The LSU School of Art Alfred C. Glassell Jr. Exhibition Gallery at the Shaw Center for the Arts has been flooded with works by local artists for its 15th annual Summer Invitational Art Exhibition, “How High’s the Water, Mama?”
Over 50 Baton Rouge artists used clay, metal, wood, yarn and a number of other mediums to bring to life the power of the Mississippi River and water’s influence on life in Louisiana.
School of Art Galleries director Malia Krolak said inspiration for the theme came from the series of floods that have impacted the state in recent months. Given the importance of the Mississippi River to the city, Krolak said she felt the theme was timely.
Krolak said the goal of the exhibition is to celebrate local artists and the growing arts culture in the city. The supportive and fun network of artists who participate in the invitational each year have become like a family, she said.
Each member of the family has a unique voice that is represented in their style and interpretation of the exhibition’s theme. When inviting new artists to the exhibit, Krolak said she looks for artists who bring personality and a strong point of view to the space.
The goal is for each voice to unite into a larger presence, she said.
“We’re trying to build this chorus and so we want a lot of really strong, good voices in it,” Krolak said. “We sure have a lot of trouble going on in our city, but one of the strengths is that there are a lot of very creative people and that’s something that we can use to kind of build some unity. It’s exciting that there’s so much talent and so many voices.”
One of this year’s fresh voices is Heather Hogg-Berrios, a ceramicist and art teacher at Baton Rouge Magnet High School.
For the exhibition, Hogg-Berrios said she created a series of glazed cups inspired by the melting pot of cultures in south Louisiana. She created four cups: a coffee mug for the Irish, a wine goblet representing the Italians, a brandy snifter for the French and a margarita glass representing the Spanish.
The mugs were then glazed with images inspired by life on the water and lyrics from Johnny Cash’s “Five Feet High and Rising.” The cups’ imagery includes a sunset on the bayou and a family canoeing to their home with groceries, a scene inspired by Hogg-Berrios’ own life growing up on the Amite River.
She said her pieces were inspired by the camaraderie that exists during times of weather-related hardship.
“In Louisiana when we’re faced with this kind of crazy weather, what we do is really kind of come together as a community and a people,” Hogg-Berrios said.
The diversity in Hogg-Berrios’ cups is mirrored in the diversity of the exhibition. Each artist’s perspective is represented through a different media or imagery, and the variety adds texture and vivaciousness to the scene, Krolak said.
The artists also approached the theme through different emotional lenses, with some depicting the destructive power of the river while others embraced the joy and frivolous side of water, she said. Despite the range of work, the show is unified by similar color schemes and arranged to bring the viewer on a journey through the gallery.
On Saturday, the public will have the opportunity to attend a reception for the show and view the exhibition with the featured artists, Krolak said. The reception is a celebration of the talent featured in the gallery, as well as of Ramona Carpenter, the wife of featured artist Rob Carpenter, who recently passed away, she said.
In a play on the theme, refreshments will be served out of a pirogue and a local band who’ve dubbed themselves the High Water Boys will entertain visitors. Food will include goldfish, popsicles and catfish donated by Capital City Grill, among other treats, she said.
To cap off the evening, LSU Museum of Art executive director Daniel Stetson and his wife, photographer Catherine Stetson, will announce the winner of the Michael Crespo Award for Excellence. The award honors former University professor Michael Crespo, whose wife Libby Johnson began the monetary award in his memory.