Natural Wonders: The Art of Jacqueline Bishop and Douglas Bourgeois

The artists Jacqueline Bishop (born 1955) and Douglas Bourgeois (born 1951) reside in Louisiana, a state that is a place of profound mystery embodied in its history, culture, and the distinctive landscape. Like their predecessor artist from the Gulf Coast of Mississippi, Walter Anderson (1903–1965), Bishop and Bourgeois are in a sense “artist activists.” Their work calls the viewers’ attention to various threats to our natural world and to our cultural traditions. Bishop has travelled the world, focusing on the loss of habitat and destruction of natural environments in developing countries, as well as closer to her New Orleans home. Like Bishop, Douglas Bourgeois also tracks a landscape, this one the cultural melting pot that has characterized Louisiana and its society since settlement. His compositions meld imagery from popular culture with portraits of the colorful characters native to this state, which retains its distinctive sense of the various ethnicities that have built it over time.

This exhibition will present examples of each artist’s work that demonstrate their mutual interest in the environmental and social dislocation that is of increasing concern as we progress into the twenty-first century. Both are meticulous craftspeople whose paintings assemble objects and people into compositions that are vibrant and layered with nuance. Each in his and her own way reflect a consciousness of the inevitable mortality of peoples, societies, and the earth itself.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website