DIMANCHE

by Emma Boyce

Wandering under the overpass on N. Robertson, searching for 2839, you might wonder if you’re lost.  (For the author, it wouldn’t be the first time.)  Perhaps you’re almost to the train tracks, and preparing to turn back, when the address, in large bubble letters covering an entire door, jumps out at you from against a bright yellow building.  You have found the May Gallery.   

With a number of soft-openings already under his belt, Keene Kopper, owner and curator at the May gallery, invites guests back again for May’s grand opening kick starter on October 12th, when he will feature resident artist Derek Larson.

Larson, known for his large-scale wood cutouts that come alive with projected colorful, moving images, fits well into Kopper’s gallery.  May, which looks out onto the train tracks, giving it a very industrial feel, provides a malleable space for any artist to transform.  Its high ceilings and openness lends itself particularly well to installation pieces, like Larson’s. 

“I think that the volume that’s available here allows a lot of different possibilities to happen,” says Kopper.  “There aren’t other galleries [in New Orleans] that can provide a space for such a variety of scale and expression.”   

One caveat, the artists’ pieces need to fill up the space well.  Because of its size, it is not a gallery for your average painting exhibit.    

May, however, is not only ambitious in size, but also content.  Kopper often seeks out artists whose works have political and social agendas, as well as an appealing aesthetic.    

“I’d like to work with artists that are confronting contemporaneous problems and presenting solutions or instigating conversation to help forward the evolution of our culture,” says Kopper.   

Larson’s show, for instance, gives a critique on capitalist economy and, as a result, forces his audience into thoughtful conversation about his ideas. 

“[Larson’s] show is about psychology [and] economy in a lot of different ways,” says Kopper.  “Some of [Larson’s work] is more politically charged.”  

Kopper, in discussing the focus of his gallery, also emphasizes his desire to make it “an environmental experience.”  In order to create a new, thought-provoking environment from a space that provides nothing but a blank slate, his artists will utilize everything from sounds, smells and, obviously, visuals.   

While Kopper worked in various fields before settling into the gallery scene, his experience in Austria, living with all (or most) expenses paid as an artist in residence, influenced a huge aspect of his gallery. 

“There is more money in Europe for the arts and because of that I was able to go over there and be part of a residency… That’s the kind of treatment that I would like to bring to the United States,” says Kopper.

Although at the moment he is not in the position to foot the bill entirely for up-and-coming artists, one thing that makes his gallery so unique is his international residency component, where artists from around the world will apply for a three-month residency.   

Kopper’s ultimate goal is to “integrate the artists with the community and beyond [and] to help diversify the backgrounds of artists that live in New Orleans.”  This integration of international artists, notes Kopper, will in turn help the evolution of local artists.