Join us in NOMA’s Lapis Center for the Arts for an enlightening evening of cross-cultural dialogue with ARCAthens resident artists Angelo Plessas and Steffi Stouri and two of NOMA’s Creative Assembly Cohort members, Carl Harrison Jr. and LaVonna Varnado-Brown. These artists with diverse backgrounds will share their experiences, perspectives, and creative processes. 

Through an open exchange, attendees will gain insight into how art serves as a universal language, transcending geographical boundaries, and fostering connections among people from varied cultural backgrounds. In conversation with NOMA’s Creative Assembly Cohort members, the visiting artists will explore themes of identity, representation, and the power of artistic expression.

This program is included with with museum admission, which is free for Louisiana residents every Wednesday courtesy of The Helis Foundation. 

ABOUT ARCATHENS

Based in New York City, ARCAthens was created in 2017 to provide opportunities and support to visual artists, curators, and scholars through its artist residency programs. The inaugural NOLA/NYC Research Fellowship gives Greek artists and curators the opportunity to focus on cultural exchange and community engagement in two American cities: New Orleans and New York City. Visit ARCAthens to learn more about the organization and their programs.

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About the Speakers

Angelo Plessas lives and works between Athens and Kymi, Greece. He explores the intersection of spirituality and the networked world, investigating how ancient, folk, and cybernetic histories intertwine. By weaving together elements from the spiritual and the online realms, Plessas creates spaces that challenge the notion of binaries—material versus virtual, human versus machine, past versus future—proposing instead a fluid reality where all these dimensions converge. His work spans performances, artist residencies, artist’s books, interactive websites, quilted sculptures, neon installations, and educational projects. His work has been exhibited in Documenta 14, the 8th Thessaloniki Biennale, the Onassis Foundation, the 8th Biennale of Gherdëina, the Serralves Foundation, and the 13th Gwangju Biennale in S. Korea. Other projects have also been exhibited in The Museum of Contemporary, Chicago; the Jeu de Paume, Paris; the DESTE Foundation, and the National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens. He is the founder of the independent space P.E.T. Projects in Athens. He won the DESTE Foundation Prize in 2015.

Steffi Stouri is an independent curator and researcher based in Athens, specializing in feminist epistemologies, archival practices, and sonic art. With an academic background in Heritage and Museum Studies (MA, University of Amsterdam) and History and Philosophy of Science (BSc, National & Kapodistrian University of Athens), her work explores the intersections of gender, identity, and memory. Her curatorial projects often engage with embodied experiences and fragmented histories, aiming to challenge dominant narratives through collaborative practices and innovative exhibitions. Notable projects include Otherlands (2024) a site specific exhibition and sonic performance in the archaeological site of Heraion, Unboxing Callas (2023–2024), an archival and group exhibition exploring the legacy of Maria Callas in dialogue with the Greek National Opera’s archive, and From Cartography to Cookbooks (2021), a digital exhibition examining Dutch colonialism through cartography and culinary history. She has also curated sound-focused projects like Chase (2018), a sound installation exploring sonic performance and the body, and Symbiotic Degradation (2020), a hybrid exhibition addressing environmental degradation and its artistic representations. Her practice is deeply informed by a commitment to reparative curating, cultural exchange, and community engagement. Through the NOLA/NYC Research Fellowship, she seeks to expand her exploration of sonic art, while connecting the cultural histories and musical legacies of New York and New Orleans to her ongoing curatorial work.

Carl Harrison Jr. is a New Orleans–based filmmaker, artist, and urban farmer dedicated to preserving cultural heritage and promoting environmental sustainability. As the founder of the St. Roch Apiary and Food Forest, Harrison creates spaces for community engagement, combining urban farming with beekeeping to support local ecosystems and inspire others to reconnect with nature. His short film, The Buzz of St. Roch, won an Audience Award at the 2024 New Orleans Film Festival and highlights the beauty and resilience of his neighborhood. Currently, Harrison is touring The Buzz of St. Roch. His exhibition Echoes of the Hive was on view last year at the Tulane School of Public Health. Harrison also directed The Black Schoolhouse, a documentary exploring the intersection of art, activism, and education within New Orleans’ Black community.

LaVonna Varnado-Brown has worked as an installation artist, artist advocate, teaching artist, and tutor in and around New Orleans and with Beginning with Children, a Brooklyn–based college and career preparatory program). Varnado-Brown creates mixed-media visual art engaging with Afrofuturism, history, the divine feminine, and floral motifs. Varnado-Brown explores Afrofuturism as a cultural aesthetic to navigate the intersection of art and history and inspire action in the now by creating space for joy. Varnado-Brown finds inspiration in the community through facilitating workshops that create intentional space to engage in creative grounding practices that raise our spatial awareness and kinesthetic responses to one another and our environment.