All posts by Stephen Hawkins
WYES Artist Profile: Allison Stewart
“Bruce Davenport, Jr. – the game is mine,” Victory Journal
Davenport’s dense, intricate art – which these days depicts boxing matches and football games in addition to the local high school marching bands that first brought him prominence – has captured the attention of the international art market.
Willie Birch – Seen and Unseen: Coupling
“Lin Emery,” New Orleans Art Review
More interactive work is found in Lin Emery’s kinetic sculptures at Arthur Roger Gallery. Emery, a local sculptor whose work is widely known in New Orleans and beyond, continues to be inspired by the exquisite forms that Nature offers every day.
“Amer Kobaslija – Paintings,” The New Orleans Art Review
THE ROMANTIC IMAGE of the solitary painter, alone in a garret studio, strenuously working at a paint-spattered easel in the dead of night, certainly persists in many imaginations. That painter is charged, obsessed with the work – drunk on wine or turpentine, weary from extended periods of insomnia, living in relative filth. Despite the perceived stink of such a scene, it is an engaging thought that captures the creative vision of the uninitiated into studio practice in painting. From paintings by Amer Kobaslija at Arthur Roger Gallery, it appears that the imagined situation is not much different from standard, fanciful mental wanderings.
Lannan Foundation: James Drake In Conversation with David Krakauer
The Lanna Foundation presents Drawing, Reading and Counting (Beauty and Madness in Art & Science) – James Drake In Conversation with David Krakauer (Incoming President, Santa Fe Institute)
Bruce Davenport, Jr. – The Dapper Bruce Lafitte Introduces: Draw Like a Butterfly, Sting Like a Bee
This is Bruce Davenport, Jr.’s second exhibition with the gallery. The four large-scale works are tributes to renowned heavyweight boxer champion Muhammad Ali. Each vivid color marker drawing, rendered in the artist’s celebrated style, is a variation of a common composition – an aerial view of a boxing match. Featured in the ring are the referee, Ali, and his opponent – Floyd Patterson, George Foreman, “Smokin’ Joe” Frazier among others. Surrounding the ring are meticulously rendered rows with throngs of spectators. Bordering this narrative are snapshots of Ali in action, along with memorable quotes such as, “Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee” and “Your hands can’t hit what your eyes can’t see.”
Willie Birch – Seen and Unseen: Coupling
Willie Birch has always been a storyteller, sharing with us his observations of everyday objects and imagery that have had a direct impact on him, and subtly extracting the patterns and symbology inherent within. Recently, the artist has begun to specifically examine the interconnections between the examined elements and how, when coupled together, the initial meanings expand and create yet another layer – a language both seen and unseen. Birch explores the uses of spacing, repetition, geometry, and proportion to communicate how our unique modes of expression as a people identify us as individuals and as a community.
Whitfield Lovell: First Impressions
Whitfield Lovell: First Impressions is the artist’s third exhibition with the gallery. Included are the celebrated, bold assemblages of charcoal drawings on vintage wood paired with multivalent objects collectively illuminating the African American experience. Also exhibited, for the first time, are the artist’s lithograph prints – exquisitely detailed visages on wood veneer, vellum and vintage wallpaper flecked with floral and decorative patterns.