Image courtesy of the Ogden Museum.
Josh Mintz's "I Can Hear Your Dirt," 2021, Wood, foam, plaster, fabric, resin, polymer clay, LEDs, Arudino, scritta, dna, porcelain, insulation, cotton.
Walking into the lobby of the Ogden Museum of Southern Art for the preview of Louisiana Contemporary 2022 the night before its grand opening, I was greeted by the sounds of T-Ray the Violinist's buoyant electric violin renditions of classic R&B hits, souped up with loop pedal effects and the performer's deep red satin blazer. The music reverberated up the tiered galleries on each floor, setting the mood for an evening that would thoroughly embrace the current moment, still with a reverent nod to the past.
Up in the gallery housing the new exhibition that had everyone abuzz, I was greeted by Josh Mintz' miniature sculpture installation "I Can Hear Your Dirt," which I would soon learn received The Helis Foundation Art Prize for Best in Show.
Tiny tributes to mundane household moments jutted from the white wall: a sink filled with hair as if someone had recently shaved, a pair of boots haphazardly taken off after a long day, an ashtray containing the remnants of cigarettes.
The piece struck me as simultaneously cute and eerie. The longer I looked the more intimate it felt, almost as if I were peeping into a stranger's home—or perhaps they were peeping into mine.
It joined dozens of pieces through the gallery, intentionally varied by medium and aesthetic: vibrant painted self-portraits, dark-yet-complex geometric shapes, understated film photographs, and nostalgic super-8 film—their creators milling about sipping drinks and excitedly taking photos beside their works.
The annual statewide, juried Louisiana Contemporary exhibition has, each year for the past decade since the Ogden and The Helis Foundation launched it in 2012, aimed to capture Louisiana's current era via the art created here. And according to this year’s juror Valerie Cassel Oliver, who serves as the Sydney and Frances Lewis Family Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, it’s a rewarding-yet-difficult task.
" … is it really possible to gauge the full vitality of such a dynamic community? The reality is no … it is not possible. However, what was possible to do, was to compose a cross-section, a vibrant composite of this community.”
And that cross-section of Louisiana’s art community indicates a generation of (largely young) artists creating thoughtful, emotionally-poignant, often-nostalgic, sometimes-whimsical pieces that hold a mirror up to the complex joys and pains of living in this state.
Louisiana Contemporary is open at the Ogden Museum until January 8, seven days a week from 10 am–5 pm. Learn more at ogdenmuseum.org.
