April 8 - May 7, 2023

Opening reception on Second Saturday, April 8, 6-10pm.
Gallery open hours are Saturdays and Sundays, 12-5pm.

Be sure to check out The St. Claude Art Rag for more info on the Second Saturday Art Openings on St. Claude!

Friends of The Front! Our pal’s at The Rabbit Hole are offering 50% tickets to locals for Friday April 28 + Saturday April 29
- 4/28/23, Doors 8pm, Show 9pm: GLEN DAVID ANDREWS (FULL BAND) LOCALS LOVE 50% OFF
- 4/29/23, Doors 8:30pm, Show 9:30pm CHA WA LOCALS LOVE 50% OFF

PROGRAMMING THIS MONTH

Room 1

Benry Fauna, Benry No.9, Metallic Luster print, 8 x 10 inches, 2020.
Benry Fauna, Emilee The Visionary, Metallic Luster Print, 8 x 10 inches, 2022.
Benry Fauna, Corinne No. II, matte print, 8 x 10 inches, 2022.
Benry Fauna, Dejah No. I, satin, 35 x 44 inches, 2022.
Benry Fauna, Jessie Reductive, Metallic Luster Print, 8 x 10 inches, 2021.
Benry Fauna, James No. I, satin, 35 x 44 inches, 2022.
Benry Fauna, Marwa No. I, Marwa Moves, satin, 34 x 44 inches, 2023.
BenryFauna, Marwa, Matte print, 8 x 10inches, 2023.
Benry Fauna, Jonathon No. II (Ryan Will), metallic luster print, 8 x 10 inches, 2022.

Overture
Benry Fauna

An Overture is originally the music that plays before a ballet or opera. Often including elements to be heard through out the production. Such as I describe the artwork included in this exhibition: Selected compositions across my portrait practice. When I look at the history of portraiture, I find a certain empowerment and sincerity that a portrait carries throughout its longevity. Within my own work, the studio has provided a space for self reflection and direct expression. Finding awareness in my grief, insecurities, and unmet desires, allowing me to carve out imagery of myself that can conjure understanding, compassion, and self confidence. In giving space to these feelings, I’ve become better at communicating them with others. Bringing opportunities to create an exchange of ideas and comfort with the people I photograph. I began to collage, reshape, and sculpt portraits as a way to ruminate on the relationship we have with our own image. Every fold of fabric shifts our perspective like a heightened emotion obscuring our reality. The pang of relatability opens us up to reflect on our own humanity. Nurturing a belief that a portrait ought to bring you closer to yourself.

Based in New Orleans by way of Pittsburgh, Pa. Benry Fauna describes his work as glamor in the gutter, labeling himself as, “A mess that cleans up well. He showcases a range of styles, from honoring traditional portraiture, to using collage as a pragmatic and surrealist method of addressing themes of grief, confidence, vulnerability, and how emotional experiences shape identity. Benry believes a portrait ought to bring you close to yourself. Overall, he aims to nurture the theme, discovering a better understanding of how we express our humanity. Benry has spent that past few years participating in group shows, including the New Orleans city wide photo festival PhotoNOLA, ANOTHER WORLD, a project between Visaje Graffiti and Peregrino Print Lab in Bogota, Columbia, a part of a collaboration between Fujifilm and Artists Den called the students of storytelling series, and a forthcoming solo exhibition at The Front in New Orleans.

www.benryfauna.com
@benryfauna

Room 2

Elliott Stokes, Port in a Storm, Graphite rubbings of an aged Louisiana river dock on paper, 2020-22.
Elliott Stokes, Laura, Silver Gelatin Print, 5 x 7 inches, 2020.

Seasick
Elliott Stokes

“With rapidly accelerating economic anxiety, mounting environmental degradation, and climate change, the uncertainty of tomorrow weighs heavy. The collective fight or flight response has forced society to develop resiliency, but what if we can no longer handle what comes next? How do we function in a constant state of trepidation? 

Life in Louisiana is a constant ebb and flow, a perpetual state of entropy. The water surrounding us provides fertile soil, promotes growth, and quenches our thirst, but also possesses the power to damage, devastate, and destroy. The Mississippi River hovers over New Orleans, a doomsday clock patiently ticking. When the deluge can no longer be kept at bay, everybody must ask the question, what if I can’t swim?

Seasick is a collection of artworks that all refer to moments in my life of alarm, anxiety, fright, dread, and apprehension. These artworks all stem from my relationship to Louisiana’s bodies of water, considering their healing nature and catastrophic potentialities. Consisting of paintings, drawings, objects, sculptures, and my first video, Seasick lingers on the fluidity of stability, the mornings after disaster, and the fear of being swept away.”

Elliott Stokes (B. 1990, New Orleans, LA.) Stokes received his Studio MFA from the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign with a concentration in painting, sculpture and new media. His artwork exists within the gray area of necessity and critique of industrial and agricultural processes and how they reflect past histories and infer future trajectories. Positioning his artwork between reverence and contempt of industry, specifically petrochemicals, Stokes uses this tension as a launching point for cultural examination and introspection.  He has exhibited nationally across the Midwest and Southeast, including Zhou B. Arts Center in Chicago, Ogden Museum of Southern Art and Contemporary Arts Center in New Orleans. He is currently a member of The Front gallery and collective in New Orleans.

www.elliottstokes.com 
@elliott_ross_stokes 

Room 3

Basqo Bim, Headshot.
Basqo & Churchie, Future Shock, 2023.
Churchie, Headshot.

Future Shock
Basqo & Churchie

“Future Shock” places the viewer behind a satirical lens aimed at our concerns and anxieties regarding the logarithmic rate of the ‘new’ - technology, AI, industry, products, cultural norms and mores, etc - and the stress, paralysis, and existential issues that it induces in us, which is then compounded by the increasing control that corporations hold over technology, housing, living beings, and the world at large.

It is difficult to accurately convey impending doom, especially within the confines of an art gallery during a Saturday night opening. It is difficult to accurately convey a feeling of “this could happen in fifty years if we aren’t careful,” because the world we live in is changing so rapidly that any type of ‘near-future’ scenario is already too close to our present reality.

So, with that in mind, we offer you “Future Shock.” We tease ourselves about our fears by manifesting them ourselves. And in turn, we offer you a sly grin and a temporal glimpse into a parallel world where the prescriptive niceties of intentionally soft language and Bernaysian propaganda are still being used to sell an ugly, inhuman dream to a world that has visibly lost its final human thread. We hope that you simultaneously love and hate it.

Note: “Future shock” is a term coined by Alvin Toffler in his 1970 book of the same title. “(He) argued that society is undergoing an enormous structural change, a revolution from an industrial society to a "super-industrial society". This change overwhelms people. He argues that the accelerated rate of technological and social change leaves people disconnected and suffering from "shattering stress and disorientation"—future shocked. Toffler stated that the majority of social problems are symptoms of future shock. In his discussion of the components of such shock he popularized the term "information overload."

Basqo Bim is a Colombian-American multidisciplinary artist based in New Orleans with a focus on assemblage and sculpture. Their practice centers around the intentional antagonization of the tensions between their intertwining and conflicting needs, desires, paranoias, and nostalgias. Their intent is to explore their physical, mental, and psychological limitations in terms of the process of creation and manifestation of their work, and finding new ways to push past their boundaries into unknown territories.

Churchie (Justine) is a maker and costume designer based out of New Orleans, Louisiana. Her primary focus is creating pieces that show duality, especially the contradiction of traditional ideologies and social norms. Her style is usually cartoon-like, and blends the delightful with the grotesque. Churchie makes wearables and sculptures, intertwines them into her own worlds and characters, and seeks to maintain her process of slow art and careful consideratiovn.

@basqo_
@churchbitch

Room 4

Dèja M. Jones, Greedy Piggy, Acrylic paint, paper, glitter, metal, paper mache, found objects, 38 x 53 x 34 inches, 2020.
Dèja M. Jones, Baller Block'n, Acrylic paint, paper, glitter, metal, muslin, wood, 39 x 43 x 4 inches, 2022.
Dèja M. Jones, Stankonia, acrylic paint and glitter on wood, 7.5 x 8.5 x .25 inches, 2021.
Dèja M. Jones, Us vs. Them, acrylic paint and glitter on wood, clay, and a N95 mask, 4.5 x 7.5 x 1.5 inches, 2020.
Dèja M. Jones, She is the 1st. She is the Last, Acrylic paint and paper on wood, 8 x 13 x .25 inches, 2018.

Fu$* You, The Kids Are Alright
Déja M. Jones

Descendant of a long lineage of New Orleanian teachers, artisans, and carpenters, Déja Jones, uses their ancestral gifts to create whimsical multi-media artworks that invite the viewer into the perspective of working-class POC to communicate, advocate, and educate on the behalf of community’s needs and preserve their great cultural legacies. They combine found objects, bright colors, and bold designs to tell stories of disenfranchised communities across nations- highlighting their similarities and ultimately their unity. Their work is used as a catalyst to encourage progressive conversation and dedicated organization towards intersectional equity.

Déja M.Jones is an artist and community organizer native to New Orleans, La. They began their career through the intersection of advocacy and art.In 2017 Dèja showcased their first interactive installation at the New Orleans Art Center. The space was dedicated to southern Black communities’ advocacy during the Civil Rights Era as a love letter from the following generations. Their love for their community lead them to more community-focused projects. In 2019 they were partnered with Imagine Water Works for a “Art of Science / Science of Art: Working With Water in a Changing World” symposium in NYC. The symposium brought together artists, scientists, and engineers who (1) are concerned about water management and climate change and (2) recognize that we need to fundamentally shift who has a seat at the decision-making table. Today Jones serves as the Imagine Water Works Programs Director. In 2020 Jones completed their fellowship with the New Orleans Youth Alliance where they now work on policy reform with a focus on New Orleans youth and organize community engaging initiatives that integrate art and healing while addressing community needs.

dejamjones.com
@creating_dejamojo