BRUCE GOFF: THE ART OF THE CONTINUOUS PRESENT
December 2, 2022 – March 3, 2023
Organized by the Goff Center of the Continuous Present (GCCP) and curators Lindsay Aveilhé and Britni Harris, Bruce Goff: The Art of the Continuous Present celebrates the breadth of Goff’s work and influence in architecture and art. A unique paper craft in partnership with Flash Flood Print Studios of Bruce Goff’s Page Warehouse (no longer standing) in Tulsa will be available to visitors.
Bruce Goff, who passed in 1982, lived a life charged with unabashed creativity while also being shrouded in controversy. Having grown up in Tulsa, his work in architecture began at the young age of twelve when he apprenticed for the architectural firm, Rush, Endacott, and Rush. Goff’s philosophy embraced the individual, the mysterious, and the “continuous present”–a term coined by Gertrude Stein that he often used to describe his design style where the past and present merge into a continuous stream without beginning nor ends. Mentored by Frank Lloyd Wright during his early years, Goff was one of the rare architects he admired for his creativity and independent ethos.
Goff’s contentious exit from the University of Oklahoma, where he taught and served as the Chairman for the School of Architecture, and the ongoing debate of the design ownership of the Boston Avenue United Methodist Church were filled with whispers of unacceptance for Goff’s eclectic designs and homosexuality in the conservative backdrop of mid-century Oklahoma. Even fifteen years after Goff’s death, Goff’s masterpiece design, Shin’en Kan, was destroyed by intentional arson. Today, a group of Goff advocates aims to change the discourse, open dialogues of truth, and celebrate the life and work of America’s best unknown organic architect. The newly formed GCCP continues this public discussion with Goff Fest.
The Goff Center of the Continuous Present’s mission is to promote beauty in all its strength by encouraging the mysterious, the uncomfortable, and the disobedient aspects of art and architecture.
Lindsay Aveilhé is a Tulsa and New York-based independent curator and Editor of the Sol LeWitt Wall Drawings Catalogue Raisonné and Co-Editor of Sol LeWitt Writings and Sol LeWitt Selected Interviews. Aveilhé frequently serves as a panelist and lecturer on the topic of Conceptual art, artist books, and the work of Sol LeWitt. In recent years, she has been particularly focused on new ways to engage emerging technologies to tell stories about art. She acted as an author and curator of the Sol LeWitt app, a mobile app project made in collaboration with the Estate of Sol LeWitt and Microsoft and launched in September 2020. Recent curatorial projects include Sol LeWitt at the Reykjavík Art Museum (2020), the first survey exhibition of LeWitt’s work in Iceland, and Sol LeWitt: Lines, Forms, Volumes at Galleria Alfonso Artiaco, Naples (2019). In 2021, her essay “Long Live the Ephemeral: Cataloguing Sol LeWitt’s Wall Drawings” was included in Locating LeWitt: Between Mind and Body (Yale University Press). She is currently working as a consultant on the early stage development of an international artist-driven art nonprofit and curating a biennial project that will take place in 2023.
Britni Harris is a multi-tool creative with roles as a producer, director, cinematographer, editor, and documentary filmmaker. She is passionate about using media and storytelling for educational outreach, generating constructive conversation, and empowering voices of change. During the 2020 election, she was the lead producer for Stacey Abrams’ organization Fair Fight Action where her work resulted in historic consequences for our country. Work has been featured through Lionsgate Entertainment and on ESPN, CNN, PBS, VICE TV, HBO, Food Network, Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival, and other national and international film festivals.