Programming at The Front is entirely free and open to the public, and we take no commission on art sales. All proceeds go directly to exhibiting artists. As a result, please consider donating to our GiveNOLA day campaign. While GiveNOLA day is May 4th, you are able to make an early donation here. Donations made will directly help The Front remain a vital part of our artistic community.
Thank you!
April 10 - May 2, 2021
Opening April 10th, 4-9pm, regular hours there-on Saturdays and Sundays 12-5pm.
Room 1:
Ansley Givhan, Oil paint, canvas, found material, cardboard, paper clay, spray paint, 50 inches x 42 inches, 2021.
Ansley Givhan, I Remember When The Moon Fell Out of The Sky, Wood, cardboard, canvas, silk thread, oil paint, paper, ink, oil pastel, 19 inches x 27 inches, 2021
Ansley Givhan
Strange Plants
In this exhibition I am exploring impermanence, change, memory, everyday experience, and the relationship between painting and poetry. This body of work is comprised of sculptural paintings, drawings, and objects constructed from found materials, paint, cardboard, wood, dyed fabric, thread, paper, and clay.
I believe the true nature of our existence is forever in flux. We reach for stability to ease our discomfort with uncertainty. In our attempts to control outcomes, we become attached to things being a certain way. As reality so often fails to meet our expectations, we are left feeling disappointed and lost. Rather than resisting the fundamental ambiguity of life, I choose to embrace it as circumstance of being human. This is reflected in my process as I am in a constant state of editing. Everything can be covered, torn, cut, re-arranged, destroyed or re-purposed in some way; nothing is too precious, no idea is too fixed. I feel most at ease when I’m not sure, in a place of not knowing what next or how.
I am drawn to paint for its ability to harnesses our attention; it conceals and disguises, making us forget about material all together. In this body of work, I am exploring the relationship between paint and surface, questioning the function of untreated canvas or wood in the absence of paint, thinking about the intrinsic qualities of the materials when they are stripped from their purpose to hold a picture. I work with found surfaces, objects, and craft materials, thinking about re-contextualization by using common materials in uncommon ways. I like the idea of using a material that has a perceived function in a way that opposes it; a push and pull between concealing and revealing the relationship between image and surface The material contradicts itself, but at times can’t resist referring to its original function.
Poetry is ambiguous in nature as it attempts to reveal the underlying essence of experience; I think that painting can function in a similar way. Art is subjective; I have very little control over how my work is read. I can suggest mood or reference objects through shape, color, and spatial arrangements, but ultimately meaning is expanded upon in the eyes of the viewer; the image is not fixed to a single interpretation. I hope that the formal elements of the work provide an entry point for the viewer to relate to it, making connections that reference their own experiences, memories, and interpretations.
Ansley is an artist living and working in New Orleans, Louisiana. She received her BFA from the University of Mississippi in 2016, and has shown work throughout the south.
ansleygivhan.com
@ansleygivhan
ansley@ansleygivhan.com
Room 2:
Kaitlyn Morales, The American Dream, Photography, Archival pigment print, November 2018.
Kaitlyn Morales, Reflecting, Photography Archival Pigment Print, June 2020.
Kaitlyn Morales, Broken Wings, Photography, Archival Pigment Print, November 2019.
Kaitlyn Morales, Sensory Erosion, Photography, Archival Pigment Print, October 2020.
Kaitlyn Morales, Searching, Photography, Archival Pigment Print, November 2019.
Kaitlyn Morales
Genesis
Kaitlyn Morales is an artist currently based in New Orleans. They are a second year MFA candidate at Tulane University. Born and raised in Louisiana, they received their BA from Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond, Louisiana. Their photographs and projects have been exhibited in the United States.
@moraleskaiden
Room 3:
Jenna deBoisblanc, The Gallery, Custom Software, Variable Dimensions, 2021.
Jenna deBoisblanc, Esc to Mars, Custom Software, Variable Dimensions, 2020.
Jenna deBoisblanc, Wasted Days, Custom Software, Variable Dimensions, 2020.
Jenna deBoisblanc, Hard Drives on Seashores, Custom Software, Variable Dimensions, 2020.
Jenna deBoisblanc, Cloud Confessionals, Custom Software, Variable Dimensions, 2020.
Jenna deBoisblanc
Losing My Dimension
Over the last year, Covid-19 has dramatically altered our spatial and temporal experiences. Physical space has collapsed as we confine ourselves to our homes. Time has warped into infinite loops of monotony. In an attempt to escape the confines of quarantine, we’ve increasingly retreated into digital worlds with their own cyber-spacetime dimensions. As we increasingly work and communicate through digital portals, questions regarding the nature of reality online face new urgency. Cyberspace affords new explorations, connections, and communities that keep us sane in a time of isolation and physical confinement. At the same time, the internet houses vortexes of extremism, invades our privacy, and traps our attention in vapid, mindless scrolling.
Losing My Dimension seeks to characterize the nature of spacetime during quarantine. I hope that this work reveals a set of paradoxes, of space as simultaneously analog and digital, confined and liberated, multi-dimensional and flat, safe and exposed. By reflecting upon quarantine and our digital transition more broadly, I hope to inspire nuanced reflections upon the ways in which our temporal and spatial experiences are changing in these uncertain times.
Jenna deBoisblanc is a New Orleans native, new media artist, and creative coder. She received her undergraduate degree in physics from Pomona College and will receive her MFA in digital art from Tulane. She has shown work locally at Good Children, as well as light festivals in New Orleans (Luna Fête) and the Southwest. Her clients include Toyota, the Aloft Hotel, the Florida Aquarium, and NASA.
Room 4:
Mitchell Craft, Swimming Pool, Digital Media, 3840 x 2160 pixel, 2020.
Mitchell Craft, Lamp, Digital Media, 3840 x 2160 pixel, 2020.
Mitchell Craft, Trash, Digital Media, 3840 x 2160 pixel, 2021.
Mitchell Craft
Please Excuse the Silence
Please Excuse the Silence is a series of simulations mimicking the mundane and occurrences of nuance as they exist within our human constructed surroundings. The work exists as pieces of software created with the use of gaming engines, allowing for differentiating results within the confines of pre-built parameters.
Mitchell Craft is a digital artist from Richmond, VA. He received his BFA at VCU Arts in Kinetic imaging in 2017. He creates 3D animations that often poke fun at commercial artifice and consumerism with the use of stock imagery and common editing tropes.
https://mitchellcraft.net/
@murchellcruft