USAO professor to exhibit new works in campus’ Nesbitt Gallery

Jordan Vinyard, dean of the School of Visual and Performing Arts and associate professor of art at the University of Science & Arts of Oklahoma, will exhibit new works in a solo show entitled “CTRL + ALT + REPEAT” in the Nesbitt Gallery in Davis Hall. An opening reception will be held July 22 from 6–9 p.m., and the exhibit will remain on display until Aug. 27.

Vinyard’s newest exhibition consists of multi-media sculptures that intentionally create instinctive gaps for viewers, with each piece becoming part of a playful, absurd and strange choreography regarding influencers, digitalization and the agency media has on our lives. She believes technology can be used to re-humanize by prompting an audience to ask not, “What is that thing doing?” but rather, “What am I doing that makes that thing do what it's doing?” This engagement is central to the work, asking viewers to recognize the deep need for presence within a technological culture.

“Our lives are based on a concession of volts; the numerics of bars, power and connection are our confidants and security,” said Vinyard. “Mutilated by tiny cameras, filters and split screens, my work calls popular ideas concerning post-humanistic futures a counterfeit. Instead of bodies gaining qualities of strength and efficiency, they are becoming less posthuman and increasingly subhuman. ‘CTRL + ALT + REPEAT’ considers how technology is developed not only in terms of efficiency, but how it incorporates humanistic principles, from accessibility, data collection and surveillance.”

Part of the USAO faculty since 2013, Vinyard currently serves as dean of the School of Visual and Performing Arts, associate professor of art and is responsible for the university’s expanded media program. She is also the director of Art Wrecker, an experimental space centered on socially engaged forms of art. Since receiving her MFA from Florida State University, she has exhibited nationally and internationally, including at the International Symposium of Electronic Arts, Dubai; Czong Institute for Contemporary Art, South Korea; Museum of Contemporary Art, Tucson, Arizona; Art Basel, Miami; Mint Museum, Charlotte, North Carolina; Collarworks, New York, and many more.

For more information, contact Vinyard at 405-574-1301 or jvinyard@usao.edu.