NEW ORLEANS — When we last left “The Wave,” Lynda Benglis’s monumental bronze sculpture she created for the 1984 World’s Fair in New Orleans, it had just been rediscovered behind a disused sewer treatment plant in suburban Kenner, Louisiana.
New Orleans
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Remembering George Dureau
NEW ORLEANS — When news of George Dureau’s death was announced by his gallery this past Monday afternoon, word traveled quickly among my extended circle of friends and professional acquaintances in New Orleans.
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Mel Chin’s Media Hacks and Conceptual Beauty
NEW ORLEANS — Considering that one of Mel Chin’s most audacious works appeared before an audience of millions on network television over a two-year period, it’s curious that he’s not more of a household name.
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After Sandy: A New Orleans Artist Reflects on Katrina, Disasters, and Recovery
NEW ORLEANS — Watching images of Sandy being released brings out so many emotions for me. Reading that people had artworks damaged in the basements and first floors of Manhattan and Brooklyn is heart wrenching. I can say that you have no idea what you can survive until you are standing in front of a life already broken into pieces.
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New Orleans Museum of Art to Re-Open Next Tuesday After Hurricane-Induced Closing
Over the past week, Hurricane Isaac dumped epic amounts of rain on the city of New Orleans, forcing locals to evacuate their homes. The storm also shut down many of the city’s museums. As the area recovers, cultural institutions have gradually reopened to the public, but one major museum, the New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA), is still shuttered.
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Hoping for a Nexus of Creativity in New Orleans
The New Orleans Museum of Art hosted a luncheon today for members of arts community that amounted to something much more than the usual meet and greet.
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Required Reading: iPad Art Apps and More
This week, the anti-slavery origins of the Christmas tree in the US, iPad art apps, Ai Weiwei documentary, Georgian architecture, the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, danger in Pompeii, the state of the New Orleans art scene and Stocking.
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William Eggleston Comes Back to New Orleans (Prospect 2 Spotlight)
NEW ORLEANS – Prospect 2 isn’t just about the new or the conceptual or the overwrought: William Eggleston brings a pair of several decades-old works to his Prospect installation at the Old US Mint on the edge of the French Quarter, and together they offer the most satisfying viewing experience of anything I’ve seen so far in this edition of the biennial.
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Turning a Beloved Novel into Art (Prospect 2 Spotlight)
NEW ORLEANS — Of all the stories about New Orleans, John Kennedy Toole’s A Confederacy of Dunces is one of the most universally beloved. So an artist who attempts to engage it in a different medium has their work cut out for them from the get-go: anyone who’s read Toole’s posthumously published comedic opus already has their own idea of how Ignatius J. Reilly and his world should be brought to life.
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Sophie Calle Brings Her Baggage to New Orleans (Prospect 2 Spotlight)
Sophie Calle moves into New Orleans’ 1850 House for her Prospect 2 installation and brings dozens of objects and stories with her — with mixed results.
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Re-Kitschifying a New Orleans Post-modern Icon (Prospect 2 Spotlight)
NEW ORLEANS — The Piazza d’Italia generally isn’t high on many people’s lists of Things To See And Do In New Orleans; in fact, I’d guess that most of the tourists who stumble across it do so while getting lost on their way to or from the nearby Harrah’s casino or Hilton Riverfront. They probably no idea that this gaudy urban ensemble, designed by Charles Moore and opened in 1978, represents one of the seminal pieces of postmodern architecture in the country. In his Prospect 2 biennial piece, Francesco Vezzoli adds an extra layer of kitsch to New Orleans’ Piazza d’Italia with his “Portrait of Sophia Loren.”
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Do You Know What It Means To Dream About New Orleans?
By the ordinary way of reckoning such things, there are considerably fewer artists participating in this year’s Prospect.2 biennial in New Orleans than in the event’s first iteration three years ago. But if artist and provocateur William Pope.L’s piece for the exhibition turns out according to schedule, there will be a lot more artistic visions on view around New Orleans this fall than the smaller number of artists might lead you to expect.