"Beyond Words" featuring Nancy Junkin at BancFirst Tower Gallery
Nov
5
to Jan 29

"Beyond Words" featuring Nancy Junkin at BancFirst Tower Gallery

  • BancFirst Tower Underground Gallery (map)
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The Howell Gallery is pleased to announce an exhibition of paintings by Nancy Junkin, opening with an artist reception on Thursday, November 5th from 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM at BancFirst Tower Gallery, 100 North Broadway Avenue.

Junkin is best known for figurative and abstract paintings defined by a looseness of expression, line, and color. Her abstracts begin with a movement of line rather than a preconceived plan, a process she compares to starting a jigsaw puzzle: “intriguing, exciting, frustrating and with some successes along the way.” Her figures are just as loose, often painted without facial features so that each carries a kind of universal gaze. Color, whether faded or bold, cool or warm, textured or luminous, sits at the center of both.

“In my studio, anything that can make a mark is fair game,” Junkin says. Her tools range from pencils and kitchen utensils to sticks from a pine forest and shells from the beach, and her elegant Japanese brushes to hardware-store finds. She builds the surface in layers, veiling areas and adding shapes and lines until the composition gains history and depth, often adding collage (words, scraps of paper, fragments of earlier paintings) as details emerge.

Junkin came to painting midlife by way of a recurring dream in which she wandered her house and found an unfamiliar room. A dream interpretation book read it as the sign of “a quiet spirit waiting to be developed,” and she followed it with restless determination: painting daily, taking classes and workshops, studying with a range of artists, building a library around favorites such as Matisse, Joan Mitchell, Fechin, and Diebenkorn, and visiting museums in London, Amsterdam, Belgium, Istanbul, and across the United States. Emotion, history, weather, and the landscape of her home in the heart of the country all shape the work. “Painting is my way of expressing a love for life that is even better than a dream,” she says.

The exhibition remains on view through January 29, 2027.

Click Here for Images of the Work

Exhibition Details:

  • Opening Reception: Thursday, November 5th, 5:00 PM – 7:00 PM

  • Location: BancFirst Tower Gallery in The Underground, 100 N Broadway Ave, Oklahoma City

  • On View: November 5th, 2026 – January 29th, 2027

  • Valet parking available during Opening Reception at The Skirvin Hilton. Enter the Tower at

    the North entry and take the escalator to the lower level.

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"Applied Color" featuring Nick Berry and W. Bennett Berry
Oct
1
to Oct 31

"Applied Color" featuring Nick Berry and W. Bennett Berry

The Howell Gallery is pleased to announce an exhibition of paintings by Nick Berry and W. Bennett Berry, opening with an artist reception on Thursday, October 1st from 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM at The Howell Gallery, 6432 N. Western Avenue.

Nick Berry paints the light and lifestyle of places he has traveled, France, Italy, England, and, more recently, small towns and coastal harbors across the United States and Canada. His canvases are built in bold color, worked with palette knife and brush, and shaped by the influence of Monet and Van Gogh. “Reflect the warmth of the countryside, excitement of seaside harbors,” he says of his aim, “and transport one into the era of a peaceful and simple lifestyle.” Often calling himself an ignorant artist, Berry follows instinct and emotion rather than method, and credits his ability as a gift from God. “An artist achieves through his soul,” he says, “and the soul achieves through faith.”

Born in Oklahoma City in 1955, Berry began painting at fifteen and earned a BFA from Texas Christian University in 1976. He was commissioned by Governor and Mrs. Keating to paint the first State of Oklahoma Christmas Card, and his work is held in the Oklahoma Governor’s Mansion permanent collection along with corporate collections including Big Cedar Lodge, Joullian Vineyards, Casady School, and the Oklahoma City Golf and Country Club.

W. Bennett Berry moves between contemporary pop imagery and landscape, treating the two as different subjects depicted through the same eye. From gestural marks that come together to create vivid countryside landscapes, to deliberately placed brush strokes that produce Pop Art inspired compositions, W. Bennett Berry’s works create a vibrant and energetic showcase. Berry’s application of color theory and layering are both important aspects to his style, establishing vividness and intensity of color as the main technique in his artistic approach.

Berry holds an undergraduate degree from Denison University and an MFA from the University of Oklahoma. At Denison he received the Alumni Award and the Caroline Woodrow Deckman Scholarship for Achievement in the Fine Arts, and was introduced to painting under George Bogdanovitch. In the summer of 2001 he painted under Pacific coast artist Lenny Pitkin at the Pont-Aven School of Art in Brittany, France, and in fall 2005 Southwest Art named him to its annual “21 Under 31,” recognizing twenty-one emerging artists across the American West.

Both artists are represented exclusively by The Howell Gallery. The exhibition remains on view through October 31, 2026.

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