Six Oklahoma artists working in mediums as different as hand-blown glass and hand-stitched thread are about to share a single gallery wall in Oklahoma City. Depth and Space, a new exhibit built around abstract, geometrically grounded works, opens Tuesday, September 22, inside the Tulsa World Lorton Family Gallery at the Oklahoma Hall of Fame's Gaylord-Pickens Museum and runs through December 12.
The show leans on non-traditional materials that play with light, shadow and texture rather than paint alone, according to the Journal Record. The lineup includes Molly Murphy Adams, Jonathan Bolivar, Carrie Daley, Sarah Rob, Steven Schmidt and John Wolfe, a roster the Oklahoma Hall of Fame itself describes as a cross-section of Oklahoman creators spanning glasswork, fiber art, beadwork, pointillism and mixed-media sculpture.
A Beadworker With Hollywood Ties, and a Glassblower's Venetian Roots
Among the more nationally recognized names is Molly Murphy Adams, a Tulsa-based artist and descendant of the Oglala Lakota who builds contemporary sculptural beadwork fusing traditional Indigenous methods with Western abstract design. Her custom beadwork appeared in Martin Scorsese's 2023 film Killers of the Flower Moon, and according to background from Oklahoma State University, she holds a Master of Art History from the school and specializes in contemporary fiber arts.
Jonathan Bolivar brings a very different set of hands to the show. The Tulsa glass artist and outreach coordinator at the Tulsa Glassblowing School is among the exhibitors. He began glassblowing at the Tulsa school before completing an apprenticeship at the Pittsburgh Glass Center.
Optical Tricks, Thread on Paper, and Thousands of Painted Dots
Oklahoma City artist Steven Schmidt, who won the 2023 Contemporary Design Award at the State of Craft Biennial, contributes mixed-media wall reliefs with neon-like luminous effects. Schmidt draws on a background in graphic design and broadcast media to inform those compositions.
Owasso artist Sarah Robl works in an entirely tactile register, stitching thread onto paper to build intricate geometric compositions, an approach she showed in her 2025 dual exhibition An Unlikely Pairing at Tulsa's 108 Contemporary gallery. Her studio practice uses that thread-on-paper approach. Carrie Daley contributes to the exhibition.
Rounding out the group is John Wolfe, whose work is included in the exhibition.
Curator's Pitch: Slow Down and Actually Look
Mattie Barlow, curator of collections and exhibitions at the Oklahoma Hall of Fame, is challenging visitors to look at a single piece for five or ten minutes rather than breezing through the gallery. Barlow said Depth and Space offers the community a quiet, necessary pause, per the Journal Record's report on the exhibit.
A free gallery reception open to the public runs from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, September 24, with light refreshments provided. The Gaylord-Pickens Museum, located in Oklahoma City, is open Tuesday through Saturday, and the exhibit is partially funded by the Oklahoma City Community Foundation, which distributed $412,000 across 27 culture and community grants in late 2024 to support local history, music and art initiatives, according to the Oklahoma City Philharmonic.
A Historic Building With Its Own Layers
The gallery housing the new show sits inside a building with its own long history. The Gaylord-Pickens Museum was constructed in 1927 in the Neo-Classical style as headquarters for the Mid-Continent Life Insurance Company, and it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979, according to the Historical Marker Database.
The Oklahoma Heritage Association acquired the building in 2001 after a gift from publisher E.L. Gaylord, followed by a matching donation from energy executive T. Boone Pickens in 2005; the building opened as a public museum in 2007, as detailed in Hoodline's prior coverage of the organization's history. Founded in 1927 by Anna B. Korn as the Oklahoma Memorial Association, the Oklahoma Hall of Fame has since honored more than 750 distinguished Oklahomans and recently launched a statewide Road to 100 tour ahead of its 2027 centennial.
