NEW ORLEANS VISUAL ARTS: CLOSING EXHIBITIONS, JULY 2026
Art to catch in New Orleans this month: these exhibits are closing...
Art to see in New Orleans: July 2026
Summer in New Orleans is the perfect time to catch up on your visual art exhibitions. Surround yourself with creativity and inspiration all while enjoying cool, air conditioned spaces. These are just some of the art exhibitions around the city that are closing this month, so catch them before they come down…the first four are even at the same museum.
Summer in New Orleans is the perfect time to catch up on your visual art exhibitions. Surround yourself with creativity and inspiration all while enjoying cool, air conditioned spaces. These are just some of the art exhibitions around the city that are closing this month, so catch them before they come down…the first four are even at the same museum.
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Herman Leonard: Images of Jazz
Ogden Museum of Southern Art, through July 12th Leonard is widely considered the most important postwar Jazz photographer. Born in 1923 in Pennsylvania, Leonard moved to New Orleans in 1991. The fifteen years he lived here was a time of critical recognition and growing fame: he had several exhibitions at A Gallery for Fine Photography in the French Quarter and oversaw the printing of this portfolio of 30 classic photographs. His time here culminated in a major retrospective and corresponding book: Jazz, Giants and Journeys: The Photography of Herman Leonard (2006). The legends are all here: Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, and Louis Armstrong. |
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Focus: Noel Rockmore
Ogden Museum of Southern Art, through July 12th Rockmore was a regular patron of the cafes and bars of the French Quarter from the 1960s through the 1990s, and he held court with no less intrigue and charisma than his fellow bohemian, Tennessee Williams. Arriving in “the last frontier of Bohemia” in 1959, Rockmore discovered the place of his dreams, a place that allowed him to both portray fantasy and decay, and to do so by painting what was there, without embellishment. By 1963, Rockmore had executed over 350 portraits of musicians at Preservation Hall - you can see these and more at this incredible collection. |
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Alex McGrigg: In the Beloved
Ogden Museum of Southern Art, through July 19th From the museum and artist’s own statements: “[The work is] an exploration of Blackness as both a physical and metaphysical space. Influenced by dance, film, literature and spiritual philosophy, including the writings of Octavia Butler, Malidoma Patrice Somé, Gary Zukav and Christina Lonsdale, investigating the origin and transcendence of the soul from a third space McGrigg calls ‘The Beloved’. This realm is in constant metamorphosis, allowing Black souls to exist in continual transition and transformation.” McGrigg’s striking dying process on the canvas is evocative and haunting, and well worth seeing in person. |
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Dusti Bongé, Ida Kohlmeyer & Dorothy Hood: Vicinal Visions
Ogden Museum of Southern Art, through July 19th Three women expand the boundaries of abstraction in the American South. From the museum: “Though each of these artists developed their own distinct visual language, their work shares a spirit of experimentation…[These artists] were shaped by their geographies; the salty, storm-bent landscape of the Mississippi Gulf Coast; the diverse, vibrant and historic cultural fabric of New Orleans; the spirit of artistic optimism and endless possibility shared by Mexico City and Houston.” The personal really comes through in these abstract pieces, in conversation with each other. |
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Becca Firman: Tan Lines
Ferrara Showman Gallery, through July 11th This is the first solo exhibition of Seattle-based painter Becca Fuhrman. From the catalogue: “[Firman] explores the charged space between beauty and chaos, play, and provocation. Mixed-media paintings on canvas, wood panel, and sewn banners construct a world precariously teetering on the edge of revelry. Playful upon first viewing, this body of work is seeded with peculiarity.” Color and movement combine across these works to evoke what seem like very personal moments. |
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