Jacqueline Bishop: The Other Landscape

Exhibition Dates: November 7 – December 26, 2015
Opening Reception: Saturday, November 7 from 6–8 pm
Gallery Location: 434 Julia Street, New Orleans, LA 70130
Hours: Tuesday – Saturday, 10am – 5pm
Contact Info: 504.522.1999; www.arthurrogergallery.com

The Arthur Roger Gallery is pleased to present The Other Landscape, an exhibition of paintings and works on paper by Jacqueline Bishop. The exhibition will be on view at Arthur Roger@434, located at 434 Julia Street, from November 7 – December 26, 2015. The gallery will host an opening reception with the artist in attendance, Saturday, November 7 from 6-8 pm.

After the Rain (Methane), 2014-15 | Oil on Belgian linen | 54 x 65 ½ inches

After the Rain (Methane), 2014-15 | Oil on Belgian linen | 54 x 65 ½ inches

The Other Landscape features new work revealing Jacqueline Bishop’s continued exploration of landscape painting and the complex connections between climate change, species extinction and migration. Included in her seventh exhibition with the gallery are small- to large-scale oil paintings on panel and linen, as well as medium-scale collages with watercolor on paper.

To reinforce the significance of the ecological issues presented, Bishop literally uses the landscape to create her work. The watercolors are mixed with Mississippi River water and the collages are created from vintage and Third World newsprint collected from years of global travel in places such as Peru, Bolivia, Venezuela, the Brazilian Amazon, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Belize and India. Both the river water and paper from trees contain the chemicals from their particular landscapes. With this practice, she accentuates The Other Landscape – the land we inhabit, but do not see.

After the Rain (Methane), the largest painting in the exhibition, features an orb of clustered red rose blooms speckled with small birds under the arch of two entwined, bare, gnarly trees. In the foreground, a sea of rose-colored water with grazing animals and fish distracts from the decayed, burnt forest in the distance. The painting presents the idea that we see the world through rose-colored glasses. Landfill is a series of small-scale oil paintings that present unnoticed landscapes formed by mountains of melting icebergs, chemical-covered roses, heaps of animals, birds, and fish. Bishop’s intricate paintings celebrate the supreme beauty of nature but also convey the face of impending devastation.

Jacqueline Bishop received her B.A. from the University of New Orleans and an M.F.A. from Tulane University. She has been Adjunct Professor for Art and the Environment at Tulane and Loyola Universities. She is author of Chico Mendes: Em Memoria: A Tribute on the 10–Year Anniversary of His Death (Lavender Ink, 1998); a collection of 10 years of paintings and testimonials about the Brazilian rubber tapper slain by wealthy cattle ranchers. She has exhibited or lectured in Europe, Asia, South America, Canada and the United States. In 2007 she received a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant and in 2006 both a Joan Mitchell and a Warhol Foundation Grant. Jacqueline Bishop is included in A Unique Slant of Light: the Bicentennial History of Art in Louisiana (University Press of Mississippi, 2012).