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…
Lesley Dill’s Poetic Visions: from Shimmer to Sister Gertrude Morgan focuses on two bodies of work by the versatile artist: one is metallic sculpture and the other is an installation inspired by the late folk artist, preacher, and New Orleans phenomenon Sister Gertrude Morgan. This exhibit is what you dream those dusty Smithsonian displays could be. It is history gone wild; a show of visual might that makes one feel like a child entering Disneyland.
HOW TO ADDRESS GREATNESS? I find it surprisingly difficult to write about an exhibition by an artist whom I greatly admire – James Drake, in this case, and his show of works from the 1980s through the present. Salon of a Thousand Souls was so intelligently presented by curator of contemporary art Laura Addison (with the artist’s input) that I fear anything I might add would appear as the slobbering gibber of a sycophant. I am reduced, therefore, to description, with the endorsement that you go see the exhibition, stat.
All artists build imaginary spaces. James Drake is fully cognizant of the human tendency to project subjective history and meanings into the spaces he opens and constructs. Even before the visitor reaches the formal entry of his current exhibition at the New Mexico Museum of Art, the artist has placed three functional steel sculptures that announce his personal point of view. These include two benches and a graceful child’s table stacked with books of art and literature that are meaningful to him. There are monographs on Goya, Daumier, Rubens, the Mexican muralists, the novel “Blood Meridian” by Cormac McCarthy, two books of poetry by Jimmy Santiago Baca, including “Que Linda la Brisa” (2001) with photographs by Drake, and the 2008 University of Texas survey of the artist’s 35-year career.
In December, New Orleans is brimming with art events including Prospect.2, photo shows at PhotoNOLA’s array of gallery shows and the architecture expo DesCours, presented by the local chapter of the American Institute of Architects. It’s a bit much. Among the photography shows, Arthur Roger Gallery got a jump start with Ted Kincaid’s archaic looking land, sea and sky scenes resembling 19th century “wet-plate” photographs, a process prized for its poetic imperfections, but Kincaid’s work is mostly digital. Here the landscapes are dramatically otherworldly, as if some 19th century romantic artist like Alfred Bierstadt had suffered many darkroom mishaps but still got some occasionally inspired results.
Originality has an inside and an outside. Understanding the nature of originality in sculpture requires an understanding of both—of the inside, what it is in the sculptor’s life that created her artistic personality, and the outside, what sets her work apart from that of other artists of similar inclination. In Lin Emery’s case, there is a strong connection between these two sides of originality: the personal dynamic of her artistic evolution explains her place in the history of kinetic sculpture. There is a consistent element of autonomous discovery in Emery’s artistic life, as well as a highly personal mix of philosophical and artistic influences. In some ways, her work constitutes a logical part of the tradition of kinetic sculpture that descends from Constructivism. But her sensitivity to natural forms and modes of movement sets her work apart and enriches that tradition.
The moment the sky turns dark is transformative. In the Brulatour Courtyard, it’s the time when Dawn DeDeaux’s perverted portrait of Ignatius Reilly comes to life, converting the romanticism of the historic courtyard into the dark imaginings of John Kennedy Toole’s A Confederacy of Dunces. Those familiar with the iconic New Orleans novel will recognize central elements from the narrative in this installation. The Levy Pants revolution, the Lucky Dog cart, and Reilly’s hunting cap all make appearances; while Reilly’s slovenly bed occupies center stage of the courtyard, fountain spewing from its center.
JOHN GELDERSMA’S SCULPTURES at Chiaroscuro Gallery are imbued with both the bayou exuberance of his Louisiana background and the minimalist rigor of his East Coast training and early milieu. His work shows a loving give and take with his materials.
What do you get when you cross the jungle imagery of famed 19th century painter Henri Rousseau, the Vietnam War, Louisiana swamps, 1980′s aesthetics, maybe a little of the 18th century poet William Blake’s “The Tiger,” new age mysticism, quantum mechanics and 21st century digital video techniques? You get artist Dave Greber’s video installation “Peekaboo,” which is currently running at Arthur Roger Gallery.
Ersy’s sculpture may come as a revelation because pieces that resembled impressive curiosities in her infrequent and more modest earlier exhibitions are now revealed to be integral parts of an intricately elaborated parallel universe. Comprised of strange mice and skeletal birds among other fantastical creatures, all are either tangled up in strange mechanisms or else arrayed in carnivalesque processions like her miniature Hommage to the Society of Ste. Anne (pictured) and in otherworldly settings with Max Ernst, Pauline Reage and Brothers Grimm overtones evoked by the clever use of abstract details.