30th Annual NO DEAD ARTISTS
International Juried Exhibition of Contemporary Art"First Saturdays" Opening Reception - 3 October 5-9 PM - in conjunction with ART FOR ARTS' SAKE DOWNTOWN
September 11 – October 24, 2026
Samantha Combs
BackBiography
SAMANTHA COMBS
lives & works — Baton Rouge, LA
Sam is a multimedia artist based in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Originally from Upstate New York, she earned an M.F.A. from Louisiana State University in 2020 and holds a B.A. in psychology and a B.F.A. in painting from SUNY Potsdam. Her work has been featured in recent exhibitions including And Now For Something New at Lemieux Gallery and Art of the South at Zeitgeist Gallery. She has also exhibited at Ogden Museum of Southern Art and SUNY Global Center, and presented a solo exhibition at Good Children Gallery. She has participated in residencies at Burren College of Art and Salem Art Works and is a member of Good Children Gallery.
Sam is an Assistant Professor of painting and mixed-media at Southern University Baton Rouge, where she serves as gallery director and oversees exhibitions, workshops, and community events. Her work has helped secure a $500,000 Louisiana Board of Regents Departmental Enhancement Grant for the arts program. As an artist, educator, and mental health advocate, she draws on both fields to build connections and foster community.
Artist Statement
In my work, the shower serves as both a literal and metaphorical refuge—a private site where the emotional and cognitive remnants of daily life are confronted, processed, and symbolically
washed away. Yet rather than disappearing entirely, these fragments gather within the drain, a threshold between consciousness and the unseen layers of thought and feeling. This imagined
buildup drives my work: what form might these layered, internal experiences take if they were made visible?
Using soap and repurposed pages from self-help literature, I explore the relationship between personal emotional labor and the cultural pressure to appear composed, productive, and “clean.”
Soap, meant to cleanse, paradoxically collects and transforms in my work, embodying the tracesof thought and feeling. The fragmented language of self-help texts reflects society’s persistent
promise that emotional difficulty can be managed, optimized, or washed away, yet it too becomes part of this layering, revealing the gap between the ideal of purification and the reality
of experience.
Each piece operates like an excavated cross-section of this threshold space, revealing a psychological landscape where soap and text accrue over time. In exposing what is normally
rinsed away or concealed, the work questions the cultural expectation that individuals continuously cleanse, improve, and regulate their emotional lives. Rather than offering
resolution, these colorful, stratified surfaces suggest that the remnants of living (our doubts, repetitions, and unresolved thoughts) remain present beneath the surface, quietly generating
new forms and shaping our inner worlds.
Cirriculum Vitae
EDUCATION:
2020 M.F.A., Painting, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA
2014 B.F.A., Painting, magna cum laude, State University of New York at Potsdam, Potsdam, NY
2014 B.A., Psychology, magna cum laude, State University of New York at Potsdam, Potsdam, NY
EXHIBITIONS:
Solo Exhibitions
2024
Down the Drain, Good Children Gallery, New Orleans, LA
2021
Itty Bitty, Nitty Gritty, Yes We Cannibal, Baton Rouge, LA
2020
Meanwhile: MFA Exhibition, Glassell Gallery, Baton Rouge, LA.
2016
Compositions, The Fulton Street Gallery, Troy, NY
2015
Untitled, The Brakes, Albany, NY
Group Exhibitions
2026
(Upcoming) 30th Annual NO DEAD ARTISTS exhibition, Ferrara Showman Gallery,
New Orleans, LA.
2026
(Upcoming) Sensum Zine, Artifact Projects, NYC
2026
Slow, Glassell Gallery, Baton Rouge, LA.
2026
SubScape, Manifest Gallery, Cincinnati, Ohio
2026
LSU MFA Alumni Show, Good Children Gallery, New Orleans, LA
2025
Venus Envy, Radio Bar, Baton Rouge, LA.
2025
In Good Form: Southern University Faculty Show, Arts Council of Greater Baton Rouge,
Baton Rouge, LA.
2025
And Now For Something New, Vol. 7, Lemieux Gallery, New Orleans, LA.
2025
Magnolia Ball, Ogden Museum, New Orleans, LA.
2024
16, Member Exhibition for Prospect 6, Good Children Gallery, New Orleans, LA.
2024
Back To School, Faculty Exhibition, Southern University Visual Arts Gallery, Southern University,
Baton Rouge, LA.
2024
Summer Camp, Carroll Gallery, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA.
2024
Les Nouvelles Enfants, Member Exhibition, Good Children Gallery,
New Orleans.
2023
Long-Term Exhibition, SUNY Global Center, Manhattan, NY.
2023
Performer in Echo Project 2.0, Hopkins Black Box Theater, Baton Rouge, LA.
2023
Art Alumni Invitational Exhibition, The Art Museum, Potsdam, NY.
2022
Set Designer, Homo-Logous Liaisons, performance directed by Irina Kruchinia,
Hopkins Black Box, Baton Rouge, LA
2022
Art of the South, Juror: Katie Delmez (Senior Curator to Frist Art Museum), Zeitgeist Gallery,
Nashville, TN.
2022
Tongue and Cheek, Juror: Scott Andresen and Sadie Sheldon, Good Children Gallery,
New Orleans, LA.
2022
Plastigene and Other Stories, Juror: Serap Erincin, Union Gallery, Baton Rouge, LA 3
2022
59th Annual Juried Exhibition, Juror: Susan Baley, Masur Museum, Monroe, LA.
2022
Art in the Time of Corona Vol. 3, Online International Exhibition, Dab Art Co., Los Angeles, CA
2022
37th Annual International Exhibition, Juror: Erin Murphy, Meadows Gallery @ University of
Texas at Tyler, Tyler, Texas.
2021
The Coded Color: Pink, Online Exhibition, P. S. Xhibitions
2021
A Generous Kingdom V, Verum Ultimum Gallery, Portland, OR
2020
The Print Show, Dairy Gallery, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA
2019
Ophelias, Performer in Group Performance, Hopkins Black Box Theater, Baton Rouge, LA
2019
Swamp Thang: MFA Student Exhibition, Foster Gallery, Louisiana
State University, Baton Rouge, LA
2018
Disclosure: MFA Student Exhibition, Foster Gallery, Louisiana State University,
Baton Rouge, LA
2018
Group Exhibition, The Burren College of Art, Ballyvaughn, Ireland.
2017
PassionFruit: MFA Student Exhibition, Foster Gallery, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge,
LA.
2016
GEM Festival, 190 Cinema, Glens Falls, NY
2014
BFA Exhibition, State University of New York at Potsdam, Potsdam, NY
2014
Lougheed Festival of the Arts, State University of New York at Potsdam, Potsdam, NY
2014
to.be, Online exhibition, Bronx, NY
2013-14 Group Exhibition, Creative Spirits Gallery, Potsdam, NY
2013-14 SUNY Abstract Show, SUNY Global Center, New York, NY
2013 Art Attack, Gibson Gallery, State University of New York at Potsdam, Potsdam, NY
CURATORIAL EXPERIENCE:
2026 Free As They Want To Be, (group exhibition in partnership with BRGallery), Southern University Visual Arts Gallery, Southern University, Baton Rouge, LA.
2026 Good LSU MFA ALUM Children, LSU MFA Alumni Show, Good Children Gallery, New Orleans, LA
2026 The Seeds You Sow, solo exhibition by Chasity Joseph, Southern University Visual Arts Gallery, Southern University, Baton Rouge, LA.
2025 The United States of Emergency, solo exhibition by Cosette Richard, Southern University Visual Arts Gallery, Southern University, Baton Rouge, LA.
2025 The Campus Canvas, Student-led installation, Southern University Visual Arts Gallery, Southern University, Baton Rouge, LA.
2025 End-of-Semester Open Studio, Bi-Annual Student show, Southern University Visual Arts Gallery, Southern University, Baton Rouge, LA.
2025 The VeSoul, Student Show, Southern University Visual Arts Gallery, Southern University, Baton Rouge, LA.
2025 Roots & Wings, Alumni and Current Student Exhibition, Southern University Visual Arts Gallery, Southern University, Baton Rouge, LA.
2024 The Living Sketchbook, Immersive Installation, Southern University Visual Arts Gallery, Southern University, Baton Rouge, LA.
2024 Back To School, Faculty Exhibition, Southern University Visual Arts Gallery, Southern University, Baton Rouge, LA.
2024 I Sea You, Multimedia Installation by Irina Kruchinina, Southern University Visual Arts Gallery, Southern University, Baton Rouge, LA.
2024 Five X Five (Co-curated), Group Exhibition, Southern University Visual Arts Gallery, Southern University, Baton Rouge, LA.
2020 Body Forth, Group Exhibition, Dairy Gallery, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE:
Southern University, Baton Rouge, LA
2024–Present: Gallery Director, Southern University Visual Arts Gallery
2024-Present: Visual Arts Faculty Liaison for Jazz Fest
2024-Present: Author of Visual Arts Newsletter Series
2024-Present: Co-Principal Investigator, LA Board of Regents Comprehensive Art Grant
Received in full: $500,000
2024-Present: Faculty Member of College of Humanities & Interdisciplinary Studies Research Committee
2024: Faculty Facilitator of Student Art Walk
2024: Co-Facilitator of 7th Grade Day
2024: Author of Gallery Revision Proposal
2024: Author of Ceramics Equipment Funding Proposal
2024-Present: Faculty Advisor of Southern Soul Art Club
2024: WaterMark Coordinator, Visual Arts Program
2023–Present: Tenure-Track Assistant Professor of Art
2021–2023: Full-Time Instructor (Drawing Composition, Painting, Understanding the Visual Arts)
2021: Faculty Facilitator of Friday Painting and Summer Art Sessions
2022: Faculty Volunteer, TEDX Talk Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA
2020: Adjunct Professor (Drawing Composition, Two-Dimensional Design)
2019–2020: Instructor of Record (Introduction to Drawing, Two-Dimensional Design, Figure Drawing)
2019: Neighborhood Arts Project Assistant, LSU Museum of Art
2017: Teaching Assistant (Figure Drawing, Abstract Painting) Other Experience
2024-present: Member of Good Children Gallery, New Orleans, LA.
2024: Member of Arts Council of Baton Rouge, Baton Rouge, LA.
2019: Transcriber of Patrick George Notes, Galerie Boisvert, Baton Rouge, LA
2014–2017: Art Enrichment Teacher, Dr. Weeks Elementary School, Syracuse, NY
2014–2015: Crisis Hotline Worker, Contact Community Services, Syracuse, NY
2014–2015: Painting Foreman, Collegiate Entrepreneurs, Syracuse, NY
2014: Summer Youth Enrichment Specialist, Say Yes to Education