By Jeannie Reiss | Gambit Weekly This review originally appeared here Mel Chin sat in the center of a room in the New Orleans Museum of Art pasted floor to ceiling with 542 surrealist scenes he’d arranged from Funk and Wagnall’s Encyclopedia. Finishing up an interview on the eve of the opening of his first-ever… Read More

By Doug MacCash, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune This review originally appeared here Conceptual master Mel Chin’s first major retrospective, titled “Mel Chin: Rematch,” opens Thursday (Feb. 20) evening at The New Orleans Museum of Art. You may remember Chin. He’s the Houston-born artist who installed an enormous, round, working bank vault door on a small… Read More

D. Eric Bookhardt on vintage photos now on view at the New Orleans Museum of Art By D. Eric Bookhardt | Gambit Weekly This review originally appeared here It was America’s bloodiest war — brother against brother fighting to the bitter end. We grew up hearing that, and if it sounds overhyped, consider that its… Read More

Traveling Exhibit of Civil War Photographs ChargesNOMA By Cheryl Castjohn | NOLA Defender This article originally appeared here In an instant, The New York Times’ vast search capabilities produce an excerpt from a March 1, 1861, item explicating the wartime Americanism. The piece describes a mid-19th century farmer who has become preoccupied with seeing an… Read More

NOMA exhibit examines photography on the battlefields of the Civil War By John D’Addario | The New Orleans Advocate 2014 will mark the 150th anniversary of several key events of the Civil War, including the devastating battles at Spotsylvania and the Wilderness and Gen. William T. Sherman’s capture of Atlanta and “March to the Sea.”… Read More

By Doug MacCash, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune This article originally appeared here “Photography and the American Civil War,” an exhibit of 200 photographs taken during the Civil War (1861 to 1865) opens at the New Orleans Museum of Art Friday. It’s a stunning collection that captures the magnetic horror of the war that defines America… Read More

By D. Eric Bookhardt | Gambit Weekly This review originally appeared on bestofneworleans.com Everybody knows about this city’s pioneering role in the history of American music and food, but what about photography? Blank looks are a common response to that question, yet not only was the South’s first photo studio located here, it belonged to… Read More

D. Eric Bookhardt on Will Ryman’s sculpture installation at the New Orleans Museum of Art by D. Eric Bookhardt | Gambit Weekly Read the article here During President Abraham Lincoln’s inaugural address, he emphatically stated he had “no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the states where it exists…. Read More

By Eileen Fleming | WWNO Listen to the story here The New Orleans Museum of Art is offering a glimpse at a fraction of its collection of photographs. Of the 10,000 pictures, 132 are on display. We spoke with curator Russell Lord about the exhibition — how NOMA built such an extensive collection, starting in… Read More

By Jill Ensley | Southern Glossary Read this article at Southern Glossary As a Gulf Coast resident, it’s not easy to look at “Oil Spill #10,” (above). The photograph’s deceptive beauty comes from its vibrant, emerald water streaked with jagged rivulets of black oil. Taken out of context, it could be a close up of… Read More

By D. Eric Bookhardt | Gambit Weekly This review originally posted at bestofneworleans.com Though visually spare, this New Orleans Museum of Art exposition goes straight to the heart of the paradoxes that define coastal Louisiana. French artist and Venice Biennale award-winner Camille Henrot uses videos and symbolic objects to portray Louisiana’s receding coast and the… Read More

By John d’Addario | The Advocate In the ancient French Breton legend of the city of Ys, a coastal city full of splendor and vice is submerged by a great wave and disappears beneath the ocean, never to be seen again. Southern Louisiana might have been spared that unhappy ending for the time being, but… Read More

By Doug MacCash, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune You can click here to read the full article Water Two floors of the Contemporary Arts Center, 900 Camp St., will be dedicated to lush, large-scale photographs by Canadian documentary photographer Edward Burtynsky. The exhibit is presented by the CAC and the New Orleans Museum of Art. Collections… Read More

Posted By D. Eric Bookhardt “I still don’t know exactly who I am,” Gordon Parks wrote in a 1979 memoir. Despite being one of the biggest names in 20th century photography, he remains a paradoxical figure because he was so accomplished in many different fields. He was a noted writer and composer, and he also… Read More

By D. Eric Bookhardt You can read the full article online here Is rap the new performance art? Mega-rapper Jay-Z recently punctuated New York’s summer doldrums with his six-hour Pace Gallery Picasso Baby performance featuring art-world notables in conjunction with his new single and accompanying video of the same name. In a related vein, New… Read More