Courtesy of Jeremiah Ariaz.
Window View, (Iberia Parish) 2015
A shot from Jeremiah Ariaz's series "Louisiana Trail Riders".
Randell Henry
One of Baton Rouge’s most established and respected artists, Randell Henry has been working and teaching in the region for over forty years now. His abstract mixed media works lend themselves to viewer interpretation—brilliant expressions of color, shape, and pattern that vibrate with energy and movement. For Henry himself, though, the works, in a language of their own, often convey private expressions and ideas on family, culture, mythology, and music. The resonance of such improvisational artistry has brought Henry’s work to esteemed exhibitions and institutions across the globe. But here in Baton Rouge, aspiring artists get the benefit of his hands-on mentorship.
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Courtesy of Randell Henry.
"Mardi Gras Again," by Randell Henry.
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Courtesy of Randell Henry.
"City Slickers," by Randell Henry.
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Courtesy of Randell Henry.
"Conductor," by Randell Henry.
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Courtesy of Randell Henry.
"Black Stallion," by Randell Henry.
Henry has said that he knew he wanted to be an artist from a very young age, and spent his elementary years reading about artists and art movements. Today, he encourages such curiosity in students across the region in his roles as a Professor at Southern University and his involvement in various community outreach programs—through which he works with aspiring artists in kindergarten, in nursing homes, and within the prison system. He is also on the board at the Baton Rouge Gallery.
See more of Henry’s work at batonrougegallery.org/randell-henry.
Liz Lessner
As the co-founder of the experimental cultural space Yes We Cannibal in Mid City, Liz Lessner has introduced a new home for counter-cultural, ultramodern expressions of the arts in Baton Rouge. Her own artistic practice is similarly innovative—creating kinetic sculptures and installations designed around distinct sensory experiences and interaction opportunities. From a starting point of reconceiving human “gesture,” Lessner explores the human experience from new vantage points. She makes use of traditional materials infused with modern technology to play with themes such as entrapment versus privacy versus embrace, transform the act of breathing into something tactile, and electronically recreate the sensation of being in a rainstorm.
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Courtesy of the artist.
Artist Liz Lessner
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Courtesy of Liz Lessner.
"Skins," by Liz Lessner.
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Courtesy of Liz Lessner
"Semiotic Salvage 13," by Liz Lessner.
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Courtesy of Liz Lessner.
"Semiotic Salvage 1" by Liz Lessner.
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Courtesy of Liz Lessner.
"Speak Make Floating Signifier" (Installation); 120 x 94 x 60 inches; Captured Interstitial Space of 5 Iconic Gestures (raging from airkisses to pushes), Audio, Grasshopper Algorithm, Steel, Enamel
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Courtesy of Liz Lessner.
"Caesar Shift V," by Liz Lessner.
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Courtesy of Liz Lessner.
"Caesar Shift IV" by Liz Lessner.
An instructor at the LSU College of Art & Design, Lessner encourages students and community members to engage in new, critical approaches to design.
See more of her work at batonrougegallery.org/liz-lessner and lizlessner.com.
Carol Hallock
One of Baton Rouge’s bestselling artists, according to gallery owner Liz Walker, Carol Hallock’s meditative oil paintings seem to stir something in the collective soul. A Baton Rouge native who now splits her time between her homes in Lacombe, Louisiana and in Mississippi, Hallock’s works are instinctive—beauty observed from the seat of a kayak and translated, in signature loose, expressive brushstrokes, onto canvas. A master of perspective and restraint, her impressionist style and soothing color palette produce a dreamlike effect that has drawn the attention of collectors across Louisiana and beyond. You can even find Hallock’s work in the Louisiana Governor’s mansion.
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![BRCarol-Hallock-portrait-8T2A7225[1]by-Candra-George-(1).png](https://countryroadsmagazine.com/downloads/18425/download/BRCarol-Hallock-portrait-8T2A7225%5B1%5Dby-Candra-George-%281%29.png?cb=d0f4863a78f8d3e3cf581034020317ac&w={width}&h={height} "BRCarol-Hallock-portrait-8T2A7225[1]by-Candra-George-(1).png")
Photo by Candra George, courtesy of Carol Hallock.
Louisiana watercolorist Carol Hallock.
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Courtesy of Carol Hallock.
"Lily Pads," by Carol Hallock.
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Courtesy of Carol Hallock.
"Geraldine, Sunbathing," Carol Hallock.
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Courtesy of Carol Hallock.
"Lovely Day," by Carol Hallock.
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Courtesy of Carol Hallock.
"Day's End," by Carol Hallock.
Hallock is represented by Elizabethan Gallery, Gallery 600 Julia in New Orleans, Rita Durio and Associates in Lafayette, and Pineapple Gallery in Mandeville.
See more of her work at carolhallock.com.
Malaika Favorite
Since she was a child growing up in Geismar just outside of Baton Rouge, Malaika Favorite has expressed herself through the arts. With a BA and MFA from LSU, she has returned again and again to the Greater Baton Rouge area—making a name for herself in the Atlanta and Augusta art and literary scenes in between—before setting down roots in the place she grew up, in 2016. Working from a metal studio on her family’s property, Favorite investigates subjects of family, faith, legacy, and Black identity through abstract mixed-media works—including her iconic washboard art, an homage to women’s labor within the home. Her art takes many forms, whether that be oil and acrylic painting, lithographs, or found object collages and sculpture. Favorite has been exhibited in museums around the country, and is included in major collections around the region, including at LSU, the Alexandria Museum of Art, and the River Road African American Museum.
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Photo by Lucie Monk Carter
Artist Malaika Favorite
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Artwork by Malaika Favorite. Photo by Lucie Monk Carter.
Malaika Favorite has done several series of works on washboards, including "Washing" (right), onto which she has collaged her original poetry.
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Photo by Lucie Monk Carter.
Artwork by Malaika Favorite.
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Photo by Lucie Monk Carter.
"Consider the Children"; Favorite uses her woodblocks for prints; once she's finished with a block, she sands it down and frames it.
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Courtesy of Malaika Favorite
"Marian Anderson singing Ave Maria" by Malaika Favorite
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Courtesy of Malaika Favorite.
Malaika Favorite's mural on the wall of the West Baton Rouge Museum's Juke Joint.
Soon, Favorite’s work will represent Black Louisiana storytelling on a grand scale—as part of the Louisiana-themed murals adorning Disney World’s new ride “Tiana’s Bayou Adventure,” inspired by the animated film The Princess and the Frog, which was set in New Orleans. The ride, which will replace the iconic “Splash Mountain” in the Magic Kingdom, will officially open later this summer.
See more of Favorite’s work at batonrougegallery.org/malaika-favorite and malaikafavorite.artspan.com.
Jeremiah Ariaz
When documentary photographer Jeremiah Ariaz arrived in the South to teach the art of photography to LSU students, his artistic preoccupation was with the American West. Interested in the mythology of the frontier, he set out to explore the relationships between the land and the people who have occupied it, and the stories that emerge from those interactions. It was here in Louisiana, though, that he discovered a subculture parallel to that Western imagination, in a place popular perceptions of the “cowboy” wouldn’t imagine: Black Creole communities. Started in 2014, his documentary project Louisiana Trail Riders—documenting the world of Black equestrian clubs in Louisiana—propelled him to national acclaim, initiating a conversation about under-recognized Black history that has recently taken over popular discourse in the wake of Beyonce’s album Cowboy Carter.
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Photo by Chelsea Mitchell
Photographer Jeremiah Ariaz
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Courtesy of Jeremiah Ariaz.
Monograph cover: "Louisiana Trail Riders (2018)". Available for purchase at jeremiahariaz.com.
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Courtesy of Jeremiah Ariaz.
Monograph cover: "The Kansas Mirror: The Fourth Estate in the Heart of America (2023)". Available for purchase at jeremiahariaz.com.
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Courtesy of Jeremiah Ariaz.
Enlarger, The Western Star Newspaper, Coldwater, KS, 2020
A shot from Jeremiah Ariaz's ongoing series "The Fourth Estate".
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Courtesy of Jeremiah Ariaz.
Republican Campaign Office, McAllen, TX, 2020
A shot from Jeremiah Ariaz's ongoing series "Talking Hard Traveling Battleground Blues".
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Courtesy of Jeremiah Ariaz.
A shot from Jeremiah Ariaz's ongoing series "Talking Hard Traveling Battleground Blues".
Still teaching at LSU, Ariaz’s more recent ongoing projects include a photographic series of small town newspaper offices in Kansas surviving in our transformed media landscape; and a collection of dystopian scenes from swing states across America, capturing the collective anxieties of our current political landscape.
Ariaz is represented by Nashville’s Zeitgeist Gallery and he is a member of Baton Rouge Gallery.
See more of his work at jeremiahariaz.com.
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