The Department of Art at Lamar University will honor internationally celebrated artist and LU alum John Alexander (’68) with a naming and dedication of the John Alexander Painting Studio on Thursday, Oct. 8, at 5:30 p.m. in the Art Building. The event is free and open to the public.
Both the light and the proportions of the new studio left a mark on Gunning’s work. About half of his forthcoming exhibit, which opens Oct. 3 at Arthur Roger Gallery, 432 Julia St., was painted in the restored shotgun. (Art critic Doug MacCash included Gunning’s exhibit among the “5 Best Bets” of the annual Art for Art’s Sake openings on Saturday).
Arthur Roger will be presenting a show of shimmering, natural form-based kinetic sculptures by veteran New Orleans-based artist Lin Emery, along with David Leventi’s grand photos of opera houses and prisons and river- and cityscapes by Simon Gunning. And one of the newest additions to the Julia Street scene, Julie Silvers Art, will be celebrating its grand opening Saturday with a DJ, door prizes, and other “surprises” from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.
IT’S DIFFICULT TO place exhibits in New Orleans at this time of this year outside of the context of The Storm. The subject looms like heavy billowing clouds, densely gray and thickly churning, an extended horizontal weight floating and staying just above our heads. Many of us are walking with eyes cast down, or otherwise away from the reminders of ten years gone. At New Orleans Museum of Art, it is an apt title for an exhibit comprised of work not necessarily about Katrina. At Arthur Roger Gallery, the concept also appears to be at the heart of three exhibitions.
Deborah Luster, a photographer from Louisiana, was named the 2015 winner of the 1858 Prize for Contemporary Southern Art, an award bestowed by the Gibbes Museum of Art.
Black lives matter. All lives matter. Both statements are true, but it is astounding that we are still debating the meaning of those words. We accept equal rights in theory, but things don’t always play out that way on the streets.
“TEN YEARS GONE,” was curated by NOMA’s Russell Lord and slated to signal the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. It takes on a capacious, four-part theme: “time, memory, loss and transformation.” And the exhibition, as Lord puts it, sought “to situate the significance of the past decade within a larger context of human endeavor and life experience.”
Simon Gunning, and his new studio on Port Street in New Orleans, photographed on Thursday August 20, 2015.
In September 1966, LIFE magazine published, “The Redemption of a Champion,” by Gordon Parks, a profile of Muhammad Ali, who had recently changed his name to embody his newly adopted Islamic faith. An exhibition of photographs from the LIFE essay are currently on view in “Gordon Parks: Ali” at Arthur Roger Gallery, New Orleans, through September 9, 2015.
How well do you remember the last days of August 10 years ago? …The three major visual arts venues in the city — the New Orleans Museum of Art, the Ogden Museum of Southern Art and the Contemporary Arts Center — have all timed exhibitions of living artists to coincide with the anniversary. Each show is distinct in its approach, its tone, and its way of visualizing the role of art and the idea of memorialization itself.