Arts: Best Bets

While some artists capture moments frozen in time, LeRoy Neiman’s abstract paintings and drawings captured movement. His subjects during his long career were almost always athletes, as well as dancers, opera singers and even orchestra conductors—all professions where the mastery of the human body is essential.

In the 1950s, Neiman began working with Playboy magazine. He was later the artist-in-residence for the New York Jets and the official artist at five Olympiads. His many works and sketches are filled with excitement, kinetic energy and—as he’s been quoted saying—”a riot of color.”

The new exhibit at LSU’s Museum of Art, “Action! The Anatomy of LeRoy Neiman’s Champions,” offers a glimpse into his process with 71 drawings and several paintings and photographs. It’s perfectly timed for the start of football season, with the exhibit running Aug. 2 to Jan. 17. lsumoa.org

ALL MONTH: “Rooted Communities,” the exhibit of works by Nari Ward, who is participating in a residency with LSU’s College of Art and Design, gets an extended run at the LSU Museum of Art until January. With sculptures and mixed media installations, many involving materials found in Old South Baton Rouge, this community-focused show is worth a visit.
STARTING AUG. 15: Playmakers of Baton Rouge present a production of the classic Alice in Wonderland Aug.15-24. playmakersbr.org
AUG. 16: Elevator Projects’ ARTcade, featuring interactive games and environments made by local artists, takes place at 415 N. 15th St. elevatorprojects.org
ENDING AUG. 16: Elizabethan Gallery hosts new works from the Associated Women in the Arts, called “All Wet.” elizabethangallery.com
CLOSING AUG. 24: Spanish graffiti artist Belin, who first came to Baton Rouge to paint murals in Old South with the Museum of Public Art, then had an exhibit at the Healthcare Gallery, now has a series of his large-scale paintings—including many not seen before in Louisiana—up in the Gallery at Manship Theatre. manshiptheatre.org and belin.es
AUG. 29: Baton Rouge Gallery’s Movies & Music on the Lawn series continues with atmospheric electronic music from England in 1819 providing a live score to Alfred Hitchcock’s classic silent film The Lodger. batonrougegallery.org

Many of us have made that trek back from a beach vacation with our pockets stuffed with seashells, each one as colorful and unique as the next. For artist and Lafayette native Herman Mhire, those shells are more than keepsakes; they are a bridge between science and art. Trained as a painter and having worked as a professor in the College of Art at University of Louisiana-Lafayette, Mhire shifted his focus to photography and nature in 2008.

His large-scale photographs of sea and land shells are taken from more than 100,000 specimens collected by another ULL professor, Emilio Garcia, who studies malacology (a branch of zoology related to mollusks). Several of Garcia’s specimens are on view in this joint exhibit, “The Art and Science of Shells,” giving visitors an up-close look at the lines, contours and patterns nature designed. The exhibit continues at the Louisiana Art & Science Museum all month and ends Sept. 24. lasm.org