Throughout a century of oppression, photography served as a ray of light for black Americans, illuminating the humanity, beauty and achievements long hidden in the culture at large. By allowing a people to record and celebrate the affirmative aspects of their lives, the camera helped to countermand the toxic effects of stereotypes on their self-esteem.
Weiskopf’s paintings elevate domestic life to something more exotic. Regional fruits and local delicacies like tropical longan berries, cold-weather quinces, and Italian Ossi dei Morti cookies become objects of beauty, worthy of being celebrated on canvas. The artist’s delicate renderings of the smallest details result in a body of work that invites careful viewing and rewards those who take the time to stop and pay attention.
Over his nearly five-decade career as a visual artist, Dale Chihuly has become almost as well-known for being a successful and canny entrepreneur as for his colorful and intricately wrought glass creations.
David Halliday is a master of still photography. He is known for his captivating portraiture, his still-lifes of exquisite ripened fruit (some with sexual undertones), his ethereal landscapes and his anthropological renderings of ordinary objects. But within the serene stillness of his works lie movement and life.
Bunny Matthews’ The People of New Orleans From A to Z – A Video Interview From NOLAFugees Press|Productions
Installation views from Amy Weiskopf: Still Lifes – May 2014 exhibition at Arthur Roger Gallery
Artist George Valentine Dureau, Jr. died April 7, 2014. On Friday, April 18, friends and family gathered in the Patrick Taylor Library at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art to honor him. Speakers included the artist’s longtime friend Kenneth Holdtich, Ogden curator Bradley Sumrall, Ogden director William Andrews, brother Don Dureau, friend Judge Ginger Berrigan and friend and caretaker Katin Nachod.
The Vieux Carre’s figurative freak flag dropped to half-staff last week when news circulated that one of the district’s last remaining embodiments of local color had faded to black. George Dureau, one of the city’s most nationally recognized artist and a major player in the local arts scene from the 1970s through the ’90s, was dead at 83, having succumbed to Alzheimer’s disease.
