Louisiana Artworks Exhibition Program and Artist Registry

- no info up on their website about it yet, but hopefully will be soon. -C.

Attention: Emerging Contemporary Visual Artists
Louisiana Artworks is pleased to announce our first open call for entries as part of our Emerging Artists exhibition programming. Artist applications will be compiled into an ongoing Artist Registry. Guest curators recruited from national and international art centers will review our Artist Registry when making their individual selections for eight different exhibitions. The first curated show selected from the registry will open November 1, 2008 in conjunction with Prospect.1. Louisiana Artworks will also launch our single channel video exhibition space on November 1 - the only space of its kind in the city. All applicants are invited to complete and return the submission form along with required supporting materials no later than August 30, 2008 to be considered for the first round of reviews. Please note that all submission materials will be retained by Louisiana Artworks. Artist information and images for our registry are accepted on an ongoing basis. Please feel free to contact our office with any questions.

Allison Stewart in New York

Closing today! It's your last chance to catch Allison Stewart's recent paintings in NYC at Kathryn Markel Fine Arts. This past February Stewart also curated "Close Up", an exhibit that included Raine Bedsole, Jacqueline Bishop, Kathleen Loe, Mary Jane Parker and Katharine White.

Authorless Content: The Whitney Biennial— Another Look

Closing in ten days, this year's Whitney Biennial offers Omer Fast's "The Casting" as its major highlight. In my mind, the issues engaged by this artwork connect to the way New Orleans is portrayed daily in popular news media. This work is about spin, and how bias in story telling says more about its producer than the supposed subject matter.

Especially in the year of a presidential election, Louisiana is unfortunately entertaining in its struggle, making it a prime emotional manipulator used in ads and spectacular news-gathering models. Mediated graphic reference of the Katrina disaster is frequent, and it is carefully crafted- often reflecting agendas that have little to do with people living in the Gulf Coast. Is whose favor is this regional history being co-opted?

Omer Fast's work asks many questions about authorship and the isolation of content. The subject matter in this artwork originates with an interview dialogue that is digested and recapitulated. Creating a meta-story of sorts, Fast develops this material to reveal how the story was constructed.

Physically, the space created by this installation separates origin and artifice. "The Casting" is a four-channel video displayed on two double-sided panels floating side-by-side inside the center of a darkened room. One pair of video panels portrays original interview footage with a US Army sergeant who recounts his experiences abroad at war in Iraq. The other side of these video panels shows a dramatized reenactment of these same events by actors and a camera crew. The audience surrounds the video projections as if they are on two opposing teams, and the installation is united by a singular sound track.

Audio in this piece carries the oral conversation between the army sergeant and the artist, but the mouths of actors don't move in Fast's dramatization. A rush of dislocation permeates the narrative's climax, as events on-screen hold visual logic, but are void of any causal sensibility. The audience's moments of suspended disbelief are exploited at the horrific points in each tale- as the artist subtly jump cuts, weaving together overlapping story arcs. The dialogue cycle of raw interview footage eventually breaks down and becomes a search for ultimate truths. Verbally negotiating this territory, Fast intentionally jumbles the delivery of information.

Modern media positioning similarly has the power to misguide its audience. Last month’s grandstand by John McCain in the Lower Ninth and the Ford Lincoln's commercial with Harry Connick Jr. are examples of maneuvering our aggravated sensations. Cues and segueways affect our understanding of content. Authorless stories and those serving as PR engines are truly frightening, especially with regard to Louisiana's future.

notes from the ninth: good children play with sculpture

I'm not sure what the title of the show is (i am a lazy reviewer), but malcolm has curated a group of LSU sculptors for the current show at Good Children in the ninth ward. Craft is secondary to the ideas in most of the work, but it is this very roughness that allows a playful pursuit of possibility. The piece i liked the most in the show was certainly the table with the spoon and the ball that chased each other around a table when two people sat down on the opposing chairs. I am a sucker for inanimate objects come to life and i appreciate the need to have not just one, but two people to make a complete circuit. If you go to the show solo, you will need to use your social skills of persuasion to bring about your aesthetic moment. another piece that relies on the gee whiz factor is the nearly full scale, talking politician. you can control the movements of the facial features with a game controller. the figure is creepy and fascinating like the animatronic figures at disney world. i hear the good children in the neighborhood love to play with it. also of interest to me was the ceramic ice cream scoops freshly fallen from their cone. the forms are sweet and sumptuously slick. my small quibble was that the shelf it was displayed on did not give the sculpture the room it deserves. many other interesting things in the show, like the hair chairs. the two pieces that used video were unfortunately either too obtuse for me to get, or too mundane for me to be interested. Hopefully you will be luckier than i. all in all another interesting show from a gallery unafraid to take some risks. go see it quick, before it comes down.
-ds, lazy writer of late reviews. i'm sure you could do much better than this.

notes from the ninth: words and images meet at antenna

the writing is on the wall, and it doesn't take a prophet to see it. The freshly painted room at Antenna, a new gallery in the ninth ward, has already been tagged. The inaugural show at the non-profit space pairs visual artists with word artists - painter Brad Benischek with writer Berman Black, and painter Shawn Hall with poet Brad Elliot- to interesting effect. Brad B and Mr. Black have constructed a subdued but stunning mural that withstands prolonged viewing at different distances. Race cars and building materials overlay large and small text that relate what seem to be personal stories of the rebuilding. It all comes together with conviction and necessity, remarkable esp considering the organic, improvisational process with no white-out to be seen.
Shawn and Brad E's wall is equally beautiful but with a different feel altogether. Though the words and images appear to have been created separately, their installation brings it together. The text is seductively rendered, belying the intent of the words. Shawn's small paintings of alchemically inspired imagery elude to possible connections rather than illuminating the text.
Antenna is a welcome addition to the burgeoning art activities in the ninth ward, and this show bodes well for future offerings. The show is up sat & sun, noon -5pm, until May 17th, and Brad Benischek and Shawn Hall will both be doing talks about the work at some point soon.
Antenna, 3161 Burgundy St.
-ds

new collective Antenna 's first show

click for details
opening this Saturday April 12

UNO Art Gallery presents

MFA Thesis Exhibition:
Lived In
artwork by Laura Gipson
University of New Orleans Lakefront Campus
Fine Arts Building
Opening Reception Friday, April 11th 6-8 pm

Carroll Gallery presents

Tulane MFA Thesis Exhibitions: Jane Fox Hipple and Bruce M. Mackh
"Are We Nature?" [paintings by Jane Fox Hipple]
oil paintings on canvas and panel - of abstracted natural
forms inspired by the jungles of Latin America and the wetlands of Louisiana
and
"No Direction Home: Images of New Orleans" [photographs by Bruce M. Mackh]
black and white photographs of New Orleans

Woldenberg Art Center, Tulane University
504.314.2228
April 9, 2008 - April 18, 2008
Reception: Friday, April 18, 2008, 6:30 - 8:30 pm
9 am - 4 pm, Mon - Fri.

Whitney Biennial Snap Judgments

As an art grad student, I was totally into the Whitney Biennial. Am I still? Once the long line finally conveyed me to the front of the Whitney on a super busy Friday, and after waiting again in an amazingly slow coat check, my first impression upon entering the 4th floor galleries was "CROWDED," and not just with people. I couldn't get the negative space figured out in Seth Price's nice wall piece "Untitled" without backing up into a sculpture. 3-D work left the impression "HOME DEPOT." One piece with the Hardware Store aesthetic, Heather Rowe's "Screen," entranced me with its disjunctive Magritte-y impression while walking past it. 2x4 framing alternated with mirrored and empty sections, creating rows meant to be walked between, and it took full advantage of the crowds, for instance when you glimpsed yourself among all those people over THERE, when you were actually over HERE.
For me, the moving art was the best, and I admit the ample seating was a big draw. I caught part of Michael Smith's Portal Excursion, an endearing tongue-in-cheek effort by a mid-ager to learn everything there is to know via Internet education. Javier Tellez's Letter to the Blind for the Use of those Who See blew me away. OK, I wasn't able to see the entire piece due to claustrophobia, but here's the set-up: 6 blind people, reprising the story of "The Blind Man and the Elephant," are at a zoo getting a unique encounter with a docile elephant named Beulah. One guy, as he searches for her trunk, reminises about how important childhood readings of Babar were. Another greets Beulah like a long lost family member, addressing her directly, saying her name with affection and commenting humorously on her shoe size. Shot in a traditional manner, in 16mm film and converted to HD, the piece sets out to make a point about individual experience vs. assumptions and stereotypes. I can't wait to see the whole piece.
I caught part of Jennifer Montgomery's Notes on the Death of Kodachrome, the part with Todd Haynes in it luckily, but I had trouble imagining watching it for 80 minutes. William E. Jone's Tearoomcaught me off guard and was completely voyeuristic. The footage was found by the artist, who did not manipulate it. Evidently an Ohio police department in the 1960's put a 2-way mirror into a men's room to record evidence so they could get some sodomy charges on the books. An odd piece altogether - unlike today's "unmanned" surveillance cameras, it came as a bit of a shock after trying to figure out why all the tilts, pans and zooms were disturbing me, that this was shot by a real live person. And even though a still photo could just as easily have identify faces, the filming was extensive. The idea of claiming as one's own an "orphaned" film brings up other questions.
A piece I missed that also deals with history was Kevin Jerome Everson's Emergency Needs. After reviewing the website I realized just how much I missed in my 4- hour visit. I guess I do still like the Whitney Biennial , but since curators are fully embracing time-based media, art-viewing time requirements have gone way up.

The Apostolic Project

click to enlarge for details and visit Art in Action for a map. The artists and owners are keeping it open for a while and people are welcome to go to the site and walk inside the property.
NEW-
Watch video of the project here.

Reviews elsewhere

In Artforum's online "critics' picks" section: a review of New Orleans digital artist David Sullivan's "You Win" show at Barrister's Gallery.

UNO Art Gallery presents

MFA Thesis Exhibition

Jeffrey Rinehart, Wooly Mammoth
and
Natalie Sciortino, Postures

Reception Friday, March 28, 6-8pm
University of New Orleans,Lakefront Campus, Fine Arts Building-East Gallery
Show runs March24-April4, 2008

Carroll Gallery presents

Tulane MFA Thesis Exhibitions:
"SKIN/show\SKIN," digital work by David E. Robinson (pictured on left) - large-scale digital prints on canvas
and
"Living in Shadow," installation and sculpture by Cynthia Scott (pictured on right) - site-specific sculptural installations utilizing found and natural materials
Exhibition runs March 25, 2008 - April 3, 2008
Reception: Thursday, April 3, 2008, 6:30 - 8:30 pm
for more information and artists statements, click here.
Gallery hours 9 am - 4 pm, Mon - Fri. Saturday hours by the artists, 12-5pm, Woldenberg Art Center, Tulane University
504.314.2228

Whitney Biennial in NYC

Photo caption:
Cheyney Thompson, Sets of Color from Robho to Storage, 2006 (detail). Twenty-five offset lithographs, 58 x 42 in. (147.3 x 106.7 cm) each

The opening of each Whitney Biennial always marks a moment of high energy and dialogue about what is hot. Among those selected this go round is Cheyney Thompson, who is originally from Baton Rouge. Spike Lee's When the Levees Broke also made the cut.

Posted by Laura Blereau

Sally Ann Glassman in Donaldsonville

Prospect One Biennial in NOLA

Check out the recent announcement by Dan Cameron of artists participating in our first international biennial, Prospect One New Orleans.

Posted by Laura Blereau

"this is only temporary" at Loyola's Diboll Gallery

You are invited to attend the Collins C. Diboll Art Gallery's opening reception for "this is only temporary" by Cody Vanderkaay and "Now Showing" by adjunct faculty members from the Visual Arts Department.

"this is only temporary"
CODY VANDERKAAY presents a post-studio investigation linking his ongoing 'Coverup' series to work done in the studio. While traveling by bicycle through various cities, Vanderkaay observed the mismatched relationships between surface and color. The shapes that he discovered depict a generic quality, and yet, to him, looked familiar.

His desire to map these shapes resulted in purposeful outlining of contours with string, thus capturing the precision of the grey painted shapes. As a result, VanderKaay has created large-scale objects that are built from painting, drawing, graphic image and billboard-like constructions.

"Now Showing"
Exciting artwork from Visual Art's adjunct and extraordinary faculty members Cody Vanderkaay, Nancy Sharon Collins, Christopher Derris, Angela Driscoll and Victoria Ryan.

Wednesday, March 5, from 5 to 8 p.m.
Collins C. Diboll Art Gallery
Located on the 4th floor of Monroe Library
Free Admission

Marjetica Potrč, Water and New Orleans

The artwork of Marjetica Potrc, the Slovenian artist whose work with New Orleans architecture firm FutureProof is in the CAC "Something from Nothing" show (a rainwater filtering system is introduced by Dan Cameron in the video above), presents an alternative to convention wisdom in the rebuilding of New Orleans. An eco-friendly shotgun house prototype, with solar panels and cistern, was shown in a gallery in Chelsea recently, and Marjetica gave a talk at the New School called Future Talk Now: Learning from New Orleans, the Western Balkans, and Acre, Brazil. In an interview with MetropolisMag.com, it's obvious that Marjetica understands New Orleans' fragile condition in relation to wetlands loss, but she is also concerned about something many New Orleanians take for granted - the availability of water. Yesterday, National Public Radio ran a piece about the leaching of 50-90 million gallons of water a day from our system of 100-year old pipes that are in desperate need of replacement; however, FEMA can only "restore to pre-storm conditions," and pre-storm, N.O. was probably leaching similar amounts of water. And, due to decreased population, the Sewerage and Water Board, millions of dollars in debt and going deeper, is not selling enough water. "Don't conserve" is their message, according to NPR, so the utility can sell enough to financially stay afloat. These conflicting approaches by city administrators, artists and actors are just a section of the confusion in our attempt to re-imagine a major city.

Emily Sartor: Gothic Tableaux

Walker Percy's 1971 novel "Love in the Ruins: The Adventures of a Bad Catholic at a Time Near the End of the World" is one the many Southern literary influences absorbed by painter Emily Sartor. In a recent solo exhibition at Massimo Audiello gallery, overgrown landscapes invaded by human neglect, kudzu and water conjure the fictitious subdivision of Paradise Estates.

Depicting bricks spilling over into woody bayou, Sartor's energetic lines and vividly painted surfaces give form to human spirit. Surreal vessels of memory and place, these are dislocated leafy terrains. Reminders of the physical and political flux of any modern domestic territory, the automobiles and decorative wallpapers in these pictures are broken open into chaos.

Based in New York, Emily Sartor (b. 1975, Monroe LA) was educated at
Louisiana Tech and Pratt Institute.

Posted by Laura Blereau

Rachel Jones at University of New Orleans this Thursday

click for larger image and details