Woven Histories: Houma Basketry
ended on March 2nd, 2014
Celebrating the history and current practice of basket making and palmetto weaving amongst the tribal members of the United Houma Nation of Louisiana Read More
Past Exhibitions
Chinese Jades from the Collection of Marianne and Isidore Cohn Jr.
ended on February 23rd, 2014
A remarkable selection of jades from the collection of Marianne and Isidore Cohn Jr. illustrate this practice. Fashioned into various forms – real and imagined animals, plants, human figures, utilitarian objects, and variations on ancient bronzes – these jades created during the Qing dynasty feature auspicious decoration. Read More
NOMA -> CAC presents Edward Burtynsky: Water
ended on January 19th, 2014
This exhibition, comprised of sixty large format color photographs by world-renowned Canadian artist, Edward Burtynsky, explores humanity’s increasingly stressed relationship with the world’s most vital natural resource. Read More
Photography at NOMA
ended on January 19th, 2014
Featuring masterpieces by photographers such as William Fox Talbot, André Kertész, and Edward Weston,Photography at NOMA: Selections from the Permanent Collection explores the museum’s extensive 10,000 – work photography collection and demonstrates the city of New Orleans’ role in the history of photography. Read More
Gordon Parks: The Making of an Argument
ended on January 12th, 2014
This exhibition explores the making of Gordon Parks’ first photographic essay for Life magazine in 1948, “Harlem Gang Leader.” After gaining the trust of one particular group of gang members and their leader, Leonard “Red” Jackson, Parks produced a series of photographs that are artful, poignant, and, at times, shocking. Read More
Lin Emery: in Motion
ended on January 12th, 2014
This selection of Lin Emery’s new kinetic sculptures continue to be inspired by natural forms and activated by natural forces. Read More
Rashaad Newsome: King of Arms
ended on September 15th, 2013
The first solo exhibition in Louisiana by renowned video, performance, and collage artist Rashaad Newsome (born 1979), Rashaad Newsome: King of Arms explores the artist’s interest in ornament, systems of heraldry, and Baroque grandeur. Read More
Shadow and Light
ended on September 8th, 2013
From the very origins of photography, the absence or presence of light has always dictated the form of a photograph, but in the twentieth century, photographers became discontent to let light fall where it may. Instead they sought out peculiar interactions of light and shadow, or manipulated light in front of the camera to create images that range from the abstract to the ominous. Read More
The Story in Pictures: Social Documents from the Permanent Collection
ended on August 25th, 2013
“If I could tell the story in words, I wouldn’t need to lug around a camera.”
–Lewis Hine Read More
Inventing the Modern World: Decorative Arts at the World’s Fairs
ended on August 3rd, 2013
From nearly a century following their inception in 1851, world’s fairs were the most important vehicles for debuting advancements in modern living and democratizing design. The decorative arts they showcased were the physical manifestation of the progressive, economic, and technological ideals embodied in the fairs. Read More
Portrait of Faith: John Paul II in Life and Art
ended on July 7th, 2013
Marking twenty-five years since Pope John Paul II’s historic visit to New Orleans in 1987, this exhibition celebrates his life through sculpture, photography, and video. Read More
NOMA—>CAC presents Brilliant Disguise: Masks and Other Transformations
ended on June 16th, 2013
This exhibition explores the motivations and meanings behind masking and disguise as it is manifested in contemporary art and in masks of different cultures. Read More
Reinventing Nature: Art from the School of Fontainebleau
ended on May 19th, 2013
In the nineteenth century, French artists created prints, drawings, oil sketches, photographs, and paintings of the forest that challenged traditional conceptions of landscape depiction. This exhibition reconsiders the role of those works of art in the reinvention of nature in the Forest of Fontainebleau. Read More
The Bayou School
ended on May 12th, 2013
In the wake of the Civil War, the New Orleans-based artists Richard Clague, Marshall Smith Jr., and William Buck emerged to form a cohesive landscape tradition, the first of its kind in the region. These landscapes are fascinating not only for what they picture, but also for what they ignore. Clague, Smith, and Buck collectively turned away from the bustling and at-times contentious city they inhabited and focused on the seemingly un-complicated rural life of the post-Civil War Gulf South. Today, the paintings of Clague, Smith, Buck, and the followers of their style are collectively known as the “Bayou School.” Read More
Ida Kohlmeyer: 100th Anniversary Highlights
ended on April 14th, 2013
In honor of Ida Kohlmeyer’s 100th anniversary, NOMA will present a selection of key works based in the permanent collection called “Ida Kohlmeyer: 100th Anniversary Highlights” on view on in the museum’s second floor Fredrick R. Weisman Galleries. Kohlmeyer’s versatile style will be illustrated through examples of rich abstract expressionist paintings, vibrant prints, and powerful sculpture. Read More
Jim Richard: Make Yourself At Home
ended on February 24th, 2013
This fall the New Orleans Museum of Art is pleased to present a solo exhibition of the paintings by renowned New Orleans artist Jim Richard. Read More
Photography, Sequence, & Time
ended on December 2nd, 2012
‘Photography, Sequence, & Time’ will examine the ways in which meaning, narrative, and time intersect in photographic sequences from the 19th century to the present. Read More
Upcoming Exhibitions
Sand, Ash, Heat: Glass at the New Orleans Museum of Art
on view starting August 30th, 2024
Sand, Ash, Heat: Glass at the New Orleans Museum of Art looks at the more than 4,000-year history of glass around the world and how it intersects with scientific discoveries, foodways, and artistic innovations. Read More
Current Exhibitions
Show & Tell: A Brief History of Photography and Text
on view through February 16th, 2025
Drawn from NOMA’s permanent collection, Show & Tell: A Brief History of Photography and Text explores the intersection between photography and written language, from photography’s invention to the present day. Read More
Exhibition Videos
Video: Twins Seven-Seven and Yoruba Folklore
Public Programs Coordinator Connor Kilian discusses artworks by Twins Seven-Seven on view in Black Orpheus: Jacob Lawrence and the Mbari Club. Read More