OOPS! is a celebration to failures, flops, and fiascos. Inspired by the salon de refuses, I felt that there was a need to discuss the ugly parts of having a studio practice. I learned this through a studio visit I had with David Pagal, in a conversation that I reflect on often through my own studio practice. He explained that there are three-ish branches of an artists practice, summarized as:
1. The work that is beautiful and pristine, gallery ready and conceptually well baked
2. Work that is experimental, in between stages, or things reserved for sharing between cohort members and people who will be honest with you
3. And the last one is complete garbage. It's the stuff that reaches completion as soon as it hits the bottom of the trash can.
From left to right, Daniela Castaneda, Steve Dudrow, Haide Calle, John McVay, Samantha Meyers, Nick Giordano (top), Rachel Elkins, Chantal Chandler (top), Maria Rodriguez Horta.
This was earth shattering for me. It helped me let go of all the fear I had for making art. It's okay to make bad art. It's okay to let things fail and break. They still are a part of you and the labor you invest in your practice. And once I realized that everyone does this, I decided the community of Las Vegas needed to celebrate it, so OOPS! was born.
This year's iteration was an exciting collaboration with Core Contemporary, an art gallery and community staple run by Nancy Good. Showcasing the work of 25 artists, we came together to celebrate the work that never got to see the light of day.
Deanne Sole, Untitled
OOPS! is devoted to physically flawed, conceptually half baked, or the emotionally taxing works in our practices. It's a comforting reminder that we are all deeply human people, and have the privilege to express our lives and build community through having an art practice.
Artists include: Haide Calle, Leilu Hart, Rachel Elkins, Steve Dudrow, Sasha Mosquera, Alex Panzer, Victoria Dunn, Lisa Lune, Novia Perkins, ¡Katie B Funk!, AerynClare Gaddy, Deanne Sole, Jason Abrego, Maria Rodriguez Horta, Erin Tarrant, Daniela Castaneda, Aaron Cowan, Samantha Meyers, Caralea Cole, Regina Tellez, Mei-Mei Mijares, Niko Mendoza, Chantal Chandler, John McVay, Nick Giordano.
Accompanying some images of the artists work, is their answer to, “What is Failure?”
Leilu Hart, “Opportunities for growth and learning.”
Rachel Elkins, “I'd personally define failure as not living up to my own standards. Since graduating from university, I've felt really lost in life and I haven't had as much time, energy, or motivation for my art as a result. I've been wanting to apply to more art shows, but I'd been struggling to find any opportunities that really caught my attention until now. Failure to me, means not living up to my own potential as an artist, even if I'm taking a sort of weird hiatus from art making itself.”
Alex Panzer, “Most of us know failure as a negative thing, defeat - a dark and scary end-of-the-world feeling. When all it truly means is not achieving a set goal, action, or objective. I’m beginning to view failure as a point of reset; a second chance, a do-over if you will. However, as most of us know, this is a lot easier said than done.”
Lisa Lune, “Failure makes success a concept. Without one, the other would have no name. The earth is a work of art because of its imperfections, not despite them.”
Novia Perkins, “Failure is something that knocks you off your feet, whether it’s a slow fight or a sudden rush. Failure takes you down a peg and makes you rethink things. But most importantly, failure isn’t permanent– failure makes you evaluate what went wrong and how you can improve until you reach whatever goal you want to achieve.
¡Katie B Funk!, “A chance to dust yourself off and try again, try again.”
Chantal Chandler, “Failure does not exist. There are only surprise “points-of-interests” leading you to your final destination.”
Among the failures of studio practice, I would also like to thank and acknowledge the artists who expended serious sacrifice with their vulnerability about failure:
Victoria Dunn, (top right) “It was a semester project for Spring 2023 and I wanted to create something based on my sexuality and the struggles I faced with it. I am asexual and society doesn't quite understand the sexual orientation as it exists within other sexualities because it's very complex but also gets misunderstood and misconstrued or mistaken for other things unrelated to it. My last relationship was rather dreading as my ex partner made me feel broken for being asexual, I took inspiration from the emotional damage I was left with to create this piece to remind myself or any other person who is asexual that they are not broken. The wall contains written text which consists of negative remarks asexuals may have thrown at them by people from our heavily sex obsessed society. We are seen as broken and need to be fixed but breaking the wall you will find that there is nothing broken inside. The girl in the middle resembles that.”
Novia Perkins, (top left) “For a long time I wanted to destroy this work, it hurt too much to look at. This painting now serves as a painful reminder of what could have been. But keeping this work in tact reminds me that things change, whether we like it or not, and that’s something I have to accept. I also learned to push myself in my concepts, experimenting more with the idea of myself as a single person and my own sexuality.”
Caralea Cole, “OOPS! He sexually harassed her. Again. OOPS! He sexually assaulted her. Again. OOPS! A U.S. judge failed to protect her. Again. OOPS! She's DEAD.
July 5, 2024, Nashville, Tennessee: Dad pleaded for daughter's ex-boyfriend not to be freed from jail. Days later, her mutilated body was found in a car.
What challenges my practice as an artist? Being a woman who is an artist in a culture that harasses and punishes women artists for creating art that speaks to our lived experiences of relentless gender-based violence. The OOPS! here is the catastrophic failure of our culture, our communities, and sufficient numbers of men to protect, support, and create space for the voices and bodies of those who are subject to gender-based violence.
Art spaces are still misogynistic, violent spaces that wear us thin and drain our energy. I had to exhibit the DEAD text anonymously this spring to prevent my being harassed.
How does this work segue between past and future? I created this artwork to stand in solidarity with the students I mentor, many of them decades younger than me, who are being harassed and assaulted. These students are also routinely harassed, minimized, and rejected in art spaces for creating artwork that speaks to the gendered violence that permeates their lives.
There is no post #METOO era. Gender-based violence has not lessened. Scholars have linked the gender-based violence crisis and the climate crisis for decades. We can't afford to separate subjects that are intimately entwined.
December 7, 2023, How Climate Change and Instability Exacerbate Sexual- and Gender-Based Violence and Violence Against Women and Girls
April 23, 2024, UN News, The UN verified 3,688 cases of rape and other sexual violence committed in the war in 2023, a "dramatic increase" of 50 percent over the previous year. Knowing what I know now, I often hesitate when someone asks, "But will he sue me," regardless of whether they are asking about reporting to the police, writing a memoir about their experience of sexual violence, creating an artwork about their experience of reporting to the university, because…defamation law allows it makes it easy to initiate civil legal action regardless of whether the case has merit. Doctor Mandi Gray PhD, Suing for Silence, Sexual Violence and Defamation Law, UBC Press 2024”
None of this would have been possible without the support of Nancy Good and Core Contemporary. Thank you for supporting local artists.
OOPS! has become a home for artists to be vulnerable and share their raw emotions and experiences in an unadulterated context. We all deserve to find community in the chaos and disarray of having an art practice. It’s important to look to each other and find inspiration in both good and bad art. OOPS! will return soon, but until then, keep making an absolute mess.