April 14- May 6, 2018
Opening reception Saturday April 14th, 6-10pm
Room 1:
Patch Somerville
Hack
(v)1 : to cut or sever with repeated irregular or unskillful blows
2 : to break up the surface of (the ground).
(n) a person, as an artist or writer, who exploits, for money, his or her creative ability or training in the production of dull, unimaginative, and trite work; one who produces banal and mediocre work in the hope of gaining commercial success in the arts:
Patch Somerville lives and works in New Orleans. He has a BFA from MICA and an MFA from Tulane University. Patch has been awarded fellowships to attend the Vermont Studio Center, the Alfred and Trafford Klots International Artist Program, and the Ox-Bow Artist Residency. He has also received a Louisiana Division of the Arts Career Advancement Grant, and is a three-time recipient of the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grant.
http://www.patchsomerville.com/
Room 2:
Vanessa R. Centeno
Embrace
Embrace is an interactive installation that welcomes viewers to physically meditate on loss. In this new body of work, I reflect on the human condition and feelings of longing, hopelessness, and displacement. Creating an atmosphere with tangible sculptures using canvas and acrylic paint, viewers can take a moment and hold on to the soft sculptures and embrace one’s heavy heart. This interaction may serve as a way to relieve viewers from the stress and anxiety of everyday life. These sculptures in this series act as comforting transitional objects that allow participants to relinquish feelings of despair and move towards finding a hopeful and optimistic future.
Vanessa R. Centeno is a conceptual artist living and working in New Orleans. She obtained her Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of New Orleans in 2014 and her Bachelors of Fine Arts degree from the San Francisco Art Institute in 2005. Examining the modern dilemmas of consumerism and the trappings of our twenty-first-century, Centeno attempts to bring a more meaningful encounter to the viewer. Using canvas, acrylic paint, and other mixed media, she sculpts various compositions and installations that communicate her version of the contorted perceptions and irrelevance of our material world, in hopes to give the viewer a moment to pause and contemplate the impact of our ephemeral escapes. Her work is part of the permanent art collection of the University of Texas, San Antonio. She has been a featured artist at Ogden Museum of Southern Art, the Contemporary Art Center, NOLA and was recently awarded the Joan Mitchell Foundation Artist-in-Residence, Summer 2017.
http://postmedium.com/vanessacenteno
Room 3:
Kelly A. Mueller, Feast, Mixed media on papered quilted fabric, 52" x 75", 2018
Kelly A. Mueller & Brad Richard
Microaggressions | Larval Songs: Parallel Play
In discussing their current studio work over fall cocktails, Richard and Mueller found that their works ran parallel on many levels. Mueller’s analogies for the cycles and beautiful cruelties of nature paired with human struggle for control and order are taken mostly from the tiny microecosystem of her own backyard. Richard presents a failed, war-torn kingdom and infantile king slowly subjugated by the giant blue wasp queen burrowed underneath the castle, waiting for the chance to take his body, a shell, as host and nourishment for her eggs and a new kingdom of wasp children.
Originally from Chicago, Kelly teaches art at Lusher Charter High School and lives in Mid-City, New Orleans. Often large and textural, her art centers on the tension between natural forces and systems, and the human tendency to subvert these systems. She received her MFA from Northern Illinois University and is currently a member of The Front Gallery in New Orleans, and Baton Rouge Gallery, LA. She attends artist residencies whenever possible outside of her teaching, including such places as Hambidge, GA; Stone House, CA; Philadelphia Art Hotel, Dorland Mountain Art Colony, and a research trip to the Amazon Rainforest as a Surdna Fellow.
Richard is founder and chairman of Lusher's Creative Writing Department and co-director of the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards/Southeast Louisiana Writing Region. He has published three collections of poetry and was the winner of the 2015 Louisiana Artist of the Year and the 2010 Washington Prize. His work has been featured in numerous prestigious anthologies and journals. Richard has received many grants and awards, including the Century Swept Brutal/Black Ocean Award in Excellence; a Louisiana Division of the Arts Artist Fellowship in Literature; the Poets & Writers, Inc., Writers Exchange Award in Poetry; and a Surdna Foundation Artist Teacher Fellowship. Mr. Richard is also a co-founder of the New Writers Literary Festival (LitFest) and The Waves Reading Series.
Room 4:
Brian St Cyr
Mississippi Mud
“You can never step in the same river twice.” - Heraclitus
An artist can learn much working along the banks of the Mississippi River for a summer. The scene constantly changes. Flying insects dip along the river’s surface. Small creatures pop in and out of view as they search for food, or become a meal for others. An empty church fills with worshippers. The scene, lively, soon empties and returns to quiet. Calliope music from slightly Up River fills the air on a passing breeze. A great comfort is felt if attention to surroundings is acute. A great discomfort is also experienced when knowledge of the fragility of the ecosystem is studied. Disappearing marshes eliminate the balanced infrastructure living creatures need to survive. The city itself is a long-term visitor staying as long as the encroaching waters and warming climate allow. The watercolors present narrative themes rooted in these descriptions of time spent working along the river.
Brian St Cyr started drawing at a very young age. Creating highly detailed fantastic panoramas and “still-lifes” based on whatever was lying around, he made up for being a shy child by having a very rich interior life. It wasn't until graduating from Mass Art in 1992 however that he began pursuing his talents full time. After graduating from Mass Art, he road-tripped cross-country and set up his home and studio in New Orleans. Splitting time between the "Big Apple" and the "Big Easy" he free-lanced at the Guggenheim Museum in NYC while simultaneously working at his studio in New Orleans. Bearing the fruits of the best of both worlds, Brian's work reflects the influence of Minimalism, humor, children's books illustrations, rural DIY animal hutches, and insect life. He regularly shows in New Orleans and was the 2015 Contemporary Art’s Center “Silver Circle Sculpture Artist”. Brian currently lives in the Marigny below his studio with his wife Bekah and their family of pets.