We have another O What a Night! sneak peek for you!

O What a Night!, Ogden Museum of Southern Art’s most important annual fundraiser, is online this year! Support Ogden Museum’s educational mission to share the art and culture of the American South by bidding on art in our live and silent auctions! The silent auction features work by over 100 talented artists, and our live auction presents an exciting line-up of well known artists, including John Alexander, Walter Anderson, John Barnes, Aron Belka, Lynda Benglis, Thornton Dial, George Dunbar, William Goodman, Simon Gunning, Sally Heller, Mallory Page, Ayo Scott, Amanda Stone Talley, John Isiah Walton and Carl Joe Williams.

MARK YOUR CALENDARS!

Live Art Auction: Saturday, October 17, 8-9 p.m.
Silent Art Auction: Monday, October 12, 12 a.m. – Sunday, October 18, 5 p.m.

LIVE AUCTION

Simon Gunning, Waiting #3, 2018, Oil on custom made birch panel, 40 x 30, Courtesy of the artist

Australian-born Simon Gunning has lived in New Orleans’ Bywater neighborhood for over 30 years. His appreciation for the local scenery has never waned, as is evident in his renowned, intricately-composed oil paintings of the Southern Louisiana landscape. His compositions reflect familiar scenes – lush swamps interrupted only by egrets, ibises and anhingas; ships lined up in the winding Mississippi river; industrial cargo lifts and cranes dotted with spotlights reflecting in the placid water; dogs and cats frolicking in streets lined with shotgun homes and jutting stoops. Despite his veneration, his compositions are never sentimentalized. His edgy style of painting has been described as “an iconic personal statement about life, death, sorrow, and a love affair with an exotic land.” He has a startling ability to capture scenes at the most felicitous time of day, rendering the light and color that is so unique to the landscape.

Simon Gunning was born in Sydney, Australia in 1956. He studied painting and drawing from 1976-1978 at the National Gallery School of Art and the Victorian College of Art in Melbourne, Australia. In 1999, he was awarded a Visual Artist Fellowship by the Louisiana Division of the Arts. His work is included in many public and private collections including the New Orleans Museum of Art; Percent for Art Collection at Louis Armstrong International Airport and the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, all in New Orleans; as well as in private and corporate collections in Paris, London, Los Angeles and Australia.

Mallory Page, The One Light, 40 x 30, Courtesy of the artist

Mallory Page, born in 1983, is a New Orleans based artist specializing in large-scale abstract paintings. Her compositions employ multiple layers of monochromatic hues applied with various techniques over the course of many weeks. Through abstract studies of color, her work explores essential elements of painting, and how calculated manipulations of shape and color can affect shifts in visual understanding. Born and raised in Louisiana, Page’s work engages abstractly with her heritage and with questions of identity — i.e. the position of an independent woman and artist within a more traditional social terrain. Her paintings are held in private collections internationally and have been featured in Architectural Digest, House Beautiful, Southern Living and Whitewall, among others. Page is a graduate of Louisiana State University. She travels back and forth between her home in New Orleans and her studio on the Northshore of Lake Pontchartrain.

Ayo Scott, What Good is Being Black, 63 x 48, Courtesy of the artist

Born in New Orleans, Ayo Scott attended Xavier University of Louisiana and graduated with a degree in art and graphic design in 2003. He went on to graduate school at The Institute of Design in Chicago. After completing some graduate work, he took time off to focus on his work and eventually moved home to be with family after Hurricane Katrina. Once back in New Orleans, he began a home renovation business called NOYO Designs Inc. In 2008, Scott had a solo exhibition at the McKenna Museum of African American Art and his work has been included in exhibitions at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art and the Louisiana Art and Science Museum. In 2011, Ayo was honored as the recipient of the Love in the Garden award from the New Orleans Museum of Art. In 2014, Scott’s work was shown in The Lies We Believe at Octavia Art Gallery, presenting his mixed media works alongside his large-scale digital drawings. Scott is the son of nationally renowned artist, John T. Scott.

SILENT AUCTION

Carlos Canul, Cosmic Debris, 2018, Watercolor on Molskine paper, 5 x 8,” Courtesy of the artist

Carlos Canul is a contemporary abstract oil painter who lives and works in Splendora, Texas. A native of Brownsville, Texas, his art focuses on the merging of figuration and abstraction, while holding together the traditions of a layered exploration of the medium. His personal style draws from a combination of his Mayan heritage and the spiritual dialogue that draws forth within his life, and the natural surroundings he encounters wherever he goes. Landscapes, Meso-American and world mythologies, spiritual realms and figuration are all major themes in his paintings and drawings. The use of darkness and light, stark lines and blurred imagery combine to invite the viewer into a world of questions – both personal and communal.

Kelly Anne Mueller, Slow Physics of Giants, 2017, Acrylic, graphite, fluorescent polyester thread on canvas, 36 x 40,” Courtesy of the artist

Originally from Chicago, Kelly Anne Mueller moved to Jackson, Mississippi after receiving her M.F.A. at Northern Illinois University and then went on to Baton Rouge, Louisiana two weeks before Katrina. She is currently a member of The Front Gallery in New Orleans and Baton Rouge Gallery, and has also exhibited with New Context/Kasia Kay Gallery in Chicago, in Scope Miami and New York. Her work has been published in New American Paintings and Studio Visit Magazine. Outside of teaching art at Lusher Charter School, she has attended residencies at Hambidge, GA; Stone House, CA; Wilson College, PA; Philadelphia Art Hotel, Dorland Mountain Arts Colony, CA; and a Surdna Fellowship in Brazil’s Amazon Rainforest.

Robert “Dr. Bob” Shaffer, Mr. Okra Passes an Orange House, 2020, 18 5/8″w x 14″h x 5″d, Mixed media, Courtesy of the artist

Robert “Dr. Bob” Shaffer is a self-taught visionary artist known for making Be Nice or Leave! He has been part of the New Orleans vernacular, and has occupied his 9th Ward studio since 1991. Before that, a mule barn in the French Quarter. His paintings, carvings and assemblages celebrate flora, fauna, architecture, food, music and people, and were shown at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival for more than twenty years, including his reconstruction/re-carving of the Totem Pole in 2019. Shaffer’s work can be found in the collections of the Smithsonian, the Brooks Museum of Memphis and Ogden Museum of Southern Art.

Not only does your silent auction purchase support Ogden Museum of Southern Art’s educational mission to share the art and culture of the American South, but this year, a portion of silent auction sales benefit artists who generously donated work to this important fundraiser. ⁣⁣⁣⁣