Summer Gallery Guide

Some people enjoy taking a slow stroll through a museum. Others prefer the quick pace of gallery hopping and wine sipping on “White Linen Night.” Still others prefer the rapid-fire bidding and excitement of a live auction. No matter your personal style of art appreciation, there are plenty of ways to enjoy the visual arts around town this summer. View and contemplate purchasing some art at the following exhibitions coloring every corner of town.

On July 27 and 28, New Orleans Auction Galleries (801 Magazine St., 566-1849, NewOrleansAuction.com) will be holding their Summer Estates Auction, a two-day bidding extravaganza of visual arts, antique furniture and collectors’ favorites from fine estates, private collections and institutions.

“We will be offering items from the estate of Ruth Sullivan Wilkins, the first Curator of Education at the Kimball Museum in Fort Worth, Texas. The collection embodies the extensive connoisseurship and eclectic tastes of its owner,” says Public Relations and Marketing Coordinator Taylor Eichenwald. “Among the items featured are works from the many artists she befriended over her decades as curator, Italian drawings collected on her extensive travels, coin silver from her native Massachusetts and adoptive New York, and the entire contents of her extensive reference library.”

Additional highlights include “Portrait of a Young Woman, Partially Draped” by Jean Joseph Vaudechamp, “Mythic Series 89-5” by Ida Kohlmeyer and Gorham Martelé Silver. The full catalog is available online and full color catalogs are available during exhibition weeks, when the items are on view from 9 a.m.-5 p.m., beginning July 13. An evening preview reception will be held on July 25. For more information on the auction, items and consignment, visit NewOrleansAuction.com.

Summer Gallery GuideUnder the purview of the University of New Orleans Department of Fine Arts, the UNO St. Claude Gallery (2429 St. Claude Ave., 280-6411, FineArts.UNO.edu/artpage.html) is one of several galleries contributing to the ever-growing Bywater arts scene along St. Claude Avenue. The gallery primarily shows thesis exhibitions of New Orleans’ up-and-coming young artists in spring, while showing visiting artists’ work and curating exhibits during the rest of the year, including UNO alumni work in the month of September. This September, look for faculty member and alumnus Jeff Rineheart’s digital and sculptural work.
Director Kathy Rodriguez curates an exhibition this August entitled “Making It.” The show’s general theme is artist collaborations with a more specific focus on work by artist couples.

“I’ve wanted to hold an exhibition like this for a few years. I’m interested in showing the ways in which two people influence each other’s artistic practices and the ways in which artist couples might together produce work,” says Rodriguez. I also specifically chose the month of August – the dog days of summer – when really, the best thing to do is stay inside in the air conditioning, and, well, work it.”

The show features work by Natalie McLaurin and Ben Fox-McCord, Tony Campbell and Matt Vis (as Generic Art Solutions), Rachel Jones Deris and Christopher Deris, Kathy Rodriguez and Matthew Kirscht, Ryn Wilson and Peter Hoffman, Ariya Martin and Michael Winter, and Kevin Baer and Sylvia Santamaria.
Through July 18, the Martine Chaisson Gallery (727 Camp St., 302-7942, MartineChaissonGallery.com) features its “2013 Pop Up Show” of all female local artists. Showing by appointment only, the exhibition includes works by Shelley Aucoin, Rachel Jones Deris, Joli Livaudais, Taryn Moller Nicholl and Ryn Wilson.

“On ‘White Linen Night,’ I’m excited to open with a new artist,” says Martine Chaisson, who enjoys featuring the works of both established and emerging artists at her gallery. From August 3 through September 28, the gallery will be taken over by the works of visual artist and sculptor Clark Derbes, a New Orleans native. The exhibition, entitled “Pre-Historic Art of the Future…Today!!!” consists of work on paper and wood.

To schedule an appointment to view the “2013 Pop Up Show,” contact the Martine Chaisson Gallery; for more information on Clark Derbes, visit ClarkDerbes.com.
One of New Orleans’ most popular and busiest artists is spending the summer in France working on new paintings to be displayed and sold at his French Quarter gallery.

Summer Gallery Guide“We’re looking forward to the new influx of paintings from France, which will include new French landscapes and a series of smaller canvases of his cemetery series that was so popular last year,” says David Lambert, Gallery Director for James Michalopoulos (617 Bienville St., 302-7942, Michalopoulous.com)
This month, the Michalopoulos Gallery will be taking part in “Tales of the Cocktail” and hosting an event at the gallery. For specifics, visit TalesoftheCocktail.com.

“The event ties in perfectly with James’s latest series currently on display, ‘Cocktails in Space,’ a fun and beautiful series of canvases of gorgeous-looking cocktails floating in the cosmos,” says Lambert. Michalopoulos’s works can be viewed and purchased both at the gallery on its website.

Located nearby on art- and antique-friendly Royal Street is the New Orleans location of nationally renowned Martin Lawrence Galleries (433 Royal St., 299-9055, MartinLawrence.com). Specializing in original paintings, sculpture and limited edition graphics, Martin Lawrence Galleries holds a substantial collection of artwork including the largest collection of Andy Warhol, Pablo Picasso and Marc Chagall. Martin Lawrence Galleries is also the publisher and representative for Erté, Kondakova, Deyber, Mas, Bertho, Hallam, Fressinier, Hofmann and Lalonde.

“We at Martin Lawrence Galleries value the trust you place in us and take our responsibility to preserve and enforce our reputation seriously,” says Marketing Manager Maria Saraceno Ward. Martin Lawrence Galleries have loaned hundreds of works to 32 museums around the world, including the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, the Museo Picasso in Barcelona and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

This year, Martin Lawrence in New Orleans will feature “An Evening with François Fressinier” artist reception on October 19 from 6 p.m.-8 p.m. Additionally, the gallery will host “An Evening with Mark Kostabi” on November 23 from 6 p.m.-8 p.m.

Tulane University continues its dedication to the visual arts with an always-diverse offering of exhibits at Newcomb Art Gallery located in the Woldenberg Art Center (6823 St. Charles Ave., 865-5328, NewcombArtGallery.tulane.edu). From August 12 through September 15, Newcomb Art Gallery explores the relationship of sports to an institution with “More Than a Game: Sports and Identity, Newcomb/Tulane 1888/2013.”

“From October 4 through March 9, the Newcomb Art Gallery will present ‘Women, Art, and Social Change: The Newcomb Pottery Enterprise,’ the largest presentation of Newcomb arts and crafts in more than 25 years,” says Marketing Coordinator Teresa Parker Farris. “Works from various periods will examine the role that the enterprise played in promoting art for the betterment of women, and in turn, post-bellum New Orleans. Organized by the gallery and the Smithsonian Traveling Exhibition Service, the exhibit will feature significant examples of the iconic pottery, as well as lesser known textiles, metalwork, jewelry, bookbinding and historical artifacts.”

Gallery hours are Tuesday through Friday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday, 11 a.m.-4 p.m. F

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