“Common Ground,” a group exhibition curated by Jim Richard, a professor in the fine arts department at the University of New Orleans, will be presented at The Arthur Roger Gallery, 432 Julia Street. The exhibit will be on view from Saturday, August 6th through Saturday, September 12th. The gallery will host an opening reception on Saturday August 6 from 6 – 9 pm in conjunction with White Linen Night.
When asked by Arthur Roger to curate a group exhibition of his own choice Jim Richard’s first response was that in a search for exceptional talent he would have to look no further than the abundance of outstanding artists who have been associated with the graduate and undergraduate programs in the Fine Arts Department of the University of New Orleans. For the show, Richard has chosen four young emerging artists who are ready for center stage to be shown with four accomplished ones whose careers are thriving in major art centers. All have a connection with the UNO fine arts department.
Joseph Ayers, a UNO alumnus, exhibits with Franklin Parrasch Gallery in mid-town Manhattan, where he has had three well-received solo exhibitions. He has been in group shows in New York at Robert Miller Gallery, Morgan Lehman Gallery and Sikkema Jenkins & Co. He lived and worked in New York City until his recent move to Beacon, NY.
Wayne Gonzales is represented by Paula Cooper Gallery in New York and Stephen Friedman Gallery in London. He has exhibited extensively worldwide and will have a solo show in October at the New Orleans Museum, followed by another at the Centro de Arte Contemporaneo de Malaga, Spain in November. He was interviewed by Steel Stillman for Art in America in December 2009.
Marlo Pascual is represented by Casey Kaplan Gallery in New York and has recently been added to the collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art. Her work is also in the collections of the Dallas Museum of Art, The Seattle Art Museum, and Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, MN. She is preparing for a group show in Paris in the fall. She lives and works in Brooklyn.
Megan Whitmarsh, who earned an MFA from UNO, lives and works in Los Angeles and is represented by Elaine Levy Project in Brussels and Anonymous Galllery in New York. She has shown extensively in venues abroad, including Spain, Italy, Tokyo and Hong Kong. She was recently invited to do a residency and performance at the prestigious Watermill Center on Long Island.
Jason Derouin, who earned an MFA from UNO, came to New Orleans from Canada. His work is in the tradition of photographers like Thomas Demand and James Cassebere who do painstaking mock-ups to be photographed. His contribution to this tradition is distinguished by his love of Modernist design of the 50s and 60s. He has exhibited in several venues in the St. Claude Arts District.
Sophie Lvoff is from New York. After philosophy and traditional photography training at NYU, she has begun to work with digital imaging and has ventured into sculpture/installation. She is a recent addition to Good Children Gallery in the Bywater and has shown her work in New York, Switzerland, Paris, Mexico City, Miami Beach and is scheduled to show at the Institut D’Art Contemporain in Villeubrbanne, France this fall.
Aaron McNamee, a UNO MFA graduate, came from Oregon to New Orleans as a sculptor. In New Orleans his work has become markedly conceptual and he has added video to his repertoire. He has shown extensively in New Orleans’ St. Claude Arts District and in galleries in Oregon. He is a member of Good Children Gallery in the Bywater.
Nina Schwanse, an MFA student at UNO, is from Los Angeles and came to New Orleans after a number of years in the New York art world. She works primarily in video, but the videos serve as a catalyst for paintings, which are equally successful. She has shown in venues around New York City and Brooklyn and her video “k-a-t-e-s” was shown in Montreal this year.