OZ Arts Nashville

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The Elephant in the Room: Building Community Amidst Gentrification

Conversation Hosts

Omari Booker

Visual Artist & Muralist

Omari Booker, visual artist based in Los Angeles, CA and Nashville, TN, began his journey as an artist his senior year of high school at Montgomery Bell Academy. While attending Belmont University, Omari studied Mathematics and other more traditional curricula before he finally focused on studio art and graphic design. He later earned his B.S. in Graphic Design from Tennessee State University.

Oil paintings are Omari’s predominant medium, but mixed media including charcoal, ink, and found objects are essential building blocks of his work, and are used to create finished pieces.  Large scale work has been a constant creative outlet for Omari, and murals have also become a consistent part of his creative practice.

Omari takes a process-oriented approach to his art, embracing it as a therapeutic modality through which he is able to express his passion for the freedom and independence that the creative process allows him to experience. His art is his personal therapy, and his desire is that those viewing it will have personal experiences of catharsis. The philosophy that undergirds Omari’s work is FREEDOM THROUGH ART and he aspires to create work that communicates to his audience their unique and intrinsic ability to be free.

View his work at omaribooker.com.

 

Alex Lockwood

Owner
Elephant Gallery

Alex Lockwood is a sculptor and the owner/director of Elephant Gallery in Nashville, TN. He works with repurposed materials, primarily plastics, in very large numbers. Since moving to Nashville in 2011 his work has been featured in solo shows at Zeitgeist Gallery, Belmont University, Lipscomb University, Vol State, OzArts and David Lusk Gallery Nashville and Memphis. Alex founded Elephant Gallery in 2017 to curate ambitious and off-beat shows of early and mid-career local and regional artists. He lives in East Nashville with his sons Roman and Oscar.