Baton Rouge Gallery welcomes five new artist members

“The Dramatic Interrogation of Id” by Jamie Baldridge.

In 2015, five sounds just right for Baton Rouge Gallery.

The local exhibition space welcomed five new artist members to its collective at the top of the year. They are multimedia artist Clark Derbes, ceramicist David Scott Smith, textile designer Wiley Sofia Garcia, photographer Jamie Baldridge and pencil-and-ink illustrator Rob Carpenter.

It’s the most new members the gallery has accepted at one time in five years, gallery Executive Director Jason Andreasen says.

Unlike other spaces around the country, Baton Rouge Gallery functions like an artist’s co-op. After the annual call for submissions for new members each fall, a panel of 10 current artist members votes on who will be welcomed into the fold.

The criteria for new members: The artist must have a tie to the area, and his or her works must be quality.

“I’ve sat in those meetings when the members are looking through submissions,” Andreasen says. “They are genuinely asking if the artist’s work is quality and if it adds to the gallery in a way that continually pushes the level of discussion in the area.”

Andreasen says the new artists only add to the current body of works at the space, pushing the longstanding members to create new works that will generate interest.

It doesn’t hurt that the gallery has become a top place to exhibit in the city, Derbes says. Derbes applied to become a member during the gallery’s call to artists last fall because his wife, Garcia, was also applying. Derbes’ friend, David Scott Smith, also batted around the idea of trying to become a member.

“When we heard we became members, all three of us were super-psyched,” Derbes says. “We had all talked about it in the past and applied at the same time. It seemed like the right time to do it. Baton Rouge Gallery has turned into this hot place to exhibit.”

Derbes, Smith and Garcia weren’t alone in their reactions. Baldridge says he too was excited at the chance to exhibit his digitally manipulated photographs alongside the work of his peers.

“[Becoming a member] means that I get to exhibit my work alongside some of the finest artists in the region,” Baldridge says. “It also means I get to push a few buttons with my work that might not otherwise get pushed.”

Carpenter, a Baton Rouge resident since 1989, got his master’s in painting and drawing at LSU. He started his meticulous line drawings in 2010 while teaching at Nicholls State University in Thibodaux.

He lives close to the gallery, and he has become close with many artists here. Those friends were his motivation to submit works to become a member, and now, he can’t wait to see their reaction to his drawings.

“They gave me a little kick in the pants,” he says. “Most of those friends had seen very little of the work that I do. It will be exciting for me to see the reaction from them.”

Being a new member of Baton Rouge Gallery also means that some of the artists have a reason for returning to the Capital City.

Smith currently lives in Little Rock, Arkansas, and works as an assistant professor of ceramics at the University of Arkansas, Little Rock. He got his master’s in ceramics at LSU in 2005, then moved to Montana.

“I’ve been trying to get back to the South ever since,” he says. “To be a member is a special thing for me. The quality of the gallery is incredible. It’s an honor to be juried in. It’s kind of like I’m coming home.”

For more information on Baton Rouge Gallery and when these artists’ works will be shown, visit batonrougegallery.org.

About the artists

Jamie Baldridge
Currently a professor of new media and digital art at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Baldridge digitally manipulates his own staged photos that tackle the human psyche and self-consciousness. His surreal work has appeared in Juxtapoz Magazine and Harper’s Bazaar Russia.

Clark Derbes
A multimedia artist born in New Orleans, Derbes uses a combination of wood-carving and painting to create colorful, multidimensional blocks with an exaggerated sense of shape. Currently living in Vermont, he collaborated on the first mural commissioned by The Walls Project and is entrenched in the local arts community.

David Scott Smith
A sculptor and mold maker who currently lives in Little Rock, Arkansas, Smith re-contextualizes familiar objects, often in a humorous way. When he taught ceramics at LSU, he would often come to class with a box of junk and tell his students to “make something wonderful.”

Rob Carpenter
A Mississippi native and former professor of painting and drawing at Nicholls State University, Carpenter creates meticulous ink and pencil drawings on paper. He draws each “tapestry” line by line. A tedious process, for sure, but the results are beautiful. This will be Carpenter’s second time as a member. Read an interview with Carpenter here.

Wylie Sofia Garcia
Born and raised in Houston, Garcia has equal focal points in textile designs, fabric installations, performance art and sewing. Though she thought sewing might be considered too crafty, she came to embrace the medium as a form of meditation and self-expression.