Exhibition Dates: October 1–October 29, 2022
Opening Reception: Saturday, October 1 from 6–9 pm, in conjunction with Art for Arts’ Sake
Gallery Location: 432 Julia Street, New Orleans, LA 70130
Hours: Tuesday–Saturday, 10 am–5 pm
Contact Info: 504.522.1999; www.arthurrogergallery.com
The Arthur Roger Gallery is pleased to present Simon Gunning: Meet Me by the River, an exhibition of paintings and works on paper by Simon Gunning. The exhibition will be on view at Arthur Roger Gallery, located at 432 Julia Street, from October 1–October 29, 2022. The gallery will host an opening reception with the artist in attendance, Saturday, October 1 from 6–9 pm in conjunction with Art for Arts’ Sake.
Australian-born Simon Gunning has lived in New Orleans’ Bywater neighborhood for over 30 years. His appreciation for the local scenery – from the New Orleans streets to swamps to the Mighty Mississippi – has never waned, as is evident in his renowned paintings of the Southern Louisiana landscape. Despite his veneration, his compositions are never sentimentalized. His edgy style of painting has been described as “an iconic personal statement about life, death, sorrow, and a love affair with an exotic land.” He has a startling ability to capture scenes at the most felicitous time of day, rendering the light and color that is so unique to the landscape.
This exhibition, the artist’s sixth with the gallery, includes recent works on canvas and paper. Simon was working tirelessly on the show painting the cypress swamps of South Louisiana when the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting lockdown ground life to a halt. His trips to the swamp were no longer feasible. The artist never deterred, walked out of his front door and into the Bywater neighborhood. From there it was a quick stroll to the levee of the Mississippi River. Gunning, always drawn to the commerce and bustle of the river, brought his sketchbook to the banks and began creating. His depictions of ocean liners navigating the serpentine bends of the river are beautifully rendered in oil paint in two 10-foot-wide paintings among others. The exhibition also features diptychs and a triptych in ink on paper as well as pages from the artist’s sketchbook.
Simon Gunning was born in Sydney, Australia in 1956. He studied painting and drawing from 1976-1978 at the National Gallery School of Art and the Victorian College of Art in Melbourne, Australia. In 1999, he 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; Percent for Art Collection at Louis Armstrong International Airport and the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, all in New Orleans; as well as in private and corporate collections in Paris, London, Los Angeles, and Australia. He also has participated in a number of blue-chip juried shows, including, among others, the New Orleans Museum of Art’s 2001 New Orleans Triennial and in 2000 the Washington, D.C.-based International Development Bank Cultural Center’s show New Orleans: A Creative Odyssey.
For more information please contact the Arthur Roger Gallery at 504.522.1999 or visit our website at arthurrogergallery.com.
