Press & Media

“Round Up: The Best of Prospect.2 New Orleans: Part 3,” Pelican Bomb

November 25, 2011

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: Black Wings,” THE Magazine

November 16, 2011

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.

Electric Tigers and the Nature of Digital Awe: Dave Greber’s “Peekaboo,” louisianaesthetic.com

November 12, 2011

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.

“Works by Josephine Sacabo and Ersy”, Gambit

November 5, 2011

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.

Dawn DeDeaux’s Prospect.2 Installation “Goddess Fortuna and Her Dunces In An Effort To Make Sense Of It All” at The Historic New Orleans Collection’s Brulatour Courtyard

November 4, 2011

“DeDeaux, a New Orleans native and one of America’s pioneering new media artists, employs her visionary sense of space, light and media to transform the Brulatour Courtyard into “Goddess Fortuna and Her Dunces In An Effort To Make Sense Of It All.” Inspired by John Kenney Toole’s classic New Orleans novel, “A Confederacy of Dunces,” the exhibition celebrates the 30th anniversary of the novel’s Pulitzer Prize, exploring its underlying philosophical themes.”

“The Goddess Fortuna in an Attempt to Make Sense of It All,” The Huffington Post

October 26, 2011

If a Giant Golden Lucky Dog; Glass Ladders to Nowhere; Revolt in the Factory of Pants; and the Goddess Fortuna played by Bounce Diva Katey Red is up your alley, then The Goddess Fortuna and Her Dunces, in an Attempt to Make Sense of It All by artist Dawn DeDeaux is the New Orleans art installation to see.

“CAC’s Art for Arts Sake Recap with pictures,” InvadeNOLA

October 18, 2011

“Using an insider’s bag of tricks and trade lingo, Waters celebrates the excess of the movie industry. Word and image play permeate Waters’ work, and the movie industry and its various sleights of hand are a common target. Always ambitious and playful, some of the works are condensed narratives or “little movies” as Waters calls them. Waters wickedly juxtaposes images from films and television that he captured by photographing his television set as they play.”

“What was best at the Art for Art’s Sake 2011 block party,” The Times-Picayune

October 4, 2011

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.

“Arthur Roger,” OffBeat

October 4, 2011

Arthur Roger has been a mainstay of the Julia Street contemporary arts scene, and for years his gallery has been one of the must-see stops on first Saturday art openings. For years, Art for Art’s Sake has been the contemporary arts community’s signature event, though in recent years, White Linen Night has challenged that standing. On a quiet afternoon, Roger talks about changes in the New Orleans arts community and the business of art.

“Life and Art, Side by Side in the French Quarter. At Home With Ersy Schwartz and Josephine Sacabo,” The New York Times

October 4, 2011

Ersy Schwartz, a sculptor, and Josephine Sacabo, a photographer, are old friends, neighbors and artistic collaborators who live in the crumbling village known as the French Quarter, in houses that are exemplars of a certain local aesthetic composed of equal parts grandeur and mystery, funk and rot. They are also fomenters of the sort of time-traveling artwork that comes with a distinctly New Orleans point of view.