Exhibition Dates: November 7 – December 26, 2015
Opening Reception: Saturday, November 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 All You Need Know, an exhibition of paintings by Nicole Charbonnet. The exhibition will be on view at Arthur Roger Gallery, located at 432 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.
Study for Pattern (Blue Peony), 2011-15 | Acrylic, plaster and paper on canvas | 48 x 36 inches
Patterns are a source of solace for Nicole Charbonnet – all she needs to know is “in the patterned sound of a song, speech of a poem and design of a quilt.” All You Need Know, the artist’s sixth exhibition with the gallery, features medium- to large-scale paintings based on motifs from wallpaper, textiles or other pattern-based art and design. There are recognizable images from noteworthy artists such as Bridget Riley, Cy Twombly, as well as Orla Kiely’s iconic leaf pattern. Charbonnet explains that, “the appropriated visual arrangements are beautiful in themselves but also act as metaphors for other patterns, whether thoughts or actions, pedestrian or esoteric, prosaic or profound…Using material from our shared cultural heritage not only stimulates a sense of recognition and nostalgia, but also informs current social and political situations.”
The distressed works are constructed using an additive and subtractive process. Layers of collage – literal debris from the artist’s life including letters, receipts, books, and fabric – are built up and manipulated with paint, modeling paste, marble dust and plaster. The compositions, which include superimposed words, textures and images, are repeatedly sanded, scraped, carved and repainted. They retain a sort of palimpsestic record of preexisting stages and become metaphors for the phenomena of recollection. In Austerlitz, W.G. Sebald wrote, “Our concern with history…is a concern with preformed images already imprinted on our brains, images at which we keep staring while the truth lies elsewhere, away from it all.”
Born in New Orleans, Nicole Charbonnet received her B.A. from the University of Virginia and her M.F.A. from Boston University. She also studied in France at the Academic Goetz in Paris and the Cleveland Institute of Art’s school in Lacoste. She has exhibited nationally and internationally and received numerous honors and awards including grants from the Pollock-Krasner, Elizabeth Greenshields and Art Matters Foundations.
A catalog will accompany the exhibition.