Symbolically speaking, Stewart, whose exhibit “Crosscurrents” is on display at Arthur Roger Gallery, undoes some of the damage mankind has inflicted on the environment. She begins each of her paintings by wall-papering a large canvas with a layer of architectural plans or oil field maps — things that suggest man’s encroachment on the land.
All right, so this is not the title of either of the solo October exhibits at Arthur Roger’s two, separate exhibition spaces. Rather, Jesus Moroles’ is entitled “Broken Earth” at the Arthur Roger Gallery Project location, and James Drake’s is “City of Tells” at Arthur Roger Gallery on Julia.
Fans of Ida Kohlmeyer, almost certainly this region’s best known abstract contemporary artist before her death in 1997, have two — no, make that three — good reasons to rejoice this autumn. Or maybe even four, the most immediate being this System of Color retrospective of iconic selections from her vast output.
Robert Colescott’s Interior I, 1991, is a spot-on pastiche of one of Roy Lichtenstein’s “Interiors” paintings: Here are the sterile modern furnishings, the stark outlines, the repeating dot patterns. Yet someone has shuffled in to disturb the otherwise pristine scene–a dark-skinned figure sits on the white couch, his stockinged foot plunked unceremoniously on the gleaming coffee table.
Where does art come from? Most artworks spring from an artist’s deeply personal responses to a world that is largely impersonal. Life is always a learning experience, but artists are often motivated to make art by a feeling that there is something they need to resolve, whether it’s unique to themselves or part of some broader issue.
I love artists who let their styles evolve over time. And 58-year-old Lubbock, Texas, artist James Drake, whose knockout exhibit “City of Tells” is now on display at Arthur Roger Gallery, certainly has.
Distinguished artist Jim Richard has invited us into his rooms but does not allow us to enter. What can almost be described as a life-long obsession, his work, which will hang at the Abercrombie Gallery through Oct. 20, deals with organic and man-made structures and pokes fun at what Richard describes as “the good life.”
Exhibition Dates: October 2 – October 30, 2004 Opening Reception: Art for Art’s Sake, Saturday, October 2, 6 – 9 pm Location: 432 Julia Street, New Orleans, LA 70130 Gallery Hours: Monday…
Leave it to W. Steve Rucker to transform a still and sterile gallery into a tank teeming with colorful fish and jumbo pencils, so very reminiscent of the playful non-team of Disney and Oldenburg, respectively. No doubt Rucker is thinking about many things in his environmental Think Tank in the Arthur Roger Gallery Project space housed in the glitzy Renaissance Hotel down on Tchoupitoulas.
To Houston artist Al Souza, art is a puzzle. Literally. Souza creates extraordinary collages with pieces of jigsaw puzzles salvaged from thrift stores and garage sales.