Katrina Art Show

Folsom resident and New Orleans native
Rolland Golden's work, KATRINA: DAYS OF TERROR, MONTHS OF ANGUISH
will show at NOMA beginning this weekend.


From the Times Picayune
One hundred trees crashed down around Golden's home in Folsom when Katrina struck. He protected his trove of art from the leaking roof, then fled to Jackson, Miss., to wait for power and other services to be restored. It was Sept. 27 when he first toured New Orleans, where he was born and had lived most of his adult life.
Working from his own photographs, television images and memory, Golden began rendering grim but oddly magnetic visions of the damaged city. Unexpectedly, his usually upbeat artistic gamesmanship blended perfectly with the bitter circumstance. A flood victim's plaid shirt symbolically merges with the ruined roof line in the background, as if he literally were covered with the disaster. A row of ghostly hands reaches from the water to form a secondary flood line, leaving the indelible mark of those who perished. Around a swamped school bus, chalkboard letters mix eerily with other floating debris, implying, perhaps, that innocence is still another casualty of the flood. The black and orange stripes of police barricades become Halloween decorations, blending the frightful date with the frightful situation.


These incredibly sad paintings are so sharp, so well done.
They capture the ravaged landscape caused by the federal flood in stinging detail.

Mr. Golden's body of work encompasses themes such as
Landscapes
Musicians
French Scenes
Cows
Games & Borderline Sur-realism
Sunsets
Southern Scenes
Roads & Highways
Snow Scenes


Here are the details of the show:
KATRINA: DAYS OF TERROR, MONTHS OF ANGUISH BY ROLLAND GOLDEN
What:Career-topping exhibit of subtly surrealistic paintings with post-Katrina subjects, by the well-known regional artist.
Where: New Orleans Museum of Art, City Park, (504) 658-4100.
When: Wednesday to Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The museum will be closed Saturday to prepare for the annual Odyssey Ball. The exhibit opens to the public Sunday, through Feb. 17.
Admission: Louisiana residents free. Nonresident admission: Adults $7, seniors $6, children (3 to 17) $3, younger than 3 free.