This exhibition at the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art features the work of six Oklahomans who left the state in the late 1950s to move to Los Angeles: Patrick Blackwell, Joe Goode, Jerry McMillan, Ed Ruscha, Paul Ruscha, and Mason Williams.

Williams, a lifelong friend of Ed Ruscha’s, came to prominence in the 1960s as an author, comedian, composer, musician, and poet. Paul Ruscha, Ed’s younger brother, also pursued a career as an artist, relocating permanently to L.A. in 1973.

Although each of the artists took a different path, the intersections between their lives and work over the decades, from their youth in Oklahoma to their relocation to and life in Southern California, constitute a shared history evident in their work over six decades. They maintained close relationships that manifested in their work as collaborations, formal or conceptual parallels, and even “inside jokes.”