October 11 - November 2, 2025
Opening reception on Second Saturday, October 11th 6-10pm
Gallery open hours are Saturdays and Sundays, 12-5pm. & by appointment (reach out to a member-artist)
Programming This Month
Saturday October 11th, 6-10pm
Opening Reception, Second Saturdays
Monday October 13th, 6-9pm
Collage Night with Mel Cripe
Sunday October 26th, 2pm
Artist Talk with ann haley
November 2nd, 3pm
Q&A with Kyle Young
Room 1 + 2
Debut
Kyle Young
Debut explores the intersections of vanity, vice, and modernity in a collection of figurative tableaus. This body of work investigates the nuances of interpersonal relationships, the pendulum of beauty and decay, and the symbiosis that exists between loneliness and fantasy. Furthermore, Debut's visual aesthetic depends upon the development of unique archetypes and characters through facial expressions and symbolic objects. In this way, these works are inspired not only by theatre, but also Renaissance-era allegorical paintings, wherein archetypal characters are placed into scenes with one another to illustrate dynamics of power, love, and evil.
Kyle Young is a New Orleans-based oil painter. He has shown his work in New Orleans and Delaware. He became a member of The Front in 2025. Currently, he works primarily in figurative tableau-style oil painting. Since completing his studies at Tulane University in 2022, he has worked in landscape painting, set design, and custom fashion design. He has also worked as an apprentice for established artists in the New Orleans area. @kyle.young www.fakepaint.com
Room 3
Mel Cripe, Can't Can't, photography, 30x40 in, 2025
Mel Cripe, A Lady, Bugged, photography, 18x18in, 2024
Mel Cripe, Recipes For Disaster, photography, 12x18in, 2024
Can't Can't
Mel Cripe
Can’t Can’t is a collection of works by visual artist Melissa Cripe that serves as a call to silence the inner critic and celebrate the stickiness of the artistic process.
These images span a decade of collaborations in which she constructs surreal worlds that playfully embody the harmful inner dialogue of self doubt, comparison, and belonging. The characters portrayed in them illustrate the energetic dance between faith and fear that often occurs while transmuting an idea into reality.
By reshaping these anxieties into tangible creations, she aims to alleviate the stories we tell ourselves of how we “should” be and instead imagine a world in which we give ourselves joyful permission to access the depth of our own potential.
As a Director, Production Designer, & Photographer, Mel Cripe creates tactile, surreal worlds full of colorful chaos. Through a texturally, bold and cinematic lens, she composes visual stories that explore the peculiarity of the human condition. Her style combines a childlike curiosity with a critical artistic eye that invites the viewer to re-evaluate their reality. www.melissacripe.com
Room 4
ann haley, from Beneath you it Devours, exhibition, 2025 [are you afraid of the dark? DETAIL, 60 x 60 inches, oil on canvas 2025].
from Beneath you it Devours
ann haley
What does it mean to sit with what feels unbearable? Through paintings, video, and installation, “from Beneath you it Devours” lingers in the tension between fear and bravery, grief and love, violence and care, survival and undoing. This exhibition asks viewers to sit with the demons in the basement, to see what burns and what endures, and to consider what can only be learned from what haunts us.
The desire to fight is as much in my blood as is the desire to forgive. Can I both fight and sit with my monsters? I must learn to understand them in order to contain them. Taking responsibility for my demons means not banishing them but taking agency in how I live with them. My grandmother’s basement taught me this before I had words for it. I remember how ominous a basement felt; like it took intentional bravery to go down there. But hers, while dark and decorated with paintings of matadors, was also a playroom where I watched TV. These graceful but somewhat violent paintings in this dark space were evidence that my grandmother, a colorful person adorned in flowers and butterflies, was also a fighter. I found solitude, imagination, and comfort in a place that naturally felt somewhat scary. It taught me that it is possible to feel afraid and safe at the same time.
If we do not want to be devoured by what is buried, we must go downstairs and come to terms with what haunts us.
Ann Haley (Atlanta, GA, b.1991) is a multimedia artist, curator, and educator in New Orleans, LA. She received a BFA in Painting from Savannah College of Art and Design in 2014, and is currently pursuing a Masters of Education in Counseling at the University of New Orleans. As a collective member of The Front Gallery since 2020, Haley has curated, collaborated, and solo-exhibited numerous art shows rooted in themes of identity, grief, and the body. In New Orleans, she has also exhibited at the Contemporary Arts Center, SHED Gallery, Carroll Gallery, Antenna Gallery, and Staple Goods Gallery. Outside of New Orleans, she has exhibited at Ashmore Gallery, Savannah, GA; Plug Gallery, Kansas City, MO; and Vernissage, Lacoste, France. Beyond her personal art practice, Haley has taught and developed Art Ed curricula for New Orleans youth since 2015, most prominently at Mini Art Center, Youth Empowerment Project, and Waldo Burton Boys Home. @annhaleystudio / annhaleystudio.com
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