Upcoming Exhibitions
2010
Keith Sonnier: Fort Crèvecoeur
October 9, 2010 - January 2, 2011
Keith Sonnier, Quachita (Cat Doucet series), 1996, neon, argon lighting, bamboo, plastic, 100 x 64 x 12 inches.
Keith Sonnier, a globally recognized artist best known for large-scale installations and sculptures that include neon, has never forgotten the allure of his Acadian birthplace. After completing his studies at the University of Southwestern Louisiana and, later, Rutgers University, he moved to New York City, where his career quickly took off.
This exhibition, his first major one-person museum show in Louisiana, features a dozen large sculptural works created in direct response to his origins. Sympathetic to Louisiana’s crisis as a result of the recent oil spill in the gulf, Sonnier has named this exhibition Fort Crèvecoeur, or “fort broken heart.” The name references the Illinois fort where the French explorer LaSalle took refuge before his famous expedition down the Mississippi River in 1682.
This exhibition has been funded in part by a grant from the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, the state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities, and by a Local Project Assistance Grant from the Arts Council of Greater Baton Rouge, funded by the Mayor-President and the Baton Rouge Metro Council. It is also supported by generous grants from the Albemarle Foundation; the Baton Rouge Area Foundation, Cary Saurage Fund in honor of Alma Lee and H. N. Saurage Jr.; and the Josef Sternberg Memorial Fund.