FindArtNola

Address:
518 Julia Street

Zip Code:
70130

Web Site:
www.gallerybienvenu.com

Artist: Mitchell Lonas
�The Wrench Series�
August 3rd through September 25th, 2010
Artist�s Reception: Saturday, August 7th, 6-9pm

Several years ago in the foothills of the Smoky Mountains, artist Mitchell Lonas laid eyes on something of such uncanny beauty, he has never forgotten it: a trio of swallows� nests, which the birds had fashioned solely from horse-tail hairs. The nests, each a different color, were so improbable in their architectural intricacy and gossamer sheen, they filled Lonas with the inspiration to transmute common natural phenomena such as nests, feathers, and trees into items of aesthetic rapture. These motifs are central to The Wrench Series, the artist�s debut exhibition at Gallery Bienvenu. To create the works, he employs a unique process to apply paint to steel and aluminum panels. Then, working from sketches, he uses customized cutting tools to incise the picture planes with iconic imagery, the beveled lines glinting as viewers behold the pieces from different vantages. �You walk in front of them,� he explains, �and the light travels with you. There�s a sparkle, a feeling of movement. It�s almost a fiber-optic effect.�

Lonas, who studied art history at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, was a respected portrait painter before transitioning to his current style. A portraitist�s sense of focus, line, and beauty continues to inform his new work, which is included in notable private, public, and corporate collections, among them a series of large-scale commissions for Nordstrom department stores. An avid hiker and birdwatcher, he is compelled to portray nature in ways that are both poetic and inventive. �The challenge,� he reflects, �is to create something original using unconventional materials and methods.�

The artworks� gestural drama is tempered by a hushed, Zen-like serenity, heightened by an intuitive use of negative space that recalls Asian sumi-e brush painting. Immaculately presented with hidden cleats that make the works appear to float in front of the wall, the incised paintings have a weightless, ethereal quality and a sculptural presence that is contemporary but not cold. In these semi-abstracted celebrations of the natural world, viewers will find a treasure trove of symbolisms and personal narratives, which lend themselves to extended contemplation and interpretations as varied as nature itself.

Gallery Bienvenu hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Please contact Borislava Kharalampiev, Gallery Director, or Britney Penouilh, for additional information or visit the gallery website at www.gallerybienvenu.com.

Address:
4532 Magazine Street, New Orleans, LA

Zip Code:
70115

Web Site:
http://www.octaviaartgallery.com

THE COLORS OF SUMMER
Group exhibition with works from gallery and invited artists
June 12 � July 31, 2010
Reception: June 12, 6 � 8 pm

Come out of the heat and cool off your senses!

This summer, Octavia Art Gallery is bringing you hot new works by both gallery and invited artists. Summer is a time to bask in the visual � the color of the sky, the pink juice of the watermelon slice, the grey smoke of the grill � and there is no better embodiment of the visual than art.

The Colors of Summer will heat up with works by Alex Beard, Darryl Glade, Thomas Hamann, James Henderson, Kall�, Ken Kenan, Nall, Brad Robertson, Betsy Stewart, Mose Tolliver, Karina Wisniewska, and Victoria Montoro Zamorano.

Forget your worries and come to Octavia Art Gallery for something new � you have all summer to hit the beach!

Address:
4100 St. Claude

Zip Code:
70117

Web Site:
www.nolafront.org

Three sites of action this month starting with a Public Art Office fostered by Morgana King, SPORTS, an interactive multimedia experience by Dave Greber, Adam Montegut, Roel Miranda, Peter Leonard, and Phil Rached, and lastly, Rachel DeTrinis, Kelly Gazlay, and Erika Somogyi in Till Morning. Opening reception, Saturday July 10th, 6-10 pm. July 10-August 8.

Fragile Land Rotunda is a public arts piece commissioned by the Arts Council of New Orleans on behalf of the Joan Mitchell Foundation and is on loan to the City of New Orleans.

Popp’s Fountain, a work’s progress Administration site built during the great depression, has survived disasters both natural and man-made. It echoes themes of Varisco’s work; fragility, decay, dignity and resiliency.

Thomas Woodruff’s Freak Parade is an ambitious and dazzling parade of images that celebrates beauty in aberrance. The Parade’s hapless yet noble characters march gaily across a black expanse, each member on a different panel. This exhibition includes 34 large scale drawing/paintings, each of which is rendered in detail and delicately embellished with tiny rhinestones.

Thomas Woodruff began this project in late 2000 as a reaction against the global standardization of culture. A master of hybridizing vocabularies from the past and present, Woodruff references sideshow banners, Pompeian wall frescoes, baroque religious paintings, theatrical posters, and Victorian penmanship charts to create a new yet oddly familiar world. Each image has a caption, title, or poem included. Written by the artist, these texts add another level of meaning to the pictures. They are deliberately subdued and darkened, and subvert the viewer’s usual response- so conditioned through advertising-to image and text.

Freak Parade was recently shown at University Galleries at Illinois State University, University Art Museum at California State University, Herron Galleries at Herron School of Art and Design, Selby Gallery at Ringling College of Art and Design, and Haggerty Museum of Art at Marquette University. Woodruff has had over 20 one-person exhibitions, and his work has been seen in museum shows internationally. He has contributed award-winning illustrations to every major periodical in America, and has created book jackets for novels by Anne Tyler, Robertson Davies, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and many others. Woodruff worked as a tattooist in the late 1980s, and he has a cult status in the alternate art scene. He is presently the chair of the Department of Illustration and Cartooning at the School of Visual Arts in New York. A documentary on this project, Thomas Woodruff’s FREAK PARADE, was produced in 2004 for Gallery HDTV.

This exhibition was organized by University Galleries, College of Fine Arts, Illinois State University and is supported in part by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council, a State Agency.

Nineteen new site-specific projects by New Orleans artists, presented by the Arts Council of New Orleans in collaboration with the Joan Mitchell Foundation.

Everyone knows art can be spiritually and emotionally transformative, but few expect to have such an experience while waiting for a ride. This fall, the 14 transit shelters on Canal Street are being transformed into a virtual outdoor gallery of contemporary art through the Downtown Development District’s “Artification” process.

As part of the project, each of the shelters from the river to Claiborne Avenue will be covered in reproductions of original art created by Louisiana artists whose work was selected in a blind-juried process.

“The DDD’s goal is to enhance the streetscape as part of our Canal Street Development Strategy,” said DDD President & CEO Kurt Weigle. “We are doing that by providing a unique public art component during the Prospect.1 art biennial, the largest such show ever staged in the United States.” The Prospect.1 exhibition will be in New Orleans November 1, 2008 –January 18, 2009; however, the shelter art will remain for up to three years.

Through a Cooperative Endeavor Agreement with the Regional Transit Authority, the DDD has been sprucing up the shelters to prepare them for the application of artwork.

“RTA is delighted to be working closely with the DDD in a project which will truly bring joy to locals and tourists alike. I am very thankful for the assistance of the DDD in recognizing the great talent of our gifted Louisiana artists,” said Cesar Burgos, chairman of the RTA Board of Commissioners.

One hundred-twenty-seven artists competed for the opportunity to see their work displayed along Canal Street. Selected artists, whose work includes everything from the spiritual to the whimsical, include the following:

Morgana King, overall winner; Amzie Adams, Sandra Bolen, Ann Boudreau, Caitlin Clifford, Alan Garson, Greg Giegucz, Robert Guthrie, Carol Hallock, Olivia Hill, Miranda Lake, Shawne Major, Keith Perelli and Gwendolyn Siniard.

For more information, visit:
http://www.neworleansdowntown.com/site141.php