OOPS!
OOPS! is an amalgamation of artists exercising the brink of their studio practices with an emphasis on celebrating failure.
This show highlights the work of emerging artists, who are sinking their teeth into process and building a studio practice and spans to established professionals, navigating failure in a variety of contexts.
These works represent what it is like as an artist, revealing a studio practice as an all-engulfing experience, not just a culmination of successes.
Without technical failures, conceptual risks, failed relationships, or professional setbacks, there would be no point at all.
OOPS! was the inaugural iteration of the program, taking place on UNLV’s Campus’ Grant Hall Gallery in May 2023.
Images:
Front wall + East wall
North + East Wall
South Wall
West Walls
East Wall
North Wall
Additional Wall
OOPS! was most articulately described by the words of one of the artists, Ginger Marie Wilkins:
WHAT IS FAILURE?
"Honestly it's no simple answer. Failure is an irreversible mishap. An inability or unwillingness to stand back up - or stand the pieces back up - once it's all fallen over...
It's the lack of diligence, the refusal to take responsibility, and the harm that lies in the aftermath being left unattended...
Failure is crumbling when you lose, deciding there is nothing to be learned and no point in trying again. It is not the act of "not achieving your goal", it is the act of accepting the pieces where they fell and deciding never to try again, because they've fallen in the past and you might repeat that result.
It is refusing to make amends or refusing to claim your actions - for better or worse - because the effort is too great, too painful, because only you matter in your own misery - disregarding any who you might have affected along the way. And to be clear, it is not a failure to have made a mistake or to lack experience, because that, too, is life.
No, failure is rejecting the process of life and loathing the possibility of that uncomfortable result more than loving the potential of what could be of getting stronger, braver, smarter, connecting with more people or connecting more deeply with the world, and then bringing to bloom that thing that you thought was so good - that your heart held in such high esteem to try that one time - and giving it to the world in whatever capacity it might reach.
Failure is no one noun, no single word. no simple answer: but least of all things, failure is not an end."
Find the artists online!
E. A. Adams, Arili Krista Albana, Alexandra Alva, Adina Joy Angeles, Daniela Castaneda, Dean Castillo, Chantal Chandler, Caralea Cole, Tabiya Conyers, Aaron Cowan, Jared A Dominique, Rachel Elkins, Iulia Octavia Filipov-Serediuc, ¡Katie B Funk!, Deanna Gaoteote, Geo, Jesus Gonzalez Leos, Micah Haji-Sheikh, Cynthia Hamika, Sam Hanley, Priscila Lisste Hernandez Anaya, Naya Hudson, Nishan Ganimian, Casey Itable, Dawson Jarina, Dylan Jones, Thomas Kearney, Parker L., John McVay, Makela Moline, Karl Pittman, Amanda Perez, Novia Perkins, Isaac Quezada, Miyo Rafael, Kayla Roberts, Rose, Emily Sarten, Lane Sheehy, James Sims, Solo, David Tovar, Romina Villarreal, Rihannon Waters, Gabby Weaver, Kaleb Wesolek, Ginger-Marie Wilkins, Montaysia Yuneek