Dance Recital Gifts
art LIStINGS page 39
rEViEW
New works at Barrister’s
“WHERE THE UNUSUAL IS COMMONPLACE.” 5101 W. ESPLANADE AVE. METAIRIE, LA 70006 504-885-4956 • 800-222-4956
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GOING ON NOW!
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these days we hear a lot about the “natural world,” but anyone who has spent much time in Louisiana sees aspects of nature that stretch the meaning of the word and provide fodder for the imagination. these paintings by Nikki Crook, Amy Guidry and Monique Ligons further the notion that dreams and fantasies may be the last vestige of wild nature in the modern psyche. Crook’s elegantly painted female nudes celebrate the link between the wild world and the dream world in works like Trophy Wife, featuring a darkly veiled woman offering a bouquet of flowers in one hand and a deer skull in the other. In The Hunter, a shapely if bloody young woman with a raccoon skin shawl draped across her head and shoulders confronts us with a skinned carcass in her outstretched arms, and Silent Forest (pictured) features a bloody rabbit and an owl with a baby doll face — all of which suggest the female, regardless of species, may be the deadlier gender, at least some of the time. Lafayette artist Guidry juxtaposes human and animal symbolism in weirdly surreal ways that are especially effective in works like Synergy, in which a human head emerges from the earth with blood vessels below like the root system of a tree. In others, wolves’ tHRU Visions of the Unnatural World heads minus bodies roam the badlands like specters, suggesting the real junE Barrister’s Gallery predators may have moved on, perhaps to Wall Street. As with Crook, notions of interdependence and transference are implicit. Monique Ligons’ intricately 2331 St. Claude Ave. baroque sci-fi style paintings extend the fantasy realm into the far reaches of 710-4506 the imagination in truly wild images where humanoid insects reenact Biblical www.barristersgallery.com scenes ranging from the Crucifixion to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. While not yet household names, all three artists are accomplished, and their extraordinary imaginations, deftly transposed to paint on canvas, make this offbeat show very appealing for anyone with an appreciation for magic realism. — D. ERIC BooKHARDt
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RHINO CONTEMPORARY CRAFTS GALLERY. The Shops at Canal Place, 333 Canal St., second floor, 523-7945; www.rhinocrafts. com — Works by Cathy Cooper-Stratton, Margo Manning, Chad Ridgeway and teri Walker and others, ongoing.
ESTATE TREASURES
CONSIGNMENT FURNISHINGS 2014 M A GAZINE ST 504.679.6600
SCOTT EDWARDS PHOTOGRAPHY GALLERY. 2109 Decatur St., 610-0581 — “Photosmith’s Quintet,” music photographs by Zack Smith, Chris Felver, Barry Kaiser, Greg Miles and Bob Compton, through June. SOREN CHRISTENSEN GALLERY. 400 Julia St., 569-9501; www.sorengallery.com — “Reveille,” paintings by Melissa Herrington, through May.
STAPLE GOODS. 1340 St. Roch Ave., 908-7331; www. postmedium.org/staplegoods — “Sculptures I Wish I Had Made,” photography-based mixed media by Cynthia Scott, through June 3. STELLA JONES GALLERY. Place St. Charles, 201 St. Charles Ave., Suite 132, 568-9050 — “Louisiana Roots,” paintings by Ed Clark; sculture by Harold Cousins; both through June 29. STUDIO 831. 532 Royal St., 304-4392; www.studio831royal.com — “In a Mind’s Eye,” sculpture by Jason Robert Griego, ongoing. THOMAS MANN GALLERY I/O. 1812 Magazine St., 581-2113; www. thomasmann.com — “Wire
World,” wall pieces, jewelry and wearable art by thomas Mann, Cathy Cooper and Steve Lohman, through June.
UNO-ST. CLAUDE GALLERY. 2429 St. Claude Ave. — “Uncanny Mirror of Available Darkness,” photographs by Maria Levitsky, through June 2.
call for artists ART MELT. Forum 35 accepts art submissions and marketplace entries for the annual Art Melt, an arts market and juried show to be held at the Louisiana State Museum in Baton Rouge on July 14. Visit www.artmelt. org or www.forum35.org
for details. Submissions deadline is June 1.
NEW ORLEANS LOVING FESTIVAL. Antenna Gallery, 3161 Burgundy St., 298-3161; www.pressstreet.com — the festival seeks original artwork and films with themes concerning the multiracial experience for the exhibition “Mixed Messages 2.” Email mail@charitablefilmnetwork. org for details. Submissions deadline is Monday.
THREE MUSES. 536 Frenchmen St., 2524801; www.thethreemuses. com — Portraits by Zack Smith, ongoing.
musEums
sparE spacEs
CONTEMPORARY ARTS CENTER. 900 Camp St., 528-3800; www.cacno. org — “NoLA NoW Part II: Abstraction In Louisiana”; “Spaces,” works from artist co-ops Antenna, the Front and Good Children Gallery; both through June 10.
DOS JEFES UPTOWN CIGAR BAR. 5535 Tchoupitoulas St., 8918500; www.dosjefescigarbar.com — Works by Mario ortiz, ongoing.
HISTORIC NEW ORLEANS COLLECTION. 533 Royal St., 523-4662; www.hnoc.org — “Furnishing Louisiana, 1735–1835,” an exhibition exploring early