PROSPECT EDITIONS
Prospect.1
Artistic Director: Dan Cameron
November 1, 2008—January 18, 2009
When it opened on November 1, 2008, the 11-week Prospect.1 New Orleans was the largest biennial of international contemporary art ever organized in the US and the most ambitious art exhibition in New Orleans’ history. Curated by Founding Director Dan Cameron, P.1 spanned the entire city, driving traffic to venues throughout New Orleans.
P.1 is widely viewed as a seminal exhibition for how it asked artists to engage the landscape and consider the entirety of the city. Several projects—for example Mark Bradford’s Mithra, Wangechi Mutu’s Miss Sarah’s House, and Nari Ward’s Diamond Gym—remain some of those most associated with Prospect.
Prospect.1 generated approximately 90,000 admissions and many of its venues broke attendance records. The direct economic impact of Prospect.1 on the city of New Orleans, including hotels and restaurants, goods and services, contract employment and media exposure, was $25 million.
Prospect.1 Artists
Allora & Calzadilla, Ghada Amer, El Anatsui, Janine Antoni, Alexandre Arrechea, Luis Cruz Azaceta, John E. Barnes, Jr., Sanford Biggers, Willie Birch, Monica Bonvicini, Mark Bradford, Candice Breitz, Cai Guo-Qiang, Cao Fei, Francis Cape, Chen Chieh-Jen, Adam Cvijanovic, Jose Damasceno, Anne Deleporte, Leandro Erlich, Skylar Fein, Roy G. Ferdinand, Jr., Tony Fitzpatrick, Gajin Fujita, Rico Gatson, Katharina Grosse, Trenton Doyle Hancock, Victor Harris & Fi Yi Yi, Arturo Herrera, Jacqueline Humphries, Isaac Julien, William Kentridge, Lee Bul, Kalup Linzy, Srdjan Loncar, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Deborah Luster, Jorge Macchi, Shawne Major, Nalini Malani, McCallum & Tarry, Dave McKenzie, Josephine Meckseper, Julie Mehretu, Aernout Mik, Beatriz Milhazes, Tatsuo Miyajima, Yasumasa Morimura, Zwelethu Mthethwa, Wangechi Mutu, Shirin Neshat, Marcel Odenbach, Kaz Oshiro, Miguel Palma, Perejaume, Pierre et Gilles, John Pilson, Sebastian Preece, Navin Rawanchaikul, Rosangela Renno, Pedro Reyes, Robin Rhode, Stephen G. Rhodes, Nadine Robinson, Clare E. Rojas, Kay Rosen, Malick Sidibé, Amy Sillman, Nedko Solakov, Monika Sosnowska, Jackie Sumell, SUPERFLEX, Fiona Tan, Pascale Marthine Tayou, Fred Tomaselli, Jannis Varelas, Xavier Veilhan, Paul Villinski, Nari Ward, Xu Bing
Prospect.1.5
Artistic Director: Dan Cameron
November 6, 2010—February 19, 2011
As an effort to specifically highlight work being done by New Orleans and Louisiana artists, Prospect.1.5 opened November 6, 2010, running until February 19, 2011. Curated by Founding Director Dan Cameron and bolstered by a series of symposia and public events, the exhibition included 47 artists situated in 12 venues throughout New Orleans.
Along with artists who were born and remained active in New Orleans, approximately one-third of the exhibition’s participants were native New Orleanians who had since relocated, with some exhibiting in their hometown for the first time. In addition, the exhibition showcased a generation of young artists who had adopted New Orleans as their home, many moving to the city following Hurricane Katrina. With the world’s focus once again on the Gulf region following the devastating Gulf Oil Spill in the summer of 2010, Prospect.1.5 called attention to the significance and vibrancy of New Orleans’ arts community
Prospect.1.5 Artists
Fikret Atay, Brad Benischek, Anthony Bingham, Brice Bischoff, Rhona Bitner, Jessica Bizer, Keith Boadwee, Sesthasak Boonchai, Brian Borrello, Ralph Bourque, Stephen Collier, Beth Dary, Bruce Davenport, Jr., Sean Duffy, Justin Faunce, Michael Greathouse, Dave Greber, Jonathan M. Hicks, Guy Hundere, J. Fiber (Jane Fine & James Esber), Kourtney Keller, Matthew Kirscht, Tim Lee, Daphne Loney, Deborah Luster, Natalie McLaurin, Panacea Theriac, Rashaad Newsome, Tameka Norris, Jennifer Odem, Okay Mountain, Michael Pajon, Alex Podesta, Adrian Price, Lala Rascic, Ted Riederer, Emily Sartor, Loren Schwerd, Regina Scully, Christy Speakman, Brian St. Cyr, Sam Still, Jackie Sumell, Maximilian Toth, Lori Waselchuk, Ryan Watkins-Hughes, Michel Varisco
Prospect.2
Artistic Director: Dan Cameron
October 22, 2011—January 29, 2012
Prospect.2 was open to the public from October 22, 2011 through January 29, 2012. Curated by Founding Director Dan Cameron, the exhibition included 26 artists from nine countries, including the US, France, Italy, Sweden, Poland, Japan, Chile, and Vietnam.
In keeping with Prospect's commitment to the promotion of the visual art community in New Orleans, the second biennial featured work by several artists who live and work in the city, as well as a variety of site-specific projects inspired by the city's distinctive history and culture and conceived specifically for the city of New Orleans. Major performative works by artists such as Dawn Dedeaux and William Pope.L have become some of the legendary works in Prospect’s exhibition history.
Prospect.2 Artists
Sophie Calle, Nick Cave, Jonas Dahlberg, Bruce Davenport Jr., Dawn DeDeaux, R. Luke DuBois, George Dunbar, Keith Duncan, William Eggleston, Nicole Eisenman, Karl Haendel, Ragnar Kjartansson, An-My Lê, Gina Phillips, William Pope.L, Ivan Navarro, Lorraine O’Grady, Tsuyoshi Ozawa, Ashton T. Ramsey, Alexis Rockman, Joyce J. Scott, Jennifer Steinkamp, Dan Tague, Robert Tannen, Grazia Toderi, Francesco Vezzoli, Paweł Wojtasik
Prospect.3: Notes for Now
Artistic Director: Franklin Sirmans
October 25, 2014—January 25, 2015
In Walker Percy’s 1961 novel The Moviegoer the protagonist Binx Bolling is consumed by “the search” in the week leading up to his 30th birthday. The novel, set in a time of heightened social awareness in the first half of the decade’s movement for civil rights in America, delves into the depths of existentialism in a world where people were legally segregated from each other, making it impossible to celebrate the individual. “The peculiar institution” of slavery and immigration during the 18th century created a city that, even in 1961, was a complex social arrangement that remains palpable today. Curated by Franklin Sirmans, Prospect.3 explored “the search” to find the self and the necessity of the other as part of that quest.
Guided by several curatorial themes, P.3’s exhibitions, site-specific installations, and new works addressed “the New Orleans experience,” seeing oneself in the Other, the South, crime and punishment, moviegoing, the carnivalesque, abstraction, and visual sound. Prospect.3 also included an exhibition within an exhibition at the Ogden Museum: Basquiat on the Bayou. Presented by The Helis Foundation, the exhibition was a focused exhibition of paintings and drawings by Jean‐Michel Basquiat that considered his work in light of his relationship to the American South. Basquiat and the Bayou was one of several efforts in the Prospect.3 exhibition to pair art-historical themes and investigations with contemporary artworks. An illustrated catalogue accompanied the exhibition, with an essay by Sirmans introducing the work and its themes in addition to essays by preeminent scholars Robert Farris Thompson and Robert G. O’Meally.
Prospect.3 Artists
Zarouhie Abdalian, Terry Adkins, Manal Aldowayan, Tarsila Do Amaral, Firelei Báez, Shigeru Ban, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Zarina Bhimji, McArthur Binion, Douglas Bourgeois, Mohamed Bourouissa, Frederick J. Brown, Huguette Caland, Keith Calhoun, Mary Ellen Carroll, Ed Clark, Thomas Joshua Cooper, William Cordova, Liu Ding, Monir Farmanfarmaian, Andrea Fraser, Charles Gaines, Theaster Gates, Paul Gauguin, Jeffrey Gibson, Piero Golia, Camille Henrot, Lonnie Holley, Pieter Hugo, Yun-Fei Ji, Remy Jungerman, Glenn Kaino, Lucia Koch, Hew Locke, Julio César Morales, Eamon Ore-Girón, Sophie T. Lvoff, Kerry James Marshall, Chandra McCormick, Tameka Norris, Garrett Bradley, Akosua Adoma Owusu, Ebony G. Patterson, Hayal Pozanti, Phu Nam Thuc Ha, Matt Lucero, Tuan Andrew Nguyen, Christopher Myers, Pushpamala N., Clare Arni, Joe Ray, Will Ryman, Analia Saban, Lisa Sigal, Gary Simmons, Herbert Singleton, Lucien Smith, Tavares Strachan, Agus Suwage, Alma Thomas, José Antonio Vega Macotela, Carrie Mae Weems, Entang Wiharso, David Zink Yi
Prospect.4: The Lotus in Spite of the Swamp
Artistic Director: Trevor Schoonmaker
November 18, 2017 - February 25, 2018
Curated by the Nasher Museum of Art’s chief curator Trevor Schoonmaker, Prospect.4 was comprised of 73 artists or collectives from 25 countries and took its inspiration from the grace and resilience of the lotus plant. The title also alludes to the city’s unique cultural landscape; the politically engaged saxophonist Archie Shepp described jazz as a triumph of the human spirit, a lily that grows “in spite of the swamp.”
Cultural synthesis and syncretism inform many of the central issues explored in Prospect.4. Cross-cultural fertilization defines New Orleans’ foodways, customs, celebrations, architecture, and language as much as any other American city. Many artists in P.4 explored related themes, connecting them to contemporary geographies and cultures around the world.
Prospect.4 overlapped with the city of New Orleans’s tricentennial celebration——the 300th anniversary of the founding of Nouvelle-Orléans by the French in 1718.
Because of this serendipitous intersection, P.4 took the city’s distinctive character as a point of departure to investigate global concerns. The exhibition particularly looked southward, emphasizing New Orleans’ relationship to and relevance within the Global South. The Prospect.4 audience reached over 100,000 for the first time in the organization’s history.
While Prospect.4 had many signature moments, Kara Walker’s closing weekend performative collaborations with Jason Moran and the unveiling of her incredible calliope Katastwóf Karavan, sited at a former holding area for enslaved people, was particularly evocative, emotional, and unforgettable.
Prospect.4 Artists
Larry Achiampong, Derrick Adams, Abbas Akhavan, John Akomfrah, Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Michael Armitage, Louis Armstrong, Kader Attia, Radcliffe Bailey, Rina Banerjee, Rebecca Belmore, Maria Berrio, Sonia Boyce, Katherine Bradford, Margarita Cabrera, María Magdalena Campos-Pons, Andrea Chung, Edgar Cleijne & Ellen Gallagher, Donna Conlon & Jonathan Harker, Minerva Cuevas, Wilson Díaz, Mark Dion, Alexis Esquivel, Genevieve Gaignard, Gauri Gill & Rajesh Vangad, Tony Gleaton, Jon-Sesrie Goff, Wayne Gonzales, Barkley L. Hendricks, Satch Hoyt, Evan Ifekoya, Alfredo Jaar, Rashid Johnson, Kahlil Joseph, Patricia Kaersenhout, Brad Kahlhamer, Kiluanji Kia Henda, Taiyo Kimura, The Kitchen Sisters, Runo Lagomarsino, Pedro Lasch, Maider López, Jillian Mayer, Darryl Montana, Dave Muller, Lavar Munroe, Paulo Nazareth, Rivane Neuenschwander, Jennifer Odem, Odili Donald Odita, Yoko Ono, Horace Ové, Zak Ové, Dawit L. Petros, Quintron and Miss Pussycat, Dario Robleto, Tita Salina, Beatriz Santiago Muñoz, Zina Saro-Wiwa, John T. Scott, Zineb Sedira, Xaviera Simmons, Penny Siopis, Cauleen Smith, Hank Willis Thomas, Hong-An Truong, Naama Tsabar, Michel Varisco, Monique Verdin, Kara Walker, James Webb, Jeff Whetstone, Peter Williams
Prospect.5: Yesterday we said tomorrow
Susan Brennan Co-Artistic Directors Naima J. Keith and Diana Nawi, with Grace Deveney, Associate Curator, and Lucia Olubunmi Momoh, Curatorial Associate
October 23, 2021 - January 23, 2022
Prospect 5: Yesterday we said tomorrow is the fifth edition of Prospect New Orleans, a citywide art exhibition. Inspired by New Orleans jazz musician Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah’s 2010 album Yesterday You Said Tomorrow, the title of the exhibition centers the unspoken present, the place where past and future come together, and where other courses of action become possible. The exhibition title also implies the deferral of meaningful change, which often comes slowly or not at all. The artists and ideas that define this exhibition confront this truth, and the stark realities of history, but also suggest that we might yet plot a different future.
Prospect.5 features an intergenerational group of 51 artists from the United States, the Caribbean, Africa, and Europe. The artists have created projects that emerge from research into place, express connections to the past and to land, and seek to form and reflect community. They have considered the ways in which history continues to shape the present, and their artworks are testaments to acts of ritual, selfhood, and modes of resistance that define daily life in New Orleans and beyond. Their projects offer spaces of memorialization and mourning, and of imagination and togetherness.
Yesterday we said tomorrow takes its cues from the current moment and from New Orleans itself, a city built on inextricable layers of history. While the narratives of this history are contested and suppressed, its presence can always be felt. This exhibition, the course of which has been marked by the Covid-19 pandemic, a historic election, and Hurricane Ida, presents art as a means of defining one’s self and as a statement of opposition, and as an enduring assertion that challenges the dominant historical record. It reveals the ways that New Orleans, a beacon of culture and an embodiment of this nation’s complicated past, is a quintessentially American city, the future of which is dependent on the truths of our past and the actions of the present.
Prospect.5 Artists
Laura Aguilar, Katrina Andry, Keni Anwar, Felipe Baeza, Kevin Beasley, Ron Bechet, Paul Stephen Benjamin, Dawoud Bey, Willie Birch, Dineo Seshee Bopape, Phoebe Boswell, Mark Bradford, Beverly Buchanan, Barbara Chase-Riboud, Cooking Sections (Alon Schwabe and Daniel Fernández Pascual), Adriana Corral, Jamal Cyrus, Karon Davis, Celeste Dupuy-Spencer, George Dureau, ektor garcia, Sharon Hayes, EJ Hill, Sky Hopinka, Elliott Hundley, Jennie C. Jones, Josh Kun, Mimi Lauter, Simone Leigh, Tau Lewis, Glenn Ligon, Candice Lin, Tiona Nekkia McClodden, Dave McKenzie, Rodney McMillian, Wangechi Mutu, The Neighborhood Story Project, Hương Ngô, Jennifer Packer, Malcolm Peacock, Anastasia Pelias, Naudline Pierre, Kameelah Janan Rasheed, Eric-Paul Riege, Jamilah Sabur, Beatriz Santiago Muñoz, Welmon Sharlhorne, Kiki Smith, Carlos Villa, Nari Ward, Cosmo Whyte
Prospect.5: Yesterday we said tomorrow
Susan Brennan Co-Artistic Directors Miranda Lash and Ebony G. Patterson
November 2, 2024 - February 2, 2025
Historically, New Orleans has been regarded as a city deeply rooted in its past. For Prospect.6, Co-Artistic Directors Miranda Lash and Ebony G. Patterson will posit New Orleans as a globally relevant point of departure for examining our collective future as it relates to climate change, legacies of colonialism, and definitions of belonging and home.
What if New Orleans, a predominantly BIPOC city deeply impacted by hurricanes, receding coastlines, histories of violence, and a cyclical commitment to celebration, was considered a harbinger for the world that is to come? This framework postulates New Orleans, along with other more climate-vulnerable regions in the world, as already living in the “future” that other places will experience. With alarming speed, more regions of the world are experiencing the immediate effects of climate change and dramatic shifts in economic and government function. New Orleans is thereby approached as a gift to the rest of the world in its ability to offer lessons and examples for how to live in constant negotiation with the weather, grounded within a community that reflects the global majority, and in direct proximity to the effects and aftereffects of colonial and exploitative economies.
We regard New Orleanians as Prospect's first audience. In our collaborations within the city and other regions often framed by tourism, stereotypes, and service economies, we strive to honor the people who manifest the vibrance of these creative communities. We are asking: what does it mean to speak "from" a place, rather than "at" it? If a biennial or triennial is traditionally considered in relation to its "host" city (a term with parasitic implications), what does it mean to "hold" a city, a gesture that suggests care and reverence?
Prospect.6 Artists
Shannon Alonzo, Eddie Rodolfo Aparicio, Ewan Atkinson, Zalika Azim, Teresa Baker, Andrea Carlson, Hannah Chalew, Mel Chin, Bethany Collins, Myrlande Constant, Christopher Cozier, Ronald Cyrille aka B.Bird, Thomas Deaton, Abigail DeVille, Christian Ðinh, Jeannette Ehlers, rafa esparza, Abdi Farah, Brendan Fernandes, L. Kasimu Harris, Nadia Huggins, Blas Isasi, Deborah Jack, Eisa Jocson, Joan Jonas, Brian Jungen, Arturo Kameya, Maia Ruth Lee, Kelley-Ann Lindo, Cathy Lu, Tessa Mars, Jeffrey Meris, Joiri Minaya, Meleko Mokgosi, Raúl de Nieves, Tuan Andrew Nguyen, Karyn Olivier, Ruth Owens, Ada M. Patterson, Venuri Perera, Brooke Pickett, Marcel Pinas, Dewey Tafoya, Stephanie Syjuco, Ashley Teamer, Clarissa Tossin, Arlette Quynh-Anh Tran, Tuan Mami, Didier William, Amanda Williams, Yee I-Lann