Douglas Bourgeois (b. 1951, Gonzales, LA) is a resident of St. Amant, Louisiana. He received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Louisiana State University in 1974 and is widely recognized as one of the defining "Visionary Imagists" of the contemporary American South. His meticulously rendered oil paintings and drawings—characterized by obsessive attention to detail, restrained monochromatic palettes alongside technicolor hyper-reality, and dreamlike imagery—frequently juxtapose pop culture iconography, revered musical performers, and South Louisiana flora and fauna with themes of grief, political tension, and human resilience.
Bourgeois’ work has been featured in major exhibitions across the country, including the touring mid-career retrospective Baby-Boom Daydreams: The Art of Douglas Bourgeois (2002–2004), Prospect.3 New Orleans (2014), Southern Accent: Seeking the American South in Contemporary Art (2016–2017), and Natural Wonders: The Art of Jacqueline Bishop & Douglas Bourgeois (2018). Selected solo exhibitions include Art by Bourgeois: Douglas Bourgeois at the West Baton Rouge Museum (2021) and his tenth gallery show, The Balm of Mystery, at the Arthur Roger Gallery in New Orleans (2024).
Throughout his career, Bourgeois has received numerous honors, including an Award in the Visual Arts Fellowship (1981), a Louisiana Division of the Arts Fellowship (1992), and a Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters & Sculptors Grant (2007). His work is held in prestigious public and private collections nationwide, including the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Detroit Institute of Arts, Minneapolis Institute of Art, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, New Orleans Museum of Art, Ogden Museum of Southern Art, and the Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation.