Gulf Aid Art at Jonathan Ferrara Gallery

GULF AID ART: ARTISTS IN ACTION, A Fundraising Exhibition of Louisiana Artists Responding to the Gulf Oil Spill.
June 17-19, 2010 at Jonathan Ferrara Gallery


Jonathan Ferrara Gallery is proud to announce GULF AID ART: ARTISTS IN ACTION, A Fundraising Exhibition of Louisiana Artists Responding to the Gulf Oil Spill.

The benefit exhibition will take place from June 17-19th at the gallery located in the New Orleans Arts District. The exhibition will feature new works by over 25 well-known Louisiana artists reacting to the greatest environmental disaster in US history. Gallery owner Jonathan Ferrara and artist Dan Tague, both arts activists , conceived of the exhibition as a way for the visual arts community of New Orleans to respond to the disaster.

The exhibition will open on Thursday June 17th at 11am, with an artist reception from 6-9pm that night and will run for through Saturday June 19th at 5pm and continue online throughout the summer.

As this crisis has unfolded, citizens across the state have felt helpless in being able to respond the disaster.

What action can I take?
What can I do?
What is happening?
What is our future?
How can we help our fellow Louisianans who are being directly affected right now?

Inspired by actions taken by the musical community in organizing the recent Gulf Aid concert that featured musicians like Lenny Kravitz and Preservation Hall Jazz Band, visual artists are banding together to offer their creative talents in response to this disaster.

"Musicians have done their part and now visual artists are going to do their part as well to respond to this terrible disaster. We all are terrified, upset, anxious and damn mad about what has transpired and we have to use our creativity to speak up, comment, criticize and make our voices heard. We are all in this together and artists must take action!" - Jonathan Ferrara

Both Tague and Ferrara have a history of responding to disasters via artistic endeavors. In 2006, after Hurricane Katrina, Ferrara created New Orleans Artists In Exile, a travelling exhibition of artists affected by the hurricane. In 2006-7, Ferrara was instrumental in distributing over $40,000 in direct grants to artists in need recovering from Katrina. And in 2010, artist Dan Tague created a limited edition print (100), United For Haiti, which sold out in a week and immediately raised over $7500 for victims of the earthquake in Haiti. Those funds were donated to the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund.

For GULF AID ART, each artist was challenged to create a new print edition with the only criteria that they respond / react to the current crisis affecting their home, health, happiness and economic futures. Each artist has created a limited edition print of 10 that will be sold both in the gallery during the limited run exhibition and online via the gallery's website. In an effort to make the work accessible to the general public and raise as much money as possible, the prices of the works will range between $100 and $500 with the potential to raise $80,000.

For this fundraiser, Ferrara will take down his current exhibition and install the 25+ works in the galley for a three-day fundraising exhibition. A to Z Framing of New Orleans, who is generously donating the framing, will frame the works in the exhibition.

In addition to the works in the gallery , British photojournalist Charlie Varley will exhibit a slide show of his photographs taken since the April 20th explosion documenting the spill and its aftermath. Varley's photos are regularly published around the world in Time magazine, Newsweek, The Times, The Wall Street Journal among others.

The exhibition will open on Thursday June 17th at 11am, with an artist reception from 6-9pm that night and it will run for through Saturday June 19th at 5pm. Louisiana's own Abita Beer is also a sponsor of the event.

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100% of the proceeds will be donated to Gulf Aid. Gulf Aid is a 501(c3) nonprofit corporation established in response to the biggest oil spill in US history just 50 miles off of the Louisiana Coast.

The mission of the Gulf Relief Foundation is to provide relief to the fishing community of the Gulf Coast and their families, and to address the long-term challenge of restoring and protecting America's coastal wetlands.

The fund will ensure all proceeds are distributed to organizations focused on supporting wetlands/coastal environmental issues & the well being of fishermen, and the regional seafood industry.
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Exhibition Sponsors

Jonathan Ferrara Gallery (special thanks to Gallery Director Jessica Inman)
A to Z Framing of New Orleans
Abita Beer
Express Signs



SEVERAL OF THE ARTISTS IN THIS EXHIBITION ARE IN NUMEROUS MUSEUM AND PROMINENT COLLECTIONS ACROSS THE COUNTRY

The featured artists for GULF AID ART are:

Christopher Saucedo, Professor of Sculpture, University of New Orleans
Dan Rule, Professor of Imaging, University of New Orleans, represented by Jonathan Ferrara Gallery
Krista Jurisich, Art Teacher represented by Jonathan Ferrara Gallery
Dan Tague, Prospect.2 Biennial Artist represented by Jonathan Ferrara Gallery
Skylar Fein, Prospect.1 Biennial Artist represented by Jonathan Ferrara Gallery
Brian Guidry, Artist and Curator of Acadiana Center for the Arts in Lafayette, LA
Robert Tannen, Prospect.2 Biennial Artist, and Founder of New Orleans Contemporary Arts Center
Sandy Chism, Professor of Painting, Tulane University, represented by Jonathan Ferrara Gallery
Teresa Cole, Professor of Art, Tulane University, represented by Gallery Bienvenu,
Sally Heller, artist represented by Gallery Bienvenu, New Orleans
Ron Bechet, Professor of Art, Xavier University
Tina Girouard, Prospect.2 Biennial artist and Internationally known interdisciplinary artist since the 1970s, known for her art and activism in Haiti since 1980s.
David Bradshaw, artist, activist and collaborator with William S. Burroughs and Robert Rauschenberg
British Photojournalist Charlie Varley represented by news photo agency SIPA Press in New York and Paris and Jonathan Ferrara Gallery in New Orleans.
Douglas Bourgeois represented by Arthur Roger Gallery
Dawn Dedeaux, Prospect.2 Biennial artist represented by Arthur Roger Gallery
Kyle Bravo, printmaker and founder of The Front artist cooperative in St Claude Arts District, represented by Jonathan Ferrara Gallery
Jennifer Odem, art faculty, New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts (NOCCA)represented by 511 Gallery in NY
David Sullivan
Rajko Radovanovic
Photographer Bob Compton
Daphne Loney
Cynthia Scott
Brian Borrello
Stephen Collier, one of the founders of Good Children Gallery
Michael Greathouse, Kelman Visser Gallery, Brussels
and
Matt Vis and Tony Campbell (Generic Art Solutions), Good Children Gallery




Jonathan Ferrara Gallery

Jonathan Ferrara Gallery is a collective environment of creative visions. A commercial gallery with a public conscience. Artist, activist, and entrepreneur Jonathan Ferrara opened the gallery in 1998 to give artists a greater voice. Since its inception, the gallery has focused on cutting edge works by local, national and international artists with a sense of purpose, mission, and message.



For more information about Gulf Aid, the charity, please visit www.gulfaid.org.