ABOUT:
Virginia is an award-winning printmaker, muralist, and active arts advocate living in OKC. She is the creator and director of Sunny Dayz Mural Festival, Oklahoma’s first and only mural fest dedicated to celebrating female and nonbinary artists. She co-founded the Oklahoma-based artist collective, Art Group in 2017, which now has over 70 members, and is one of the organizers of the Connect:Collect Print Exchange, now running it’s fifth year, bringing together 30 printmakers from all over the world and culminating into an annual exhibition. Virginia is also a Teaching Artist for the Oklahoma State Department of Education's federally funded Art Tech program, a five year grant-funded program that helps develop arts curriculum for rural schools without arts programming and eventually will be available nationally for any educator to adopt and teach. She has also worked seasonally for the Oklahoma Arts Institute since 2019. Virginia currently serves on the board of the Oklahoma Mural Syndicate, teaches workshops across various art spaces such as Oklahoma Contemporary and Flash Flood Print Studios, has been a mentor in multiple projects such as Artspace at Untitled’s printmaking mentorship program and the Fresh Paint NYE Mural Project, and consistently curates various pop-up shows in alternative art galleries and non-traditional spaces. Her work has been featured in Art Focus magazine, Barnstorm Literary Journal, Oklahoma Gazette, The Tulsa Voice, and the “Inspiring Conversations OKC” and “Whatcha Makin’?” podcast. You can find more of her work on Instagram @virginiasitzes.
ARTIST Statement:
My work is a process of letting go. It is a visual manifestation of my inner thoughts, a reflection of my human experience, and a search to uncover the moments, memories, and layers that have been hidden- intentionally or not. I am primarily a printmaker, painter, and muralist. I play with process, abstraction, intuition, and constantly experiment. I love the risk involved in not knowing how certain elements will respond to each other, and the pleasure in witnessing new colors and shapes emerge. I am always collaborating, both with my community and fellow artists, and with my tools - making space for what each one might provide.
