
NEW at NOMA: Recent Acquisitions in Contemporary Art spotlights contemporary art recently purchased or gifted to the museum, focusing on works by BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, and female-identifying artists. The second in a series of exhibitions that began in 2017, NEW at NOMA reflects the museum’s ongoing commitment to make the art on its walls more reflective of the community that it serves. The installation, which will rotate over time, features work by local, national, and international artists, and champions the work of emerging and underrepresented voices, including those within New Orleans.
In 2020, NOMA dedicated its available acquisition funds to purchasing works by BIPOC artists; more than half of the 20 works acquired are by artists from or working in New Orleans. As NOMA strives to become even more equitable and inclusive, the museum’s commitment to addressing exclusions in the past by collecting through new acquisitions will continue through 2021 and beyond.

Blue Pearls
2019
Alia Ali
Archival pigment print on cotton rag, mounted, UV laminated, frame upholstered by the artist in African Wax Print
48 x 36 x 2 3/5 inches
© Alia Ali, 2019

Ochre Waves
2019
Alia Ali
Archival pigment print on cotton rag, mounted, UV laminated, frame upholstered by the artist in African Wax Print
48 x 36 x 2 3/5 inches
Museum Purchase, Carmen Donaldson Fund © Alia Ali

the trace, whether we are attending to it or not (a space for each other’s breathing)
2019
Firelei Báez
Acrylic, oil, and transfer on archival printed canvas
90 x 114 3/8 in.
Museum purchase, Carmen Donaldson Fund, Courtesy of the artist and James Cohan, New York, Photo by Phoebe d’Heurle, © Firelei Báez

Covered
2008
Radcliffe Bailey
Found fabric
70 x 72 1/2 in.
Promised Gift of Arthur Roger, © Radcliffe Bailey, 2016.132.3

If you feed a river
2019
Diedrick Brackens
Museum purchase, Carmen Donaldson Fund, © Diedrick Brackens

They got a crush on him
2019
Jonathan Lyndon Chase
Spray paint, acrylic, marker, oil, and glitter on muslin
© Jonathan Lyndon Chase

Grambling State University Drum Major 2
2020
Keith Duncan
Acrylic on wallpaper mounted to canvas
Courtesy of the artist and Fort Gansevoort © Keith Duncan

Way Over There Inside Me (Ocean as a super throughway #4)
2020
Torkwase Dyson
Graphite, acrylic, charcoal and ink on canvas
© Torkwase Dyson

Burnout in Shredded Heaven
2018–2019
Heidi Hahn
Oil on canvas
80 x 74 in.
Museum purchase with funds provided by Kevie Yang, © Heidi Hahn

An Improbable Concoction
2020
Caroline Kent
Acrylic on unstretched canvas
Museum Purchase, Carmen Donaldson Fund, 2021.2, © Caroline Kent

A Sense of Memory
2015
Ana Hernandez
Cast metal, found glass, found wood, found metal, found nails, steel wire, steel wool, oil pastel, wood stain on found wood panel in artist’s frame
60 x 41 x 14 in.
Museum purchase, © Ana Hernandez

Reconnaissance: Battle of New Orleans (Wreck of Hermes; Inception: After Magafan; King of Barataria)
2015
Norah Lovell
Gouache on panels
Gift of Charles and Norah Lovell, 2020.21.1-3, © Norah Lovell

Red to Yellow Kill a Fellow
2019
Pat Phillips
Acrylic, airbrush, aerosol paint on canvas
Promised Gift of Beth Rudin DeWoody, © Pat Phillip

The Past is a Foreign Country
2020
Gabrielle Garcia Steib
Super 8 film and archival photographs, 5:26 (Ed. 1/3)
Proposed Museum Purchase, Image courtesy of the artist © Gabrielle Garcia Steib