NEWS RELEASE
For Immediate Release
April 2, 2009

FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT:
Ann Dee Lee
Public Information Director
Oklahoma Arts Council
(405) 521-2931
anndee@arts.ok.gov

PAWHUSKA ARTIST’S EXHIBIT REVEALS CHINA FROM AN INSIDER’S VIEW
State Capitol, North Gallery through May 31

 

Oklahoma City, OK –Pawhuska artist Matt Jarvis’ exhibit, China Re-Collections, will be on display in the first floor of the North Gallery at the State Capitol through May 31st. Curated by the Oklahoma Arts Council, the North Gallery is devoted to Oklahoma’s finest photographers and is open daily from 8:30-5:00.

As a freelance photographer living in Pawhuska, Jarvis developed an interest in photography on a trip to Canada and his photography career took off with a trip to China. Jarvis’ family is of the Labadie clan, Osage tribe and he lives on land given to his great grandfather in 1889.  

“I’m interested in cultural identity and how people fit into the place where they live,” he explained. “Through travel, I’ve learned a lot more about the world. In my work I wanted to give other people that same opportunity.” In July 2006, he spent the month discovering China not as a tourist, but with three Chinese friends. He visited a rural county where he was the first Caucasian there in three years. He said he discovered that the country and the people were much different from what he expected.

“On every fireplace mantle in every rural farmhouse I visited, I found vases with the remains of honored ancestors. Above the mantle, scrolls were displayed that represented cultural values, or places that they wished to one day see. With China Re-Collections my intention is to portray these values and desires using a less classical type of presentation.”

Jarvis’s photographs can be seen in local, state, and regional magazines as well as art exhibits in Shanghai, China, the Riney Fine Arts Center in Wichita, Kansas and across Oklahoma.

For more information, contact Ann Dee Lee, Public Information Director, Oklahoma Arts Council, (405) 521-2931 or anndee@arts.ok.gov.

ABOUT THE OKLAHOMA ARTS COUNCIL

The Oklahoma Arts Council is a state agency whose mission is to improve lives through the arts by promoting and sustaining the development of a thriving arts environment, which is essential to quality of life, education and economic vitality for all Oklahomans.

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