New Orleans Street Art Tour
Yes, there are pictures!
Just got back from Christmas in New Orleans, and a highlight was a tour of street art by the NOLA Art Walk around the Marigny and Bywater neighborhoods, which were just exploding with murals, tags, and paste ups. Our guide, Tyler, is active in commissioning and preserving street art. We even got to see a work in progress partially funded (very partially, I am sure) by our tour fee.
First we saw, an enfant terrible of NOLA street art, Muck Rock. Already suspect as an outsider for coming to New Orleans after establishing herself in (shudder!) Calfornia, she found herself in hot water for painting a mural of Charles Manson, then responding to the controversy by painting a clown smoking a joint which many said was John Wayne Gary (though TBH, I don’t see it). Also, her prominent signing of her name strikes many as crassly careerist.
Muck Rock later painted and “I’m Sorry,” and Manson/Clown mural is now a gray wall, which I guess some would say is an improvement. Whenever an artist is accused of “going too far,” my gut instinct is to leap to their defense, but maybe I, like Muck Rock, am out of step with current trends. The nineties and early 2000s was filled with art that at best engaged with and at worst appropriated shocking imagery (although, heck, you can trace that instinct back to the early days of punk with Vivienne Westwood attempting to re-contextualize the swastika). That’s clearly fallen out of fashion. All the murals we saw were celebratory of local figures revered in the community, which I found touching, even inspirational. Is it that we now live in more precarious times, when art that seeks just to outrage is seen as a luxury? Or perhaps the punk ethos of épater la bourgeoisie always spoke of a certain privilege, since you can’t thumb your nose at authority if you’ve got a boot on your throat, which sadly feels truer to reality today.
Oh, and Muck Rock’s recent work appears to celebrate New Orleans as a birthplace of Jazz. Yeah, that’s definitely praise-worthy, but also strikes me as shameless pandering.
Next a powerful and contentious mural The Third Line by Henry Lipkis, Ceaux Young, Jessica Strahan and Devin Reynolds, filled with local activists, artists and personalities. It’s in an empty lot which was fenced off to prevent trespassing, thus ensuring it would become an encampment for the unhoused. Its future is uncertain as developers want to turn the place into condos, which is what the neighboring “CASH 4” tag is referencing. Apparently the tag was made using a fire extinguisher with the foam replaced by paint, perfect for large tags in those hard to reach areas.
You’ll also see lots of small tags and “paste ups” such as the XXX Books by Reader, the Transpower flyer by Casual Worm, Octo Baal, Skull by Preacher, and the ghost by ???
Next is a New Orleans collective called the Fruit Salad Gang or FSG, comprised of Public Artist TV, Josh Winatour, Dago and (I think) Octo Baal. Here’s a recent mural “The Last Spray” next to an older work with spray cans re-enacting RESERVOIR DOGS.
Several places on the tour had Koi fish by Jeremy Novy, often on sidewalks. Newer ones were vivid, older were faded, often to the point where our tour guide had to point them out, a testament to the precarious impermanence of street art.
Also saw quite a few paste-ups by this guy, whom our very well-informed guy could not identify. Art is always expanding, I guess.
Loved these murals by Laurel True, who also has a studio right here in LA.
Many murals celebrate New Orleans locals. I saw a few celebrating Big Freedia, clearly beloved by this town. I’ll be checking her out. And one by street artist Preacher of piano legend, the Bayou Maharajaha, James Carol Booker.
And maybe my favorite piece, this one by Fat Kids from Outer Space.
Okay, and I was not the best note taker but this first mural was done in an afternoon by a visiting artist. The second celebrates a late night creature feature host on local New Orleans TV. A lot of places had their last night host, Ghourlardi in Cleveland, Count Twenty in Baltimore. Now I think the last remaining one in Svengoolie in New York.
Oh, and loved piece based on THE COLLECTOR by John Fowles by Registered Artist.
The tour ended with two Banksy’s. One to protest the government’s shitty response to Hurricane Gustav, now largely forgotten thanks to our even shittier response to Hurricane Katrina.
And this last one saved (partially) when the building was demolished by local eatery Habana Outpost, a testament to the precarious existence of street art.
And here’s a bunch more I didn’t have time to identify. (Seriously, there was a LOT of amazing art!) Let me know in the comments if you recognize any.
