Sneak Peek of Items in the O What a Night! Gala Silent Auction, Sponsored by Neal Auction Bidding opens Saturday, October 13, 2024 at 5 p.m.

O What a Night! Gala is Saturday, October 19, 2024! Here is a sneak peek of this year’s Silent Auction, sponsored by Neal Auction.

We are pleased to present 90+ works of art by regional artists in our O What a Night! Gala Silent Auction, supporting and celebrating the art of the American South. Support the O and the artists, who receive a portion of the proceeds, by previewing at the Museum and bidding online starting October 13, 2024.

learn more about O What a Night! Gala Preview all Silent Auction Items

Compton III, SPY BOY, 2024, Resin, acrylic lacquer, 9.5 x 11 x 5 inches, Courtesy of the artist and Axiom Art Gallery

2024 Louisiana Contemporary, Presented by The Helis Foundation artist Compton III is an American artist based in New Orleans, Louisiana. He works in resin and acrylic lacquer, reimagining the traditional purview of creative work produced by southern contemporary artists. As a native New Orleanian, Compton’s work champions the narrative and social realities of the Black male identity in New Orleans. He is the first art toy designer in Louisiana with his debut art toy, “SPY BOY.”

Masterfully handcrafted, “SPY BOY” blends the aesthetic of New Orleans Mardi Gras Indians\Black Masking Indians with an extended imagination of vibrancy and historical relevance. Compton III serves as the creator of Space Broccoli TM featuring the Tunes, a company dedicated to the visual documentation of authentic New Orleans culture and history through a Black American lens. His published comic series, “Off the Porch,” bolts readers into exaggerated adventures of melanin-rich characters in a world reflective of the Big Easy. Beginning with his first public visual art design in street wear fashion to the mythic world of New Orleans found in Space Broccoli TM featuring the Tunes, Compton III’s work explores the hidden stories threaded into the fabric of culture, specifically Black American lifestyle.

The continuation of his work captures the coexistence of nostalgic necessities and contemporary fantasies. Compton III works alongside other international artists within the Axiom Gallery in New Orleans.

Kate Gordon, Tides, 2023, Fluid acrylic on mixed media paper with thread, 34.5 x 35.5 inches, Courtesy of the artist

In a world where reality is a layered event, Kate Gordon’s drawings seek to build illusions that challenge our perception of what is real and what is imagined. For Gordon, the painted picture plane is a three-dimensional installation inlaid with video and, at moments, burgeoning on becoming a pop-up book. The ranging material facts of her work are in keeping with the notion that the dream imagery she mines is not rational and does not prescribe purely to naturalistic sensibilities. Her vision is a translation of the utter strangeness of the world.

Kate Gordon currently holds the position of Assistant Professor Figure Drawing & Foundations at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. She earned an MFA from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and a BFA from Pratt Institute. Gordon has shown her paintings, collages and video works nationally; exhibitions include a solo show at the Hilliard Art Museum, curation into the Weatherspoon Art Museum’s Art on Paper exhibition, an invitation to create a public video installation at Block 2—a visual platform for new media artists in Raleigh, NC, and a solo exhibition at The Carrack, an artist-run project space, in Durham, NC. Most recent professional accomplishments include participating in Kolaj Institute’s Artist Residency in Scotland, curation into the Contemporary Drawing exhibition at UNC Asheville and inclusion in Le Mieux Galleries maximalist group show Is This Too Much?

Gordon was featured in the 2024 edition of  Louisiana Contemporary, Presented by The Helis Foundation.

Jim Steg, Purple and Yellow Abstract with Body Imprint, 1991, Mixed media, oil and airbrush resist on metal mounted on wood, 36 x 36 inches, Courtesy of Frances Swigart-Steg and Amanda Winstead Fine Art

James “Jim” Louis Steg (1922-2001) was an internationally renowned printmaker and professor of art at Newcomb College of Tulane University. Born in Virginia, Steg served in the Army during World War II and went on to earn a bachelor degree and a Master of Fine Art degree from the University of Iowa, where he studied with renowned printmaking professor Mauricio Lasanksy. Of the 16 million Americans who served in WWII, Steg was a member of the elite camouflage unit of the Ghost Army, a clandestine unit which created fake military tableau to fool the Nazis. Steg spent most of his lifetime in New Orleans, teaching at Newcomb College for 43 years. As a professor, Steg inspired generations of students with not only his mastery of traditional printmaking techniques, but also his creativity and innovation in the field.  In 2019, the Archives of American Art of the Smithsonian Institution accepted his papers into their vast archive, a highly distinguished honor for an artist.  Steg’s work is included in the permanent collections of more than sixty prominent international and national museums. The New Orleans Museum of Art presented a solo exhibition of his work in 2017 as well as a retrospective exhibition in 1978. 

This painting from 1991 represents the culmination of Steg’s life’s work as a true innovator of artistic mediums.  Freed from the boundaries of academia after his retirement as a beloved professor of art from Newcomb College, Steg sought to engage in true artistic expression as exemplified by this body of work.  Created by having a model cover herself in Vaseline and imprint her figure in the oil paint, this technique is among the few unique methods used to create these stunning paintings. He combines his other singular methods of xerography, Xerox toner painting, and airbrush resist with monoprint silkscreen, collage and oil painting.

Trenity Thomas, On the Beach with Lemons, 2024, Archival pigment print, Edition of 5, 16 x 20 inches, Courtesy of the artist and Ferrara Showman Gallery

Trenity Thomas is a self-taught photographer who has also experimented with painting and sketching since grade school. As a photographer, he has worked in a myriad of genres including fashion, lifestyle, editorial, conceptual, sports, portraiture, and nightlife photography. As a photographer, Thomas uses his camera to capture the life and composition of still life around him. His photographs have a warmth to them that pulls the viewer into the scene as if they were present – a feature that has become characteristic of his photographic style.

Trenity Thomas has been in various juried exhibitions, most recently, Jonathan Ferrara Gallery’s 24th Annual No Dead Artists and Ogden Museum of Southern Art’s annual juried exhibition Louisiana Contemporary, Presented by The Helis Foundation. His photographs received international attention; They were chosen for exhibition in Photo Vouge, a prestigious collection of photographs curated by the Photo Editors of Vogue Italia.

Thomas states, “growing up watching my mom craft and paint ignited my passion for art. Not only was my mom the primary impact for my artistry, my creative peers also contributed to my overall appreciation of art. While working at Ogden Museum of Southern Art, I was constantly surrounded by beautiful paintings, photos and sculptures as a teen docent and also as a guard. These works deeply influenced me as an artist. In addition, I am a big lover of cinematography in movies, which drives my creativity and influences the imagery I choose to highlight in my photographs.”

Cheryl Anne Grace, Strength & Beauty – Forest Queen, 2018, Mixed media, 16 inches, Courtesy of the artist

Cheryl Anne Grace is a self-taught painter originally from South Carolina. She moved to New Orleans in 2009.  She began teaching herself to paint in her early 20’s and has been showing her work in New Orleans since 2012. Finally, in 2014 she began working as a fulltime artist, her lifelong dream.  Prior to this, she owned 2 art galleries, one in Augusta, GA and one in Aiken, SC. She worked as a non-profit professional for 13 years in Augusta, GA and New Orleans, LA. Her work is in private collections across the country, internationally, and in the public collection of the LSU Health Sciences Center, corporate collections and various film productions.  She was selected for two Prospect 4 Satellite Exhibitions in 2017.  Her work has been selected and shown by the New Orleans Arts Council and featured in Iron Lattice Magazine (cover and inside front and feature), Country Roads Magazine and New Orleans Canvas Magazine. She has regularly exhibited in shows and galleries in New Orleans for the past 10 years and has been selected as a Jazz Fest artist since 2018.  In 2019, Cheryl Anne co-founded the Renegade Artists Collective.  The artists, nationally and internationally known, that make up the Collective are all based in Louisiana and masters of their craft.

She and her husband, Mark Hilzim, live in New Orleans with their two rescue dogs, Bill and Tilly.

Bidding on Silent Auction items, sponsored by Neal Auction, will start online October 13.

O What a Night! Gala raises critical funds for Ogden Museum’s exhibitions and programming. Come support the diversity of art and culture of the American South on October 19, 2024. The gala will feature a seated dinner, live and silent auctions, crafted cocktails, dancing and more!