Southern Artists Offered Exposure

"Bread and Butter" by me, Monica Crowe

Listen up, artists. The second annual Gulf South Regional Contemporary Art Exhibition has sounded the call for two- and three-dimensional submissions. Those who live in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida are encouraged to enter. BECA gallery, a contemporary space in the Warehouse District of New Orleans, will display the juried works from Jan. 3 – Feb. 28, 2009.

This means the display will be on exhibit during Prospect 1, New Orleans tourist-attraction effort at revitalizing its arts and culture identity. To learn more about my perspective of Prospect 1, see the article I wrote for my regular column in the Ruston Daily Leader.

Entry deadline is Nov. 10. Complete information and submission guidelines may be downloaded from http://becagallery.typepad.com/my_weblog/call-to-artists.html.

Ruston Artists Exhibit at New Orleans Musuem of Art

"Scribes N0. 451 and 452" by Robert Berguson, Louisiana Tech University School of Art professor emeritus, is now on display at New Orleans Museum of Art.

Louisiana Tech University School of Art professor Marie Bukowski and professor emeritus Robert Berguson are part of a memorial exhibition at the New Orleans Museum of Art that honors the late Cole Pratt, a Crescent City gallery owner.

"A Tribute to Cole Pratt: His Gallery's First Fifteen Years, 1993-2008" features 29 artists that Pratt fostered.
Bukowski's "Capsule No. 20" and Berguson's "Scribes No. 451 and 452" are included. The exhibition runs through Sept. 21.

Robert Coleman "Cole" Pratt Jr., a loyal friend and longtime supporter of the New Orleans Museum of Art, died unexpectedly April 19. A native of Mississippi, Cole was well known for the Magazine Street gallery he opened in uptown New Orleans.

More information about the exhibit and about the NOMA can be found at www.noma.org/comingsoon.html.

The Circus Sideshow Comes to Life

Large circus sideshow banners were unveiled at Artspace in Shreveport Friday night.

A colorful crowd gathered at Artspace in Shreveport Friday night to view the opening of "Curious, Mysterious and Strange: Secrets of the Sideshow" exhibition, which will be on display until Aug. 30.

The opening night spectacle included entertainment by a fire-eating, mind-reading man and a sword-swallowing woman. "Secrets of the Sideshow" features large-scale mechanical installation art created by internationally exhibiting artist Pamela Joseph, as well as the grandiose canvas sideshow banners created by Glen Davies, who is known as one of the last artists of his kind.

A crowd gathered at Artspace to view prized and collectible circus side show banners.

The exhibition also includes a collection of expansive vintage banners created by Fred G. Johnson, who is considered to be one of the finest sideshow banner painters. The works on display feature a collection that spans his 65-year career as an artist. Johnson's banners are highly collectible and are prized around the world.

(Left) "The Baby Wheel of Fortune is an instillation art piece by Pamela Joseph. (Right) International exhibiting artist Pamela Joseph stands by her large scrim painting displayed at Artspace.

Joseph's collection of installation art pieces, dubbed "The Sideshow of the Absurd," are made with mannequins and objects intermingled to create art that some might call shocking, dark or intriguing. In any case, her work commands a second look and evokes a mysterious, haunting quality. Johnson said she first attended a freak show at the age of 7. She said she was impressed by the dignity of the so called "freaks" who appeared on stage.

A collection of prized sideshow banners are for sale now at Artspace.

Joseph has released a publication featuring her artworks, "The Hundred Headless Women," which features a wall installation of wooden cutting boards, depicting burned-in images of women in perilous situations. This, she said, symbolizes the role of women in sideshows who often have knives thrown at their heads or are "sawed in half" during magic tricks. Joseph said the name of the collection is a nod at Max Ernst’s novel of collages and engravings, "The Hundred Headless Woman."

"Curious, Mysterious and Strange" will be on display from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday- Saturday until Aug. 3o at Artspace. The gallery will be closed July 3-4 in observance of Fourth of July, but will reopen on July 5.