AT KOLAJ FEST
Kolaj Fest New Orleans Partners with Ogden Museum of Southern Art To Present a Dynamic Program of Events
Kolaj Magazine is pleased to announce it is partnering with the Ogden Museum of Southern Art as part of the 2019 edition of Kolaj Fest New Orleans.
Established in 1999 and located in The Arts District of New Orleans, the Ogden Museum of Southern Art holds the largest and most comprehensive collection of Southern art and is recognized for its original exhibitions, public events and educational programs which examine the development of visual art alongside Southern traditions of music, literature and culinary heritage to provide a comprehensive story of the South.
Kolaj Fest New Orleans, July 10-14, 2019, is a multi-day festival and symposium about contemporary collage and its role in art, culture, and society. During the decentralized festival artists share and exhibit artwork, and create special activities and make demonstrations. A symposium of art professionals and artists lead panel discussions and explore key curatorial issues. During the four-day festival, events take place at various locations in the Bywater and Central Business District. Kolaj Fest New Orleans is organized by Kolaj Magazine, an internationally-oriented, printed magazine about contemporary collage.
“The Ogden Museum’s remarkable collection and exhibitions will allow Kolaj Fest attendees to explore the role collage plays in the visual arts and culture of the American South and witness how collage speaks to communities of people,” said Kolaj Magazine‘s editor, Ric Kasini Kadour.
On Friday of the festival, Kolaj Fest New Orleans will embed at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art. The Ogden’s Curator of the Collection Bradley Sumrall will lead a tour of an exhibition of artwork by Benny Andrews. The museum will also be the site of two panels: “The Politics of Collage” and “Collage in Black Art.” Participants will also have the opportunity to view the exhibition “Vernacular Voices”, which brings together works by self-taught, outsider and visionary artists from the American South and includes by collage artists such as Minnie Evans (1892-1987) and Sister Gertrude Morgan (1900-1980).
KOLAJ FEST WEBSITE | OGDEN MUSEUM WEBSITE
About Kolaj Fest New Orleans
Kolaj Fest New Orleans is a multi-day festival and symposium about contemporary collage and its role in art, culture, and society, July 10-14, 2019. Visit the website to learn more, see an overview of the program, and register to attend. Kolaj Fest New Orleans would not be possible without the support of Press Street, Ogden Museum of Southern Art, LeMieux Galleries, Mystic Krewe of Scissors and Glue, Antenna Gallery, Kolaj Magazine and Kasini House. Kolaj Fest New Orleans is made possible through a generous gift from Laurie and Doug Kanyer. WEBSITE
Taking Place at Ogden Museum of Southern Art during Kolaj Fest New Orleans 2019
Tour of the Benny Andrews Exhibit
The Ogden’s Curator of the Collection Bradley Sumrall will lead a tour of an exhibition of artwork by Benny Andrews (1930-2006), an African-American painter, printmaker, and collagist. Drawing from surrealism and Southern folk art, Andrews’ work offers a social critique of 20th-century America and speaks with humanism to issues of injustice, militarism, sexism, and suffering. Andrews was also a steadfast advocate for artists of color. In 1969, Andrews co-founded the Black Emergency Cultural Coalition to protest an exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, “Harlem on My Mind: Cultural Capital of Black America, 1900-1968”, which contained no art and in which no African-Americans had been involved in organizing. In the 2013 exhibition catalog, Benny Andrews: There Must Be a Heaven, Civil Rights leader and Congressman John Lewis wrote, “For Benny there was no line where his activism ended, and his art began.”
Politics of Collage
Iowa State University Art Historian Wendy Parker will lead “The Politics of Collage”. Parker’s Masters thesis focused on how John Heartfield, Martha Rosler, and others used photomontage during periods of political unrest and artistic revolution to construct a political narrative. She will be joined by John J Heartfield, the grandson of the famous Dadaist, and contemporary artist G. E. Vogt, who uses collage to address contradictory societal narratives around inequality in the United States and the toxic political climate.
Collage in Black Art
Kolaj Magazine‘s editor, Ric Kasini Kadour will host a live interview with New Orleans gallerist Stella Jones. Keith Marshall wrote in The Times-Picayune, “Gallery owner and obstetrician Stella Jones may be small of stature, but she’s a powerhouse in the world of African-American art and culture.” Since 1996, Jones has operated an eponymous named gallery in the Central Business District that has played a central role in supporting artists of the African diaspora in New Orleans. Kadour and Jones will discuss the collage artists she has featured in her gallery, the role of collage in Black art and aesthetics, and how an understanding of Black artists and collage informs our understanding of the canon of art history.
Collage in Exhibition: Vernacular Voices
On view at the Ogden during Kolaj Fest New Orleans is “Vernacular Voices”, which brings together works by self-taught, outsider and visionary artists from the American South, all born between 1886 and 1952. The art on display is drawn from life itself and is tied to the culture in which it was created. Collage included in the exhibition features work by artists such as Minnie Evans (1892-1987) and Sister Gertrude Morgan (1900-1980).
KOLAJ FEST WEBSITE | OGDEN MUSEUM WEBSITE
About Kolaj Fest New Orleans
Kolaj Fest New Orleans is a multi-day festival and symposium about contemporary collage and its role in art, culture, and society, July 10-14, 2019. Visit the website to learn more, see an overview of the program, and register to attend. Kolaj Fest New Orleans would not be possible without the support of Press Street, Ogden Museum of Southern Art, LeMieux Galleries, Mystic Krewe of Scissors and Glue, Antenna Gallery, Kolaj Magazine and Kasini House. Kolaj Fest New Orleans is made possible through a generous gift from Laurie and Doug Kanyer. WEBSITE
Images: (top to bottom)
Ogden Museum of Southern Art
photo by Ryan Hodgson Rigsbee
View of the library at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art
Interior with Cat by Benny Andrews
oil and collage; 1988
Collection of the Ogden Museum of Southern Art
Gift of the Benny Andrews Foundation
2000.5.38
For the Birds by G. E. Vogt
36″x36″; magazine, play money, coins; 2014
“I am My Brother’s Keeper” by John Alleyne
enamel, spray paint, and screen printed collage on wood panel; 2018
“Vernacular Voices” exhibition (installation view)