May 11 - June 2, 2024

Opening reception on Second Saturday, May 11, 6-10pm.
Gallery open hours are Saturdays and Sundays, 12-5pm.

Room 1

Ina Kaur, Mis(s) Re(a)d the othered self.
Ina Kaur, detail of Athirst, mixed media: printmaking, drawing, collage, ceramic, 30 x 22 inches, 2024.
Ina Kaur, Blood in bodies of water iii, Ceramics, 8 x 4 x 4 inches, 2024.
Ina Kaur, Blood in Bodies of Water xi, Ceramics, 12 x 9 x 9 inches, 2024.

Mis(s) Re(a)d
The Othered Self
Ina Kaur

Ceramic and Mixed Media Works on Paper

My work explores both literal and metaphorical landscapes, reflecting displaced connections and examining the discourse between knowledge and existence. Drawing from diverse influences, my art responds to the complexities of the human condition within entangled cultural, socio-political landscapes and environments out of balance.

My research delves into decolonization, hydro feminism, postcolonial studies, gender identity, and identity politics alongside philosophical inquiries. Rooted in interdisciplinary and pluralistic approaches, my deep engagement with material exploration and multimedia evolves through an intersectional lens, creating space for unique, hybrid, and fluid identities and meanings, fostering new, complex, and inclusive narratives.

The project "Mis(s) Re(a)d: The Othered Self" represents a new body of work that reflects, questions, and challenges the act of 'othering' and its misrepresentation. Embedded in the works of the exhibition "Misread" is the intention to shift prevailing narratives and inspire visions of new possibilities. Through "Mis(s) Re(a)d," I aim to occupy space, amplifying voices often silenced by traditional assumptions and expectations, shedding light on the complex intersectional and interconnected nature of gender-based violence, bodily agency, and sexual and reproductive rights and justice.

A native of New Delhi, India, Ina Kaur is an interdisciplinary artist specializing in printmaking and ceramics. Delving into intersectional frameworks within the contemporary landscape, particularly focusing on issues related to coloniality, Kaur's Studio Research Practice reflects a critical engagement with societal concerns. Viewing the world through a feminist lens, Kaur intertwines various realities and concerns, addressing social injustices, gender inequality, and ecological imbalances.

"As of September 2018, Ina Kaur was honored as a 2018 Emerging Voice Award recipient on behalf of the College of Liberal Arts at Purdue University. An honor given to a young alumnus who are successfully achieving their career goals, serving their communities, and representing the College as graduates who think broadly and lead boldly."

Her multidisciplinary art practice has garnered attention, leading to invitations to workshops, conferences, and lectures at institutions across America, Europe, and South Asia.

Kaur has exhibited extensively both nationally and internationally. Recognized with numerous grants and awards, She is dedicated to fostering initiatives for community engagement. Currently serving as the Visiting Professor of Ceramics at Tulane University, she also holds the position of Curator of Creative Practice, Community Engagement Coordinator at the Newcomb Art Museum.

Her debut public solo exhibition in New Orleans, "Mis(s) Re(a)d: The Othered Self," offers a reflection on misunderstood and misconstrued realities and the marginalized majority voices within society.

@studio_inkspace
@wildwomanpotter
www.inakaur.com

Room 2

Raina Benoit, Big Sister (Silhouette Series), Aquarelle, 22 x 30 inches, 2024.
Raina Benoit, Clouds of Chaos I, Aquarelle, 22 x 30 inches, 2024.
Raina Benoit, Clouds of Chaos II, Aquarelle, 22 x 30 inches, 2024.

Strangely Familiar
Raina Benoit

Mixed media

Raina Benoit's multidisciplinary investigations are about the human body and its interrelation to the environment.  Her response to the psychology of a place emerges from interests in the complicated relationship between the individual and their surroundings. Her interests in the boundaries between opposites are often skirted by blending the physiological with the landscape. Through mixed media installations made with eco-friendly materials both found, recycled, and handmade, Benoit morphs the natural environment with the manmade one, combining new visual relationships between object and objectified.

Her latest body of work focuses on the intertwined connection between the female body and the environment. More precisely, the natural landscape and the female body are both manicured and feared.  How throughout history both have been exploited, groomed, and how they have adapted.  Benoit’s work recreates worlds that unite opposites, to reexamine boundaries between beauty and the grotesque, control and chaos, spiritual and terrestrial, physical body and the virtual body.   Largely influenced by mysticism, folklore, anthropomorphism, news headlines, and the feminine grotesque, Benoit's work collages a narrative that oscillates between the familiar and the estranged.

Raina Benoit, a native of Lafayette, La, received her MFA in Painting and Drawing from the University of Arizona. She has lived in many places as an educator, artist, and environmentalist. She exhibits national and internationally. She lives and works in New Orleans.

@raina.benoit
www.rainabenoit.com

Room 3

anderson funk, teapots, RULES / CHANGE / NOTICE Tea Room Promo Image, 2024.
anderson funk, notice change rules, RULES / CHANGE / NOTICE Tea Room Promo Image, 2024.
anderson funk, notice, RULES / CHANGE / NOTICE Tea Room Promo Image, 2024.
anderson funk, rules, RULES / CHANGE / NOTICE Tea Room Promo Image, 2024.
anderson funk, supposed, RULES / CHANGE / NOTICE Tea Room Promo Image, 2024.
anderson funk, change, RULES / CHANGE / NOTICE Tea Room Promo Image, 2024.

RULES / CHANGE / NOTICE Tea Room
anderson funk

Tea / Snacks / Presence / Conversation
Tea Time Daily Mondays-Saturdays, timing TBA

You are invited to have some tea, maybe some snack, to have some rest, maybe some chat. I will post a calendar of daily tea times throughout May shortly.  The tea room is meant for anyone who wishes to come find tea in small cups, through multiple infusions, with the chance to smell, taste, and feel one of the oldest drinks on earth. My aim is to allow escape from entrenched spectator/spectacle or artist/audience dichotomies.  It might turn out that visitors and myself as we sip sip sip will begin to  notice and change the rules we have made for ourselves, so that we may move together towards liberation. Or it might just be a regular moment of imbibing some leaf flavored water. Who can say! 

My name is anderson funk, born 1989. I study and read a lot, and I like to make beautiful situations, sculptures, and sentences. I studied engineering at Vanderbilt and art at MICA. I like using the languages I learned in both places to inform my understanding of the other. I am grateful to my many friends and family for sticking with me through thick and thin even as I struggle with feeling disconnected, stuck, and directionless at times.  I hope to keep finding myself in big fun miraculous situations, sculptures and sentences as I grow up, grow down, and  notice change all around. . .

andersonfunk.com
vimeo.com/andfun
@andfunandfun
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rirkrit_Tiravanija

Room 4

THE SWEETNESS ARCHIVE, Carl Harrison Jr., Dahlak Keleta, Hasheemah Afaneh, Kelsey Scult, Kristin Foster, Thafer Danial, Curated by Kelsey Scult.

THE SWEETNESS ARCHIVE
Carl Harrison Jr.
Dahlak Keleta
Hasheemah Afaneh
Kelsey Scult
Kristin Foster
Thafer Danial

Curated by Kelsey Scult

Mixed Media Installations, Film, Cyanotype Prints, Glass, Honey, Beeswax, 1965 Impala, Flowers, Memory.

Honey remembers. Through this multidisciplinary exhibition, a group of New Orleans artists, filmmakers and writers explore what it means to preserve and archive sweetness. The show brings together poetry, film, photography, sculpture, and beekeeping to create an archive of sweetness and a collective container for grief and preservation. 

Carl Harrison Jr. is a filmmaker, multimedia artist, and dedicated beekeeper based in New Orleans. His work spans documentary and fiction shorts, as well as web series, often exploring themes of race, music, and southern cultural traditions. Known for his immersive storytelling and bold, socially conscious projects, Harrison brings a unique artistic vision to his work. His contributions to "The Sweetness Archive" exhibition reflect his passion for the intersection of art, ecology, and personal narrative, as well as his connection to the natural world through beekeeping. Through his art, Harrison encourages audiences to contemplate the delicate balance between nature and humanity.
www.carlharrisonjr.com
@carl_harrisonjr

Dahlak Keleta is an Ethiopian artist who has worked with stone, paint, pencil, fabric, photography, wood and found objects. He works with meaningful images from his childhood, symbols of revolution and is inspired by the fierce royalty within him  He uses layering, stencils, and bold, bright colors to bring images of freedom and power out of the old window panes or canvas. Every chance Dahlak gets he is documenting the beauty in his life via photography, and his physically created work often comes from a place of powerful emotions. Dahlak desires you to feel powerful while looking at his art.
@dakoosheay

Hasheemah Afaneh is a Palestinian American public health professional and writer based in New Orleans.
@itshashie

Kelsey Scult is a New Orleans-based filmmaker and multidisciplinary artist. Her work explores the processing of inherited memory, the psychic untangling of violence and the physical intersection of desire and decay. Films Kelsey has produced and directed have played at Sundance, SXSW, Frameline, Outfest, Atlanta Film Fest, and more. She is an alumna of the New Orleans Film Society's Southern Producers Lab, The Gotham’s Narrative Lab, and the Southern Foodways Alliance Filmmaker Residency. Her director credits include “SLICE,” “KNEAD”, and “Her Teeth and Where to Find Them”. She has exhibited her multimedia installation work across the country and abroad, including locally at The Front Gallery, Antenna, The Ogden Museum of Southern Art, Tulane’s Carroll Gallery, and The Parlour Gallery. She is the Co-President of The Front Gallery, and Manager of Filmmaker Services at the New Orleans Video Access Center (NOVAC) which supports independent filmmakers across Louisiana. 
www.kelseyscult.com 
@madame_kelso

Kristin Foster has worked with paint, collage, theater, dance, photography, fabric and watercolor. She plays with abstract images, objects of personal importance, and pleasing colors and shapes to her eye. Hopefully you can see moments of satire in her work, as satire exists heavily in her life. While looking at her art she hopes that you experience exploration and observation in magic, pain and eroticism. Sadly, it doesn't feel possible to display true pain and devastation through art, but luckily we all have empathy and imagination. Chaotic.
@sweetheathenboy

Thafer Danial is a Palestinian American writer and editor based in New Orleans, where he organizes events such as Palestine Film Day and NOLA Freedom Forum, as well as serves as a founding member of Palestinian Youth Movement NOLA.
@thaferdan