Thriving in 2025: Oklahoma’s Art Museums at a Glance
As the earth keeps spinning on its axis next year, one thing human beings need now more than ever is different points of view. That’s one way art can keep us grounded – seeing fresh perspectives and differing visions of the future keeps us more aware of the common bonds of our shared humanity.
Oklahoma art museums, acting stewards of this noble cause, are gearing up to exhibit a wide range of perspectives in their 2025 seasons. In these exhibits, everyone from die-hard art aficionados to those just dipping their toes into the scene will find something to challenge and appreciate throughout these gallery walls.
Paul Reed, No. 16J, 1963, acrylic on canvas, 31 x 31 in., Oklahoma City Museum of Art, gift of the Paul and Esther Reed Trust, 2018.012, © Paul and Esther Reed Trust, Image by Google
Oklahoma State University Museum of Art - Stillwater
OSU Museum of Art’s 2025 season begins with two retrospectives before diving into fiber art and a biennial juried exhibition. Starting this fall and continuing into 2025, Shadows and Light: The Photography of Brett Weston displays images from the artist’s seven-decade photography practice, largely known for his abstract imagery, manipulation of shape and texture, and unique techniques.
“I’ve overheard visitors in the gallery walk in and see a [Weston photograph] and say ‘Oh, I think that’s a broken windshield’ and then discover the label nearby and read ‘Ice.’ They’re always shocked to realize they’ve been tricked, but that is what Weston’s work does,” says Casey Ihde, Marketing Coordinator for the OSU Museum of Art.
After the Weston retrospective concludes, audiences will get a special peek into the chaotic and subversive mind of Ralph Steadman in a special traveling exhibit. Covered in Vanity Fair in the fall of this year, Ralph Steadman: And Another Thing, is making its way from the American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center in Washington D.C. before making a stop in Stillwater for four months. With over 140 of Steadman’s works and ephemera as curated by the Ralph Steadman Art Collection, audiences can explore some of Steadman’s notable works as well as his relationship with Hunter S. Thompson, culminating in a 3-week OSU student showcase at the exhibit’s close.
Following the Steadman exhibit is Fur, Fangs, Feathers & Fins with members of Studio Art Quilt Associates, Inc. showcasing art quilts representing wildlife and animals in their natural habitats. Finally, bringing 2025 to a close is OSU’s Cimarron National Works on Paper juried exhibit, which Ihde, says is “an expression of OSU's enduring commitment to works on paper and contemporary practice.”
As the Museum is the university’s official exhibit hall for art, entry to the Museum is always free and the staff is committed to creating free educational programming through tours, gallery guides, and engagement activities in the Museum’s hands-on art-making space, the artLAB.
2025 OSU Museum of Art Exhibits
Shadows and Light: The Photography of Brett Weston
October 29, 2024 - February 1, 2024
Ralph Steadman: And Another Thing
January 21 - May 10, 2025
Fur, Fangs, Feathers & Fins
May 27 – July 26, 2025
Cimarron National Works on Paper
August 19 – December 19, 2025
Learn more at museum.okstate.edu/.
Brett Weston (American, 1911-1993), Reeds, Japan, 1970, silver gelatin print, 10 3/4 x 12 1/8 inches. OSU Museum of Art, Gift from the Christian Keesee Collection, 2023.007.027
Ralph Steadman, “Self Poortrait” 2006, ink and collage on paper
Edward Weston, Ansel Adams (After He Got a Contax Camera), 1936, Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona: Gift of Ansel and Virginia Adams, 76.20.49, © Center for Creative Photography, Arizona Board of Regents
Oklahoma City Museum of Art - Oklahoma City
Kicking off 2025, the Oklahoma City Museum of Art is exploring of pieces of its permanent collection in From the Vault: The 80th Anniversary Exhibition. The primary goal of the exhibit is to show the depth and strength of the museum’s owned collection, with all the works on display not having been exhibited in the past five years. This exhibit also features recent acquisitions along with hidden gems organized by theme and decade of acquisition to tell the story of the Museum’s collection in its 80th year.
Midyear, audiences will explore Discovering Ansel Adams, an exhibit organized by the Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona, with the support of The Museum Box. Not only does this exhibit feature over 100 photographs and mural-sized prints spanning entire Adam’s career but it also is coupled with an intimate look at Adams.
“Discovering Ansel Adams offers an unparalleled opportunity for visitors to learn about the person behind the camera and see Adams in a way that they haven’t before,” Jessica Provencher, OKCMOA’s Curator of Exhibitions says. “These photographs demonstrate how Adams transformed from a fourteen-year-old tourist with a camera into a renowned photographer between 1916 and the 1940s.”
Provencher explains that the Adams exhibit will feature some of his most celebrated photos, including The Tetons and the Snake River, Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming, and rare, original archival documents only available from the Center of Creative Photography, such as correspondence, snapshots, and personal possessions, that “visitors won’t want to miss.”
Finally, closing out 2025 and spanning into 2026 is Paul Reed: A Retrospective. Reed, a seminal member of a group of artists in 1960s Washington D.C. called the Washington Color School, has never been the subject of a major retrospective until this exhibit with OKCMOA. Sourced primarily from OKCMOA’s permanent collection with loans from other collections, this exhibit has over one hundred paintings, sculptures, and sketches from the prolific artist.
2025 OKCMOA Exhibits:
From the Vault: The 80th Anniversary Exhibition
February 8-April 27, 2025
Showing works by artists such as Preston Singletary, Georgia O’Keeffe, Rufino Tamayo, Emilio Amero, Rembrandt van Rijn, Alfred Stieglitz, Mary Cassatt, Thomas Hart Benton, George Wesley Bellows, Edward Hopper, Carlos Mérida, Alfredo Zalce, and more
Discovering Ansel Adams
June 7-September 28, 2025
Paul Reed: A Retrospective
November 11, 2025 - April 12, 2026
Learn more at okcmoa.com.
The Philbrook Museum of Art - Tulsa
Running concurrently to American Artists, American Stories exhibit featured in the last issue of LUXIERE, the Philbrook Museum of Art’s War Club: Native Art and Activism (open now and closing in June of 2025) offers a different perspective on what it is to be an American. Centering the American Indian Movement (AIM), Osage artists and guest curators Anita and Yatika Fields delve into the art and ephemera of important Native social justice, resistance, and activism movements.
Opening in the midst of War Club, the show-stopping exhibit SAMURAI: Armor from the Collection of Ann and Gabriel Barbier-Mueller is a showcase of samurai armor, helmets, weaponry, and horse armor spanning multiple periods of Japanese history, ranging from 1185-1868. With extensive programming to support the “Summer of the Samurai,” the museum is expecting an extensive regional and national draw to this exhibit, offering a celebration of Japanese culture and art writ large.
While Jeff Martin, Director of Communication for the Philbrook, isn’t at liberty to divulge everything on the Philbrook’s exhibit list next year, he can discuss the P.S. Gordon retrospective opening towards the end of the year, marking one of the few times a Tulsa-local has been featured in a solo show at the Philbrook. Born in Claremore, Patrick (P.S.) Gordon received his BFA at the University of Tulsa and is a part of the New American Realism school, creating large-scale photo-realistic still lifes and portraits.
The variety of the exhibits offered at the Philbrook in the past few years is thanks partially to a $16 million investment in the Museum's endowment, changing Philbrook’s curatorial philosophy. As Martin says about the Philbrook’s approach to curating exhibits: “we like pivoting and doing a 180. If we have something like this, we try to do something very different the next time.”
2025 Philbrook Exhibits
War Club: Native Art and Activism
October 5 2024 - June 29, 2025
SAMURAI: Armor from the Collection of Ann and Gabriel Barbier-Mueller
March 12 - August 3, 2025
P.S. Gordon Retrospective
Opens September 24, 2025
Learn more at philbrook.org.
Signed by Myōchin Ki no Munenaga, Full-face mask (Sōmen), 1710 (Edo period). Iron, 9 × 7 1/2 ×5”.©️ The Ann & Gabriel Barbier-Mueller Museum, Dallas. Photo: Brad Flowers
Bob Haozous, piece from the “Power Exhibition,” early 21st century. Wood, paint, and metal
Oklahoma Contemporary - Oklahoma City
Next year, Oklahoma Contemporary has a singular focus for the museum’s entire campus and gallery footprint: presenting the first major retrospective of Indigenous artist Edgar Heap of Birds in Hock E Aye Vi Edgar Heap of Birds: HONOR SONG. Heap of Birds (Cheyenne name Hock E Aye Vi), a member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Nation, deftly focuses on Native activism, rights, and sovereignty in his works that span his over four decades as an artist. This over 90-piece exhibit, assembled from collections from across the country, contains a variety of works in different media – everything from prints to paintings, glasswork to public sculpture.
“We are excited to see how HONOR SONG will resonate with audiences and contribute to meaningful dialogue within the region and the field,” said Oklahoma Contemporary Adjunct Curator Pablo Barrera (Wixáritari). “Along with never-before presented ephemera from the artist’s studio, the expansive exhibition will make evident the ways in which Edgar Heap of Birds has utilized color, text, place, and the language of abstraction to reconstruct histories and advance the rights of people and land.”
As part of the exhibit is an Oklahoma Contemporary commissioned, large-scale public art piece called Neufs for Oklahoma Autumn, an entry into Heap of Birds’ ongoing Neuf series, installed at Campbell Art Park on April 24. Neuf,the Cheyenne word for ritually and cosmologically significant symbolism related to the number four, is part of Heap of Birds’ daily art practice that began in 1981 when he moved to Oklahoma. This specific entry into the series is a hand-painted basketball court with flanking backboards and a scoreboard that empathetically reminds the viewer that Native tribes will always be playing host to the non-Native residents of an area.
Along with Oklahoma Contemporary’s commitment to public arts programming of living artists, the Museum strives to bring many programs and exhibits to the community for free. Heap of Birds’ exhibit will occur in tandem with weekly guided tours, Artist Talks and art classes for adults and students.
“We believe that art has the power to provoke reflection, inspire empathy, and spark positive change,” says Barrera.
2025 Oklahoma Contemporary Exhibits
Hock E Aye Vi Edgar Heap of Birds: HONOR SONG | Mary LeFlore Clements Oklahoma Gallery
January 20 - October 20, 2025
Hock E Aye Vi Edgar Heap of Birds: HONOR SONG | Eleanor Kirkpatrick Main Gallery
February 20 - August 4, 2025
Hock E Aye Vi Edgar Heap of Birds: Neufs for Oklahoma Autumn
April 24, 2025 at Campbell Art Park
ARTNOW 2025
Fall 2025
Learn more at oklahomacontemporary.org.
Edgar Heap of Birds, Was Told Twelve Times, 2022, 12 monoprints on paper. Each panel, 22x15 in. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Severance ad Greta Millikin Trust, 2023.8.1-12. © Edgar Heap of Birds. Image courtesy of the artist.