Nation's Largest Contemporary Art Show
Coming to New Orleans
Eighty-one globally renowned artists representing five continents and thirty-six nations will be putting New Orleans on the art world map this fall when the largest international exhibition of contemporary art ever presented in the United States comes to the city. The Prospect.1 New Orleans Biennial opens at selected locations throughout the city on November 1 and runs for eleven weeks through January 18, 2009.
Many of these artists are creating new and original works that respond both to the locations in which they will be installed and are symbolic to the city of New Orleans as a whole. The Biennial will include the works of ten New Orleans area artists.
A number of the artworks that will be on display during the Biennial respond to the destruction wrought on the city of New Orleans and the Gulf Region in 2005 by Hurricane Katrina. Here are a few of them:
- Mark Bradford will create a wooden Ark utilizing the shell of a destroyed house and other discarded scraps of wood in the Lower Ninth Ward.
- Paul Villinski, a New York-based artist known for creating work from debris will create his Emergency Response Studio, a “green”-powered mobile artist’s studio, out of a discarded, now-iconic FEMA trailer.
- Zwelethu Mthethwa, a South African photographer who first visited New Orleans shortly after the hurricane, returned to the Lower Ninth Ward in late 2007 to create his first photographs outside of Africa, which will debut at Prospect.1.
- Adam Cuijanovic will paint one of his murals inside an abandoned house in the Lower Ninth Ward.
- Nari Ward will convert an abandoned church in the Lower Ninth Ward into an installation.
- Navin Rawanchaikul will present his New Orleans I Love Taxi Project, in which he will interview taxi drivers and weave their tales into a comic book story that he will produce and print, then distribute in city taxis during the biennial.
Other artists creating new works specifically for Prospect.1 New Orleans are
- Jacqueline Humphries, who will create a new work using metallic autopaint
- Julie Mehretu, who is creating a suite of large-scale paintings
- Pierre & Gilles, who are creating a new series of enhanced photographic images
- Kay Rosen, who will transform city billboards and benches into enigmatic word-puzzles
- Kaz Oshiro, who is working on a new series of his characteristic sculptural trompe l'oeil pieces
New Orleans-born and based artists are
- Shawne Major, who is creating three large-scale wall hangings
- Willie Birch, who will present a new series of drawings
- Srdjan Loncar, Croatian-born, New Orleans-based sculptor, will erect a sculptural pile of money in front of the Old U.S. Mint and encourage the public to carry some of it away in briefcases provided at the site
Recent and iconic works by other major artists will also be on view.
- Lee Bul will present delicate glass and aluminum works that were shown at Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain in 2007-08
- Fred Tomaselli will present two works that were painted in response to Hurricane Katrina along with a third, new piece
- Trenton Doyle Hancock will present elements including costumes, backdrops, and sculptures that he has created for Ballet Austin's new production Cult of Color
Participating Venues
Artists’ works will be installed in some 100,000 square feet of exhibition space throughout the City of New Orleans. The following institutions are partnering with the Biennial by providing space for artist projects and installations:
- Contemporary Arts Center New Orleans
- The Historic New Orleans Collection
- L9 Center for the Arts
- Louisiana Artworks
- The Old U.S. Mint - Louisiana State Museum
- National World War II Museum
- New Orleans African American Museum
- New Orleans Center for Creative Arts/Riverfront
- New Orleans Museum of Art
- Newcomb Art Gallery at Tulane University
- Ogden Museum of Southern Art
- Ashé Cultural Arts Center
- George & Leah McKenna Museum of African American Art
- Longue Vue House & Gardens
Maps of the art sites will be available as the event draws closer. The biennial will be open every day except Monday, from 10 a.m. - 8 p.m. Visitors can see the exhibition in any order they choose and as many times as they like.
For more information on Prospect.1 New Orleans, please visit www.prospectneworleans.org or contact U.S. Biennial, Inc. at (212) 686-5305 or info@prospectneworleans.org.
By Dean Shapiro |
