Southeastern Contemporary Art Gallery to exhibit artwork by four artists
Wednesday, June 22, 2022
by: Tonya Lowentritt 
THE ART OF DISGUISE - The Department of Visual Art + Design at Southeastern Louisiana University is currently hosting a summer exhibit titled “Disguises” at the university’s Contemporary Art Gallery, located at 100 East Strawberry Stadium. Works in the exhibition feature contemporary artists working with garment design, masking and make-up as a form of world-building and story-telling. The piece “Jamais Vu” by artist Basqo Bim is one of the works currently on display. The exhibition is free and open to the public until Aug. 25.
HAMMOND – The Department of Visual Art + Design at Southeastern Louisiana University
is currently hosting a summer exhibit by four artists – Orly Anan, Basqo Bim, Phlegm,
and Ryn Wilson - titled “Disguises” at the university’s Contemporary Art Gallery,
located at 100 East Strawberry Stadium.
The exhibition is free and open to the public until Aug. 25. Contemporary Art
Gallery hours are Monday, Tuesday and Thursday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. with extended
hours until 8 p.m. on Wednesdays, and Friday 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. A closing reception
with some of the artists is scheduled Aug. 25., at 5 p.m., in the gallery.
Works in the exhibition feature contemporary artists working with garment design,
masking and make-up as a form of world-building and story-telling, said Gallery Director
Cristina Molina.
“From Colombia, Israel and New Orleans, the exhibiting artists share a commitment
to creating characters that transcend the mundane and propose alternate realities,”
Molina explained. “Orly Anan and Ryn Wilson create elaborate scenes to implicate how
mysticism might trickle from the unconscious and become folded into everyday life.
Basqo Bim and Phlegm engage in ritual acts of mask-making that reshape ancestral and
mythical narratives. Set within miles of Louisiana Carnival capitals, these artists
offer us a glimpse into the transformative possibilities of costuming.”
Anan is a Colombian/Israeli visual artist and art director interested in the
mysticism implicated in everyday life, Molina said. She is currently experimenting
with the intersection of ritual and popular culture, as well as Anthropocosmic Surrealism.
Anan’s client list includes Nike, VH1, Spotify, and Netflix, to name a few, and her
artwork has been exhibited in museums and galleries across the world, including Miami,
London, Mexico City and Toronto. Her immersive installation “Salon Delicatessen” is
currently on view at the Museum of Museums in Seattle. Currently a resident of Mexico
City, Anan’s artistic research has led her to explore the traditions of various countries,
from Asia to Latin America, and these cultures are her main inspiration.
Originally from a rural town in South Carolina, Bim has been living in New Orleans
for the past three years and is of Colombian origin. Bim is self-taught and has been
making art for seven years.
“Basque began with drawing, quickly moved to illustration, and then began learning
embroidery and large-scale sculpture,” Molina said. “After landing in New Orleans,
Basque’s focus and passion quickly turned to masking and costuming, utilizing both
old and new skill sets to build new worlds and shift consensus reality.”
Phlegm is a New Orleans born and based multidisciplinary artist who also penned
the mantra “Everything You Love About New Orleans is Because of Black People.”
“At this current point, my work serves to exist as a ritual drama of my personal
Black universe. It serves to more firmly connect my Black spiritual concept of time,”
he explained, “connecting the past to the present and the present to the future -
communally sacred and personally precious. It attempts to tie all the loose ends of
the Black ethos, influence, and inspiration into one braid. It is, at its core, an
affirmation of life – my life, the life of my ancestors, and the life of my community.”
“My work, and by extension my life, makes a production about the necessity and
value of Black spiritual presence – a meditation in duality. It is serious and irreverent,
heavy and heavenly, calculated and casual. It is dual consciousness.”
Wilson is a photography and video artist working in New Orleans. She creates
cinematic narratives with an emphasis on feminism, mythology and the environment.
Before moving to New Orleans, Wilson lived in Tokyo, Bangkok, Hamburg and Shanghai,
where she assisted the Chinese photographer Maleonn. She was a member of the artist-run
gallery The Front, from 2014-2019, where she exhibited, curated and organized an annual
short film festival.
In 2018, Wilson co-founded the Crystal Efemmes, a quartet of interdisciplinary
artists that create immersive installations retelling myths and histories from a perspective
that honors marginalized populations. Her work has been featured at the Ford Foundation
Gallery in New York City, the New Orleans Museum of Art, the Contemporary Arts Center
New Orleans, Kunsthall Stavanger in Norway, and the Oslo International Video Art Festival.
She also works as a costume designer and seamstress for film, performance and fashion.
For more information, contact Molina at cmolina@southeastern.edu or 985-549-5080.
