COUP REOPENS AFTER HIATUS

Today, Saturday, August 5, Coup begins its new charge as a production and management assistant to my son the artist Blaine Capone ( www.blainecapone.art ). An ongoing exhibit of his works for sale is presented in the front galleries. The rest of the space is used as inventory storage and as a workshop. Whenever you are in the area, please stop in to say hello. Though I don't post regular hours, I plan to be working most Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday afternoons and with notice, am happy to meet at other times.

FARMING, ART in NEW HAMPSHIRE

I have just returned from Rindge, New Hampshire which is on the south central border of the state where I helped Blaine set up his new studio and discussed his upcoming project. He and his partner Paige and their daughter Sylvia have recently moved into a farmhouse built in the early 20th century. His studio is on the second level of the attached barn which was traditionally used for hay storage during the winter. Blaine instead plans to use the ground floor for his hay along with the rest of his farm paraphernalia. While there, my limited strengths were also put to use for bush clearing, post setting, fence building, horse tending, and various other chores regularly performed by country folk!

Coup's gallery space has an ongoing exhibit of works by Blaine. Stop by and check out the adjusted prices compiled in an effort to assist Blaine in his exciting New England venture. I don't post regular hours but plan to be at the gallery on Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday afternoons. Text me at 504-722-0876 or email me at ken@coupdoeilartconsortium.com if you'd like to make sure that I'm there when you plan to visit !

 

GOOD LUCK TO CHRIS, ALICE and OSCAR!

Chris's show was essentially a SELL OUT! Thanks to everyone who came to take home a work. Chris, Alice, and Oscar will be in Baton Rouge for the week, then to Berlin to start their new lives!

COUP RELAUNCHES

Delayed by familiar tribulations, Coup relaunches with the farewell exhibit: 

Coup d’oeil Art Consortium is pleased to welcome the return of Chris Dennis in June for a special two day exhibition of paintings, spanning his exhibition history with the gallery.

All works are available for purchase and due to the time frame, Coup is willing to offer these works at a heavily discounted price in the hope Chris can lighten his load and raise enough funds to ship the remainder of his families’ belongings to Berlin.

Chris Dennis joined Coup while it was still in its infancy, back in 2009. In that time he participated in numerous group shows and salons at the gallery, was featured at art fairs in Miami and New York, and presented three well received solo shows: *Any similarity to persons living or dead is entirely intentional (2009), detritus (2011) and Please Be Quiet, Please (2013).

New Orleans is a hard town to turn your back on, and when Chris left Louisiana in 2010 he left behind many belongings and a lot of paintings, leaving the door open for a possible return. 

But after three years in Auckland, New Zealand and three in Zürich, Switzerland, Chris has settled with his family in Berlin where his wife now holds a position at the University of Potsdam. He now maintains a studio in the building that was once the center for espionage development for the East-German Ministry of State Security.

Recently, Chris has exhibited in group and solo shows across Europe and New Zealand including Auckland, Berlin, London, Brighton, Saint Gallen and Zürich. In 2016 he presented MOTIF/MOTIVE, (his most ambitious solo show to date), at the Jedlitschka Gallery in Zürich, Switzerland and in May 2017 he had a solo booth at the 25^th anniversary of the Huntenkunst in the Netherlands. 

Please join us on the evening of Friday June 9^th, 2017 from 5pm – 8pm and on Saturday June 10^th from 10am -2pm. Chris will be in the gallery from early Friday morning hanging the show, so if you are unable to make the opening, please stop by anytime during the day to view the work, say hello or goodbye, and perhaps save him the trouble of putting a piece on the wall. 

A pdf catalogue is available by request from the artist (www.chrisdennisart.com) at cdennisart@gmail.com, or by contacting the gallery. Chris is eager for his work to find a home and will consider any offers to do so, giving the most favorable terms to the larger works which obviously are more expensive to ship.

For further questions, enquiries, or to reserve an artwork please contact Chris or the gallery.




 

COUP IN RECONFIGURATION MODE

To its chagrin, Coup ended up taking a hiatus which is lasting longer than expected. However, progress toward reopening is happening, and it seems as if we'll be reopening after the holidays. The format will be different in that Coup will be involved in management and production assistance of my son the artist Blaine Capone.

SUMMER HIATUS

COUP is taking a hiatus during which it will be reconfiguring its mission. 

Thanks to all of its friends who have been so tireless in their support. 

The Advocate's Steven Forster captures the fun at the opening reception for Dona Lief's " And the Beat Goes On "

http://www.theneworleansadvocate.com/beaucoup/15534590-171/steven-forsters-party-central-dona-lief-at-coup-doeil

DONA LIEF: And the Beat Goes On

The opening reception of Dona Lief's portraits of musicians sets the stage for a jazzy time in New Orleans. 

FOCI Arts presents contemporary music concert for the closing of The BEAUTY FOOLS | Saturday, April 9

ANODE 16.2: Weston Olencki

FOCI Arts’ series ANODE (“Artistic New Orleans: Discussions and Extensions”) returns in 2016 with San Francisco-based contemporary music trombonist Weston Olencki. Olencki specializes in hyper-extended instrumental technique, intensive performance physicality, and re-definition of the performing body. His ANODE 16.1 program will feature some of the most imaginative music of today, including work by Aaron Cassidy, Andrew Greenwald, Evan Johnson, Michelle Lou, Timothy McCormack, Philip Schuessler, and Katherine Young. Olencki’s severe commitment, unimpeachable focus, and stunning technique make him one of the most thrilling young performers in American contemporary music. He has performed with some of the country’s most significant new music ensembles, including Ensemble Dal Niente, Fonema Consort, and Wild Rumpus, and is a recipient of a prestigious Stipendenpreis from the Internationales Musikinstitut Darmstadt. His visit to New Orleans promises to explore the very outer reaches of the musically and humanly possible.

ANODE 16.1 will consist of a performance and preconcert talk by Olencki and New Orleans-based composer Ray Evanoff at Southeastern Louisiana University on April 7, 2016, and a concert presented in conjunction with Versipel New Music in New Orleans on April 9, 2016 at Coup d'oeil Art Consortium. Details and full program to be announced soon.

What's Left Behind: "The BEAUTY FOOLS"

Check out the review of The BEAUTY FOOLS by Benjamin Morris of Pelican Bomb:

http://pelicanbomb.com/art-review/2016/whats-left-behind-the-beauty-fools

FOCI Arts: ANODE 16.1: Speech and Song

Saturday evening FOCI Arts ( https://fociarts.com/ ) brought Omaha-based soprano Amanda Deboer Bartlett and New Orleans-based poet Lauren Capone to Coup. Ms. Bartlett performed works of contemporary music composers George Aperghis and Ray Evanoff, and Ms. Capone read poems from her collection The Hat Lady Equation as well as selected works from a few of her favorite poets. The performances were experienced alongside Coups current exhibit The BEAUTY FOOLS.

The BEAUTY FOOLS opened on Saturday, March 5

Coup artist CHRIS DENNIS has solo exhibit in Zurich

Jedlitschka Gallery

Seefeldstrasse 52. 8008 Zürich

Tel. +41 (0)44 252 35 30

info@jedlitschka-gallery.ch

www.jedlitschka-gallery.ch

Press Release:

The Jedlitschka Gallery is pleased to present the first solo exhibition of paintings in Zürich, by the artist Chris Dennis.

The exhibition will run from March 31st 2016, through May 21st, 2016 with an opening reception on Thursday, March 31 from 5pm to 8 pm. The artist will be in attendance.

MOTIF/ MOTIVE

New Paintings by Chris Dennis.

“When I said I paint the same things again and again because I think about the same things again and again, did you think I was joking?” 

Chris Dennis paints his images within a visual world he began to construct in 1996, when he produced a series of paintings based on a collection of short stories by Bret Easton Ellis called The Informers. His figures, with animal heads, are not some other-worldly creatures from Science fiction. They are masks or disguises. The likeness may be hidden but the choice of animal tells its own truth. From here, Chris explores ideas about biography /autobiography, authorship and the unreliable source.

MOTIF/ MOTIVE is an exhibition presented literally in two halves and depicts a split in the mind of ‘the Painter’. This fugue state, not unlike that portrayed by David Lynch in his film, Lost Highway blurs the line between truth and untruth, fantasy and reality.

The left hand side of the gallery displays 9 panels that appear considerably larger to anyone aware of Chris’ previous work. Familiar figures with the heads of fish are placed in landscapes surrounded by water and dominated by an empty horizon. He, sometimes she, sometimes a couple look out on dark water and stormy skies, that threaten pain that is hinted at in paintings titled, A Lake and Promises, Promises but is clearly visible on the skin of the female figure in The Sting.

Around their feet, the shoreline is littered with the past - used matches, crusted, old and splattered paint. And then there is the text. Does it explain, confuse or simply amuse?

On the wall opposite are more numerous, smaller paintings, hung erratically at strange sight-lines. Our eyes dart around as we voyeuristically spy a series of female figures with bird heads. WE are focused on THEM. Their surroundings are clumsily dismissed or ignored and are interspersed with panels of bright white and bare plywood that is ubiquitous in the gallery and art fair. Something is unattainable in these images, be it from the covetous gaze of the viewer, or the wingless, figures who cannot escape the confinement of their cramped compositions.

These 2 sides collide in the centre. A single portrait (the largest piece in the show) looks down on the not too comfortable chair, cell phone, Starbucks, paperback, left behind by a ‘Gallerina’ or ‘Museumsaufsicht’.

Drifting sand invades from the left, littered with the detritus produced by these very paintings that will in time bury all trace of the other.

Chris Dennis Moved to Zürich in 2013 and joined the gallery soon after. Born (1974) in The South of England he received his BA (Hons) from the University of Wolverhampton in 1996. He has lived in Berlin and New Zealand and spent 13 years in the United States, earning in 2000, his MFA from the University of Art College in San Francisco. He has exhibited continuously, in cities including London, Brighton, San Francisco, New York, New Orleans, Baton Rouge,

Nashville, Miami, Berlin, Auckland, St. Gallen and Zürich.

On Friday, May 13th at 6pm, there will be a Q&A with the artist, hosted by Dr. Mark Staff Brandl. Visitors will be invited to submit questions throughout the duration of the exhibition, on-line and via a box on the chair of the installation.

Please contact the gallery with further questions or enquiries.

HUSBAND AND WIFE PUBLISH FOUND MANUSCRIPT DETAILING A FORGOTTEN NEW ORLEANS

                                                                                                 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE   

THE BEAUTY FOOLS 

After Seven Years The Beauty Fools Is Released With An Art Exhibition

Book Release and Opening Reception

Saturday, March 5^th · 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.

Coup d’oeil Art Consortium, 2033 Magazine Street

NEW ORLEANS—After the chaos of Hurricane Katrina, a package arrived on the Lower Garden District doorstep of New Orleans-based editor Timothy Alan Weeks and artist Lala Rascic. Inside the package, sent from All Souls, England, was a manuscript and a handwritten message that read simply, “Please understand.” Over the following seven years, Weeks edited the manuscript down to 100,000 words and Rascic brilliantly illustrated the characters and their environs to create The Beauty Fools, a sprawling “Southern Baroque” tale that follows its protagonists through celebration and collapse in 1990’s New Orleans.

“When I first read the manuscript, I felt that this was quite possibly the greatest literary find since A Confederacy of Dunces,” said Weeks.

The Beauty Fools team produced a limited pre-edition run of 300 copies designed in collaboration with the award-winning Hamper Studio in Zagreb, Croatia. This exquisite volume is shaped and proportioned as an oversized box of tarot cards, placed in an embossed and gold foiled box. In addition to the book, each box contains a small deck of colorized illustrations from the book, expanding on the tarot card theme. The pre-edition run will be available exclusively at Coup d’oeil Art Consortium at a price of $36.00 per book.

To accompany the launch of the book, Coup d’oeil Art Consortium (2033 Magazine Street) in New Orleans will host a month-long exhibition featuring multimedia installations inspired by The Beauty Fools, a series of limited edition intaglio prints based on the book’s illustrations, and a series of events and readings. The Beauty Fools exhibition will open to the public on Saturday, March 5^th from 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM and run through Saturday April, 9^th on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday from 2:00 PM to 6:00 PM. Copies of the pre-edition and limited-edition intaglio prints can be reserved by calling the gallery at (504) 722-0876.

The Beauty Fools team will also launch a Kickstarter campaign to take pre-orders for the first edition and paperback edition of the volume.

ABOUT THE BEAUTY FOOLS

Synopsis

The Beauty Fools is the tale of Blake Kennedy, a young cynic who says “Why? Why? Why?” until the charming Eliot Dejan and beguiling Miss Peaches teach him how to say “Why Not?” and whisk him away on a wild jaunt. Eliot and Miss Peaches, who embody the adage that living well is the best revenge, soon introduce Blake to Doctor Kookie, a tarot card reader and slick street mystic who guides the group on a crazed trip to the Mexican desert. The story – about being young and having fun – takes place against the backdrop of famous (and infamous) New Orleans landmarks: the Sazerac Bar of the Roosevelt, the Victorian Lounge at the Columns Hotel, Jazz Fest, Commander’s Palace, Orpheum Theater, Moonwalk, Napoleon House, R-Bar, Rocky & Carlo’s, and ends tragically on Mardi Gras in the Royal Street courtyard that is now Café Amelie. A tale about learning to fly – and flying too high.

“I’m constantly fussing that contemporary novels are always 50 pages too long, and this story was no different. Late one night at John Paul’s Bar, I wagered a friend that I could make this glorious mess into magic. I always wanted to be Max Perkins. And I finally found my Fitzgerald”

 –Timothy Alan Weeks

Illustrations

The Beauty Fools contains 14 illustrations developed over a period of three years by visual artist Lala Rascic. The illustrations are rendered in black and white, as they appear in the book. The challenge of working on The Beauty Fools was that the project was executed from scratch for a text from an anonymous author. Rascic took inspiration from the book’s language to create illustrations that were full and rich.

“The overall idea was to represent the iconic New Orleans with its famous checklist of places, but also a rebellious, fun-loving, and sometimes melancholic youth set loose on the Crescent City and beyond.”

– Lala Rascic

The Beauty Fools at Coup d’oeil Art Consortium

This exhibition will use a space conventionally reserved for the display of the visual arts to bring focus to text and enliven the generic model of a book launch.

·         The fourteen illustrations from The Beauty Fools will be released as a series of intaglio prints in a limited edition of five. The black and white edition will be printed on 14 x 20 in. acid free rag paper and signed and numbered by artist Lala Rascic. One exhibition edition will be displayed at the gallery, the remainder will be available for sale as an edition or individually.

·         A multimedia installation will bring words from the book to life in a blacked out room of the gallery. Artifacts from the production of the book and the accompanying illustrations will be displayed, documenting the process.

“We wanted to explode all the possibilities in a gesamkunstwerk exhibition that draws from all the textual and visual elements of The Beauty Fools book and its story.”

–Timothy Alan Weeks and Lala Rascic

Timothy Alan Weeks and Lala Rascic

Timothy Alan Weeks is an editor, analyst, and project manager for a virtual company with numerous Fortune 500 clients. Weeks was previously a financial analyst and editor for both a Dutch and Belgian startup, and before that covered EU central bank policy while living in Germany. Besides writing sundry freelance articles for European business and lifestyle magazines, he edited and published the English edition of a Swiss travel book. Weeks is also the publisher of the Wise Mullet children’s books series, which are based on the Gulf Coast.

Lala Rascic is a multimedia artist working across disciplines that include performance, video, installation, and painting. Her work has been exhibited internationally and is part of both private and public collections, including Croatia's Museum of Contemporary Art. Rascic was awarded artist residencies at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam, Platform Garanti in Istanbul, KulturKontakt in Vienna, and Cité des Arts in Paris, and in 2013 was the recipient of a Future of Europe award in Leipzig. Rascic divides her time between her native Sarajevo, Zagreb, and New Orleans, where she is a member of artist-run Good Children Gallery on St. Claude Street.