May 3rd Is First Friday At The Black Wall Street Art Gallery

The Oklahoma Eagle Newswire

The May installment at the Black Wall Street Gallery, a subsidiary of Black Wall Street Arts, which opens Friday, May 3rd, features Tulsa artists MollyWatta and Matthew Phipps. Doors open at 6 p.m. for the ninth installment in the Conciliation Series at the Black Wall Street Gallery, located at 101 N. Greenwood Ave.

Black Wall Street Arts’ mission is to create platforms, grant access, and bridge gaps in Tulsa.

Tulsa native Matthew Phipps has been traveling around the world for the past 15 years pointing his camera at different things. What started out as his love for documenting skateboarding culture and the urban environment has blossomed into an all out love affair with humanity and the emotions involved with everyday life. Matthew now lives between Mexico City and Bogota, Colombia making pictures and films. His work focuses on the extremities of life, the good and the bad.

“We live in an ever changing world full of complex situations and emotions. There is tremendous joy and incredible suffering around us all of the time. Everyday Is Babylon my personal response to this phenomenon,” Phipps said.

He is set to release his first book “La Playa” later this year. Check out www.mattphippsfilm.com for more information.

Bianca Rentie, alias MOLLYWATTA, is a self-taught painter and visual content creator Born in 1997 and raised in Tulsa Oklahoma, youngest of five.

MOLLYWATTA considers herself a child of the digital age. Always having been a curious spirit with an interest in deeper-level thinking, she contributes much of her artistic expression to her impressionable adolescent years and growing up alongside the internet. Intrigued by people, history, possibilities, why’s, why-nots, unconventional concepts, and radical ideas access to limitless information easily became influential for a hungry mind such as this and often provided feedback that personalities around her sometimes could not. Visual art is the ideal form of expression for this dreamer, she prefers creating freely and recreationally, not often welcoming commissioned art. Acrylic paint is her medium of choice and serves as a means for her mental cleansing, remembering ideas, and staying present. MOLLYWATTA hopes for her art to represent her personal evolution of thought, depict the negatives and positives of the now, stimulate free-thinking, advocate anti-control, encourage self- reflection and healing to all.

“My art is my post-adolescent output of personal thoughts pertaining to this life and society. I am a “dreamer”, whose mind thrives in a realm of concepts and ideas. Depicting unorthodox mental perspectives on life, society, human nature, human evolution, the known, & the unknown in bizarre acrylic paintings is a part of my mental release and keeps me present. I’d like for my art to speak messages of free-thinking, anti-control, self-reflection & healing to viewers. My creative energy is fueled by observation, quotes and dialogue, history, world conflicts, government corruptions, photography, music, family, religious texts, & all involves my post- adolescent journey through learning and unlearning in the digital age.”

Artistic Director Dr. Ricco Wright stated “conciliation suggests mediating between parties at odds with one another. It also allows space for acknowledgement, apology, and reparation.

“The Conciliation Series seeks to generate positive relations between, primarily, Tulsa’s black and white communities. Our shared history evidences the imperative of working collaboratively toward amicable, productive, and sustainable engagement.”

This twelve-month series will pair black and white artists from Tulsa of various media to build personal and group relationships that cultivate meaningful, lasting bonds.