Exhibition Dates: May 7 – June 25, 2011
Opening Reception: Saturday, May 7 from 6 – 8 pm
Gallery Location: 432 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 “Postcards From Plaquemines,” an exhibition of oil paintings and drawings rendered in ink and pastel by Simon Gunning. The exhibition will be on view May 7th – June 25th, 2011 at the Arthur Roger Gallery, located at 432 Julia Street. The gallery will host an opening reception to meet the artist on Saturday, May 7th, from 6 to 8 pm.
Dead Low (Tide). 2010. Oil on canvas. 48 x 120 inches.
In recent years, in order to go fishing, Simon Gunning regularly crossed the Mississippi River to the West Bank and then down to Plaquemines Parish. The artist used these excursions to collect raw images directly from the environment he encountered. Gunning was particularly drawn to the area near Grand Bayou, with its brave and battered little fleet of trawlers. The images collected by the artist near Grand Bayou are the focal point for the body of work in this exhibition.
Gunning has a startling ability to capture in his paintings the light and color of south Louisiana. In this series of work, he captures the early morning light that reveals the day’s exhilarating potential, and at other times he conveys the mysterious sense of melancholy which exudes from the abandoned wrecks and detritus as a result of ravaging storms and oil spills. For Gunning, “Postcards from Plaquemines” is an endeavor to give those who have never seen Grand Bayou a sense of what it’s like; and, for those who have been there, the artist intends this body of work as an homage to a glorious and disappearing environment.
Born in 1956 in Sydney, Australia, Simon Gunning has lived in the New Orleans’ Bywater neighborhood for almost 30 years. Gunning studied painting and drawing from 1976-1978 at the National Gallery School of Art and the Victorian College of Art in Melbourne. In 1979, Gunning was awarded a Visual Artist Fellowship by the Louisiana Division of the Arts. His work is included in many public and private collections including the New Orleans Museum of Art and the Ogden Museum of Southern Art.