Exhibition Dates: May 4 – 25, 1996
Opening Reception: Saturday, May 4 from 6–8 pm
Gallery Location: 432 Julia Street, New Orleans, LA 70130
Hours: Monday – Saturday, 10am – 5pm
Contact Info: 504.522.1999

Internationally recognized artist Jacqueline Bishop will present an exhibition of paintings influenced by her extensive travels through the tropical rainforests.

Jacqueline Bishop, Chico Mendes. 1994, 11 x 13 inches. Oil on Masonite.

Jacqueline Bishop tells a story of quiet destruction in her series of paintings titled Century of Silence. The collection of works at the Arthur Roger Gallery serve as a visual travelogue of the artist’s journeys into the rainforests of South and Central America, a personal and prophetic commentary on the grim reality of man’s presence in the fragile environment. Documenting the understory of existence through a romantic and magic realism that makes one think of such 19th century masters of painting like Rousseau and Latin American novelist, Gabriel Garcia-Marquez, these intricately detailed and delicate paintings bear witness to the savageness of ecocide, something that our Romantic predecessors would not have been able to comprehend. The underlying order of life is revealed through the narrative landscapes of the forests where echoes of a tragic holocaust underlie the haunting images of skeletal birds and leaves amidst a burning purple sky.

During her travels with renowned scientists and ornithologists, Jacqueline Bishop has witnessed the homelessness of the indigenous peoples of the forests, monkey poachers, mercury poisoned waters, and cattle ranchers who slash and burn the dwindling population of rubber trees. She has also had the opportunity to meet and work with some of the most respected people involved in the efforts to save the environment, including the young widow of Chico Mendes, whose tragic murder Bishop commemorates annually with a portrait of the Brazilian martyr.

Jacqueline Bishop received her M.F.A. from Tulane University in New Orleans. She has had numerous solo exhibitions in the United States including the Art Museum of Southeast Texas, the Albrecht-Kemper Museum of Art in Missouri, the Pensacola Museum of Art, and The Thomas Center Gallery in Gainesville, Florida.