James Drake: Red Drawings and White Cut-outs
After years of making large charcoal drawings, James Drake (born 1946) found himself making drawings that were predominately white and airy, from which he extracted images using an exacto knife. The red charcoal drawings also collected here were made in response to the white cut out drawings. Published on the heels of a successful retrospective, this is the first monograph on Drake’s drawings.
Review: Luis Cruz Azaceta, Gambit
Change happens. That’s not news, but lately the pace seems to be picking up in often perplexing ways. Such is the proposition that propels Luis Cruz Azaceta in his Shifting States expo at Arthur Roger Gallery.
Dawn DeDeaux’s “Goddess Fortuna and Her Dunces In an Effort to Make Sense Of It All” featured in Artillery Magazine
Open only at night, DeDeaux’s installation riffs on Toole’s evocation of fate and furies. The artist uses the three-story mansion to great effect. Off each story is a balcony, behind which are French doors and windows. Using various staging setups, including mannequins costumed with dunce hats that look weirdly like figures from the Inquisition, and a room full of masks and odd artifacts, she sets up a fun-house tableau on each floor. There are rooms you can enter and rooms that you view from the center of the courtyard, which boasts a wagon with a fountain that has distinct masturbatory connotations, consistent with the Reilly character. The rooms have video projections or staged lighting, which makes a dramatic impact. Looking up from the grounds of the courtyard, you can see ethereal, spinning videos. In a large downstairs room is a dance video, if one can call it that. DeDeaux cast the contemporary diva of New Orleans bounce music, Katey Red, to play the role of Goddess Fortuna, accompanied by two backup dancers as “the Wheelettes”—to spin the wheels of our fate. The energetic figures in the video have an uncanny optical effect of appearing disembodied in the outdoor courtyard through a device of reflection. I watched entranced through the windows of the room at the courtyard; it was truly disturbing, and inspiring. Worked from its literary source, DeDeaux’s zany, smart and wildly imaginative installation goes far beyond illustration to become an atmosphere that is indeed inhabited by the Goddess Fortuna.
The Past Still Present: Photographs by David Halliday at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art
from ogdenmuseum.org The Past Still Present: Photographs by David Halliday at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art On view January 19 – April 8, 2012 A master of light, New…
“Update: Azaceta in New Orleans, U.S. Photographers Snap Cuba, Havana Charrette Coming Soon—and More,” Cuban Art News
From CubanArtNews.org, January 9, 2012 Luis Cruz Azaceta in New Orleans. From collapsing economies to the consequences of climate change, the instability of global affairs has been, for many of…
Luis Cruz Azaceta: Shifting States
Aspects of a New Kind of Realism
Aspects of a New Kind of Realism explores the roles of realism and process in painting today. The exhibition is curated by highly regarded writer, curator, and program director, Michael Klein; and features works by artists David Bates, Richard Bosman, Squeak Carnwath, Glenn Golderg, John Hartman, Kathryn Lynch, Thom Merrick, Joan Snyder, and Xiaoze Xie. Klein surmises that for these artists, and many others, there is a quite conscious choice of content that reflects more than just a still life or portrait; that their ambition is to “present through painting ideas that suggest and suppose and present painting as a means by which questions can be raised and observations made about and for a contemporary audience.”
Luis Cruz Azaceta: Shifting States
Exhibition Dates: January 7 – February 18, 2012 Opening Reception: Saturday, January 7 from 6 – 8 pm Gallery Location: 434 Julia Street, New Orleans, LA 70130 Hours: Tuesday – Saturday,…
Morgan as Mentor at the Paul and Lulu Hilliard University Art Museum
Elemore Morgan, Jr. (1931 – 2008) was a renowned artist in Louisiana. Known primarily as a landscape painter, Morgan was also a beloved and influential teacher. As a member of the UL Lafayette (known then as the University of Southwest Louisiana) Art Department for over thirty years, Morgan’s influence as a mentor was profound. The University Art Museum will honor the artist and teacher with an exhibition of works by artists who credit Morgan as their artistic mentor.