September 13 - October 5, 2025
Opening reception on Second Saturday, September 13th 6-10pm
Gallery open hours are Saturdays and Sundays, 12-5pm. & by appointment (reach out to a member-artist)
Programming This Month
Saturday September 13th, 6-10pm
Opening Reception, Second Saturdays
Saltwater Floats throughout open hours, Weekends 12-5
sign up here
Room 1
Sly Watts
CONCEPTION OF THE WILD THINGS IN MY MIND, LIVE FROM INSIDE OF THE LAB
Sly Watts
THIS IS AN EXPERIMENTAL 4 WEEK RESIDENCY
& DOCUMENTED PROCESS OF THE MULTI-HYPHENATE CREATIVE PRACTICE
OF SLY WATTS
Sly Watts, born and raised in New Orleans, LA, works in various mediums, mapping forms of emotion and movement. He taught himself several creative skills, and used this skill-set to begin developing music and artwork. Sly experiments with hip hop, pulling from jazz, funk, electronica, and rock, among other genres. His work explores abstraction, character, and the relationship between solace and chaos.
Room 2
Silent Spring
Diane Appaix-Castro
I once heard the sound of crunching icebergs while looking at a sculpture. That sound has lived with me since. Silent Spring is an attempt to bring the viewer into the sounds and images of that moment. While I have never been in the presence of an iceberg, their beauty, melancholy, and shifting historical significance are ones that I wish to share. The ever-precipitous sound of their calving makes me feel the presence of much more than ourselves. For me, they are a visual and auditory symbol of Earth’s magnitude and our tenuous connection to all things. While blurred to the viewer, and en lieu of footage of the real thing, the visuals are sourced from moments that evoke a similar melancholic beauty, one that I crave.
I ask that participants sign up to float in motion, color, and sound during gallery open hours, in a saltwater pool, which will be installed in the gallery beginning Sunday, September 14.
Diane Appaix Castro is a French and Spanish sculptor and experiential installation artist, born in Paris, raised in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and based in New Orleans since 2019. She holds an MFA in Sculpture from Tulane University and a BFA from Suffolk University and has exhibited across the South, Midwest, and Northeast of the United States. Residencies include the Joan Mitchell Center in 2024, Southern Heat Exchange in 2021, and Studio North by Moskow Linn Architects in 2015. She is a Prepared Table Fellow of the Amistad and Rivers Institute and recipient of the Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grant, the School of Liberal Arts Graduate Student Summer Research and Write Up Fellowship, and first place in DIY Art for Reconnecting in Quarantine at Tulane Hillel. Diane is a member of the artist collective The Front and maintains a studio at Camp Street Studios in the New Orleans Arts District. Living across cultures attunes her to the coexistence of many truths and to the systems humans build to interpret their worlds. Her installations combine sculpture, projection, sound, and material experimentation to unsettle assumptions and expand perception. Believing the viewer completes the work, she creates spaces that invite release of certainty, immersion in ambiguity, and empathy for what lies beyond comprehension.
Room 3 + 4
Holly Dudley, Dinner Guest, oil on panel, 12x24 inches, 2024
Augustus Hoffman, After Beckmann, flashe and acrylic on canvas, 20x16 inches, 2025
Haptic Vision
Holly Dudley and Augustus Hoffman
Haptic Vision is an exhibition featuring the work of Holly Dudley and Augustus Hoffman This show explores the space between observation and invention and the fraught delight we get in trying to arrive at a visual comprehension, regardless of how fleeting it actually is.
Holly Dudley graduated from the Pennsylvania of the Fine Arts(PAFA) with a BFA in painting. She received the “Frances M. Maguire Scholarship” a full tuition scholarship to attend. While attending PAFA, Dudley received the “Carlson Landscape Residency” and “The Raymond D. & Estelle Rubens Travel Scholarship” (European Travel) among other painting awards. Dudley is an Elizabeth Greenshield Recipient(2024) for drawing and painting. She attended the Mount Gretna School of Art (2019-2023) and attended a residency in Italy in 2024. Dudley has had her work shown in New York and in Philadelphia. She has work in the Woodmere Art Museum’s permanent collection. hollydudleyart.com @hollyadudley
Augustus Hoffman is an artist who lives in New Orleans, Louisiana. He has studied at Bard College, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and the New York Studio School. He has taught at Bard Early College, The New Orleans Academy of Fine Arts, and The Contemporary Arts Center New Orleans. Augustus has shown his work all over the country most notably in New York City, Philadelphia, and New Orleans. He was recently an artist in residence at the Joan Mitchell Center and is currently a member at the Front. augustushoffman.com @augustushoffmanartwork
EXTERIOR & BACKYARD
Machine-stitched patchwork of recycled fabric, alongside reclaimed garments.
House Dressed
Christine Crook
This is a house, and these are its clothes. The Front is a home where art lives, I honor it and create something fancy for it to wear—a celebration of the space that has welcomed both my art and me. This house has nurtured my creativity, deepened friendships, and become part of my story.
The Front is a house that sits in the Bywater, a neighborhood alive with history, culture, and community. By wrapping the gallery in patchwork, I extend care to this house-as-home. The patchwork is irregular and imperfect, embracing randomness, collage, ephemerality, and the beauty of repurposed materials—all foundational elements of my practice. I adorn this house like a tribute mural or a brightly painted façade, dressing it with playfulness and affection.
My installation transforms this well-loved building into something dressed up—full of character, ready to greet its neighbors, and perhaps newly visible to those who never noticed it before. I invite you and the community to see The Front anew: as a gathering space that has stood on St. Claude for years, a home to artists, and a living participant in the neighborhood. This is an outward expression of the art that adorns the walls inside, carrying the beauty of history alongside the grit of time, reflecting pride, memory, and the ever-present tension of change. The Front stands as a beloved presence on St. Claude Avenue—alive with memory, creativity, and welcome.
Christine Crook is a New Orleans–based costume and performance artist whose work diverges from a long career in theatre, opera, and dance costume design. She creates abstract costumes and installations inspired by drag, folk art, the occult, and global masquerade. She has presented work in San Francisco, Oakland, Los Angeles, and New Orleans with The Front, Metalhaus Gallery, Failed Films Festival, Dream Farm Commons, FILF Fashion, Z Space, and Shotgun Players. Christine received a Bridging The Gap Grant for a Berlin residency in 2017 and was an artist in residence at Light Box, Detroit, in 2019. She holds an MFA in Costume Design from UC San Diego and works as a grant writer for arts and community nonprofits. christinecrook.squarespace.com