"Artists Jacqueline Bishop and Douglas Bourgeois are as Soulful and Skilled as Ever," New Orleans Times-Picayune

Artists Jacqueline Bishop and Douglas Bourgeois are as soulful and skilled as ever

By Doug MacCash, NEW ORLEANS TIMES-PICAYUNE

Who but Douglas Bourgeois would combine the Runaways glam ban with angst-ridden expressionist Otto Dix.

What’s left to say about Louisiana masters Jacqueline Bishop and Douglas Bourgeois? They are the cream of the generation of Bayou State artists who came of age artistically while Ron and Nancy were in the White House. Their paintings were always as soulful, skilled and seductive as a Neville Brothers album. Their fanatically busy styles were always as intense as a Stoli martini — up.

Believe it or not, Bourgeois’ and Bishop’s current dual exhibits at Arthur Roger Gallery prove that, if anything, their artistic obsessions have only become more concentrated over the years.

Bourgeois remains transfixed by the amoral allure of pop stardom — who else could combine the all-girl glam band The Runaways with the tortured German painter Otto Dix?

Jacqueline Bishop's Okaloosa is a surrealistic protest of habitat destruction.

Bishop remains consumed by the relentless destruction of tropical rain forests — tangles of ghostly flora and fauna hover in her paintings like ecological ectoplasm.

Bourgeois and Bishop are the perfect duet. Old-school painting doesn’t get much better than this.

Jacqueline Bishop’s exhibit ”A Loss for Words” and new works by Douglas Bourgeois continue through Feb. 21 at Arthur Roger Gallery, 434 Julia St., 504.522.1999.