Tomorrow night at 6PM, I'll be having my first exhibit in New Orleans... this is as far south as my art has traveled. We've installed the exhibit and given our short films the test run- Southern Pop Surrealism is upon us. The local folks who visited Zeitgeist this evening got a special sneak preview of the entire exhibit (minus what we paint live tomorrow of course.) The venue is open seven days a week as an independent movie theater; tonight they're having their premier of Hesher.
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Rene (here with The Bertrands), the Director of Zeitgeist joined us across the street for a lunch break at The Reconcile Cafe. The restaurant employees and trains underprivileged folks here in the city in the restaurant industry and them provides them job placement at local establishments. |
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Cooks come in daily and volunteer to train people. The result is a wild menu full of award-winning recipes from all over the city. I opted for some Shrimp Smothered Okra...
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| Gorgeous MLK mural near the gallery |
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| After the installation of our show, we toured the Sculpture Garden at The New Orleans Museum of Art and saw works from all over the world such as Henry Moore's "Mother and Child". We're going back in the morning to see what's inside. The park surrounding he museum is over 20 sq miles and just breathtaking. They have imported Spanish Moss growing on some very surreal trees with branches that swoop to the ground. |
My ride's here and I gotta go find a seedy joint with plenty of saxophone and trumpet action! Our four-man exhibit featuring myself, Charles Bennett, Jeff Bertrand and Dustin Dirt! opens tomorrow at 6PM here in New Orleans!
Click HERE for the Southern Pop Surrealism STREAM
UPDATE 04/17/2011: Aurora got some really great shots of the New Orleans Museum of Art's Sculpture Garden on Friday evening and the slew of art inside when we went back Saturday right before our own exhibit at Zeitgeist! Here's just some of the highlights...
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| Before the Sculpture Garden visit, Aurora insisted on getting her first NOLA to-go Daiquiri. I played DD while the rest of these hooligans drank 190 Proof Rum in a Slushy... sheesh |
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| Men dueled to the death under these trees |
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| One of my two favorites- monkeys morphing into men! |
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| The sculpture on the right is my favorite of the entire Garden |
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| Zach, Myron, Nick, Aurora and I got some Po-Boys before heading back down to the Garden District. |
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| I hear a guy named Obama stopped in here one time. Parkway is famous for their sandwiches.... I opted for the Alligator Sausage Po-Boy. |
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| We returned Saturday when we had a few hours to spend inside... Here we are with street-artist Swoon's installation in the lobby |
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| Detail of a monkey getting whipped.... bad monkey |
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| Flawless Othello |
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| Monet |
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| One of two Picasso paintings we got to see... |
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| Henry Darger's work was found after his death. He was a recluse Janitor in Chicago who would go home at night and work on his manifesto, a 15,000+ page manuscript entitled, The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What is known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glandeco-Angelinnian War Storm, Caused by the Child Slave Rebellion. Several hundred drawings and watercolors where included. |
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| Click HERE for much more of Darger's life and work. |
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| This may be my favorite piece from the day. It's a waiter tray and the hieroglyphics on it translate to "I Don't Want To;" it made for a very thought-provoking work that I kept musing on as the day went about. |
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| Some Hopi Kachina Dolls on the left such as the ones which inspired part of my Declaration of Tears; Trail of Independence series a few years back. |
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| I was delighted to get and see a few Indian works- being an illustrator, it's my favorite style due to the intricacy of them. |
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| Monkey Skulls! |
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| Another very large painting |
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| Giacometti on the left and a little Futurism on the right |
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| Each of these bad boys were about 10 feet tall! |
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| The Samurai Armor was a real treat- something I'd never seen before! |
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| Some old school Surrealism from the 1930's |
New Orleans is such a fabulous city. No doubt you're making the very best of your visit sounds like to me. I'm sure the exhibition will come off splendidly. Enjoyed the pics... take more especially at the art museum. Have fun and safe travels.
ReplyDeleteThanks Su- we made it back in one piece and thoroughly got the NOLA experience!
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