Visitors to a satellite exhibition that accompanied the Prospect.2 New Orleans International Biennial in 2011 were startled to discover a clawfoot bathtub filled with oversize night-blooming cereus flowers in the shadowy gloom of an old bathroom. Although the tub and its water were real, the flowers, which seemed to float in a luminous baroque profusion, consisted of sharply rendered light.
Art for Arts’ Sake 2014- A one-night festival of gallery openings to kick off the art season.
The first book on the extensively exhibited and widely collected Cuban American artist’s life and creations, Luis Cruz Azaceta traces the artist’s career and explores the themes that are the focus of his singular art. Alejandro Anreus discusses how the Cuban diaspora, above all, has shaped Cruz Azaceta and how the experience of exile has found expression through starkly forceful self-portraiture.
Own Original Art by Gene Koss, Support a Newcomb Scholar. Tickets are available now for the Newcomb Alumnae Association’s first fundraiser in support of the Newcomb Scholars program. The winner of the raffle will receive a one-of-a-kind sculpture—Ridge Road Climb, Series III—created by Professor of Art Gene Koss, world-renowned glass artist. Entries are $50 each and the drawing will be held on Monday, December 1, 2014. The piece is an exquisite solid glass sculpture with cane and etched drawings [17”(h) x 12” (w) x 5” (d)] valued at $2,800.
Leonard Galmon’s favorite artwork from his senior year, his first and only year at New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, was on display this spring at the Contemporary Arts Center.
Happy 20th birthday to Whitney White Linen Night, the New Orleans Arts District’s summertime soirée that has long been one of the Crescent City’s great street celebrations.
Not to be outdone, Arthur Roger Gallery will mark the occasion with three shows opening in its adjacent gallery spaces on Julia Street. Painter Francis X. Pavy explores issues concerning the Louisiana wetlands in a series of new works on view in the gallery’s main space at 432 Julia, while a suite of never-before-seen photographs from a 1956 Life magazine photo essay assignment by Gordon Parks (who was also the subject of a major exhibition at the New Orleans Museum of Art last year) will be shown next door at 434 Julia. An interactive digital video piece by New Orleans artist Robert Hannant in the gallery’s video room will round out the offerings.
Artist Francis X. Pavy’s psychedelic swampscapes at Arthur Roger gallery are cosmic pleas for the unspoiled wetlands of the distant past.
While it may be best known for its vibrant music scene, New Orleans’ history of visual artists—painters, photographers, sculptors, video artists, and beyond—rivals that of any other city packed with sleek galleries and slick collectors. Though the local art community has lost some of its greatest inspirations in recent months—including George Dureau and George Rodrigue—the fierce passion of the city’s established and emerging artists continues to evolve and make NOLA a hotbed of creative activity. Here are 20 New Orleans Artists You Should Know.
In spending more than two years making 1,242 drawings, artist James Drake learned a thing or two. “Believe it or not,” said the genial, Texas-born artist as he oversaw the installation of his new exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, “I learned that less is more.”