Arthur Roger Gallery — Attraction in New Orleans

February 15, 2020 @ 7:52 AM Starbucks, Standard NOLA, Corner of Girod and O’Keefe New Orleans, Louisiana

Friday made for a good day. I went for a walk along the galleries on Julia Street, one of my favorite walks in New Orleans. A good street that has a landing where cruise ships make port on the Mississippi River and also has two stadiums on the north end, the Superdome and the Smoothie King Center. I popped into the Jonathan Ferrara Gallery and wandered about, which is what one does in art galleries. My hearing must be good lately because I heard two men talking to the gallerist, “We’re exhibiting over at Arthur Roger Gallery”.

Dale Chihuly himself exhibits at Arthur Roger. Arthur Roger exhibits a few Chihuly chandeliers, which you might remember seeing in our visits to Habitat Gallery in Pontiac, Michigan. You even saw one assembled one visit and then disassembled into its glass blown shapes, scattered on the floor, awaiting packing.

Chihuly doesn’t actually blow his shapes anymore; he gives the designs to gaffers to execute. Yet, Roger Gallery was exhibiting the paintings on glass that Chihuly does execute himself. I loved the big blotches of blue on clearer glass and wondered how well those panels would catch the light in a lake house? But neither of these men were Chihuly, who would be very conspicuous, wearing an eye patch.

I wouldn’t have approached Dave Chihuly, such a superstar. I wandered up casually and said, “I love Arthur Roger Gallery. I’ve admired all the artists exhibited at Roger”. Without asking, “Who are you”, the men introduced themselves, two men about the same age. “I’m Jim Richard. And this is John Ahern”. Richard had just picked up Ahern at the airport, probably hosting the Bronx artist for the duration of Mardi Gras.

In fact, a parade from one side of the city to the other was about to take over St Charles Street for the evening. Businesses had gone to the extent of boarding up windows with plywood, wrapping plants with protective enclosures and setting barriers of woven, steel fence around their buildings. What was this monster coming, not a hurricane but a drove of people drinking hurricanes?

I loved Richard’s paintings, and I told him so in a few words. “Jim, every time I look at your gallery of work, I think it is an entirely new exhibition. And I’ve made a visit almost every day for the last few weeks”. Ahern makes sculptures of people he meets on the sidewalk in the Bronx. Richard curated a show for Ahern, but it hardly was necessary to raise Ahern to a new level. I took individual shots of Ahern’s casts of people and two of my followers strongly responded.

Katherine Tholl of Troy New York exhibited sculptures, not drawn from life but drawn from her imaginations. Her collection looked like Ahern’s work, although more cartoonish. She spotted my TikTok of Ahern right away and she described how his work inspired hers. A woman who surreptitiously posts pastes of African American women in Washington DC loved Ahern’s work because he represented African faces so lovingly. “He exalts the African face”, she wrote. I do not know who she is other than the person who posts as Absurdly Well. In fact, I have inferred that she identifies as a female. I really have no idea. I filled Ahern in on the fan club I had discovered for his work.

Ahern said, “Well, sir, you cross the line. Please reach out to me at the earliest opportunity”. He gave me a business card, hand lettered, with his contact information. I asked if I could share the information with his fan club. “That’s all right. I’ll take their likeness on the sidewalk if that’s okay”. I promised to share his contact information so the two could make an appointment. Ahern makes two copies of his castings, one for himself and one for the subject to keep. No wonder people “cross the line” and hit him up outside Fashion Moda in the...

Amazing exhibit for several incredibly talented artists! Mario Moore... his images brought tears to my eyes. I'm in awe of such talent! Demond Melancon was also showing there and present though I didn't get to meet him, his work was breathtakingly beautiful and painstaking in detail. Joyful to see. Wayne Gonzales seems to capture some type of visceral memory with his work. Plan to spend some time digesting all the pieces you'll see. Also had a personal showing of pieces by the phenomenal Jackie Bishop and Douglas Bourgeois! Some day I might even own a few of...

A very nice high end gallery like the ones you'll find in Chelsea (NYC) that exhibits a lot of top notch artists. As in any high end gallery you will find a few artists that only make corporate decor, but several here are not afraid to make work that inspires, challenges and makes you think. What's best is that there's several spaces with up to 3 or 4 artists exhibiting at a time. Arthur Rodger is a cornerstone of the warehouse arts...