Art Openings and Shows in NOLA

Each week, NoDef brings you a comprehensive directory of visual arts
in the Crescent City from Julia to St. Claude

May 28-June 4

As a new month begins, there's fresh life in the Julia Street galleries this week. First Friday brings a flurry of new openings, including one of the world's finest granite sculptors, and a show featuring myths and monsters!

 

OPENINGS

 

Ariodante Gallery, 535 Julia St.

 

Paintings by Bettina Miret; Jewelry by Kiki Hurston; New art from Phillip Lightweiss-Goff, Opening Reception is on June 2, 6-9 pm. The exhibitions will be on view through June 30.
 

 

Arthur Roger, 432 Julia St.
Rings of Granite, an exhibition from Jesus Morales. Opening June 2. Morales is recognized as one of the greatest sculptors working in granite today. The artist works with materials such as Texas Pink, Black, Dakota, and Fredericksburg to create his unique sculptures that will be on view through July 14.

Callan Contemporary 240 Chartres St. 

Jose-Maria Cundin presents Opus Concava on June 1. Cundin has referred to his oil paintings on wood-panel as “portraits, pseudo-portraits, echograms, and ectoplasm imagery.” The artist’s work will be on view through July 25.

Carol Robinson Gallery 840 Napoleon Ave. Artists Jere Allen, Noah Saterstrom, Beverly Dennis, Jean Geraci, David Goodman, and Doug Sweet present The Sixth Month. On view through June 2012.  ?
 

 

Cole Pratt Gallery, 3800 Magazine St.
Artist Katie Rafferty presents, About a Line, on June 2. The opening reception will last from 5:30-8pm. Rafferty’s mixed media monotypes and canvas works explore the many manifestations of “the line.” The exhibition will be on view through June.
 

 

Heriard-Cimino Gallery, 440 Julia St.
Fresh! New work and ongoing work from artists represented in the gallery. For information about artists displaying their work, visit http://www.heriardcimino.com/artsrepre.html. The new art will be on view through July 30.

 

Jean Bragg Gallery, 600 Julia St.
Cries of New Orleans is a group exhibition with Carol Hallock opening June 2. The paintings will be on view through July 7.
 

 

Jonathan Ferrara Gallery, 400 Julia St. 
Painter Sandy Chism presents her collection, In the Trying, on June 1. The artist’s oil on canvas paintings will be on view through July 21. Ken Matsubara’s mixed media collection, The Sleeping Water, on view through June 15.
 

 

LeMieux Galleries, 332 Julia St.
Group show entitled Man, Myth, Monster opens on June 2. Opening reception from 6-8pm. The show is curated by gallery co-director Christy Wood and will be on view through July 28.  

 

Soren Christensen, 400 Julia St.
Watershed by Gretchen Weller Howard. The popular New Orleans artist brings her new mixed media on canvas and panel. Rear Gallery: Traveling by Michael Marlowe. Smoky, atmospheric landscapes on panel. Opening reception June 2, 6-8pm. On view through June 30.

GALLERY EXHIBITIONS

1239 Congress

 

Craft meets fine art at this month's exhibition at 1239 Congress St. Featured in the show are fiber art from Sara Smith, drink vessel pottery from Gabe Sneller, folk paintings from MSRA, leather apparel from Lawrence Keegan and painted silk scarves from Elisa Mason. Opening event runs 6 p.m. - 10 p.m.? 

Barrister’s Gallery
Vision of the Unnatural World. Painters Nikki Crook, Amy Guidry, and Monique Ligons. Opening reception May 12, 6-9pm. On view through June 2. 
 

 

The Big Top 3 Ring Circus Arts Education Center, 1638 Clio. “NEO NEO NEO PRIMITIVE.” Artist Nick Inman presents his new paintings, a collection that seeks to challenge previously held ideals. Opening reception on May 12, 7-11pm. Inman’s paintings will be on view through June 2.? ? ?
 

 

Good Children Gallery 

That Passes Between Us. Opening reception May 12, 6-10pm. On view through June 3. Group exhibition features work from artists: Lana ?maj?anin, Jim Finn, Ivan Grubanov, Sophie Lvoff, Maha Maamoun, Marko Peljhan, Ahment Ogut and Nebojša Šeri Shoba.
 
Guthrie Contemporary Gallery, 3815 Magazine St. DeeDee Morrison’s “Charmed” uses heavy industrial metals, laser get cutting methods and botanical inspired designs to create solar-powered, sustainable sculptures. Opens March 30.

 
Homespace Gallery, 1128 St. Roch Ave 

 

Structure for Landscape Exploring the Built Environment. Visual artists and architects come together to explore common conceptions about shelter and structure. Opening reception May 12, 6-9pm. On view through June 3.
 
 

 

Martine Chaisson Gallery, 727 Camp St

In “Parallel,” JT Blatty’s photographs explore the symmetry between the fossil and the human form, by combining portions of the human figure juxtaposed with fossils she has collected over the years. The exhibition will also include a separate display of fossils from the images. Opening reception is on Saturday, May 5 from 6-9pm.

New Orleans Children's Museum, 420 Julia St Garrett Horse, by Karen Garret. Garrett constructed her sculpture in 2008 using only recycled materials.? ? ? ?
 

 

Octavia Art Gallery, 4532 Magazine Street
Inside/Outside: Contemporary Cuban Art. Opening reception June 2, 6-8pm. On view through June 30.

 

Stella Jones Gallery, 201 St. Charles Ave.
Abstract Expressionist Ed Clark presents Louisiana Roots: Ed Clark. On view through June 30.
 

 

UNO St. Claude Gallery, 2429 St. Claude Avenue
Opening reception May 12, 6-9pm. Maria Levitsky presents her MFA Thesis Exhibition, Uncanny Mirror of Available Darkness. Natalie Tobacyk, presents her collection of paintings, Perceptions. On view through June 2.  

MUSEUM EXHIBITIONS
 

 

New Orleans Museum of Art

• Dario Robleto’s The Prelives of the Blues, will be on view until September 16, 2012. Robleto’s exhibition is centered on the time he spent in New Orleans and his observations on the nature of the city’s musical culture. Robleto will speak at NOMA on June 1.
• Self Taught Artists from NOMA’s Permanent Collectionwill be on view through June 10, 2012. The exhibition features the works of eleven auto didactic southern artists.
• What is a photograph? Opens April 20. On view through August 19 in the Templemen Galleries. Works dating back to the 1840’s from NOMA’s permanent collection explore the question in the exhibition’s title.
•  Leah Chase: Paintings by Gustave Blache III. (April 24) It’s Dooky Chase chef Leah Chase's 90th birthday, and there will be a gala celebration on April 23 at NOMA in her honor. The gala will also inaugurate the Leah Chase Art Purchase Fund. The exhibition of Blache’s 20 paintings of the New Orleans icon will be on view April 24-September 9.

Contemporary Arts Center 900 Camp St. 

• NOLA NOW, Part II. Through August 5, 2012, First Floor Gallery. Curated by Don Marshall, Founding Executive Director of CAC.

 

• NOLA NOW Part II: Abstraction in Louisiana. On view through June 10, 2012. Reception Saturday, May 5, 6-9pm.

 

• Spaces: Antenna, The Front, Good Children Gallery. On view through June 10, 2012. Second Floor (Lupin Foundation) Gallery. The large exhibition features multiple artists that operate on or near the St. Claude area.

 

• EXPOSE: Parse Gallery, Staple Goods Collective, T-LOT. On view until October 7, 2012 in the St. Joseph St. Windows.
• Free screening of the film, The Island President April 19 at 7pm in the CAC theater. The documentary investigates The Maldives’ President Mohammed Nasheed’s struggle with climate change and his political battle to keep the islands’ inhabitable for his people.
• All Together Now Artists’ reception May 12, 2-4pm. In conjunction with the collectives Spaces, Antenna, The Front, and Good Children Gallery, All Together Now showcases local high school students’ work. Artists with a background in education who are represented in these collectives brought their knowledge to kids at Metairie Park Country Day School, and the students there produced a series of “exquisite corpses” that will be shown at the exhibition.
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• Ogden Museum of Southern Art 925 Camp St.
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• Sally Chandler: The Lost World. Chandler’s paintings attempt to break down boundaries of space and time and binaries like masculinity and femininity. Her 84 works will be on view through July 23.   
• Mark Messersmith: Maximalist and Naturalist. Messersmith’s paintings explore the flora and fauna of northern Florida and comment on the dangers facing the natural landscape in the area. On view through July 23. 
• Alexa Kleinbard: Remedies.  Kleinbard explores folk remedies as well as the balance humans must attempt with nature in her work. On view through July 23. 
• Artist Spotlight, Center for Southern Craft and Design: Forrest Bacigalupi.  http://www.ogdenmuseum.org/exhibitions/index.html
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• William Adair: The Gilded Doors to Infinity Project. Adair’s exhibition of 31 total doors (3 at the Ogden) comments on the current battle between industry and  intellectual property rights. The artist surrenders his ownership by encouraging the public to alter the doors.

• Andrews-Humphrey Gallery: George “The Dot Man.”Andrews (1911-1996) was a self-taught artist from Plainview, Georgia. The exhibit also includes his son, the late Benny, who was a civil rights activist and proponent for change in the art world, where he faced discrimination as a multiracial artist. Nene Humphrey is a sculpture, drawer, and printmaker whose work draws from her Roman Catholic background.

 

• Walter Anderson Gallery. Anderson was born in New Orleans on 1903. He was a painter, potter, writer and naturalist. He spent the majority of his life working at his family’s pottery business and eventually moved to Horn Island, which became the main influence of his later works.   

 

• Shifting, Photographs by Michel Varisco. Opens April 19, reception at 6pm. Varisco’s work captures the beauty of the Louisiana Wetlands and the Gulf of Mexico while bringing attention to the major risks these areas face, both natural and manmade.

 

• Made in Louisiana by painter Shirley Rabe Masinter. A series of works that document everyday life, opening reception May 5, 6-9pm.

 

 

IMAGE: Jesus Morales, from "Rings of Granite," opening this week at Arthur Roger Gallery.