RECENT ACQUISITIONS
GALLERY AT OKCMOA ACQUIRES NEW
WORK BY CONTEMPORARY
ARTIST LISA HOKE

"Come on down Oklahoma now on view at
the Oklahoma City Museum of Art

Lisa Hoke (American, b. 1952). "Come on Down, Oklahoma," 2015. Cardboard packaging, glue, and hardware. Oklahoma City Museum of Art. Museum commission with funds from the Carolyn A. Hill Collections Endowment, 2015.001, © Lisa Hoke

The newest addition to the Oklahoma City Museum of Art's permanent collection is an 8-by-8-foot collage created by New York sculptor Lisa Hoke. Commissioned by the Museum, the collage is composed of material from Hoke's 2013 site-specific installation at OKCMOA, "Come on Down," a monumental wall sculpture, measuring 15 feet high and spanning more than 150 feet. 

"It was really important to me that 'Come On Down, Oklahoma' be created from elements extracted one final time from the original installation, representing an emotional response to the enormous, superhuman scale of the installation and the unique opportunity to work with the Oklahoma City Museum of Art," Hoke said. 

"I started with the white shirt boxes that I've always loved-the top left corner of the work-and it was a big section that I've moved around the country from show to show," she continued. "In fact, I didn't want to part with it. However, I soon realized that it should be the section to inspire the entire piece." 

"The Oklahoma City Museum of Art has a strong commitment to supporting contemporary artists through the exhibition and acquisition of their work," explained President and CEO, E. Michael Whittington. "The beauty and monumentality of Lisa's installation 'Come on Down' mesmerized our visitors. We were delighted that she reconfigured her original installation specifically for our permanent collection." 

Hoke began her career by working with found materials such as cast iron, wire and automobile parts, but then turned to the mass-produced, color-saturated cardboard found in consumer culture. Hoke said, "I wanted to show the positive effect of the colorful and attention-grabbing packaging. The negative effect is the tremendously disposable society in which we live." 

She collects items from eBay and discarded materials from local stores and the recycling bins in the basement of her apartment building. She sorts her items by color-after each item has been carefully scrutinized-before cutting them up and reassembling into collages. 

Lisa Hoke has constructed works for many solo exhibitions and has been included in numerous prestigious group shows. She has work in the permanent collections of the Whitney Museum of Art in New York City, the New York Public Library, the Johnson Museum of Art at Cornell University, and the D'Amour Museum, Springfield, MA, to name a few. Lisa was born in Virginia Beach, VA in 1952. She received a Bachelor of Arts from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in 1974, followed by a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Virginia Commonwealth University in 1978. Lisa has lived and worked in New York City for over thirty years. She is currently represented by Pavel Zoubok Gallery, New York, NY. 

"Come on Down, Oklahoma" is currently on view in the Museum's "Recent Acquisitions of Contemporary Art" gallery alongside works by Jill Downen, Michael Eastman, Jonathan Hils, Franco Mondini-Ruiz, and Wayne White, who each had exhibitions at the Museum. 

For ticket information and Museum hours, visit www.okcmoa.com.

From staff sources