John Hartman paints a watercolour study of the Industrial Canal in New Orleans (included in his 2013 exhibition at Arthur Roger Gallery) during his residency at the Gushul Studio in Alberta’s Crowsnest Pass.
Lin Emery (Hudson Hills Press, 2012) is, at one level, the coffee table book which every artist covets as the pinnacle of his or her career. The young artist-in-training will drool over its glossy dust-jacket, its gray cloth covers with “Lin Emery” embossed upon the front in silver (this in anticipation of generations of library shelf wear), its russet end papers, and its one-hundred and twenty-two color plates.
When New Orleans Museum of Art guests celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden Friday night, Lin Emery’s work, “Wave,” will be on proud display in its new setting. The kinetic work by the nationally recognized New Orleans sculptor became an instant icon when it was installed in a reflecting basin in front of the museum in time for the 1988 Republican National Convention. Recently, the need to rebuild the 100-year-old basin meant moving the sculpture requiring museum staff to work with Emery to determine the perfect site for it.
Each year, NOMA selects a handful of individuals to honor for their contributions to the Crescent City art scene. This year’s honorees are kinetic sculptor Lin Emery, experimental video maker Courtney Egan, abstract illusionist painter Richard Johnson, architect Grover Mouton, and action painter Amanda Stone Talley.
Installation views from Gene Koss: Sunrise – August 2013 Exhibition at Arthur Roger Gallery.
Photos from White Linen Night / August 2013 Opening: Gene Koss’ Sunrise and Bruce Davenport, Jr.’s Bruce Jr. Does the Parades.
Bruce Davenport Jr. has taken his passion for New Orleans high school and college marching bands and translated it into a multi-layered personal language. Stand 10 feet from one of Davenport’s drawings and you will be struck by the artists’ command of stark geometric composition. Stand five feet from his drawings and you will be fascinated by his amazingly complicated hieroglyphic interpretation of Crescent City parades. Lean in for a close look and you’ll be able to read his personal and political musings, delivered with rap swagger. The whole effect is fascinating.
Gene Koss blends simple process with advanced fabrication techniques to create glass sculptures that reveal the constant inspiration provided by the rural landscapes of his youth and life. The internationally known artist’s vision remains profoundly humanist, yet this recent work presents an intentional rawness. Several of the works in this exhibition incorporate found object pieces that have been woven in with the artist’s own dialogue. The work ranges in scale from large cast glass and steel sculptures to smaller blocks dubbed “glass drawings.”
Bruce Davenport, Jr.’s vivid color marker drawings provide detailed reenactments – the bands in precise number and formation and the multitude of spectators surrounding them. The small- and large-scale works on paper are flecked with the artist’s thoughts and tributes, interspersed between the crowds and streets. The rendered still moments evoke the energy and ceremony of the entire procession. The artist has been described as, “not so much a self-taught artist as he is a self-taught anthropologist.”
