Emily Alesandrini

Nov 18, 2024 | burnaway.org | Emily Alesandrini

Twenty years ago, Ruth Owens left her medical practice as a plastic surgeon to pursue visual art. Since this transition, she has developed a paint-by-numbers-esque aesthetic that resonates with a kind of quilting of the figure to explore themes of identity constructedness.

Sep 3, 2024 | burnaway.org | Emily Alesandrini

Photographer and painter Trenity Thomas grew up picking fruit with his cousins in neighborhoods around LaPlace, Louisiana. Now in his mid-twenties, the artist renders lemons, pecans, and misbeliefs (or loquats) throughout his paintings, homages to the women who raised him and visual prompts for his viewer: “Life gives you choices, gives you lemons — what will you do with them, what will you learn?”  For me, How was the Party? (2024) is Thomas’ most successful painting to date.

Jun 4, 2024 | artnews.com | Emily Alesandrini

Before he considered himself an artist, Demond Melancon boiled lobster at the Louisiana chain restaurant Drago’s Seafood, washed dishes at Emeril’s, and poured concrete for Hard Rock Construction. He laid and smoothed the cement walkway in front of Arthur Roger, a gallery on Julia Street in downtown New Orleans. Over 10 years later, that same gallery now represents his work. “I used to work all day and bead all night. Now, I get to bead full-time.

May 31, 2024 | burnaway.org | Emily Alesandrini

Landscape paintings, like maps, have historically been used to assert human dominance and ownership over a place. But something else is happening in Ron Bechet and Hannah Chalew’s “landscapes” in the exhibition, You Can’t Hide the Sun, on view now at Other Plans in New Orleans. Bechet depicts large and layered scenes of surrealist tree roots, trunks, and branches in charcoal on paper via rigorous mark making.

Mar 22, 2024 | burnaway.org | Emily Alesandrini

Following Survivor watch parties and late night conversations over drinks, fellow artists and friends Imogen Banks and Henry Fauna decided to experiment by combining their respective art practices in collaboration. Their exhibition, Fauna/Banks, at Staple Goods Galleryis the first public installation of the duo’s work. Fauna, a portrait photographer, employs digital collage, mixed media, and duplication as a means of conveying movement in his images.