5 Acadiana Artists You Should Know
From Acadiana's eclectic creative scene arise a wealth of interesting, dynamic artists from a range of mediums. We recommend starting with these.
Bryant Benoit
From his gallery space in North Lafayette, Bryant Benoit continues his decades-long study of Creole life. His multi-media collages combine old photographs with his own fresh renderings in acrylic paint, conveying a continuity across generations—all experiencing the shared tensions and energy vibrating through Benoit’s rich compositions. A self-taught artist, Benoit started out working in construction, following in his father’s footsteps—before starting over and investing all into his creative practice. From 2013–2020 he operated downtown, before moving his gallery into his uncle’s old TV shop on the Northside, near where grew up. He opened up in 2021, and has been there ever since.
Capturing the depth and vibrancy of Louisiana’s Black Creole culture through scenes depicting traditional architecture, Zydeco dancehalls, and vignettes of domestic family life—Benoit has described his art as a form of visual storytelling using layers of love, pain, family, and spirituality. His work has been featured in galleries across the region and is included in collections across the globe; it has been featured in various juried art shows and festivals, including at the inaugural African American Heritage Foundation’s Celebration and the Zydeco Extravaganza. His work can also be seen around Acadiana at Youngsville’s City & Sports Complex, in local businesses as part of the Bare Walls Project, and at the Artbox on Pinhook and Surrey. One of his works is even featured on Zydeco performer Keith Frank’s 2021 album, The Resurrection of the Creole Connection.
See more of Benoit’s work at benoitgallery.com.
Dusty Reed
If you frequent Louisiana festivals, and spend any time around the art vendors, you’ll recognize Dusty Reed’s work in an instant. Called “The Cajun Picasso,” Reed is a born and bred South Louisianan who embarked on his journey as a professional artist in 2010, emerging with a distinct style that simultaneously captured the spirit of South Louisiana culture and introduced something altogether different to the local arts scene. Reed’s paintings, sculptures, and multi-media compositions are centered on iconography integral to life in this region—musical instruments, Catholic saints, “FouDoo” dolls, a cat named “Minou"—all depicted in a contemporary folk art style infused with Cubism. Reed describes the approach as “Colk Art”. This year, Reed was honored with the distinction of being the official artist for Festival International de Louisiane in April, his work adorning the collectible festival pin and poster.
From his studio and galleryspace in the Lafayette Art Association gallery, where he is the current Artist in Residence, Reed conducts art classes and workshops—ranging from byob arts experiences to multiple-session intensives.
See more of Reed’s work at cajunpicasso.com.
Roz LeCompte
Best known as one of the creators behind the jewelry brand Secondline Jewels and its line of adornments made from recycled drum cymbals (owned by the likes of Phil Collins and Nick Mason of Pink Floyd), the self-taught multi-disciplinary artist Roz LeCompte has re-emerged in full force on the Acadiana fine art scene in recent years. Her abstract works—delivered in mediums ranging form textiles to photography to painting—transmute an underlying tension between chaos and order, illustrated through contrasting shapes and colors.
Over the last two years, the Broussard-based artist has had her work featured in some of the region’s highest acclaimed juried art shows, including the Ogden Museum of Southern Art’s annual Louisiana Contemporary exhibition in 2022, the Masur Museum’s 60th annual national competition in 2023, and the Acadiana Center for the Arts Bicentennial exhibition in 2023. Last year, her paintings were also featured in the July, August, and September editions of British Vogue as part of the magazine’s “retail gallery” feature. Her most recent major project, though, was the immersive installation Femme Unmuted, created in collaboration with Andrea Villien through Basin Arts’ Projectspace Residency program. Featuring interactive sculpture-making, poetry, dance, and a gallery of visual artwork—the installation explored the act of empowering women to reclaim their voices, which have been silenced throughout history. The concept of Femme Unmuted will continue, LeCompte has teased, in the form of a future podcast and web forum.
See more of LeCompte’s work at rozlecompte.com.
Melissa Bonin
Carrying on in the tradition of Louisiana artists Alexander Drysdale and Elemore Morgan, Jr., while pushing forward into more contemporary realms, Melissa Bonin is today considered one of Louisiana’s preeminent landscape artists. After studying under Morgan at the University of Southwestern Louisiana (now ULL) through the late 1970s and early ‘80s, Bonin continued her studies in fine art in France, at Bennington College in Vermont, and at the Massachusetts School of Fine Art in Boston. She then returned to her hometown in New Iberia and opened a gallery with fellow local artists there. Since then, she has worked as a professional artist in the Acadiana community—now living and operating out of Lafayette.
Her impressionistic renderings of Louisiana’s natural environs are weighed against the traditions of the old masters and the techniques of modern art, and she’s described them more as a capturing of the “feeling” a place enacts within her than the exact image of the place itself. Delivered via abstraction in naturalistic color palettes, her paintings evoke a sense of memory, of spirituality. She’s exhibited around the world, and her paintings are included in the private collections of celebrities including Emeril Lagasse, Christian LeBlanc, and Blake Lively; as well as in public collections including the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, the Bayou Teche Museum, and the Louisiana Governor’s Mansion.
See more of Bonin’s work at melissabonin.com and at Magazine Street Gallery in New Orleans.
Russell Whiting
From his secluded home in rural Breaux Bridge, sculptor Russell Whiting operates in an open-air studio that he has described as a replica of the shipyard environments of his past. The self-taught artist has been carving wood since his childhood, but it was the welding classes in prison that taught him the basis of the skills that he’s now mastered. After serving a sentence of twelve years for manslaughter after killing a man he saw beating a woman, Whiting went to work in Louisiana shipyards and offshore drilling rigs. On those jobs, he learned how to manipulate steel with an oxy-acetylene torch—a skill he brought home to his art practice. By 1990, he joined the Louisiana art circuit, showcasing his steel sculptures—soon earning enough acclaim and gallery representation to practice his art full-time.
Since then, Whiting has become nationally-known for his signature, painterly torch technique. From raw ideas inspired by ancient mythology, seared into his mind, he transforms blocks of steel sourced from a New Iberia scrapyard into elegant effigies that now grace dozens of sculpture gardens, galleries, and private collections around the nation. Two of his most famous works include his depiction of Greek mythology’s Icarus, a stunning sculpture that overlooks the Tennessee River in Chattanooga; and his depiction of the famous Cajun/Zydeco icon Amédé Ardoin at the St. Landry Parish Visitor Center. In 2020, the ACA presented a thirty-year retrospective honoring the artist’s contribution to the world of contemporary sculpture.
See more of Whiting’s work at river-gallery.com/artist/russell-whiting.