River Oaks announces stellar exhibition line-up for 2023

“January is always one of the most exciting months here at the arts center as we announce the exhibition line-up for the coming year,” says Rachael Dauzat, Executive Director at River Oaks. “The announcement, which is part of our annual membership drive, is the culmination of almost an entire year of working with artists, coordinating schedules, and competing for the highest caliber of artists and instructors available. Each exhibition is, as always, accompanied by an opening reception, which has been moved to Thursday for 2023 to better serve the community.”

The first exhibition of the year will feature Warren Irwin in the Bolton Davis Gallery starting February 9, 2023. Irwin is an art instructor and football coach from the New Orleans area and the Best-in-Show winner of the 2021 5x5x5 Miniature Call and Exhibition. He returns to River Oaks with a full lineup of exquisite art rooted in over twenty years of ink on paper and more. Resident Artist Lindsay Moore will exhibit in the Galerie des Amis during this time, showcasing some of her renowned mixed-media creations. An exhibition of our outreach project with Regency House and Hope House with Instructors Carla Guillory and Laura Gates respectively will be on display in the Stokes Harris Gallery.

On April 13, 2023, the 9th Annual Dirty South Cup Call will make its much-anticipated return to River Oaks and, with it, this year’s guest juror Gwendolyn Yoppolo. The Dirty South Cup Call brings over one hundred functional and non-functional cups, mugs, and yunomis from all over the country to Central Louisiana in what has grown to be one of the most popular cup shows in the American South. Yoppolo is a maker, thinker, and educator whose sensuous designs challenge the ways we nourish ourselves and others within contemporary food culture and will invite some of her contemporaries and friends to her Friends of the Juror exhibition at the same time. Resident Artist Sylvia Kerry will be featured in an exhibition in the Galerie des Amis.

Following the Dirty South Cup Call will be the River Oaks Resident Artist Annual Summer Show starting June 1 which showcases what our resident artists have been creating at River Oaks in the year leading up to the show - and what a spectacle of creativity it is every year. Resident artists either create a piece just for the summer show or select their proudest creation of the previous year and display it in what can only be described as creativity gone wild! Resident Artist Jane Crowell will fill the Galerie des Amis with her latest creations while Printer and Art Historian Maddie Anderson takes her art to the next level in the Stokes Harris Gallery. The Dirty South Cup Call will also be featured as a virtual exhibition.

At this time Summer Art Studio with Dusty Reed in residency will also kick off with the customary four sessions taking place June 5-16, June 19-30, July 10-14, and July 17-28. As always River Oaks will hold a special exhibition and reception for the Summer Arts Studio Young Creatives to show off their work on August 12.

Next, Ceramic Artist Melanie Sherman will be featured starting August 31. “I am a ceramic artist, working mainly with porcelain and focusing on lavish surface decoration,” says Sherman. “My work references exclusive and precious porcelain wares from 18th-century Europe as I seek to capture the qualities for which porcelain has been known since its discovery thousands of years ago in China: purity, translucency, and resonance.” She will be joined by Resident Artist, River Oaks Artistic Director, and Summer Arts Studio Camp Director Aubrey Bolen in the Galerie des Amis and Photographer Shannon Fender in the Stokes Harris Gallery.

After a brief intermission of the Van Gogh Star & Mentor Artist Exhibition on October 26-28, 2023, it will be time for the second national call that River Oaks looks forward to every year, the 5x5x5 Show National Call Miniature Exhibition, this year featuring Tom Richard as Guest Juror. Richard is a Professor of Art at the University of Arkansas at Monticello. His two-dimensional mixed media studio practice addresses issues of history and identity as well as the making of history and identity by incorporating specific historical references, planned acts of painting, and spontaneous processes. Resident Artist Charissa Owens will close the year out in the Galerie des Amis while the Stokes Harris Gallery will host another favorite Outreach Project, the Rapides ARC, Pecan Grove, Bolton High School Students with Instructor Lindsay Moore. The 5x5x5 Show National Call will be available for viewing on the River Oaks Virtual Exhibitions site.

Aside from stellar art all year long, River Oaks will also host their three community favorite fundraisers of the year - Men Who Cook at River Oaks on May 20, The Van Gogh Gala on October 28, and the Annual Christmas Porch Sale on December 2.

“As you can see, things remain action-packed over here at the most creative corner of Downtown Alexandria,” concludes Dauzat. “If you’re a patron and supporter, we certainly hope that you will continue to support our efforts. If you’ve never been to River Oaks, we hope you come and visit - because if you do, you will fall in love with the place and the organization the same way we all have.”

2023 Exhibition Openings are sponsored by Louisiana Travel - Louisiana Feed Your Soul, Red River Bank, Rapides Regional Medical Center, The Hotel Bentley and various sponsors throughout the year. For more information on exhibitions and events, call River Oaks at 318-473-2670, visit RiverOaksArtsCenter.com or find us on Facebook as River Oaks Arts Center.