Theaters are no longer the ideal stages for the display of contemporary life, nor are actors the ultimate vehicles of the contemporary character. This is more true in New Orleans than anywhere else, where streets are stages and anyone is an actor on Mardi Gras Day. Inspired by recent staged events in New Orleans, from seasonal festivals to street theatre or experimental opera to movie shoots, City Stage gives an update to the Shakespearean idea of the world as a stage through the works of emerging artists from New Orleans and beyond infused by the spirit of the stage.

City Stage is a reflection on scenic spaces or stages, be they a concert stage, a movie set, a photographer's studio or the streets during carnival and the way in which they impact on current visual arts production. City Stage looks at the way in which artistic fields outside of the visual arts, and for which the visual is only but one element, influence contemporary art which is itself less and less dominated by the preeminence of the purely visual and material, but instead becoming increasingly aural and performative. Although the exhibition is not solely centered on New Orleans, it recognizes the city's many theatrical, musical and carnival stages as a major source of inspiration for such artistic productions.

Works in City Stage run the gamut of elements in a staged production from theatrical sets to costumes to studio photography. With Debris Man, originally created for 7 days in Paradise, a multimedia opera he co-wrote and played in, Jeffrey Cook brings the idea of the fetish explored in previous work to life, with a costume that is also a kinetic sculpture. Taking Paul Chan's Waiting for Godot as a starting point, Cauleen Smith invents a sci-fi narrative in which she uses the streets of New Orleans as a backdrop and stages its people as characters of the future in The Fullness of Time. In Bruce Davenport's drawing series, the protagonists are High-School marching bands whose regimented use of space brings to the fore the acquired stage qualities of New Orleans streets. Inspired by 1960's set design, theatrical props and fashion, Adrian Price blends the boundaries between stage and catwalk in an installation in which she revisits the images of women in mass media. The human figure is absent from Adia Millett staged environment in which props are given life through lighting and become leading characters. Finally Colin Miller and Michalene Thomas bring a different twist to studio portraiture, the former by subverting the televised image of the news anchor and the latter by using retro imagery in very contemporary depictions of African-American subjects elevated to the status of icons.

By presenting staged and fictional representations from or in the spirit of New Orleans, City Stage questions the supposed truthful images and reports given by the media, suggesting instead that the City might be best experienced in the realm of the imagination.

Artists in the exhibition include Jeffrey Cook (New Orleans), Bruce Davenport Jr. (New Orleans), Adrian Price (New Orleans), Colin Miller (Lafayette), Adia Millett (Los Angeles), Cauleen Smith (Boston), Mickalene Thomas (New York).

Exhibition curated by Claire Tancons, Associate Curator, Contemporary Arts Center.

For information, call (504) 528-3805