Keli Mashburn Dispatches From the Invisible World

Keli Mashburn (Osage, American) is a photographer and video artist. Born in 1977, she grew up on a ranch, developing an appreciation and deep respect for the rural, prairie-plains landscape of her home. She studied philosophy at the University of Tulsa and the University of Oklahoma before attending the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Mashburn chooses to live and work within her Grayhorse community, remaining on the Osage Reservation in Fairfax, Oklahoma. Her singular visual style reflects an intimacy with the natural environment and an experiential knowledge of Osage epistemology. Her work creates space for mutual respect and consideration as opposed to confrontation, inviting viewers to discover/rediscover bonds and relationships in and to the natural environment. Dispatches from the Invisible World continues this exploration at the O’Kane Gallery in an exhibition of both photographs and film.

Mashburn’s experimental short films have screened nationally, at the Autry Museum of the American West in Los Angeles, California, and in New York City at the National Museum of the American Indian. She has presented her work internationally, on the occasions of the 2015 and 2017 Venice Biennales in Venice, Italy. More recently, her photography and film work were featured in the 2020 inaugural exhibition of OK Contemporary, in Oklahoma City, OK.