Murder. Victim. Scene. Spirit. Photograph. The unrelenting specter of violence is turned into ethereal art via a distinctive vision by photographer Deborah Luster. Her exhibit, “Tooth for an Eye: A Chorography of Violence in Orleans Parish,” is a compass that pinpoints place, but evokes peace where immeasurable pain and horror once occurred.
Guild Hall announced its 28th annual Academy of the Arts Lifetime Achievement Awards will honor John Alexander for Visual Arts, Walter Isaacson for Literary Arts, Nathan Lane for Performing Arts, and Melville (Mickey) Straus, who will receive the Special Award for Leadership and Philanthropy.
Installation views from Nicole Charbonnet: Build Your Cities – January 2013 at Arthur Roger Gallery.
Installation views from Allison Stewart: Natural Wonders – January 2013 at Arthur Roger Gallery.
Out of the more than 400 commercial galleries were surveyed this month, more than 70% had painting shows on view. Among them are two dozen solo exhibitions by New American Paintings alumni. New Orleans native Nicole Charbonnet, who was featured in one of our earliest issues, presents new work at the venerable Arthur Roger Gallery.
One could, on seeing Ted Kincaid’s photos at Devin Borden Gallery, be tempted into a conversation on the authenticity of photography. But that conversation would be old hat. What interests me is that these highly manipulated images are not obviously double-coded. They aren’t images of things and about being images of things. They generally lack irony.
Dallas-based artist Ted Kincaid, who creates ethereally beautiful, landscape-recalling photographic-type images, has two passions- nature and history- and his work rarely diverts from those themes. Ships disappear into storms, listing in the waves; vibrant clouds display otherworldly hues; tree branches form impossible webs, veiling the forest.
Jacqueline Bishop practices a kind of unnatural naturalism, fantastical in its imagery even as it concentrates on the natural world. In fact, Bishop tends to be faithful to the rendition of actual animals – especially the fish and fowl that populate these meditations on aqua-ecology – while elaborating their surrounding conditions, including flora, weather, and water itself, in a surrealistic manner that effectively dramatizes their situation. Bishop comments pointedly on ecological conditions, but what she stresses is the sensation of nature itself and the delicate yet vital role and presence within it of its sentient creatures.
