FERRARA SHOWMAN GALLERY is pleased to announce the group exhibition Prospected featuring four gallery artists who have been featured in previous iterations of Prospect New Orleans Triennial. The exhibition presents new and recent works - or revisits important early pieces – by Skylar Fein, Anastasia Pelias, Gina Phillips, and Paul Villinski. This exhibition pays homage to Prospects past, as well as the triennial’s continued commitment to Contemporary Art, both in the success of the artists’ respective careers and the growth of their studio practices following the exhibition. Prospected will be on view from 24 October through 7 December 2024 with an opening reception on Saturday 2  November 5-9pm coinciding with the opening weekend of Prospect.6: The Future is Present, the Harbinger is Home and the Arts District New Orleans monthly First Saturday Gallery Openings. The gallery will also hold a closing reception on Saturday 7 December as part of the Arts District New Orleans’ annual, year-end event Holiday Cheers also from 5 – 9 PM.

S K Y L A R   F E I N – Prospect.1

In 2008-09, Skylar Fein mounted and debuted Remember the UpStairs Lounge at the Contemporary Arts Center New Orleans as part of the inaugural Prospect.1 New Orleans curated by founder and artistic director Dan Cameron. The entire installation was later acquired by the New Orleans Museum of Art. Prospected gives a nod to the early wood cut-out works which appeared in that exhibition while also presenting a survey of various series of works Fein has created since.

Skylar Fein was born in Greenwich Village and raised in the Bronx. He has had many careers including teaching nonviolent resistance under the umbrella of the Quakers, working for a gay film festival in Seattle, stringing for The New York Times and as pre-med student at University of New Orleans where he moved one week before Hurricane Katrina hit. In the wreckage of New Orleans, Fein found his new calling as an artist, experimenting with color and composition of the detritus of Katrina. His work soon became known for its pop sensibility as well as its hard-nosed politics.

A N A S T A S I A   P E L I A S – Prospect.5

Anastasia Pelias presented her monumental and multisensory, public sculpture with accompanying installation of land painting, soundscape, and scentscape It was my pleasure in 2021-22 for her featured exhibition in Prospect.5: Yesterday we said tomorrow under the artistic directorship of Naima J. Keith and Diana Nawi. In 2023, the sculpture was purchased by the City of New Orleans through Arts New Orleans and the support of Prospect New Orleans and permanently re-sited in the Spring of 2024 in St. John Park in the Lake Terrace neighborhood of the Lakefront. The maquette for this sculpture accompanies a recent work on paper and canvas triptych by Pelias.

Anastasia Pelias was born in New Orleans, Louisiana to a Greek immigrant mother and a first generation Greek-American father. She received her BFA from the Newcomb College of Tulane University in 1981, and her MFA from the University of New Orleans in 1996. Pelias has exhibited her work in solo and group exhibitions at galleries and museums nationwide, and has been featured in publications including Hyperallergic, New American Paintings, Artnet news, ArtDaily, Forbes, Pelican Bomb and New Orleans Art Review. Her work appears in the permanent collections at the New Orleans Museum of Art; the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, New Orleans; the Mobile Museum of Art, Alabama; Newcomb Art Museum, New Orleans; the McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, and in private and public collections worldwide.

G I N A    P H I L L I P S – Prospect.2

As a featured artist in the second iteration of Prospect in 2011-12, also curated by founder and artistic director Dan Cameron, Gina Phillips occupied the oval gallery of the Contemporary Arts Center with her characteristic mixed media, textile works. The immersive installation, entitled Life Lasagna, featured over twenty painted and sewn fabric works bringing together the artist’s figurative and landscape memory motifs, presenting a layered visual story. The two works which appear in Prospected reflect these themes culminating in each individual piece.

Gina Phillips is a mixed media, narrative artist who grew up in Kentucky and has lived in New Orleans since 1995. The imagery, stories and characters of both regions influence her work. She started her career as a painter, but over the years, has increasingly incorporated fabric and thread into her work. She begins a piece with a simple under-painting in acrylic paint on canvas or muslin…then finishes the piece by appliquéing fabric and thread on top. Phillips uses a communal gathering process to source her fabrics, as neighbors, friends, family often donate to her artistic process. Phillip’s work is characterized by a raw, narrative quality. The people and animals telling the story often embody a magical realism.

P A U L   V I L L I N S K I – Prospect.1

Paul Villinski’s Emergency Response Studio Project, a solar-powered, mobile artist’s studio repurposed from a salvaged FEMA-style trailer, was conceived by Villinski after visiting post-Katrina New Orleans in 2006. The project was first unveiled and utilized as part of Prospect.1 New Orleans 2008-09 and later traveled across the county to institutions such as Ballroom Marfa, The New Museum’s Streetfest, and Rice University Art Gallery. The artist’s time in New Orleans for Prospect also led to his experimentation with found vinyl records which have since become a primary sect of his studio practice, having most recently developed the series of sculptures which appear in Prosepcted.

Paul Villinski has created studio and large-scale artworks for more than three decades in his New York City studio. Villinski was born in York, Maine, USA, in 1960, son of an Air Force navigator. A scenic route through the educational system included stops at Phillips Exeter Academy and the Massachusetts College of Art, and a BFA with honors from the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, New York, in 1984. An avid pilot of gliders and single-engine airplanes, metaphors of flight and soaring often appear in his work. With a lifelong concern for environmental issues, his work frequently re-purposes discarded materials, effecting surprising and poetic transformations.

For more information, press or sales inquiries please contact Gallery Director Matthew Weldon Showman at 504.343.6827 or matthew@ferrarashowman.com. Please join the conversation with FSG on Facebook (@FerraraShowmanGallery), Twitter (@FerraraShowman), and Instagram (@FerraraShowmanGallery) via the hashtags: #SkylarFein, #AnastasiaPelias, #GinaPhillips, #PaulVillinski, #FerraraShowmanGallery, and #ArtsDistrictNewOrleans.