Alexandra Kennon Shahin
Nicolas Floc’h
Work by Nicolas Floc’h, "The Color of Water, Water Columns: Mississippi River Delta, from Empire, Louisiana to the Gulf of Mexico, 2022." On display at NOMA as part of the exhibition: "Fleuves-Océan, Mississippi Watershed."
New Orleans; France. Art; food. Water; seafood. Nature; technology. Color; grayscale. Some relationships are inextricable, forged and maintained across time. For its inaugural Salon Supper Club, the New Orleans Museum of Art mused on and celebrated such connections as it does: with a tasteful affair beneath the marble pillars of its great hall and galleries.
NOMA’s first-ever supper club event on May 22 was centered around the exhibition currently on display until February 2026—Nicolas Floc’h’s Fleuves-Océan, Mississippi Watershed, which is presented in two parts. For Floc’h, the concept was born during a 2022 artist residency with Villa Albertine in collaboration with the Camargo Foundation and Artconnexion, for which he traveled along the Mississippi River, documenting its water and banks.
One gallery wall is engulfed by Floc’h’s saturated, monochromatic photographs, which were captured beneath the river’s surface. The way the light filters through the water creates an array of different pigments, which vary in color due to factors like plant/animal influence, mineral run-off, and other components that impact the water’s chemical makeup. The collective effect creates a massive grid of 300 color gradients: oranges, yellows, greens, and blues leading into one another. If one didn’t know that the “water color” images were of natural phenomena, one might assume the tidy-seeming art was generated digitally. The intersection of nature and technology struck me, looking across the vibrant wall. (And, prompted by a traveling station with a ring light, my friend Kyly and I didn’t resist joining our fellow patrons in snapping a couple of selfies in front of the artful backdrop).
Tucked in another gallery on the opposite side of the museum is the counterpoint to Floc’h’s water gradient wall. Black and white photographs depicting scenes along the Mississippi River could not be more aesthetically different from the rectangles of colors, yet thematically they provide a striking alliance—the rough, textural reality of the chaotic path the Mississippi has forged, juxtaposed against the isolated color slides from beneath its surface. Floc’h is “making a visual connection between what we can see happening on the land and the quality of the water that surrounds us,” according to his artist statement.
The way the light filters through the water creates an array of different pigments, which vary in color due to factors like plant/animal influence, mineral run-off, and other components that impact the water’s chemical makeup. The collective effect creates a massive grid of 300 color gradients: oranges, yellows, greens, and blues leading into one another.
The exhibition is powerful enough to be worth a museum visit on its own, but for the Salon Supper Club, curators and organizers situated Floc’h’s works within a lively, artful dinner and cocktail party. And it was, without question, a party: stepping into the grand, pillared Great Hall, guests were greeted immediately with glasses of prosecco and access to several open bars. Grammy-nominated Cajun accordionist Cameron Dupuy and the Cajun Troubadours provided lively music throughout the night, occasionally stopping between songs to talk with guests.
EJ Lagasse—Emeril Lagasse’s twenty-two-year-old son who has taken the helm of Emeril’s flagship restaurant and joined him in launching their new Portuguese-inspired 34 Restaurant and Bar—joined his team serving slices of a delicate tart with smoked salmon and Beluga caviar layered atop cream cheese and a flaky pastry. He chatted with guests (even graciously fielding my embarrassing, “I’ve had the honor of meeting your dad!” story), and spoke briefly to the gathering about New Orleans, and the inextricable links between food and art.
Alexandra Kennon Shahin
Chef EJ Lagasse
Chef EJ Lagasse, serving tart with smoked salmon, Beluga caviar, cream cheese, and a flaky pastry.
Of course, Lagasse was not the only restaurateur who showed out for the occasion. Ralph Brennan Restaurant Group, who handles Cafe NOMA Restaurant in the museum, catered several stations, offering various Louisiana-inspired bites like corn maque choux and Gulf shrimp, a biscuit dressed in pimento cheese with tomato jam and a fried green tomato, and fried oysters with crawfish étouffée. Food and bar/cocktail stations were tucked into various corners and hallways throughout, creating a bit of a scavenger hunt experience as guests wandered, admired the art, sipped, and nibbled. This meant that only those diligently referencing their programs got to try everything, which seems fair.
One thing to note about this experience is that Salon Supper Club is not a seated, coursed-out dining experience—more like an artful cocktail party with substantial bites sprinkled throughout. One slightly perplexing aspect was that, despite the immersive nature of the event, food and drinks were not allowed in the galleries—which, again, is fair.
Flitting between galleries, espresso martini in hand (and set on tables in between viewings), I enjoyed chatting with other guests, many from the worlds of art and philanthropy. I even met Scott Pilié, my favorite meteorologist, and his husband, Ben, over the display of “Mississippi mud” pies. It felt fitting for the occasion, if unofficially, that the same day he had attended the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s announcement of the anticipated above-average 2025 hurricane season. “Water, water, everywhere,” indeed.
All in all, NOMA’s first Salon Supper Club lived up to expectations: it felt very artful, very Louisiana-inspired, and very much in the canon of NOMA’s sparkling events. Those looking to discuss art and indulge in drinks and hors d'oeuvres in the sophisticated setting of the museum should be on the lookout for the next Salon Supper Club, as the first event promises to certainly not be the last. And, in the meantime, Floc’h’s powerful studies of the Mississippi River are worth viewing and pondering—cocktail in-hand or not.
