M.J. ALEXANDER’S PORTRAIT OF OKLAHOMA

11-13 January
Open 12-7pm daily
Private view: Thursday 12 January 6-9 pm

Award-winning photographs from the American artist M.J. Alexander will make their European debut in an 11-13 January show in London’s Crypt Gallery.

The exhibit, entitled Oklahoma, features more than 100 images chronicling people and landscapes of the 46th state, at the intersection of the Great Plains, Bible Belt, Confederate South, and American West. The International Photography Hall of Fame describes Alexander’s work as “combining the vision of an artist with the skills of a storyteller.”

The portraits — a newborn against the vast Oklahoma sky, sacred tribal dancers, five-generation families, rodeo bronc-busters, pioneers whose lives spanned three centuries — are paired with signature quotes from those photographed.

Edward Knight, an alumnus of the Royal College of Music, has composed accompanying music and sound design. The installation will incorporate audio of his evocative chamber works with sounds recorded in remote Oklahoma locations to create unique sound worlds designed for the Crypt Gallery’s atmospheric labyrinth of arches, corridors, and alcoves.

Alexander’s work has been published by The New York Times and Time magazine, featured in more than 20 solo exhibitions, and honored by UNESCO and the China Folklore Photographic Association. Heidi Evans of the New York Daily News praised the ongoing series as “remarkable, moving photographs and words that reveal the inner lives and quiet power of ordinary people — people you might otherwise pass by. M.J. Alexander shows the poetry deeply rooted in the Oklahoma — and American — landscape.”

The event is presented with support from the Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition and Oklahoma City University.