​Nicolas Floc’h: Fleuves-Océan, Mississippi Watershed @ The New Orleans Museum of Art
Review by Jamie Chiarello

Upon walking up to the stairs of the NOMA, there is no missing the new work by Nicolas Floc'h. Without any further explanation, I would have assumed I was looking at a gigantic value study stretched from floor to ceiling. In some respects that is exactly what it is.

Of course, aesthetics are very a personal thing, and I'm sure that many people will find this piece charming and spirited. Personally, it struck me as simple and confusingly large. In an increasingly desensitized and overwhelmed world, large scale works hope to snatch our eyes for a moment.

The paragraph on the wall informs us that each color swatch is actually a photo taken at various locations and depths along the Mississippi. The array of colors are influenced by sediment, plant life and various chemical contents. There is implied a sense of revelation here, that water can be red, green, yellow or blue. It encourages us to look beyond our initial assumptions about the world around us, provoking curiosity before leading us further along the journey of the watershed.

Moving through the rooms we follow Nicolas on his venture along the river. The color swatches from various locations are interspersed among black and white photos. The photos really had an effect on me that was somewhat the opposite of the color swatches. Vast landscapes with peaks of tired industry give the feeling of aging Americana, of infrastructure quietly fading in the sun. The photos are powerful and beautiful in their own right. It made me wonder what it would have been like to simply witness the photos and feel the sensations stirred without the geography lesson.

I imagine if I had encountered this show in a science museum I would have absolutely loved it. The stress on reiterating the importance of water in our lives (particularly in relation to climate change) feels a bit redundant for a place like New Orleans. Between losing homes to hurricanes, clearing catch basins of beads and debris by hand and facing $6000 bills from sewage and water, locals know too well what intense effects water can have on our lives.

Overall, though, this show does offer educational insights into how water is optically perceived and the effects of humanity trying to simply exist amongst natural resources. I hope the questions raised by the exhibit are being addressed by engineers, politicians and those with the power to affect how much water affects our lives in coming years.

Nicolas Floc’h: Fleuves-Océan, Mississippi Watershed runs at NOMA through ​February 22nd, 2026. Click here for more information.

The custom piano played by acclaimed musical artist Jon Batiste during Super Bowl LIX is now on view in the museum’s Lapis Center for the Arts. The grand piano features a design by artist and bestselling author Suleika Jaouad, who is Batiste’s wife.

Before Sunday’s Super Bowl LIX game, Batiste performed the national anthem. A Louisiana native, Batiste is a seven-time Grammy Award-winning and Academy Award-winning artist known for his dynamic work as a singer, songwriter, and composer. Visitors to NOMA will have the unique opportunity to see the custom piano.

The New Orleans Museum of Art is open Tuesday–Sunday, 10 am–5 pm, and Wednesdays, 12–7 pm. Every Wednesday, museum admission is free for Louisiana residents courtesy of The Helis Foundation’s Art for All initiative.

The New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA) will open New African Masquerades: Artistic Innovations and Collaborations, a major exhibition presenting the work of four contemporary artists working in cities across West Africa: Chief Ekpenyong Bassey Nsa, Sheku “Goldenfinger” Fofanah, David Sanou, and Hervé Youmbi.

The first presentation of its kind, New African Masquerades offers a rare look into contemporary West African masquerade by contextualizing the works of individual artists within a range of social, economic, and religious practices and examining their networks of viewership and exchange. Made from materials including wood, cloth and fabrics, sequins, feathers, gourds, raffia, and cowry shells, the ensembles on view represent a wide variety of masquerade practices and societies. 

New African Masquerades is on view April 4–August 10, 2025, in NOMA’s first-floor Ella West Freeman Galleries. 

What's on at NOMA in the upcoming weeks:

Wednesday, December 11, 12:30 pm: Gallery Talk with Curator Brian Piper
Timed with the annual PhotoNOLA festival, Freeman Family Curator of Photographs, Prints, and Drawings Brian Piper leads a discussion about the exhibition Show & Tell: A Brief History of Photography and Text. Drawn from NOMA’s permanent collection, the exhibition explores the intersection between photography and written language, from photography’s invention to the present day. Free with museum admission. Louisiana residents receive free admission on Wednesdays courtesy of The Helis Foundation’s Art for All initiative. https://noma.org/event/gallery-121124/ 

Wednesday, December 11, 6:30 pm: Ideas in Glass with Artists Gene Koss and Deborah Czeresko
In celebration of the exhibition Sand, Ash, Heat: Glass at the New Orleans Museum of Art, the museum is hosting studio glass artists Gene Koss and Deborah Czeresko in conversation with exhibition curator Mel Buchanan in NOMA’s Lapis Center for the Arts. Gene Koss founded the glass art program at Tulane University nearly fifty years ago and served as its head until his 2024 retirement. A graduate of Tulane’s glass program under Koss, Czeresko brought her artistic voice in glass to a wider audience as the winner of the inaugural season of Netflix’s Blown Away in 2019. Free with museum admission. Louisiana residents receive free admission on Wednesdays courtesy of The Helis Foundation’s Art for All initiative. https://noma.org/event/glass-panel-koss-and-czeresko/ 

Wednesday, December 18, 12:30 pm: Gallery Talk on Conservation
Ingrid Seyb, NOMA’s Conservator of Objects, leads a conversation about works in the exhibition Sand, Ash, Heat: Glass at the New Orleans Museum of Art, which presents nearly 300 objects representing over 4,000 years of world history through the medium of glass.
Free with museum admission. Louisiana residents receive free admission on Wednesdays courtesy of The Helis Foundation’s Art for All initiative. https://noma.org/event/gallery-talk-121824/ 

Wednesday, December 18, 6 pm: Elders Sacred Talk Series
Each program in the Elders Sacred Talk Series, produced in partnership with the Congo Square Preservation Society, spotlights prolific elder New Orleanians, celebrating the lives they lead while providing the opportunity for visitors to learn firsthand about the impact they’ve had on our city. The series is part of NOMA’s Art Thrives initiative, which presents creative aging programs to support visitors ages 55 and up, including art-making workshops and platforms for older adults to share their experiences with audiences of all ages. Free with museum admission. Louisiana residents receive free admission on Wednesdays courtesy of The Helis Foundation’s Art for All initiative. https://noma.org/event/elders-sacred-talk-series-121824/ 

The New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA) closes out a year of programming marking 20 years of the museum’s Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden with the Visionaries Garden Party. Attendees will enjoy music, dancing, and libations under the stars surrounded by some of the most celebrated works of art of the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries. Guests are encouraged to wear festive, garden party attire.

Friday, November 8, 7–11 pm @ NOMA’s Besthoff Sculpture Garden
Funds raised support the future of NOMA and the Besthoff Sculpture Garden.
The Visionaries Garden Party is part of a year of programming, events, new installations, and more celebrating 20 years of NOMA’s Besthoff Sculpture Garden, a landmark destination for visitors from New Orleans and around the world. Other events include the Visionaries Gala on Thursday, November 7, with an extremely limited number of seats available.

Entertainment for the evening includes:

• Live music from Grammy Award-nominated band The Rumble featuring Chief Joseph Boudreaux Jr.
• DJ sets from C’est Funk featuring international grooves through a New Orleans lens
• Dance and musical performance by Jaleo Flamenco, a vibrant collective of passionate musicians and dancers committed to preserving and promoting the rich tradition of flamenco

A calendar of upcoming programs and events organized by the New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA):
Wednesday, October 9, 5–7 pm: Creative Writing Poetry Showcase with Creative Assembly Artist Daniel Fitzpatrick
Celebrate the power of words during a poetry showcase hosted by Creative Assembly Cohort member Daniel Fitzpatrick. 
https://noma.org/event/creative-writing-showcase-daniel-fitzpatrick/
Monday, October 14, 9 am–6 pm: Member Sale at the NOMA Museum Shop
The NOMA Museum Shop hosts its annual member sale to kick off the holiday shopping season. 
https://noma.org/event/member-sale-2024/
Thursday, October 17, 12–1 pm: Book Club Discussion on Glass: Sand, Ash, Heat
NOMA’s book club meets monthly to discuss fiction and non-fiction books related to art in the museum’s collection and exhibitions. This month’s selection is the catalogue Glass: Sand, Ash, Heat which features contributions from scholars across disciplines looking at the history of glass.
https://noma.org/event/book-club-october-2024/
Sunday, October 20, 2 pm: Created to Create with Creative Assembly Artist Simone Immanuel (In-Person and Virtual)
A talk show hosted by NOMA Creative Assembly artist Simone Immanuel, Created to Create is designed to foster honest conversations about creativity with local Black artists in New Orleans. 
Free and open to the public. A livestream option will also be available.
Wednesday, October 23, 6 pm: Elders Sacred Talk Series
Each program in the Elders Sacred Talk Series, produced in partnership with the Congo Square Preservation Society, spotlights prolific elder New Orleanians, celebrating the lives they lead while providing the opportunity for visitors to learn firsthand about the impact they’ve had on our city. 
Saturday, October 26, 10 am–4 pm: Japan Fest (pictured)
Celebrate Japanese culture through art, performances, food, and more at Japan Fest, organized by NOMA, the Japan Club in New Orleans, and the Consulate General of Japan in Nashville. Sample Japanese cuisine, enjoy traditional dance groups, martial arts demonstrations, and tours throughout the day. 
https://noma.org/event/japan-fest-2024/

​
​Sand, Ash, Heat: Glass at The New Orleans Museum of Art 
Review by Jamie Chiarello

As a street artist who is used to sitting out in the quarter hawking my paintings, a museum is a very special and particular type of place to me. On one hand, it is easy to eschew most establishments, to question whether art should be sought in a museum anymore than learning in school or God in a church.

On the other hand, I will always remember one of my formative museum experiences where I entered with a big chip on my shoulder about the stupid masses who didn't care for anything I cared for and then looked around me and was dumbstruck by the symbolism of a museum in itself; a building where people who deeply care about art house it, and work tirelessly to preserve it for future generations. 

I didn't have any particular expectations upon entering the NOMA to see the show 'Sand, Ash, Heat: Glass at the New Orleans Museum of Art'. The main question I have been asking myself when experiencing art is: What is my initial direct visceral experience? How do I make sense of this? How is this affected by any subsequent explanation about the work before me?

The curation of this collection is extraordinary. Upon entering, we are immediately confronted by an enormous, pitch-black chandellier by Fred Wilson. Stepping closer, I was both in awe of the intiricacy and skill in handling such a delicate material, and mildy repulsed in a pleasurable way by the slick blackness of the material that reminded me of both oil and H.R. Giger.

Seeing the chandellier at eye level evoked a theme that reoccured over and over through out the show: Who made these works? For whom? Fred Wilson's piece both asks and answers this question, and it is worth going to see the show for this piece alone.

From there, we are shown glass works from antiquity, mostly from the Middle East and the Roman empire. You can't help but wonder, what lives did these objects live in their own times? Will our old junk bottles one day be in museums to be ogled over and speculated upon? It is impossible to study any art or material development divorced from the brutality of human history.

The beautiful shining crystal banana and sugar bowls only silently nod to the slave labor and the historical exploitation of local communities employed to obtain such luxuries. Looking at the work from the Venetian Island of Murano we are asked questions of labor, skill, beauty and alchemy. A room exploring glass bead work, and displaying a Black Masking Indian suit by Big Chief Down M. Edwards of the Timbuktu Warriors is a striking local feature.

Leading into the modern and contemporary realms, the intent seems to shift to become more about provocation. There is a show of 3D printing and vases, and I want to loop back around to the start of the show, though this is more so a reflection on my own tastes and interests. 

​At large, the show is incredibly engaging, and very well organized. Like glass, our perceptions of ourselves and historical markers have tendencies toward warping and are strangely fragile and enduring. Go to City Park, go to the museum: this is a worthwhile way to ponder and pass time in the Anthropocene. 

The Sand, Ash, Heat: Glass at the New Orleans Museum of Art runs at NOMA through February 10th, 2025. More information here. 

Artist Saskia Ozols has announced autumn painting classes lead by the Fine Arts Preservation Society of New Orleans. 'Alla prima' figure painting classes run on Friday mornings, from September 20 through November 22, 2024. For more information, click here.