65 local TAC artist members. TAC is a volunteer run nonprofit organization of artists and art supporters, formed to encourage and support emerging and established contemporary artists, and to foster the development of new forms and multidisciplinary work in Tulsa and surrounding communities. Learn more at www.tacgallery.org.
Juror Bios
Kristin Gentry
Kristin Gentry is passionate about using her art to create different ways to preserve her traditional Native American tribal culture. Kristin has exhibited her artwork in numerous juried, invited, open, and group shows across the Midwestern United States. She works as a professional visual artist in the areas of relief and monotype printmaking, painting, jewelry and photography. She also works as a writer, designer, and curator. She worked as a full time arts educator in Stillwater, Oklahoma, and now works full time as an artist. Kristin is an enrolled member and registered artist of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. Kristin finished M.S. degree in Native Leadership from Southeastern Oklahoma State University in the spring of 2020. She received the National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development’s 40 under 40 award in 2012. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in fine arts from Oklahoma State University in 2009, and graduated as a Senior of Significance denoting the top of her class. She attained her Associate of Art in education from Tulsa Community College in 2005 as an Honor’s Scholar Graduate.
She was born and raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She lives in Oklahoma with her daughter, Jewell Shooting Star. She is a professional member and has served as a regional and national board member of the Alpha Pi Omega Sorority, Inc., Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition member, Tulsa Artists’ Coalition member, Southeastern Indian Artists Association member, and a member in the American Indian Science and Engineering Society. She is in her second year as a member of the Matriarch Oklahoma-Tulsa Class. She can often be found volunteering her time at AHHA Tulsa or at the Tulsa Artists’ Coalition. Kristin attributes her interest and love for the arts as instilled by her grandfather and woodcarver, James Oran Hoover, her family, her numerous fine arts professors, her mentor Benjamin Harjo Jr., and her beautiful heritage in which she draws her inspiration. Outside of her art career, Kristin is an avid gardener, often growing produce from heirloom seeds from the Cherokee and Choctaw Nations. www.kristingentry.com
Marjorie Bontemps
A curator and a contemporary cultural photographer based in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Marjorie spent several years in France where she observed early the value that art has on society. While schooled in the art of ancient Mesopotamia and Renaissance art, Marjorie’s interest as a curator is to innovate the way contemporary and non-Western art are seen, understood, and disseminated to visitors. To “explore alternative spaces and interpretations of how African and Black American artwork plays a role in how they are being represented in Western museums around the world.”
Marjorie has worked as an independent curator and art consultant since 2008. She received a B.A. in Classics at the University of Oklahoma and graduated with a Master’s Degree from the University of Tulsa in Museum Science and Management. Marjorie studied Art History and Cultural Studies at the Institut Catholique de Paris in France. “I have always had a fascination for art and antiquities. Art can express the agency of humanity as well as understanding cultural aspects of the human experience and how people in different places live and understand the world around them.”
She served as a board member in numerous art organizations and as a juror in several art shows in Tulsa, OK. She is a member of and currently serves on the board of directors of Inclusion In Arts, based in Oklahoma City, and serves on the committee of the Tulsa Studio Art Tour – Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition. She also administers her skills to curatorial projects for young emerging artists and gallery selection committees. Marjorie received the Governor’s Arts Award-Community Service in the Arts Award at the Oklahoma Arts Council in 2013, selected as a recipient to 2018 Curatorial Residency at Otis College of Arts & Design in Los Angeles, and a Fellow at Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition (OVAC) – Oklahoma Art Writing Curatorial Fellowship in 2018-2019.
