LSU School of Art faculty are debuting new works in solo exhibitions this fall, including:

Jeremiah Ariaz, professor of photography, Kristine Thompson, associate professor of photography, and Lauren Cardenás, assistant professor of printmaking, all have works featured in theBaton Rouge Gallery's October exhibitionon view through October 31, 2024:

Jeremiah Ariaz, professor of photography:Talking Hard Traveling Battleground Blues Verse II

Ariaz's photographs examine the constructs of American identity within personal, community, and political contexts.

"Battleground Bluesfeatures dystopian scenes from the American landscape.The work was initiated in the lead-up to the 2020 presidential election and will continue through the 2024 election.Made across the nation, in public and private spaces, as well as at sites of protest and civic unrest, the images evoke the anxiety felt by many at this critical juncture in our nation's history.

"As the 2020 election approached, I was spurred on by my own anxiety and feelings of helplessness.I searched for a way to visualize our fractured democracy in a time of heightened division, making images to reveal tension and transition, mourning and protest.Seeking to visualize the democratic process, I visited election campaign and newspaper offices.I walked through cities whose architectural facades were transformed in response to protests in the streets.A steel wall was being erected at the southern border.The economic effects of the global pandemic have shuttered businesses on every Main Street.Landscapes were devasted by extreme weather events, intensified by climate change – a record fire season burned out west while an unprecedented number of hurricanes brought destruction to the Gulf Coast.In the years since, there has been a rise in political violence, from the January 6th attack on the nation's Capital to the recent attempt to assassinate the former President.

The resulting photographs are a visual testament to the intensity and uncertainty of this era.I hope for the images to reveal the interconnectedness of events and experiences, part of the visual record of this time.While making this work, I kept returning to Roland Barthes' statement that ‘photographs are prophecies in reverse.'"

Lauren Cardenás, assistant professor of printmaking:Borderland – No Home For You Here

Cardenás is interested in objects that often go unnoticed and yet are interacted with on a regular basis.Things like sheets, cheese slices, or a toner printer.She's interested in the relationships that people have with the mundane things that fill our lives, and how that context is altered when they're pulled from the expected habitats and contexts.Using a mix of traditional and experimental printmaking techniques she is able to add a layer of history and intrigue to the items.

"This work explores loss and conflict by examining one's hybrid identity – especially that of Latin Americans and how they have become defined by U.S.borders.In the politically divided, nationalist, and insular U.S., many blame the country's problems on minorities.The Border wall has become a tenuous space fraught with deprivation and demise.This work directly explores the current events presently taking place along the U.S./Mexico border!within the work, I focus on the Texas/Mexico border because of my home ties to the area.I once called Texas home, but now have reluctance because of its treatment of migrants crossing the border to seek asylum."

Kristine Thompson, associate professor of photography:Inflection Points

Thompson's work explores both emotional and social responses to loss and mourning, including how we grieve and the memorial properties we attach to significant objects and spaces.Her work has increasingly considered the materiality of photographs, how images circulate publicly, and what power such images have to elicit empathy on the part of the viewer.

"This exhibition includes photographs made in response to contemporary political and social events.I utilize elements from daily newspapers and treat the paper and its contents as objects to alter, collage, and re-contextualize.The resulting compositions are my attempts to linger with the selected images, texts, and events and handle them in a tactile way.Through gestures of removal and reconsideration, I reflect upon the supreme court decisions, wars, displacement, climate crisis, and protests that have occupied our collective consciousness in recent years.An inflection point marks a moment of possibility–one that holds the potential for significant change.I think about this in relation to the subjects addressed here, in this moment before an election."

LSU MFA painting alum Justin Bryant is also featured in theBaton Rouge Gallery's current exhibitionlineup.

Denyce Celentano, associate professor of painting & drawing:

Works by Celentano are on view atCole Pratt Galleryin New Orleans through October 26, 2024:

"These works are based on collages conceived from imagination that variously source images from art history, contemporary forms of painting, and current news magazines.They are assembled in unexpected, perhaps illogical combinations to circumvent the meaning of any individual image or form to potentially arrive at the possibility of multiple interpretations.Some paintings combine figurative elements alongside abstraction!some are more purely abstract.I am interested in how abstract shapes and their relationships to each other can convey the equivalent meaning of the recognizable.As with "things," abstract shapes even if we can't name them, occupy space, contain gravity, exist in a figure ground relationship and have a logical sense of construction!all open to interpretation and allusions to experience.The underlying premise is shared experiences, and on some level, the difficulty ofsharingexperiences."

Kelli Scott Kelley, professor of painting:Nature Morte

Professor Kelley has a solo show at theAndrew Durham Galleryin Houston, Texas on view October 12-November 30, 2024.

Kelley says of her work: "In my work subconscious worlds, populated by hybrid beings, are woven into dreamlike tales.Figures, animals, and objects appear in metaphorical narratives which explore humankind's connections, disconnections and impact upon the natural world.I am drawn to folklore and myth, and mine these sources for ideas.The pieces are inspired by the personal, psychological and sociopolitical.I am moved by the exquisite beauty in the world, as well as the absurdity and ugliness."

Ed Smith, professor of painting:Peaceable Kingdom

Ed Smith's exhibitionPeaceable Kingdomis on view October 5-November 30, 2024 atSpillman Blackwell Galleryin New Orleans.

"Anyone involved in any creative pursuit knows how difficult it is to say where exactly the work
comes from and what exactly its about.So many factors come into play during the making.
Overall, from a distance they are about the environment.How they/we struggle to hang on, but
they are also about the human condition.How we struggle to find our place either in a physical
or psychological sense.

The paintings start with an idea…That rattles around in my head until I have an impulse to do a
quick sketch, and this starts the process of turning this idea into a painting.My paintings go
through a lot of changes until I start to settle on something…and then it changes some more.I'm
searching for something that's just out of reach, but I can see it out there.Ideas come from lots
of different places…The news, politics, a walk in the woods and stumbling on an abandoned
Volkswagen, reading an article about orchids, a conversation with a stranger on the next barstool.
Something will just stick and if it stays up there long enough, I will start to see a painting.
I've been reading history books lately and that has me thinking about the ‘power dynamics' that
we must all navigate.White Trash and Aaron Burr by Nancy Isenberg are both terrific.Anything
by Nathaniel Philbrick and the Liz Chaney'sOath and Honor.I'm starting down the Lincoln rabbit
hole.I'm still inspired by those rare individuals who push against the prevailing winds, knowing full
well it might not turn out well, but they are principled in their convictions.I feel the same way
about those oddball painters….think of Sidney Nolan.And lastly painters look at painters.I have
a long list of painter crushes that change over time.Most are unfashionable.I am drawn to
painters who paint things in spaces.It's difficult to paint things and space but I find it interesting.
The title of the show obviously come from Edward Hick's sires of paintings calledThe Peaceable
Kingdom.It just seemed fitting in these disquieting times."

Learn more about LSU School of Art programs.