OH!KLAHOMO: Chicago’s DIY Sunday Night Art Salon

ART FORUM: ON THE GROUND: CHICAGO KT Hawbaker on Chicago’s DIY and artist-run spaces

This self-reliant, collaborative model also serves up a sense of Midwestern hospitality. That’s the case at Oh!klahomo, an “experimental performance, sound, art and language” series held every other month at the Ukrainian Village home of Mark Jeffrey, formerly of Goat Island and cofounder of Atom-R, and Lori Talley, a production executive with ad agency Cramer-Krasselt. “It’s so much more casual because of the homey nature of it,” said Talley. “We have a lot more conversations. The nights are long and start earlier. The two say the neighbors even find their way over, many of them totally outside of the art world but curious about the sounds coming from the backyard.

“The last one was about Madonna and Elvis, and we had this young undergraduate student doing a beautiful performance of Elvis,” said Jeffrey, who always cooks one of his bacchanalian Sunday night dinners for Oh!klahomo’s guests. “The thing that’s important is that we’ve been here for twenty years and we’re asking ourselves, ‘How do you give back to what you’ve been given?’ I don’t really go out, but I like to bring people to the house. It’s about bringing emerging and established artists together in the same space.” “Everyone is on the same level there,” Talley continued.

OH!KLAHOMO is an experimental performance, sound art, and language space located in Mark Jeffery and Lori Talley’s basement on Iowa Street in Chicago. OH!KLAHOMO has a regular Sunday Night art salon featuring a mix of prominent and on-the-rise Chicago artists.

January 27, 2019: Living for Love

Living for Love launches the 5th edition of Intime 2019 and is a benefit and fundraiser for suicide prevention. We are asking for a $10 donation to Hope For The Day to support suicide prevention. HFTD achieves proactive suicide prevention by providing outreach and mental health education. With your donation, you will receive a postcard from an artist in the exhibition.

We are grateful for the donation of coffee from our friends at Dark Matter.

Performance: Wanbli Gamache, Zhenesse Heinemann, Brenda Arellano

Sound: Katie Woods

Film: Daniele Wilmouth, Helen Lee

Reading: Karen Faith

Song: Kent Widman

Postcard Exhibition:
Robert Ayres, Traci Kelly, Phillip Stanier, Andy Hall, Anne Wilson, Karen Faith, Paul Hertz, Stevie Henley, Richard Hancock, Amy Honchell, Kate Schutta, Lucy Cash, Claire Pentecost, Eleanor Giron, Iris Bernblum, Kira O’Reilly, Tara Asgar, SJ Lee, Maryam Taghavi, Rana Siegel, Maud Lavin, Sadie Woods, Andrew Falkowski, Amy Dane Falkowski, Noelle Sharp, Lynn Tomaszewski, Μαρίκα Πρατλε, Helen Maria Nugent, Lisa Bradley, Egle Oddo, Danièle Wilmouth, Catie Rutledge, Sherry Antonini, David Bogus, Gianelle Gelpi, Ingrid Martinez, Katherine Gonzalez, Brian Moody, Marina Sachs, Annemarie Poyo Furlong, Heidi Powell, Sherri Blase, Chad Serhal, Maddie Haggbloom, Aml Altwayjri, Mel DeFabrizio, Lisa Wesley, Tom Burtonwood, Riocardo Partida, Alex Dahm, Sandi Yi, Mev Luna, Amy Yoes, Matylda Krzykowski, Becky Grajeda, Moki Tantoco, Steven Delisi, Nick Lowe, Nic Hall, Kelly Kaczynski, Candice Blansett-Cummins, Michelle Murphy, Mel Cook, Rebecca Ladida, Whit Forester, Colin Roberson