You don’t need to be an art buff to appreciate the New Orleans Museum of Art’s most recent exhibition: “Pride of Place: The Making of Contemporary Art in New Orleans.” Pride of Place celebrates art collector and gallery owner Arthur Roger’s personal collection that he gifted to the museum.
[Arthur Roger’s] donation — paintings, sculpture and photography by local and national luminaries of modern art — comprises a new NOMA exhibit, “Pride of Place: The Making of Contemporary Art in New Orleans.” The exhibit opens Friday and runs through Sept. 3. In the exhibit’s 143-page catalog, museum Director Susan M. Taylor describes the gift as “transformational.” It “significantly expands” NOMA’s contemporary art holdings and “reaffirms the museum’s commitment to the work of local New Orleans artists,” she said.
Last night’s Art for Art’s Sake block party was a pleasant blur. With the temperature in the sweet seventies and not a cloud in the autumn sky – really, not one – it was the perfect night for an art promenade. Read my AFAS preview here. Julia Street was crowded, but not as cramped as August’s White Linen Night. Lines at the outdoor bars were minimal and the food I sampled – macaroni and cheese studded with lobster – was outstanding. It would have been a great night out, even if the art had not been completely captivating.
Srdjan Loncar is making money, but it’s not about the profit. He hopes that by the time you’re reading this article, New Orleans will be consumed with blissful residents, toting around their newly acquired golden suitcases, a million dollars richer.
What a deal. Artist Srdjan Loncar will sell you $1 million for $500. He’ll even throw in a golden briefcase to help you carry away the loot.
The Venice Biennale is just like any avant-garde art exhibit. Everything is a bit strange. Some things are beautifully strange, some fascinatingly strange, some incomprehensibly strange, some horribly strange.
One of the first pieces that catches visitors’ eyes is Srdjan Loncar’s “Living Room,” which uses Styrofoam, photographs and pins to reconstruct the most used space in the American home.
One of the brightest of these young all-stars is Croatian-born Srdjan Loncar, 35, whose large, obsessively complicated photo-coated sculptures dominated the last New Orleans Triennial group show at the New Orleans Museum of Art in 2005.