Contemporary Arts of Tulsa - CAT

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Contemporary Arts of Tulsa - CAT Nonprofit Gallery
Educational Center
Liggett Artist Studios
(3)

10/15/2026

Mery McNett is a Tulsa multimedia artist, animator and arts educator. She studied painting at the University of Tulsa under Mark Lewis. She works in oil, watercolor, ink, sculpture and video. She has spent more than fifteen years in the Tulsa arts community as a teacher, program builder and working artist.

Mery has taught and created programming locally in Tulsa at Living Arts, AHHA and Gilcrease Museum. She served as program manager at AHHA. She is Education Director at Liggett Studio and teaches classes at Contemporary Arts of Tulsa. In 2025 she co-taught Summer Art Studios at Liggett Studios with Steve Liggett. She founded Artsy Cartsy, a mobile art studio funded in part by the Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition. She also brings art to Tulsa schools through Every Given Child.

Her early paintings and foam sculptures studied the human brain. In 2020 she lost her father and a beloved companion within five weeks. Her work turned to grief and the joy it can reveal.

Selected Exhibitions
Lucid Self, Contemporary Arts of Tulsa, 2026
Flowers Shall Grow, solo exhibition, Tulsa Artistsā€™ Coalition Gallery, 2025
Grief and the Full Cup of Joy, Abbey Mausoleum at Rose Hill, 2023

About the Work
Meryā€™s work explores the wonder, imagination and vulnerability of being human. She sees the world with a childlike eye, where the strange and magical live beside the ordinary. The masks in her paintings open outward like human flowers. Flowers speak of growth and identity. Animals appear as spirit guides. Together they form a personal mythology rooted in curiosity, play and the belief that magic hides just beneath the surface.

LUCID SELF
With Gregory Messenger and Ra Vashtar
Through Nov 5 | Thu 5 to 8 pm, Sat 1 to 5 pm
Closing Reception: Thu, Nov 5, 5 to 8 pm

OCTOBER CLASSES
Oct 15: Green Room film by Gregory Messenger | Free
Oct 18: The Me Within Me Performance w/Ra Vashtar, 7pm | $18
Oct 24: Creative Flower Crowns with Mery McNett, 1 to 4 pm | $50

C.A.T., 314 S. Kenosha Ave., Tulsa

šŸŽ„: Nichole Montgomery

10/15/2026

Ra Vashtar is a Tulsa artist who calls himself a Glam Art Front Man, a semi-deposed prince and a fancy boy who decided to become a rock star, an artist and whatever else he pleases. He works in performance, fashion, visual media and writing, and his work draws on his gay and transgender identity, his isolated upbringing in a small Oklahoma town, and the larger questions of existence with satire, dark comedy and open vulnerability.

Ra is largely self-taught. He completed a concept art mentorship through CG Spectrum in 2019 and the Makeup Artistry program at Clary Sage Tulsa in 2024. He was part of Hot Topicā€™s creator program for apparel design from 2019 to 2022 and was named to the inaugural group of Oklahoma Visionaries in 2023. He has more than ten years of experience in illustration and design and more than five years as a performer, drag artist, host and DJ, along with work in costuming, jewelry and runway styling.

For Lucid Self, Ra followed the voice in himself that asks to dress outlandishly and to play. He answered it with watercolors in the manner of caricature and 1980s fashion illustration, along with mirrors whose frames speak to the hidden wishes of a bold identity.

Website: ravashtar.com
Instagram: Ra Vashtar
TikTok: .vashtar
Facebook: facebook.com/RaVashtarArt
Free zine bravuRA at patreon.com/ravashtar

LUCID SELF
With Mery McNett and Gregory Messenger
Through Nov 5 | Thu 5 to 8 pm, Sat 1 to 5 pm

Oct 18: The Me Within Me by Ra Vashtar, 7 pm, $18
Oct 24: Flower Crowns with Mery McNett, 1 pm, $50
Oct 31: Raku Clay with Steve Liggett, 9 am, $210

CAT - Contemporary Arts of Tulsa | 314 S. Kenosha Ave., Tulsa
catulsa.org

šŸŽ„: Nichole Montgomery

The Me Within Me 7:00pm. Performance by Ra Vashtar. $18.TICKETS available on our site (link in bio)Welcome to the mind ...
10/15/2026

The Me Within Me 7:00pm. Performance by Ra Vashtar. $18.
TICKETS available on our site (link in bio)

Welcome to the mind of artist Ra Vashtar, where something has gone wrong. Immerse yourself in the role of a splintered fraction of his psyche as you explore an interactive installation to solve the mystery of what happened and restore him to himself. Find clues, physically dismantle the cocoon of his self-defense, solve puzzles, and be a part of this manifest exploration of childhood trauma, fractured self-image, and integration through healing.

FLOWER CROWN WORKSHOP šŸŒøāœØOctober 24, 2026 Ā· 1:00ā€“4:00 PM$75SIGN UP at https://www.catulsa.org/events/creative-flower-crow...
10/15/2026

FLOWER CROWN WORKSHOP šŸŒøāœØOctober 24, 2026 Ā· 1:00ā€“4:00 PM
$75

SIGN UP at https://www.catulsa.org/events/creative-flower-crowns
Come make a flower crown that feels completely, unapologetically YOU.

In this playful, hands-on workshop, youā€™ll learn how to create your own whimsical flower crown using an abundance of colorful blooms, foliage, and unexpected little treasures. Weā€™ll explore composition, color, texture, and how to turn a simple collection of flowers into something that feels like a tiny piece of wearable art.

No experience necessary. No rules about what a flower crown should look like. Go delicate and romantic, wild and overgrown, bright and ridiculous, or full-on woodland creature. Mery will have some flowers available, but you are encouraged to bring things to put on your flower crown!

Youā€™ll leave with your very own one-of-a-kind flower crownā€”and hopefully a little more permission to play, experiment, and make something beautiful just because it makes you happy.

Come as you are. Leave crowned. šŸŒ¼šŸ‘‘

10/14/2026

Gregory VonMessenger is a transgender horror artist based in Tulsa. His work comes from his nightmares, shaped by years of religious abuse, transphobia and dysphoria. He creates from those dreams in the hope of helping other trans people who are living through the same things.

His new work is on view in Lucid Self at Contemporary Arts of Tulsa, alongside Mery McNett and Ra Vashtar. The exhibition looks at how we see ourselves and how that self changes over time.

LUCID SELF New Works by Mery McNett, Gregory Messenger and Ra Vashtar
October 9 through November 5
Thursdays 5 to 8 p.m. and Saturdays 1 to 5 p.m.
Closing reception Thursday, November 5, 5 to 8 p.m.

Thursday, October 15, 6:30 p.m.
The Green Carpet, a one-hour video screening by Gregory Messenger. The film tells the story of a trans child abused by the church who learns from his monster friends how to free himself through his art.

Sunday, October 18, 7pm | $18
The Me Within Me, a performance by Ra Vashtar.

Thursday, October 22, 6:30pm | Free
Demonstration by Gregory Messenger.

Saturday, October 24, 1-4pm | $50 Creative Flower Crowns Workshop w/Mery McNett.

CAT - Contemporary Arts of Tulsa
314 S. Kenosha Ave., Tulsa

Contact Gallery or artists for private viewing.
šŸ“ŒSteve Liggett
šŸŽ„: Nichole Montgomery

10/14/2026

Thursday, October 15th at Contemporary Arts of Tulsa, Gregory VonMessenger presents The Green Carpet, a film about a transgender child who experiences religious abuse and finds a way toward freedom through art and the world of monsters who become his allies.

Messenger is a transgender horror artist whose work draws from nightmares, religious abuse, dysphoria and the experiences of growing up without support. In this film, the familiar roles of heroes and villains are turned upside down.

THE GREEN CARPET Video Screening
Gregory Messenger

Thursday, October 15, 2026
6:30ā€“7:30 p.m.

Contemporary Arts of Tulsa - CAT (C.A.T.)
314 S. Kenosha Ave.
Tulsa, Oklahoma

Admission is free, but pre-registration is required.

Tickets and information: https://www.catulsa.org/2026/the-green-carpet-video-screening

* The film is approximately one hour long. Its subject matter includes religious abuse, transphobia and gender dysphoria.



LUCID SELF New Works by Mery McNett, Gregory Messenger and Ra Vashtar

šŸŽ„ Artist: Nichole Montgomery
Steve Liggett

10/14/2026

LUCID SELF
New works by Mery McNett, Gregory Messenger and Ra Vashtar
On view through November 5 at Contemporary Arts of Tulsa

Three Tulsa artists take up an old and stubborn question in this exhibition, asking who we are in the present moment, how much of that self lives in the body, and how far we have drifted from the person we were a few years ago.

Mery McNett, a University of Tulsa graduate who studied painting under Mark Lewis and has spent more than fifteen years teaching and making work in Tulsa, paints masked figures whose flesh opens like petals, with animals keeping watch as spirit guides in a private mythology of wonder and play.

Gregory Messenger, a transgender horror artist, works from his own nightmares, turning years of hardship into images meant to reach trans people walking a similar road and to help others understand what it is to grow up without support.

Ra Vashtar, who would sooner be called a professional eccentric than an artist, brings watercolors drawn from caricature and 1980s fashion illustration along with mirrors whose frames speak for the bolder self that keeps asking for his attention.

Related events
Oct 15 Ā· The Green Carpet, video screening with Gregory Messenger, 6:30pm, $10
Oct 18 Ā· The Me Within Me, performance by Ra Vashtar, 7pm, $18
Oct 22 Ā· Demonstration by Gregory Messenger, 6:30pm, free

Closing reception Thursday, November 5, 5 to 8pm
Gallery hours Thursdays 5 to 8pm and Saturdays 1 to 5pm

CAT - Contemporary Arts of Tulsa
314 S. Kenosha Ave., Tulsa, OK 74120

Mery McNett
Ra Vashtar
Gregory VonMessenger
Steve Liggett

LUCID SELF New Works by Mery McNett, Gregory Messenger and Ra Vashtar



šŸŽ„ Artist: Nichole Montgomery

How do we understand each other in a world of pronouns that may not match up with our understanding of what our word ā€œge...
10/11/2026

How do we understand each other in a world of pronouns that may not match up with our understanding of what our word ā€œgenderā€ is?? Contemporary Arts of Tulsa - CAT presents in support of Tulsa Pride Month ā€œThe Green Carpetā€ which is the story of a trans child who is abused by the church and learns from his monster friends how to free himself thru his art. The Dysphoric Nightmare world of a mouthless man, where demons and monsters are the heroes and god and the angels the villains. ā€œThe Green Carpetā€ is about the dissociation, transphobia and dysphoria that many trans children experience. There will be a brief discussion afterwards. The video is approximately 1 hour.

Join performance & drag artist Ra Vashtar on Oct 17th for a hands-on exploration of self-transformation through characte...
10/11/2026

Join performance & drag artist Ra Vashtar on Oct 17th for a hands-on exploration of self-transformation through character performance. Combining shadow work, self-talk, concepts of drag, clownery, improv, and the spiritual traditions that have informed modern acting, experience a journey into finding the facets of you that have something to say.

Learn techniques of listening to yourself in your creative process through guided meditation and self-reflection, develop a persona through visual storytelling, experience yourself in a new way with the somatic practice of performance in an affirming space, journal your reflections and leave with a new perspective on how to interact with yourself.

https://www.catulsa.org/events/beyond-drag-finding-yourself-through-another-you

Address

314 S Kenosha Avenue
Tulsa, OK
74120

Opening Hours

Thursday 5pm - 8pm
Saturday 1pm - 5pm

Telephone

+19186945719

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