FindArtNola

<a href=“http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_E_DdpBVIO8E/Sh2wEKBr10I/AAAAAAAAAOc/voETBtsZ8EA/s1600-h/shearwater+edit.jpg”><img id=“BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5340618318588663618” style=“WIDTH: 306px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px” alt=”“ src=“http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_E_DdpBVIO8E/Sh2wEKBr10I/AAAAAAAAAOc/voETBtsZ8EA/s320/shearwater+edit.jpg” border=“0” /></a><br /><div><span>Shearwater Vase by Walter Inglis Anderson circa 1927</span></div><div><span>Collection of the Dusti Bonge Foundation</span><br /><span>Photo by Richard McCabe</span></div><div><span></span></div><div></div><div><span></span></div><div>Walter Anderson (1903 – 1965) met Archie Bonge (1901 – 1936) while attending the Pennsylvania Acadamy of Fine Arts, where he graduated in 1928. Archie, a 6’7” cowboy from Nebraska, spent a single semester at the acadamy before moving to New York. There, he found some success as a painter (selling a nude for $1000) and fell in love with Dusti Swetman, a young actress from Biloxi, Mississippi. In 1927, Archie and Dusti were married. Walter Anderson was the best man at their wedding, wearing a suit and tie with sneakers. The Shearwater vase pictured above was created by Walter and given as a wedding gift to the young couple.</div><div><br /></div><div>Archie and Dusti had one child, Lyle, in 1929, ending Dusti’s theatre and film career. The couple moved to a cottage in Biloxi in 1934. Walter Anderson married his wife, Sissy, in 1933, and the two couples were close friends in those years. Archie died suddenly in 1936. Walter entered the mental hospital for the first time in 1937. After the death of her husband, Dusti began painting with his brushes, becoming Mississippi’s first true modernist, exhibiting her work alongside the leading Abstract Expressionist painters of the 50s at the important Betty Parson’s Gallery in New York. </div><div><a href=“http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_E_DdpBVIO8E/Sh2wD_DgTvI/AAAAAAAAAOU/o-khm2Rl9-0/s1600-h/Bonge+web+edit.jpg”><img id=“BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5340618315643506418” style=“WIDTH: 209px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px” alt=”“ src=“http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_E_DdpBVIO8E/Sh2wD_DgTvI/AAAAAAAAAOU/o-khm2Rl9-0/s320/Bonge+web+edit.jpg” border=“0” /></a></div><div><span>Untitled oil on canvas by Dusti Bonge, 1938</span></div><div><span>Collection of Ogden Museum of Southern Art</span></div><div><span>Gift of the Dusti Bonge Foundation</span> </div><div><br /></div><div>The wedding vase is currently on display at the Ogden, along with 17 Walter Anderson watercolors from the collection of Wesley and Norman Galen. Also, Dusti Bonge’s untitled 1938 abstract oil on canvas (pictured above) is on display on the 4th floor. For more on Walter Anderson and Shearwater pottery, read <em>Dreaming in Clay on the Coast of Mississippi: Love and Art at Shearwater</em> and <em>Fortune’s Favorite Child: The Uneasy Life of Walter Anderson, </em>both by Chistopher Maurer, available in the Museum Store.</div><div><img width=“1” height=“1” src=“https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3601211757000210971-6155409757886277394?l=omsablog.blogspot.com” alt=”“ /></div>

<a href=“http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_4zZfvwTP028/ShiaqsPeD8I/AAAAAAAAAiw/48_U9fhSXgY/s1600-h/~Crook-Dupree.s.jpg”><img style=“margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 252px;” src=“http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_4zZfvwTP028/ShiaqsPeD8I/AAAAAAAAAiw/48_U9fhSXgY/s320/~Crook-Dupree.s.jpg” alt=”“ id=“BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5339187416468950978” border=“0” /></a>It was an intriguing concept for an exhibition: “Morbid Anatomy: Examining the Interstices of Art and Medicine, Death and Culture.” Guest curator Joanna Ebenstein set the tone by soliciting work dealing with “hysteria, reliquaries, phrenology, ‘things in jars,’ freaks, taxidermy, waxworks, magic lanterns, momento mori and the ‘pathological sublime,” subjects that somehow suggested a sideshow (or curiosity cabinet, as noted in the title) as much as an art show. <a href=“http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_4zZfvwTP028/Shia7EXuIqI/AAAAAAAAAi4/dVs5rPcPN7Y/s1600-h/~Loney.jpg”><img style=“margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 157px; height: 200px;” src=“http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_4zZfvwTP028/Shia7EXuIqI/AAAAAAAAAi4/dVs5rPcPN7Y/s200/~Loney.jpg” alt=”“ id=“BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5339187697823916706” border=“0” /></a>Such things titillate at some deeply visceral level; their appeal is sensational with a bit of schadenfreude thrown in for good measure. Yet they can also elicit a sense of wonder, the common ground between carnival freak shows and the art of the museum. Which tendency would prevail, or would it matter?<br />Here the gallery becomes a theater for morbid extremes. Upon entering we are confronted by a group of white horse-like sculptures with canine heads, perhaps a pack of saber-tooth horse-wolves (left). The mental offspring of Daphne Loney, one with arrows piercing its body suggests a hallucination, perhaps St. Anthony’s last nightmare on the desert. <a href=“http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_4zZfvwTP028/ShibbNOpmLI/AAAAAAAAAjA/hVCTLvop7cs/s1600-h/~Ligons.jpg”><img style=“margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 166px; height: 200px;” src=“http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_4zZfvwTP028/ShibbNOpmLI/AAAAAAAAAjA/hVCTLvop7cs/s200/~Ligons.jpg” alt=”“ id=“BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5339188249957603506” border=“0” /></a>On the wall above it is an even stranger vision, a small sculpture by Eleanor Crook of a balding gent with contorted features and flipper-like arms: EUSTACHE “JERK” DUPREE, THE ICARUS MAN OF PONCHATOULA (top). A tragic figure, his expertly modeled form suggests nobility within futility, a thwarted passion to soar above the pain and indignity of his condition. On the wall just behind him is Chicory Miles’ EVERYTHING I’VE EVER WANTED (top, far left), a painted, cast iron self-portrait of sorts, only here two torsos sprout from one pelvis, each with two arms and three pair of breasts, a highly maternal model for multi-tasking. Hanging like a <a href=“http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_4zZfvwTP028/ShibsR9v0nI/AAAAAAAAAjI/rx1iVSgOLbQ/s1600-h/~Goldfinch.jpg”><img style=“margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 164px; height: 200px;” src=“http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_4zZfvwTP028/ShibsR9v0nI/AAAAAAAAAjI/rx1iVSgOLbQ/s200/~Goldfinch.jpg” alt=”“ id=“BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5339188543286661746” border=“0” /></a>Pennsylvania Dutch “hex” on the wall, Miles’ duplex-doppleganger appears poised and self-assured. The remaining works such as Jessica Goldfinch’s multidigital PRAYING HANDS, left, and Monique Ligons’ ANATOMY OF PANTROGLODYTE, above, all have their own stories to impart. Suggesting a microcosm of earthly life, their foibles and anomalies are rendered largely and dramatically enough to make the rest of us feel much better about our own. ~D. Eric Bookhardt<br /><span><br /><span><span>MORBID ANATOMY: Gallery as Wunderkammer</span><br /><span>Through June 6th</span><br /><span>Barrister’s Gallery, 2331 St. Claude Ave., 525-2767; www.barristersgallery.com</span><br /></span><span>Expanded from <a href=“http://bestofneworleans.com/gyrobase/index”>Gambit</a> </span><span><br /></span><span>Email:</span></span><div><img width=“1” height=“1” src=“https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2692635212517024217-9139442008473405512?l=www.insidenola.org” /></div>

<a href=“http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_E_DdpBVIO8E/ShbzQ5TtrNI/AAAAAAAAAOM/zCstzP3GKqA/s1600-h/Ed+Rice+2009B+004+edit.jpg”><img id=“BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5338721879881264338” style=“WIDTH: 250px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px” alt=”“ src=“http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_E_DdpBVIO8E/ShbzQ5TtrNI/AAAAAAAAAOM/zCstzP3GKqA/s320/Ed+Rice+2009B+004+edit.jpg” border=“0” /></a><br /><div><span><em>Dormer with Missing Sash, New Orleans</em> 2004-2005</span></div><div><span>Collection of the Ogden Museum of Southern Art</span><br /><br /></div><div>Edward Rice has donated this 2005 painting, <em>Dormer with Missing Sash, New Orleans</em>, to the Ogden Museum in memory of James R. “Jim” Gruber, father to our director, J. Richard Gruber. This is the third painting by Rice in the collection, and the second in this style. Based in Augusta, South Carolina, for the last three decades, Rice has used the vernacular architecture of the South as subject, not exclusively, but consistently. In <em>Edward Rice: Recent Monotypes</em>, David Houston writes of Rice’s architectural paintings: “Rice’s subtle illumination of his subjects made of them something that is both lyrical and literary. Painted on-site, these radient works resulted from a slow, precise, and complex process through which a sense of place, a season, and a time of day were captured in the accretion of telling detail. Viewed retrospectively, it seemed obvious that the element of time is critical to the success of these works from both the artist’s and the viewer’s separate perspectives. Rice’s own understanding of time places his perceptions and the physicality of the canvas in a phenomenological stasis that represents meditation.” This is a fine addition to the Ogden’s permanent collection, and a fitting companion to <em>Gable Window, </em>2000, Rice’s earlier donation in honor of his mentor, Freeman Schoolcraft, and his wife, artist Cora Schoolcraft.</div><div><a href=“http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_E_DdpBVIO8E/ShbzQsNtuII/AAAAAAAAAOE/yUcOQOblj1M/s1600-h/200011-2.jpg”><img id=“BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5338721876366440578” style=“WIDTH: 230px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px” alt=”“ src=“http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_E_DdpBVIO8E/ShbzQsNtuII/AAAAAAAAAOE/yUcOQOblj1M/s320/200011-2.jpg” border=“0” /></a></div><div><span><em>Gable Window, </em>1999-2000</span></div><div><span>Collection of the Ogden Museum of Southern Art</span></div><div><img width=“1” height=“1” src=“https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3601211757000210971-4892056878995071947?l=omsablog.blogspot.com” alt=”“ /></div>

<div><a href=“http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_E_DdpBVIO8E/ShROIEVapLI/AAAAAAAAANk/cXEv6JjeWqA/s1600-h/02900004.JPG”><img id=“BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5337977358850368690” style=“WIDTH: 289px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px” alt=”“ src=“http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_E_DdpBVIO8E/ShROIEVapLI/AAAAAAAAANk/cXEv6JjeWqA/s320/02900004.JPG” border=“0” /></a><br /><br /><div>As part of our exhibition of works from the permenant collection on the fourth floor of Goldring Hall, Mario Petrirena’s <em>All Saints</em> is currently on display. I first encountered Mario’s work at the CAC during David Houston’s temporary position as Curator at both the Ogden and the CAC. Immediately, I was intrigued by his intuitive assemblages, collages, installations and ceramics. The fascination has never left me. </div><br /><br /><div></div><a href=“http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_E_DdpBVIO8E/ShROIe6ZoSI/AAAAAAAAAN0/XTY3HQavdos/s1600-h/2003201-1.jpg”><img id=“BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5337977365984813346” style=“WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 300px” alt=”“ src=“http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_E_DdpBVIO8E/ShROIe6ZoSI/AAAAAAAAAN0/XTY3HQavdos/s320/2003201-1.jpg” border=“0” /></a><br /><br /><div>Born in Cuba in 1953, Mario emigrated to America at 8, seperated from his his parents for months while they arranged to join him in the States. He now lives and works in Atlanta, Georgia. Much of his work deals with that seperation and his bifurcated identity. <a href=“http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_E_DdpBVIO8E/ShROIU_nvWI/AAAAAAAAANs/BDZ-Qb9-pUI/s1600-h/02900014.JPG”><img id=“BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5337977363322355042” style=“WIDTH: 189px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px” alt=”“ src=“http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_E_DdpBVIO8E/ShROIU_nvWI/AAAAAAAAANs/BDZ-Qb9-pUI/s320/02900014.JPG” border=“0” /></a></div><br /><div>Mario cites many artists as influences on his work, from Picasso and Velazquez, from the inner driven works of Kahlo to the process driven works of Anna Mendieta. Regionally, it was the art pottery of George Ohr of which Mario has said “shook me to the core.” Fittingly, a small collection of Ohr’s pottery (the Mad Potter of Biloxi) is on view just steps away from Mario’s unglazed white earthenware <em>All Saints</em>.</div><br /><div></div><a href=“http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_E_DdpBVIO8E/ShRjda00WUI/AAAAAAAAAN8/RtD5W-4C8JU/s1600-h/IMG_0002.jpg”><img id=“BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5338000815409092930” style=“WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 315px” alt=”“ src=“http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_E_DdpBVIO8E/ShRjda00WUI/AAAAAAAAAN8/RtD5W-4C8JU/s320/IMG_0002.jpg” border=“0” /></a><br /><div>For more on Mario Petrirena and his work, visit: <a href=“http://www.mariopetrirena.com/”>http://www.mariopetrirena.com/</a>.</div><br /><div>Also, the gift shop at the Ogden carries the catalogue, <em>Mario Petrirena, Conversations: Past and Present</em> (including the essay <em>Speak(Again)Memory, </em>by David Houston).</div><br /><div></div><br /><div><span>Black and white images of Mario Petrirena by David Houston.</span></div><div><span><em>All Saints</em> 1997 by Mario Petrirena.</span></div><div><span><em>The Known World</em>, 2005 from the cover of <em>Mario Petrirena, Conversations: Past Present and Future.</em></span></div></div><div><img width=“1” height=“1” src=“https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3601211757000210971-8936011444168711786?l=omsablog.blogspot.com” alt=”“ /></div>

<a href=“http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_4zZfvwTP028/Sg-TyFbVGkI/AAAAAAAAAf4/bAdrU2llhhI/s1600-h/~CabinLand.s.jpg”><img style=“margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 303px;” src=“http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_4zZfvwTP028/Sg-TyFbVGkI/AAAAAAAAAf4/bAdrU2llhhI/s400/~CabinLand.s.jpg” alt=”“ id=“BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5336646572116875842” border=“0” /></a>Following Stephen Paul Day’s progress as a sculptor is at times almost like following the history of the medium itself. He doesn’t just work in metal, wood, glass, ceramics and found objects—he gets right down to the basics, even building his own bronze foundry, which became one of the more unusual casualties of hurricane Katrina. This largely porcelain expo is partly a result of his work with the facilities at Kohler, the maker of kitchen and bath fixtures and prominent patron of the arts. <a href=“http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_4zZfvwTP028/Sg-UBKgXKuI/AAAAAAAAAgA/NNY55-odn0Q/s1600-h/~Day-Reader.s.jpg”><img style=“margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 172px;” src=“http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_4zZfvwTP028/Sg-UBKgXKuI/AAAAAAAAAgA/NNY55-odn0Q/s200/~Day-Reader.s.jpg” alt=”“ id=“BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5336646831178197730” border=“0” /></a>Whimsical, psychological and slightly enigmatic, Day’s new work elaborates his interest in the parallels between archeology, myths, children’s stories and modern life. Perhaps because porcelain tends to be pale and smooth, this is also Day’s most subtle show in many moons. Billed as assorted artifacts from a lost civilization buried in the silt of the Mississippi delta, these pieces reveal themselves to be the products of a fertile personal mythology.<br /><br />CABIN LAND, the title piece, features bronze busts of a pair of dazed looking kids in front of a display of pale porcelain “wooden” planks and a smattering of other objects that look suspiciously like pill bottles. READER TILES suggests pages from an archaic child’s reader but with some words misspelled: “I is for Injun.” BOY AND CABIN is a bronze of a Tom Sawyer sort of kid contemplating a miniature log cabin that seems to have sprouted mysteriously from a tree stump. In this show, Day evokes a shadow realm where myth, magic and the subconscious all coexist.<br /><br /><a href=“http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_4zZfvwTP028/Sg-VZAqaziI/AAAAAAAAAgI/plCi9RSgAAE/s1600-h/Yaman.jpg”><img style=“margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 147px; height: 200px;” src=“http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_4zZfvwTP028/Sg-VZAqaziI/AAAAAAAAAgI/plCi9RSgAAE/s200/Yaman.jpg” alt=”“ id=“BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5336648340364512802” border=“0” /></a>A different but related dynamic appears in James McGarrell’s colorful A NEW RAGAMALA expo of gouache and watercolor paintings down the street at at Heriard-Cimino. Translated as“a garland of melodies,” “Ragamala” refers to a 16th century school of Indian painting that was analogous to that country’s nature-based musical traditions. <a href=“http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_4zZfvwTP028/Sg-V_w6GMRI/AAAAAAAAAgQ/4VWTQHWymx4/s1600-h/Jaunpuri.jpg”><img style=“margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 146px; height: 200px;” src=“http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_4zZfvwTP028/Sg-V_w6GMRI/AAAAAAAAAgQ/4VWTQHWymx4/s200/Jaunpuri.jpg” alt=”“ id=“BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5336649006150201618” border=“0” /></a>A well known painter with a lengthy resume, McGarrell began his first RAGAMALA series in 2007 as a guest of the Sanskriti Foundation near Delhi, and this is his second series to date. Works such as YAMAN, left, and JAUNPURI, right, can be disconcertingly different in tone and scope from his earlier work, but are also intimate and intriguing—visual variations on the raga traditions of Indian music, evocations of nature, culture and the transformational power of the imagination. ~D. Eric Bookhardt<br /><br /><span>CABIN LAND: Bronze and Porcelain Sculpture by Stephen Paul Day<br />Through July 22<br />Arthur Roger @ 434, 434 Julia St., 522-1999; www.arthurrogergallery.com<br />HOURS AND SEASONS, A NEW RAGAMALA, Paintings by James McGarrell<br />Through June 2<br />Heriard-Cimino Gallery, 440 Julia St., 525-7300, www.heriardcimino.com<br /><br /></span><span><span>Expanded from <a href=“http://bestofneworleans.com/gyrobase/index”>Gambit</a> </span></span><br /><span>Email:</span><div><img width=“1” height=“1” src=“https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2692635212517024217-4085086688515607937?l=www.insidenola.org” /></div>

<a href=“http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_E_DdpBVIO8E/Sg3DgzlgQYI/AAAAAAAAANU/G84v-R1BIr4/s1600-h/ogd_3.jpg”><img id=“BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5336136101874647426” style=“WIDTH: 238px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px” alt=”“ src=“http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_E_DdpBVIO8E/Sg3DgzlgQYI/AAAAAAAAANU/G84v-R1BIr4/s320/ogd_3.jpg” border=“0” /></a><br /><div><br /><div>Jose Torres <span>Tama</span> is multi-disciplinary artist based in New Orleans Louisiana. The Ogden is proud to have several of his works on paper in the <span>permanent</span> collection. Currently, a catalogue documenting his exhibition <em>New Orleans’ Free People of Color &amp; Their Legacy</em> is under construction through the Ogden for release this summer. It will include images of his pastel portraits of New Orleans’ <span>le</span><em>s gens <span>de</span> <span>couleur</span> <span>libres</span>, </em>considered the first multiracial people in the United States, borne of a mixing between the African, French, Spanish, and native races of Louisiana. The text, written by Keith Weldon Medley, explains the accomplishments of the Free People of Color to the development of New Orleans and the nation. </div><br /><div></div><a href=“http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_E_DdpBVIO8E/Sg3DgjGXQwI/AAAAAAAAANM/e4AaLhAuuFA/s1600-h/00130033.JPG”><img id=“BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5336136097449067266” style=“WIDTH: 201px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px” alt=”“ src=“http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_E_DdpBVIO8E/Sg3DgjGXQwI/AAAAAAAAANM/e4AaLhAuuFA/s320/00130033.JPG” border=“0” /></a><br /><br /><div>Jose Torres <span>Tama</span> is currently touring the United Kingdom with two original <span>performance</span> works, <em>The Cone of Uncertainty</em> and <em>Lower 9<span>th</span> Ward Ritual of Mourning. The Cone of Uncertainty</em> debuted in London on Friday, May 8, as part of <span>Tama’s</span> residency at <span>Roehampton</span> University. Jose and his work have found a rapt audience in London, and Jose has taken to signing his emails “El Juan Bond from her Majesty’s Secret Salsa Service with a license to transport subversive performances across international waters.”</div><br /><br /><div>For more details and a schedule of <span>performances</span>, <span>visit</span> <a href=“http://www.torrestama.com/”>http://www.torrestama.com/</a>.</div><div>Top: <em>Ode to Edmund Dede</em>, 2002, Collection of Ogden Museum.</div><div>Bottom: Jose Performs in <span>Goldring</span> Hall, 2008. Photo by David Houston.</div></div><div><img width=“1” height=“1” src=“https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3601211757000210971-4636055638471280191?l=omsablog.blogspot.com” alt=”“ /></div>

<a href=“http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_E_DdpBVIO8E/SgiX7vubxoI/AAAAAAAAALg/dyv1hcHVrpQ/s1600-h/2002611-2.jpg”><img id=“BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5334680811299653250” style=“WIDTH: 236px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px” alt=”“ src=“http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_E_DdpBVIO8E/SgiX7vubxoI/AAAAAAAAALg/dyv1hcHVrpQ/s320/2002611-2.jpg” border=“0” /></a><br /><div></div><br />Returning to the Ogden’s 4<span>th</span> floor craft cabinet this week is <span>Lanier</span> <span>Meaders’ </span><em>Face Jug. </em>The <span>Meaders</span> family has been producing pottery in Mossy Creek, Georgia since 1893 using locally dug clays, kick-wheels, and home made glazes. There are several theories about the origin of the face jug. One theory is that moonshine was stored in them to scare the grandchildren away from the sauce. Although much moonshine was surely stored in face jugs throughout northern Georgia and western Carolina, the more plausible origin of the face jug can be garnered from that area’s African-American oral history. Slaves from West Africa brought with them a form of ancestor worship or reverence. When the dead were buried, personal belongings and ancestral totems were placed upon the grave. The conversion of the these slaves to Christianity and a belief in the devil transformed these objects into devil-faced vessels. The two schools of thought on the reason for the devil face are 1.) the face was meant to scare the devil away and 2.) the vessel was placed on the grave for one year, during which time a break in the jug meant that the deceased was wrestling with the devil. <span>Lanier</span> <span>Meaders</span> was mystified by the popularity of his face jugs. Of the people who purchased them he said, “They must be half-crazy to begin with.”<div><img width=“1” height=“1” src=“https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3601211757000210971-4037990966546110767?l=omsablog.blogspot.com” alt=”“ /></div>

<a href=“http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_v37ZQ-oOY_0/SgcGUEbg9FI/AAAAAAAAAIU/UDq2HYRgVss/s1600-h/~Finch.Scott.++s.jpg”><img style=“margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 400px;” src=“http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_v37ZQ-oOY_0/SgcGUEbg9FI/AAAAAAAAAIU/UDq2HYRgVss/s400/~Finch.Scott.++s.jpg” alt=”“ id=“BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5334239225499939922” border=“0” /></a>BECA Gallery on St. Joseph St., across from the Contemporary Arts Center, bills itself as a “Bridge for Emerging Contemporary Artists” and their 2nd annual GULF-SOUTH REGIONAL show exemplifies their neatly cerebral approach toward that end. Tidy indeed are Luke Sides’ CUP CAKES, life-size cast iron replicas with cast metal icing. Tiny icons of approach-avoidance syndrome, they evoke a clash of associations, seductive comestibles versus cold, hard metal, a vibratory conundrum felt in the roots of the teeth.<a href=“http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_4zZfvwTP028/SgTkm846dxI/AAAAAAAAAeQ/FBER8tWe5eA/s1600-h/~Luke-Sides+-Cupcakes.jpg”><img style=“margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;” src=“http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_4zZfvwTP028/SgTkm846dxI/AAAAAAAAAeQ/FBER8tWe5eA/s200/~Luke-Sides+-Cupcakes.jpg” alt=”“ id=“BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5333639216544511762” border=“0” /></a> Mark Grote’s LOS ALAMOS 4 is also tidy, but with the added funk of a found-object provenance, a battered metal carrying case from military ballistics tests in New Mexico. It now holds tidy rows of little glass bottles filled with mystery granules topped by lead stoppers. This mingling of obsessive order with overtones of violence harks to cinematic mysteries embedded in the subconscious, vintage notions of nuclear apocalypse, dirty bombs with production values by Alfred Hitchcock.<a href=“http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_4zZfvwTP028/SgTmpwG6AZI/AAAAAAAAAew/svZJ9qYpY4I/s1600-h/~Grote.jpg”><img style=“margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;” src=“http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_4zZfvwTP028/SgTmpwG6AZI/AAAAAAAAAew/svZJ9qYpY4I/s200/~Grote.jpg” alt=”“ id=“BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5333641463676404114” border=“0” /></a><br />No less mysterious but very different in tone is Scott Finch’s pop painting PUT IT UPON THEIR EYES AND HEADS, top. This hard-edge pastiche of two young women kissing features a Waring blender flying, poltergeist-like, overhead as a passenger jet drops from the sky, a seemingly random confluence of events that serves as a kind of cockeyed rumination on the unpredictability of chaos in modern life. But order of a sort returns in Anne Stagg’s FROM A TO B, AND SOMETIMES C, an exploration of the migration of birds across a cerulean blue sky, a study of patterning and randomness and the role the role they play in the lives of birds—and those who observe them. ~D. Eric Bookhardt<br /><a href=“http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_4zZfvwTP028/SgTlzYz1gBI/AAAAAAAAAeo/TFNM4Wt4vsI/s1600-h/~Stagg.Ann+-From-A-to-B-and-Sometimes-C.jpg”><img style=“margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 268px;” src=“http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_4zZfvwTP028/SgTlzYz1gBI/AAAAAAAAAeo/TFNM4Wt4vsI/s400/~Stagg.Ann+-From-A-to-B-and-Sometimes-C.jpg” alt=”“ id=“BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5333640529709465618” border=“0” /></a><span><span>2nd ANNUAL GULF-SOUTH REGIONAL: Regional Artists Group Exhibition</span><br /><span>Through May 23</span><br /><span>BECA Gallery, 527 St. Joseph St., 566-8999; www.becagallery.com</span></span><br /><span><span>Expanded from <a href=“http://bestofneworleans.com/gyrobase/index”>Gambit</a> </span></span><br /><span>Email:</span><div><img width=“1” height=“1” src=“https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2692635212517024217-7502328886058836558?l=www.insidenola.org” /></div>

<div><a href=“http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_E_DdpBVIO8E/SgSNo0xInBI/AAAAAAAAALQ/VThCDsAgKA4/s1600-h/Pierre+Vimont+mars+09+153.JPG”><img id=“BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5333543591212522514” style=“WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 238px” alt=”“ src=“http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_E_DdpBVIO8E/SgSNo0xInBI/AAAAAAAAALQ/VThCDsAgKA4/s320/Pierre+Vimont+mars+09+153.JPG” border=“0” /></a> </div><div>Chief Curator, David Houston, explains the relevance of Lulu King Saxon’s 1890 painting, <em>Uptown Street</em> to French Ambassador Pierre Vimont (red tie) and French Consul General Olivier Brochenin (far left) during a visit to the Ogden Museum in March. A landscape painter, writer, poet, actress, singer and musician, Lulu Saxon King was born in Louisiana around 1855. She travelled and painted in Russia prior to the first World War, and died in New Orleans in 1927. Painted in 1890 and measuring almost eight feet high, <em>Uptown Street </em>is not only the oldest, but one of the largest paintings currently on display. The Uptown street depicted is most likely Magazine Street in New Orleans. The subject closely resembles roads entering rural villages of Europe popularized by French Impressionist painters of the 1870s and 1880s. It is rendered in an atmospheric mood reminiscent of French landscape painting. Painted in a style descended from Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot, the Barbizon School and Impressionism, <em>Uptown Street</em> exemplifies the lasting influence of Europe on the art of the South.<br /></div><a href=“http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_E_DdpBVIO8E/SgSc2TvGxUI/AAAAAAAAALY/NWoNWSdBSbk/s1600-h/1595.jpg”><img id=“BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5333560315538228546” style=“WIDTH: 244px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px” alt=”“ src=“http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_E_DdpBVIO8E/SgSc2TvGxUI/AAAAAAAAALY/NWoNWSdBSbk/s320/1595.jpg” border=“0” /></a><br /><div></div><div><img width=“1” height=“1” src=“https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3601211757000210971-5883533031552341090?l=omsablog.blogspot.com” alt=”“ /></div>

<div> <a name=“8677159087033747257”></a> <div> <a href=“http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_4zZfvwTP028/SfvCha5B62I/AAAAAAAAAcY/BM4Tm7Wl6jY/s1600-h/~Freeman.jpg”><img style=“margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;” src=“http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_4zZfvwTP028/SfvCha5B62I/AAAAAAAAAcY/BM4Tm7Wl6jY/s400/~Freeman.jpg” alt=”“ id=“BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5331068463333108578” border=“0” /></a>It looks about as experimental as anything you might see on St. Claude, but this Studio 527 expo involves some very established local art veterans. Bob Tannen, a co-founder of the Contemporary Arts Center, is represented by his Zen-like drawings and improvised sculptures of balls—baseballs, basketballs and the like. <a href=“http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_4zZfvwTP028/SfvEKoZB_PI/AAAAAAAAAcg/XdTavGwXLk4/s1600-h/~Tannen.s.jpg”><img style=“margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 184px; height: 200px;” src=“http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_4zZfvwTP028/SfvEKoZB_PI/AAAAAAAAAcg/XdTavGwXLk4/s200/~Tannen.s.jpg” alt=”“ id=“BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5331070270843256050” border=“0” /></a>For him they are the ad-libbed signifiers of the inner games imposed by the physical world, the evolutionary instinct to adapt and prevail—the basis of the earliest ball games. Executed quickly, they suggest those fleeting gestures on which destiny often hangs.<br />Rashida Ferdinand’s LULLABY is a wall of reproduced pages from a letter her Lower 9th Ward grandmother wrote about the ravages of hurricane flooding—but the year was 1965. A contemporaneous photo of her appears in <a href=“http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_4zZfvwTP028/SfvFneQ58QI/AAAAAAAAAc4/t9dOLV7-rUY/s1600-h/~Webb.s.jpg”><img style=“margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 135px; height: 320px;” src=“http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_4zZfvwTP028/SfvFneQ58QI/AAAAAAAAAc4/t9dOLV7-rUY/s320/~Webb.s.jpg” alt=”“ id=“BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5331071865852653826” border=“0” /></a>multiples on an adjacent wall, below. Throw in some of Ferdinand’s surreal clay sculptures, like gourds birthing divas, and the result is a shrine-like evocation of fleshly transcendence as well as a reference to a tragedy endured with dignity and forbearance. Clifton Webb, like Tannen, had a role in founding the CAC. His near human-size Afro-futurist sculptures suggest atavistic fertility figures from the birth of the earth that evolved over time into the near-holographic forms seen here, time-traveling totems, in effect.<br />The Market Street Power Plant, top, a massive 19th century hulk that once burned coal and then natural gas, stands today as ruinous a cathedral of graffiti and rust. Tina Freeman’s photographs capture that but also something else, a lingering human presence like a collective aura of the souls who once toiled there amid the coal bins, pictured, that powered the generators that lit the city. There, dark bituminous rocks were transformed into light amid a residue of soot and sweat over time, a residue reminiscent in some ways of Anselm Kiefer’s densely layered paintings. These images convey the sedimentary gravitas of a vast steam-gothic burial vault enlivened by whimsical traceries of graffiti. ~D. Eric Bookhardt<a href=“http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_4zZfvwTP028/SfvGATAqWEI/AAAAAAAAAdA/TAS8CT2BuuI/s1600-h/~Ferdinand.s.jpg”><img style=“margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 264px;” src=“http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_4zZfvwTP028/SfvGATAqWEI/AAAAAAAAAdA/TAS8CT2BuuI/s320/~Ferdinand.s.jpg” alt=”“ id=“BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5331072292328462402” border=“0” /></a><span><span>New Works by Rashida Ferdinand, Tina Freeman, Bob Tannen and Clifton Webb<br />Through May<br />Studio 527, 527Julia St., 388-3128<br /></span><span><span>Expanded from <a href=“http://bestofneworleans.com/gyrobase/index”>Gambit</a><br /></span></span>Email: </span><br /></div></div><div><img width=“1” height=“1” src=“https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2692635212517024217-5955133637822315265?l=www.insidenola.org” /></div>