EXHIBITIONS & COLLECTIONS >> PAST EXHIBITIONS

Past Exhibitions

Siren's Call: An Installation by Sally Heller with Károon Davajian
May 22 - July 18, 2010

Sally Heller, Uprooted, 2007, mixed media and found materials, dimensions variable. Installation at Gallery Bienvenu, New Orleans, LA. Image courtesy of the artist.

The Soupçon Gallery will be transformed by one of Sally Heller’s fantastical creations, crafted with clever reference to consumerism and environmental issues. Heller constructs her installations from cheap consumer goods such as chicken wire and plastic plates, or what she calls “the bric-a-brac we discard but use in an often gluttonous capacity.”

Since receiving her MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University in 1980, Sally Heller has exhibited throughout the country at Columbia College, Chicago; Miami University Art Museum, Ohio; Montserrat College of Art, Beverly, Mass.; Soapfactory, Minneapolis; Rockland Center for the Arts, Nyack, NY; and Whitespace Gallery, Atlanta, among other venues. Károon Davajian has collaborated with Sally on several occasions. Both artists live and work in New Orleans.

Click here to watch a time-lapse video of the construction of Siren's Call.

Almost Alice: New Illustrations of Wonderland by Maggie Taylor
May 19 - July 18, 2010

Lewis Carroll's works - the Alice books in particular - have been a source of inspiration for artists for over 100 years. Almost Alice: New Illustrations of Wonderland by Maggie Taylor takes a fresh look at the enduring tale through the work of Maggie Taylor, who in recent years has emerged as one of the most accomplished and innovative masters of digital imaging process. This exhibition focuses upon Taylor’s recently published series Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (2008, Modernbook Editions, Palo Alto, California). Consisting of 45 digital transformations, Maggie constructs surreal narratives that bring out the fantasy and the fantastic that is at the heart of Carroll’s playfully ironic writing.

This exhibition, organized by the Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art, University of Florida, Gainesville, is toured by Curatorial Assistance, Pasadena, California. It is supported in part by: a grant from the Louisiana State Arts Council through the Louisiana Division of the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts; the Arts Council of Greater Baton Rouge through the Decentralized Arts Funding Program; the Baton Rouge Area Foundation, Cary Saurage Fund in honor of Alma Lee and H. N. Saurage; and by several Friends of Alice.

Selected Miniatures from the LASM Collection
May 19 - July 18, 2010

A few objects from the LASM Miniature Collection. Gifts of Mrs. H. Payne Breazeale Sr.

Many of them antique, these miniature furniture pieces and accessories are carefully crafted down to the tiniest detail. The objects on view range from a little Spode cup and saucer set and a small silver platter made in 1899 to a Meissen figurine. Among the large variety of furniture pieces are a Louis XV commode c.1715–74, a 1760s Chippendale chest, an early Victorian walnut wardrobe, and an 1840s English piano with tiny keys.

Of the more than 427 objects in LASM’s miniatures collection, Mrs. H. Payne Breazeale Sr. gave the museum 381 objects that reflect a wide range of styles and time periods.

Spotlight: Prints by James L. Steg
March 20 - May 16, 2010

James L. Steg, One, Two, Three, Four, 1964, collagraph, artist proof #3. Courtesy of Frances Swigart Steg.

Master printmaker James L. Steg (1922–2001) was a professor of art for 43 years at Newcomb College of Tulane University. He explored many printmaking techniques and became an authority on paint and solvent reactions. He pioneered eccentric media, such as Xerox prints altered with paint and chemicals. Among his inventions is the collograph, a form of printmaking in which collaged materials are applied to a rigid backing such as wood or cardboard and then inked and run through a printing press.

Among the collections that include Steg’s works are those of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Library of Congress and the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the New York Public Library, the Ogden Museum of Southern Art in New Orleans, and the New Orleans Museum of Art.

The Curious World of Patent Models
February 27 - May 9, 2010

Roller Skate (Patent #90,603), May 25, 1869. Inventor: George Stillman, Cincinnati, OH. 6½ x 10¼ x 5 in. Courtesy of the Rothschild Patent Model Collection.

America’s incredible success is primarily due to the dreams and inventions of its many citizens. Few people realize however, that from the time the U.S. Patent Office was formed by Thomas Jefferson in 1790 and throughout the industrial revolution, inventors were required to submit a working, scale model of their invention when applying for a patent. On view at LASM will be 50 original models selected from the holdings of The Rothschild Collection, the world’s largest gathering of viewable U.S. Patent Models.

These wonderful and fascinating original antiques are stunning, intricately crafted miniatures. Only one model exists for each invention, complete with its hand-written original tag. Dating from 1860 to 1902, the models represent many inventions common today.

The Curious World of Patent Models is sponsored by:

Selections from the LASM Collection: François Brochet
December 19, 2009 - March 14, 2010

François Brochet, Mother and Child, 1960, polychromed wood.

François Brochet (French, 1925-2001) is best known for his polychromed, carved wood figures. His father, Henri Brochet, was a well-known painter, writer, and dramatist. At an early age, François was apprenticed to sculptor Fernand Py, under whose tutelage in Auxerre, France, he learned woodcarving, drawing, and polychromy (the art of colorfully painted sculpture, found frequently in medieval European church interiors and religous sculptures).

This display of Brochet's sculptures and lithographs demonstrates the sensitivity and spiritual nature characteristic of his major undertakings. His most ambitious and well-known work is The Massacre of the Innocents, a collection of 20 carved figures, 10 of which are life sized. It garnered critical success when first shown in 1960. All of LASM's holdings by Brochet date from this period, including three polychromed wood sculptures titled Mother and Child.

Get Real: Still Life Paintings by Five Louisiana Artists
December 19, 2009 - February 21, 2010

Patricia Whitty, A Pair of Oranges, 2004, oil on linen, 20 x 22 inches. Courtesy of the artist's estate and LeMieux Galleries.

Perhaps by its very difference from the frantic pace of our hyper-connected lives, the venerable still life continues to resonate with us. Inviting us to rest our eyes upon it and enjoy a bit of contemplation, a still life painting features inanimate, usually ordinary, objects imbued with significance and beauty by the hand of the artist.

This exhibition presents recent work spotlighting four notable contemporary Louisiana painters who take a traditional view of this enduring art form: Albino Hinojosa, Ruston; Libby Johnson, Baton Rouge; and Auseklis Ozols, Amy Weiskopf and the late Patricia Whitty, of New Orleans.

Selections from the LASM Collection: Frank Hayden
December 12, 2009 - May 16, 2010

Frank Hayden, We (Maquette), circa 1978, bronze, Collection of LASM

Frank Hayden (1934-1988) is one of Louisiana's preeminent sculptors. Although his work has been exhibited extensively, he is best known for his public commissions, many of which may be found in churches, synagogues, and banks throughout Baton Rouge. Major works also may be viewed at Louisiana State University and Southern University and at the Galvez and Riverfront Plazas downtown.

Hayden's sculptures, made of wood, plaster, fiberglass, or stone, reflect deep spiritual and humanistic concerns including fellowship, family, Christian values, war, and civil rights. Although primarily figurative, his sculptural forms are stylized and often abstracted, and their surfaces are sometimes inscribed with words.