Prairie Variations

Events

Art F. Oscar’s enigmatic paintings draw attention to the bareness, solitude, and complexity of the prairie landscape. Oscar weaves together personal recollection with local history through the use of geometric shapes and dreamlike settings that are at once deeply local and otherworldly. He is interested in the land as it is marked with traces of past use and memory, with collapsing farmhouses, grain elevators, and abandoned railroads dotting the vast expanses of fields and sky. There is nothing permanent or monolithic about the iconic prairie architecture when it is framed by immense natural geometry of the landscape. The tenuous buildings appear to be in constant danger of being absorbed into the space around them, acting as reminders of the numerous ghost towns and vanished villages.