FindArtNola

<a href=“http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_E_DdpBVIO8E/S2IYjD2sxMI/AAAAAAAAAZs/wtREZ2rDNNQ/s1600-h/bedia+4.jpg”><img id=“BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5431931091171460290” style=“WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 253px” alt=”“ src=“http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_E_DdpBVIO8E/S2IYjD2sxMI/AAAAAAAAAZs/wtREZ2rDNNQ/s320/bedia+4.jpg” border=“0” /></a><br /><span>Photo by Richard McCabe.</span><br /><br /><br />On Wednesday, January 13, 2010, José Bedia entered the Ogden Museum to create a sight-specific installation for his exhibition opening the following day. It was his fifty-first birthday. Prior to his arrival, we asked what materials he would need for the installation. He requested two things: a bucket of black paint and a bucket of water. In less than three hours, Bedia created a work of striking significance in the context of New Orleans’ hosting of ¡Sí Cuba!, a collaborative venture between museums, universities, galleries, and other arts organizations across New Orleans celebrating Cuban art, music and culture.<br /><br /><a href=“http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_E_DdpBVIO8E/S2Ic33xMImI/AAAAAAAAAaE/clgZn-MllIQ/s1600-h/DSC_0014.jpg”><img id=“BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5431935846750888546” style=“WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 213px” alt=”“ src=“http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_E_DdpBVIO8E/S2Ic33xMImI/AAAAAAAAAaE/clgZn-MllIQ/s320/DSC_0014.jpg” border=“0” /></a><br /><span>Photo by Sue Strachan</span><br /><br /><a href=“http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_E_DdpBVIO8E/S2IZjcMtleI/AAAAAAAAAZ0/cnRwKdi1EMM/s1600-h/DSC_0024.jpg”><img id=“BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5431932197217867234” style=“WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 254px” alt=”“ src=“http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_E_DdpBVIO8E/S2IZjcMtleI/AAAAAAAAAZ0/cnRwKdi1EMM/s320/DSC_0024.jpg” border=“0” /></a><br /><span>Photo by Sue Strachan.</span><br /><br />The installation includes a dark figure painted directly onto the gallery wall, representing Castro’s Cuba. On the floor, in the center or base of the work, is a Palo medicine bundle, representing both Cuba’s cultural and spiritual ties to Angola and Bedia’s ritual creation of the altar/installation. The floor becomes the ocean turning the baseboards into the horizon. A dog figure, often used to symbolize native cultures, sails away attached to the dark figure with chains. The boat contains cigars and trails an Iberian trane in its wake. This can be seen as the exodus of traditional Cuban culture from the island. Kevin Power, in his definitive essay <em>José Bedia: Field Work in the Human Soul</em>, says of the boat figure: “It speaks both of the way in which the Cuban immigrant drags his traditions along behind him and of the impossibility of ever escaping his past.”<br /><br /><a href=“http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_E_DdpBVIO8E/S2IZkSt03DI/AAAAAAAAAZ8/-zqHNdS3npY/s1600-h/DSC_0047.jpg”><img id=“BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5431932211852270642” style=“WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 213px” alt=”“ src=“http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_E_DdpBVIO8E/S2IZkSt03DI/AAAAAAAAAZ8/-zqHNdS3npY/s320/DSC_0047.jpg” border=“0” /></a><br /><span>Photo by Sue Strachan.</span><br /><br />José Bedia’s exhibition is the result of a collaboration between the Ogden Museum of Southern Art and Heriard-Cimino Gallery, New Orleans. The gallery is currently exhibiting <em>Fragment of Journeys</em>, new work by José Bedia. The Ogden exhibition and installation will run through April 11, 2010.<div><img width=“1” height=“1” src=“https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3601211757000210971-8619399157311508198?l=omsablog.blogspot.com” alt=”“ /></div>

<div><a href=“http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_4zZfvwTP028/S1u9MWMSFsI/AAAAAAAABTU/otmp_OEQMNE/s1600-h/~Bedia-s.jpg” imageanchor=“1”><img border=“0” height=“242” src=“http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_4zZfvwTP028/S1u9MWMSFsI/AAAAAAAABTU/otmp_OEQMNE/s400/~Bedia-s.jpg” width=“400” /></a></div>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; As a young adult in his native Cuba, Jose Bedia was initiated into the secret rituals of Palo Monte, a folk religion originally from Central Africa based on the worship of forest spirits. As with voodoo, Christianity is part of the overall mix, as is Native American lore. This is true all over the Caribbean; the voodoo-influenced Christianity of Haiti, so much in the news lately, is hardly unique. What is unique is Jose Bedia’s ability to synthesize the ancient mythology of his cultural roots with a striking, expressionistic approach to art making. Like so much Cuban and Cuban-American art, Bedia’s imagery is fairly austere. Unlike much Cuban-American art, which typically focuses on political oppression and the exile experience, Bedia has fashioned an elaborate visual vocabulary by expanding his original Palo Monte orientation into a universal mythology that includes both ancient and modern imagery while maintaining the familiar Cuban sparseness of line.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <br /><div><a href=“http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_4zZfvwTP028/S1vBS8GzwLI/AAAAAAAABT8/lgv6PgVRypc/s1600-h/~YemayaEnojada.jpg” imageanchor=“1”><img border=“0” height=“151” src=“http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_4zZfvwTP028/S1vBS8GzwLI/AAAAAAAABT8/lgv6PgVRypc/s400/~YemayaEnojada.jpg” width=“400” /></a></div>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; In YEMAYA ENOJADA, above, at Heriard-Cimino, Yemaya, the mother goddess of the sea, is depicted as a siren or mermaid of cosmic proportions. Originally a Nigerian deity, Yemaya appears in Haitian and New Orleans voodoo as well as in Afro-Cuban religion. Here she raises a sword at some fighter jets above, whose presence has clearly offended her. If a sea goddess confronting fighter jets sounds like a stretch, it all makes complete sense in Bedia’s spiritual universe. In ALGUN ORDEN HABRA ALLI, top, a human figure reclines under a dusky sky studded with mystical geometric forms linked by traceries of color suggesting the strands of obscure forces that invisibly influence worldly destiny. <br /><a href=“http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_4zZfvwTP028/S1u_ZXj-S5I/AAAAAAAABTs/zWrUE0Gd2LM/s1600-h/~Petrirena.jpg” imageanchor=“1”><img border=“0” height=“150” src=“http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_4zZfvwTP028/S1u_ZXj-S5I/AAAAAAAABTs/zWrUE0Gd2LM/s200/~Petrirena.jpg” width=“200” /></a>At the Ogden Museum, the imagery is just as bold and vivid with the added benefit of a large installation featuring one of Bedia’s mythic figures painted on the wall. Nearby, the intriguing clay sculpture SOUL HOUSES of another Cuban-American artist, Mario Petrirena, silently bear witness to this unlikely efflorescence of the spirit world. ~Bookhardt<br /><br /><b><span>Jose Bedia: <br />FRAGMENT OF JOURNEYS&nbsp;&nbsp; <br />Through March 3<br />Heriard-Cimino Gallery, 440 Julia St., 525-7300; <a href=“http://www.heriardcimino.com/”>www.heriardcimino.com</a><br />SI CUBA!<br />Through April 11<br />Ogden Museum of Southern Art, 925 Camp St., 539.9600; <a href=“http://www.ogdenmuseum.org/”>www.ogdenmuseum.org</a></span></b><br /><span></span><span><b><a href=“http://blogofneworleans.com/”>As seen in Gambit</a></b><b>&nbsp; </b></span><div><img width=“1” height=“1” src=“https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2692635212517024217-8820287359905470548?l=www.insidenola.org” alt=”“ /></div>

<a href=“http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_E_DdpBVIO8E/S1jv7P0cfoI/AAAAAAAAAZk/F_A18N5eqGM/s1600-h/sully+2.jpg”><img style=“WIDTH: 279px; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand” id=“BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5429353151932956290” border=“0” alt=”“ src=“http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_E_DdpBVIO8E/S1jv7P0cfoI/AAAAAAAAAZk/F_A18N5eqGM/s320/sully+2.jpg” /></a><br /><span><em>Mrs. <span>FitzGerald</span> and her Daughter Mathilda, </em>Thomas Sully, c.1857</span><br /><span>Ogden Museum of Southern Art</span><br /><br /><br /><div>In December of 2009, Dr. James Michael and Carolyn <span>Fortino</span> of Gretna Louisiana donated two works by the 19<span>th</span> century American painter, Thomas Sully. During his lifetime, Thomas Sully was one of the most prominent portrait painters in the United States. Born 1783 in England to the actors Matthew and Sarah Sully, Sully emigrated to Richmond, Virginia in 1792. Two years later, the family moved to Charleston, South Carolina. At the age of 12, he began studies with his brother-in-law Jean <span>Belzons</span>, a French miniaturist. He returned to Richmond in 1799 to study painting under his brother, Lawrence Sully. He began a professional career as a portrait painter in 1801 at the age of 18. In 1806 he moved to <span>Philadelphia</span>, where he spent the remainder of his life. His portraits included Marquis <span>de</span> Lafayette, James Polk, Andrew Jackson, and Queen Victoria, considered the highlight of his career and painted in London at the request of the St. George Society in 1837-1838.</div><div><br /></div><div></div><div><a href=“http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_E_DdpBVIO8E/S1jv6UNYNbI/AAAAAAAAAZU/7lRISTXrGSM/s1600-h/225px-Thomas_Sully.jpg”><img style=“WIDTH: 217px; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand” id=“BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5429353135931405746” border=“0” alt=”“ src=“http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_E_DdpBVIO8E/S1jv6UNYNbI/AAAAAAAAAZU/7lRISTXrGSM/s320/225px-Thomas_Sully.jpg” /></a><br /><span>Thomas Sully</span><br /><br /></div><div>Thomas Sully the painter was the great-uncle of the New Orleans based architect, also named Thomas Sully. Thomas Sully the architect was born in Mississippi City, Mississippi in 1855. He opened offices in New Orleans in 1881. His realized designs included the original Whitney Building, the St. Charles Hotel, and many large residencies on upper St. Charles Avenue, including the <span>Picard</span> House. Outside of New Orleans, his designs include the Vicksburg Hotel in Vicksburg, Mississippi, Shreveport Charity Hospital and the <span>Caffery</span> Sugar Hill in St. Mary Parish.</div><div><br /><a href=“http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_E_DdpBVIO8E/S1jv62CRD-I/AAAAAAAAAZc/EUafNMAS0Zo/s1600-h/sully+1.jpg”><img style=“WIDTH: 282px; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand” id=“BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5429353145011605474” border=“0” alt=”“ src=“http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_E_DdpBVIO8E/S1jv62CRD-I/AAAAAAAAAZc/EUafNMAS0Zo/s320/sully+1.jpg” /></a><br /></div><div></div><div><span><em>Portrait of a Young Woman (Mrs. <span>FitzGerald</span>) </em>1855, Thomas Sully</span></div><div><span>Ogden Museum of Southern Art</span><br /></div><div>The two paintings by Thomas Sully generously donated by Dr. and Mrs. <span>Fortino</span> were originally commissioned by Colonel Thomas FitzGerald of <span>Philadelphia</span>. Colonel FitzGerald was an acclaimed orator, publisher, philanthropist and founder of the Philadelphia Athletics baseball team. He wrote many successful plays, and was the first controller in the public school system to insist successfully on the introduction of music into the public schools. He stumped for Abraham Lincoln, who became a friend. Lincoln appointed the Colonel’s son, <span>Riter</span> Fitzgerald, as consul to Moscow. </div><div><br /><a href=“http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_E_DdpBVIO8E/S1jv6DbN4XI/AAAAAAAAAZM/5BP8XG16nXc/s1600-h/Colonel+Thomas+Fitzgerald.jpg”><img style=“WIDTH: 290px; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand” id=“BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5429353131426046322” border=“0” alt=”“ src=“http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_E_DdpBVIO8E/S1jv6DbN4XI/AAAAAAAAAZM/5BP8XG16nXc/s320/Colonel+Thomas+Fitzgerald.jpg” /></a><br /></div><div>Colonel Fitzgerald’s large collection of paintings contained fine examples of many American and European painters including Sully, <span>Neagle</span> and Hamilton. He offered the collection to the Academy of Fine Art with the requirement that they be placed in a dedicated gallery to be called <em>The <span>FitzGerald</span> Collection</em>, but the offer was refused due to lack of room. Upon his death, the collection was divided among the family.</div><div></div><div><em>Portrait of a Young Woman (Mrs. <span>FitzGerald</span>) </em>is an unfinished oil study of Colonel Fitzgerald’s wife painted in 1855. It was acquired by the <span>Fortinos</span> from Christie’s East, New York in 1997. <em>Mrs. <span>FitzGerald</span> and her Daughter Mathilda</em> is a fully finished painting. The date of completion is unknown, but we know that it was shown in the Pennsylvania <span>Academy</span> of Fine art’s <em>Annual Exhibition</em> in 1862. The painting was acquired by the <span>Fortinos</span> from <span>Sotheby’s</span> New York in 1999. <em>Mrs. Fitzgerald and her Daughter Mathilda</em> was previously owned by <span>Riter</span> <span>FitzGerald</span> and eventually the sitter’s great-granddaughter before going up for auction. These paintings were first re-united, study and portrait, in the <span>Fortino’s</span> collection. The Ogden is honored to become home to these historic portraits. </div><div><img width=“1” height=“1” src=“https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3601211757000210971-8227565088999022089?l=omsablog.blogspot.com” alt=”“ /></div>

<div><a href=“http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_4zZfvwTP028/S1ODj7hylAI/AAAAAAAABS8/8NYr_3dOfzA/s1600-h/Haiti.jpg” imageanchor=“1”><img border=“0” src=“http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_4zZfvwTP028/S1ODj7hylAI/AAAAAAAABS8/8NYr_3dOfzA/s400/Haiti.jpg” /></a></div><div><i><span><b><span>How to Help-Click: <a href=“http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34835478/ns/world_news-americas”>Haiti Relief Organizations</a></span>&nbsp;</b></span></i><br /><i><span><b> &nbsp;</b></span></i></div><span><b><a href=“http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/15/AR2010011502412.html?hpid=opinionsbox1”>Looking for my daughter in Haiti&nbsp;</a></b></span><br />by Vidho Lorville<br />I learn about the earthquake Tuesday night when a text message comes from a friend in New Orleans, with the kind of news you never want to hear. Haiti had been devastated. “Have you heard from your daughter and other family members?” my friend asks. “I pray they are okay. Let me know.”<br />I stare at the screen for a few minutes until I am sure I understand what I am reading.&nbsp; <b><span>Read More, Click: <a href=“http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/15/AR2010011502412.html?hpid=opinionsbox1”>Looking for my daughter in Haiti&nbsp;</a></span></b> <br /><h3><br /></h3><div><img width=“1” height=“1” src=“https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2692635212517024217-1026319955735459407?l=www.insidenola.org” alt=”“ /></div>

<div><a href=“http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_4zZfvwTP028/S1JN_0YAnpI/AAAAAAAABSk/HnF4a3SaChM/s1600-h/~Delgado+Installation-+s.jpg” imageanchor=“1”><img border=“0” src=“http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_4zZfvwTP028/S1JN_0YAnpI/AAAAAAAABSk/HnF4a3SaChM/s400/~Delgado+Installation-+s.jpg” /></a></div><br /><a href=“http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_4zZfvwTP028/S1JOGke3VLI/AAAAAAAABSs/VMGxv1ZfBA8/s1600-h/~Blue-s.jpg” imageanchor=“1”><img border=“0” src=“http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_4zZfvwTP028/S1JOGke3VLI/AAAAAAAABSs/VMGxv1ZfBA8/s320/~Blue-s.jpg” /></a>The distance between Cuba and the U.S. is somehow greater than the 90 miles that divides them. As a post-revolutionary time warp, Cuba poses unique challenges to its artists even as its heritage provides a rich and timeless cultural reservoir for them to draw from. And they do, often literally. Yet, as a Kafkaesque kind of conundrum where art supplies can be as hard to come by as ordinary freedom of expression, Cuba makes its artists be extra-resourceful in using whatever is at hand, and the work of Angel Delgado epitomizes this approach. Known for controversial performance pieces, he was once sentenced to six months in jail for publicly relieving himself on a copy of the Cuban communist party newspaper. In prison he learned to make art from soap, handkerchiefs and bed sheets, items seen in this show overlaid with his iconic figures, alienated humans confronting locks, barred windows and barbed wire. A series of hanging buckets, above, outlines the dimensions of his former cell. In each is a carved figure with water up to his neck, a metaphor for the looming dread of suffocation that all repression imposes. <br /><div><a href=“http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_4zZfvwTP028/S1JOX1M2y-I/AAAAAAAABS0/bm6AEHyAIVo/s1600-h/~Industrial_Complex.jpg” imageanchor=“1”><img border=“0” src=“http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_4zZfvwTP028/S1JOX1M2y-I/AAAAAAAABS0/bm6AEHyAIVo/s400/~Industrial_Complex.jpg” /></a></div>&nbsp;The well-known American artist Luis Cruz Azaceta left Cuba as a child. After a stint in New York, he made New Orleans his home for the past 17 years. His humanistic abstractions confront the absurdities of contemporary life as we see in BLUE and INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX, above, while others invoke Cuba in particular. His alienated figures and the beautiful if convoluted nature of his compositions touch on the universal as well as the particular paradoxes of the human condition, but with a hint of the ironic humor seen in Charlie Chaplin’s anti-fascist films. As with Chaplin, Azaceta sees irony as the universal that underlies both repression and our responses to it.&nbsp; ~Bookhardt &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <br /><br /><b><span>Angel Delgado: INSIDE/OUTSIDE<br />Through Feb. 20 <br />Jonathan Ferrara Gallery, 400a Julia St., 522-5471; <a href=“http://www.jonathanferraragallery.com/”>www.jonathanferraragallery.com</a><br />Luiz Cruz Azaceta: SWIMMING TO HAVANA<br />Through March 28<br />New Orleans Museum of Art, City Park, 658-4100; <a href=“http://www.noma.org/”>www.noma.org</a><br />Luis Cruz Azaceta: EXILE 50<br />Through Feb. 20<br />Arthur Roger Gallery, 432 Julia St., 522-1999; <a href=“http://www.arthurrogergallery.com/”>www.arthurrogergallery.com</a></span></b><br /><span><b><a href=“http://blogofneworleans.com/”>As seen in Gambit</a> </b></span><div><img width=“1” height=“1” src=“https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2692635212517024217-1881263034005554855?l=www.insidenola.org” alt=”“ /></div>

<div><a href=“http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_4zZfvwTP028/S0lB09DHyNI/AAAAAAAABR0/wa0FA8J6Ljk/s1600-h/~sacabo.sleepwalker-s.jpg” imageanchor=“1”><img border=“0” src=“http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_4zZfvwTP028/S0lB09DHyNI/AAAAAAAABR0/wa0FA8J6Ljk/s400/~sacabo.sleepwalker-s.jpg” /></a></div>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Once, photographs were made with big, bulky cameras that used glass negatives. By the early 20th century they were rarely ever used, but a notable exception was John T. Mendes, who documented New Orleans from 1916 through the 1920s. A keen observer who loved dogs (the title was taken from a memoir he wrote), Mendes melded a pro’s techniques with a childlike sense of whimsy as we see in FEMALE IMPERSONATOR, 1919, a year Carnival was canceled but the drag queens came out anyway, or MISS LUCILLE NEWLIN AND MAYOR BEHRMAN WELCOME REX AT CITY HALL, FEBRUARY 1917, below. Aviators, dog circuses, floods, Mardi Gras and children’s parades are among the subjects that inhabit this charming view of the city, a refreshing survey from a local original who was totally unknown until these glass plate negatives were discovered in an Uptown attic. A striking 120 page catalog, published by the UNO Press, is also available.&nbsp; <br /><div><a href=“http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_4zZfvwTP028/S0lCaCkYCCI/AAAAAAAABR8/X0PCkvw9cqU/s1600-h/~Mendes-s.jpg” imageanchor=“1”><img border=“0” src=“http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_4zZfvwTP028/S0lCaCkYCCI/AAAAAAAABR8/X0PCkvw9cqU/s320/~Mendes-s.jpg” /></a></div>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Today, even as digital photography has made film cameras almost obsolete, there is new interest in even older, more archaic techniques. REVIVAL at the Homespace Gallery features tintypes, daguerreotypes, photogravures, cyanotypes and other 19th century processes employed by talented contemporary photographers. In their hands, the act of image making is transformed from a routine pastime to something far more poetic. Ordinary things like the thistle in a glass in Kevin Kline’s tintype, or the close-up of the extruded velvety innards of a magnolia flower in David Halliday’s Van Dyke print, are revealed in a fresh new light. One of the more dramatic images is Josephine Sacabo’s photogravure SLEEP WALKER, top. Photogravure is a complicated process that melds intaglio printing and photography, but some far less complicated yet no less dramatic images were made by some Louise S. McGehee School students, who used the old cyanotype process in playful new ways, for instance, FANTASMA by Sarah Miller, below. Curated by the Ogden Museum’s Richard McCabe, REVIVAL suggests that some traditional photographic processes don’t just get old, they sometimes—in the right hands—get better. ~Bookhardt<br /><div><a href=“http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_4zZfvwTP028/S0lCsjlxiVI/AAAAAAAABSE/Y5qW6jmCxyk/s1600-h/~McGehees-s.jpg” imageanchor=“1”><img border=“0” src=“http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_4zZfvwTP028/S0lCsjlxiVI/AAAAAAAABSE/Y5qW6jmCxyk/s400/~McGehees-s.jpg” /></a></div><span><b>REVIVAL: Group Show of Historical Processes in Contemporary Photography<br />Through Jan. 16 (Saturdays only or by appointment)<br />Homespace Gallery, 1117 St. Roch, 917-584-9867; <a href=“http://www.photonola.org/2009/09/09/homespace-gallery/”>www.photonola.org/2009/09/09/homespace-gallery</a><br />DOGS IN MY LIFE: The Photographs of John T. Mendes<br />Through Feb 28<br />Williams Research Center, 410 Chartres St., 523-4662; <a href=“http://www.hnoc.org/”>www.hnoc.org</a></b></span><br /><span><b><a href=“http://blogofneworleans.com/”>As seen in Gambit</a> </b></span><b><span><br /></span></b><span><b><br /></b></span><div><img width=“1” height=“1” src=“https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2692635212517024217-7031610708390593408?l=www.insidenola.org” alt=”“ /></div>

<div><a href=“http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_4zZfvwTP028/Sz7J2qJ9lQI/AAAAAAAABOc/HUuRkLDlVzw/s1600-h/~Rendezvous.s.jpg” imageanchor=“1”><img border=“0” src=“http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_4zZfvwTP028/Sz7J2qJ9lQI/AAAAAAAABOc/HUuRkLDlVzw/s400/~Rendezvous.s.jpg” /></a></div><div>It’s been said that those who do not study the past are destined to relive it, but those who study it sometimes seem to relive it as well. Ray Donley’s paintings at<a href=“http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_4zZfvwTP028/Sz7QjWmrocI/AAAAAAAABPc/oTSV8SjYd04/s1600-h/~Donley+Nude+w+Black+Mask.jpg” imageanchor=“1”><img border=“0” src=“http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_4zZfvwTP028/Sz7QjWmrocI/AAAAAAAABPc/oTSV8SjYd04/s200/~Donley+Nude+w+Black+Mask.jpg” /></a></div>Gallery Bienvenu such as NUDE WITH BLACK MASK, right, hint at Carnival in Venice back in some distant, decadent, possibly renaissance time, but their tone also reflects a slyly contemporary perspective. Louviere + Vanessa’s FOLIE A DEUX show at A Gallery for Fine Photography mixes a romantic Victorian vision with elements of latter 20th century photography as well as conceptual art. The result is a series of light boxes that suggest what characters in a Jules Verne novel might have imagined the photography of the future would look like. What we see are images formed by rows of Super 8mm filmstrips lit from behind. Each frame of each strip of film contains only a small, unrecognizable bit of the overall image, but seen from a normal viewing distance they all come together in much the way that the tiles in a mosaic come together to form a coherent whole. <br /><br /><div><a href=“http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_4zZfvwTP028/Sz7MjheG_6I/AAAAAAAABO8/oqMzMb9DjJE/s1600-h/~Folie+%C3%A0+DeuxbyLouviere%2BVanessa.jpg” imageanchor=“1”><img border=“0” src=“http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_4zZfvwTP028/Sz7MjheG_6I/AAAAAAAABO8/oqMzMb9DjJE/s320/~Folie+%C3%A0+DeuxbyLouviere%2BVanessa.jpg” /></a></div>The images include a voluptuous lady in a lacy corset in RENDEZVOUS, top, skulls in ancient catacombs, and sailing frigates on stormy seas suggesting the age of Jack London, Alexander Dumas and Toulouse-Lautrec. It is as if a time traveling Victorian brought an 8 millimeter movie camera back from a visit to the 20th century, and then, not knowing what it was, used it to make photo-mosaics from film strips. But the technical tricks don’t end there. For each of these light boxes—dubbed “cinégraphs” by the Bywater-based husband and wife duo—there is a corresponding large format photograph, and if that sounds more normal, it’s really not, because each image is printed on a gold or silver leaf surface. It is almost too complicated, and all that fancy technique almost serves to obscure a vision that is both alchemical and poetic, a view of an imaginary neo-Victorian parallel universe, a Bywater based alternate reality.&nbsp; ~Bookhardt<br /><div><a href=“http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_4zZfvwTP028/Sz7NzKCtQ4I/AAAAAAAABPM/NwSL693Xmdc/s1600-h/~LV-For+Laika.png” imageanchor=“1”><br /></a><a href=“http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_4zZfvwTP028/Sz7PUd7ORLI/AAAAAAAABPU/Ikwh5R3KmvA/s1600-h/~LV-For+Laika.jpg” imageanchor=“1”><img border=“0” src=“http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_4zZfvwTP028/Sz7PUd7ORLI/AAAAAAAABPU/Ikwh5R3KmvA/s400/~LV-For+Laika.jpg” /></a></div><br /><b><span>Louviere + Vanessa: FOLIE A DEUX <br />Through Feb. 28<br />A Gallery For Fine Photography, 241 Chartres St., 568-1313; <a href=“http://www.agallery.com/”>www.agallery.com</a></span></b><br /><b><span><a href=“http://blogofneworleans.com/”>As seen in Gambit</a></span><span> </span></b><b><span><br />&nbsp; </span></b><b><span><br /></span></b><div><img width=“1” height=“1” src=“https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2692635212517024217-8990331867150830909?l=www.insidenola.org” alt=”“ /></div>