November at CACNO
to
Contemporary Arts Center 900 Camp Street, New Orleans, Louisiana 70130

Meg Turner
Truck Fem, 2019. Silkscreen, 22 x 30 inches. Courtesy of the artist.
Mickalene Thomas: Femmes Noires is an exhibition of new collages and montages by Mickalene Thomas at the Contemporary Arts Center New Orleans. Spanning new painting, film, and photography, the works include references to pop culture and the long history of Western and African Art—from Edouard Manet’s odalisque figures to the mise-en-scene studio portraiture of James Van Der Zee and Malick Sidibé. Thomas’s ability to detect and to hold contradictions translates into powerful, self-possessed depictions of Black women that confront and subvert stereotypes. In dialogue with collages and montages by artists, notably including Pablo Picasso, Hannah Höch, Romare Bearden, and Wangechi Mutu, Thomas’s work uses juxtaposition and arrangement to explore cross-cultural and hybrid social and personal histories.
The exhibition opens November 2 and remains on view until June 14, 2020. cacno.org.
Also arriving November 2 at the CACNO:
Meg Turner: Here and Now: In Turner's first solo exhibition, find more than a hundred portrait tintypes of artists, activists, teachers, school mates, friends, lovers, and near-strangers; with backdrops of fantastic(al) landscapes and fabricated sets, participants and collaborators are invited to embody the politics of gender, sexuality and economic autonomy they desire. On view until April 12, 2020.
Akosua Adoma Owusu: Welcome to the Jungle: Combining personal ethnography and cultural representations of beauty in her work, Ghanian-American filmmaker, producer, and cinematographer Owusu transitions between avant-garde cinema, fine art, and African tradition. On view until February 2, 2020.
Femmes Féroces: Material Life x Femmes Noires: Through an immersive installation designed to welcome and empower all visitors, Femmes Féroces will honor a group of pioneering women in film, fashion, music, performance, and activism who inspire us with their fierce beauty and tenacious fearlessness in forging remarkable careers and enduring legacies. Realized in collaboration with Mickalene Thomas through a creative partnership between Carla Williams, founder and owner of local retail concept shop Material Life, and New Orleans-based artist Lee Laa Ray Guillory, Femmes Féroces celebrates black women creatives in every aspect. On view until June 14, 2020.
New Orleans Airlift: From "New Water Music": In honor of collaborative artist initiative New Orleans Airlift’s tenth anniversary, the CAC presents the installation From New Water Music, which includes remaindered materials and excerpted sound recordings from Airlift’s April 8, 2017 performance, New Water Music. The program was first performed from the water by the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra and hundreds of community musicians in a spectacular choreographed visual presentation. Conducting with naval semaphore flags and in occasional Morse Code from the shore, Haber paid tribute to traditional Louisiana music, including Cajun accordion and African-American spirituals. This new exhibition remains on view until February 2, 2020.