Helen Opper, M.A.
Biography
Helen Opper is a fine art appraiser, curator, advisor, and educator based in Oklahoma City. She is an Accredited Member of the Appraisers Association of America with a professional specialization in postwar, contemporary, and emerging art. Helen studied art history and French at Vassar College and the University of California at Berkeley and received her Masters degree in Museum Studies at New York University. She relocated to Oklahoma City in 2015 and established her company Opper Fine Art in 2020.
Through the diversity of her studies and work, Helen has become keenly aware of how the art world reflects the challenges of contemporary society. She knows that art should respond to the complexities of contemporary culture, politics, and identity, and she embraces work that questions the status quo and challenges the current world order. Make Art Mean Something!
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Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice, The Appraisal Foundation (compliant through July 2028)
Certificate, Comprehensive Appraisal Studies Program, Appraisers Association of America
M.A., Museum Studies, New York University
B.A., Art History, University of California, Berkeley
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Helen is an Accredited Member of the Appraisers Association of America, the preeminent professional organization for personal property and fine art appraisers.
She is one of only two AAA-accredited appraisers specializing in postwar, contemporary, and emerging art in Oklahoma-Arkansas.
Helen has been trained and successfully tested in the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (USPAP) as outlined by the Appraisal Foundation. She is USPAP compliant through July 2028.
Helen is an IRS-qualified appraiser and appraisals are fully compliant with IRS and USPAP requirements.
Helen specializes in the appraisal of postwar, contemporary, emerging, and local art, as well as some modern and contemporary Western art, and can appraise paintings, sculptures, drawings, prints, photography, time-based media, murals, and public art.
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To empower clients to make decisions regarding their art collections that best meets their goals and needs while employing an ethics-, equity-, diversity-based practice.
To help close the knowledge gap around the business of fine art.
To provide education about the role and importance of professional appraisals for client and artist advocacy.
To help build art collections which properly reflect the diversity of artistic practice and identity.
To work with artists traditionally underrepresented in the fine art world.
To level the playing field by expanding equal access to avenues to artistic success through acquisitions, exhibitions, and collaborations.
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Activist, feminist, and collective art practice
1960s-‘90s New York avant garde visual and performance art
Exhibition history/theory
Finish Fetish/Light and Space movements
Pre-modern South and Southeast Asian architecture
Land and environmental art
Street art and murals
New media and digital art
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In addition to working with private clients, Helen’s ongoing and recent projects include:
Teaching Art Appreciation at Oklahoma City Community College
Directing Oklahoma City gallery The Art Hall
Served as founding member and executive leadership of Oklahoma’s first and only nonprofit mural festival dedicated to women and non-binary artists
Curated the first Momentum Retrospective with the Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition in winter 2023-2024
Curated a long-term exhibition with the Oklahoma City Afghan Legal Network
Curated Momentum 2022 with the Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition
Assisted in the long-term loan of a monumental Damien Hirst-Wayne Coyne collaborative painting to the City of OKC
Curated Oklahoma Contemporary’s ArtNow 2021 biennial exhibition
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1515 Lincoln Gallery, Oklahoma City
ArsenalFX Color, Santa Monica
Artio Services, Oklahoma City
ArtPlay, New York/Los Angeles
Arvest Bank Trust & Wealth Management, Oklahoma City
Brooklyn Museum, New York
City of Lawton, Lawton
City of Oklahoma City Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs, Oklahoma City
Coleccíon Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, New York
Cornerstone Government Affairs, Oklahoma City
Cromwell Art, New York
Dunlap Codding, Oklahoma City
Fokal, Oklahoma City
Hespe Gallery, San Francisco
Inasmuch Foundation Gallery at Oklahoma City Community College, Oklahoma City
JP Morgan Private Banking, Oklahoma City
JRB Art at the Elms, Oklahoma City
Kasum Manifold/Everything Arts, Oklahoma City
Lark Mason Associates, New York
OK Humane Society, Oklahoma City
Oklahoma Art Guild, Oklahoma City
Oklahoma City Afghan Legal Network, Oklahoma City
Oklahoma City Community Foundation, Oklahoma City
Oklahoma City Estate Planning Council, Oklahoma City
Oklahoma City University Nona Jean Hulsey Gallery, Oklahoma City
Oklahoma Contemporary Arts Center, Oklahoma City
Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition, Oklahoma City
Mayor David Holt, Oklahoma City
Paseo Arts Association, Oklahoma City
Ponca City Arts Association, Ponca City
Prism Specialties of Oklahoma, Oklahoma City
Red Earth Inc., Oklahoma City
Residency Unlimited, New York
San Francisco Maritime Museum Library, San Francisco
Shea Art Advisory, Inc., New York/Los Angeles
SOphoto, Oklahoma City
SouthWest Art Appraisals, Santa Fe/Oklahoma City
Sigmund R. Balka Collection, New York
Stacy Goodman, New York
The Art Hall, Oklahoma City
The Howell Gallery of Fine Art, Oklahoma City
The Wassaic Project, New York
Trust Company of Oklahoma, Oklahoma City & Tulsa
Dr. Virginia Lee-Webb, New York
Wayne Coyne Collection, Oklahoma City
Courtesy Alexis Austin.