Keith Sonnier, Quachita (Cat Doucet series), 1996, neon, argon lighting, bamboo, plastic, 100 x 64 x 12 inches.
Tommorow night, the Louisiana Art & Science Museum will open a show by Keith Sonnier, an internationally renowned artist best known for his neon sculptures and large scale light installations. The 70 year old artist, who was born in Mamou and studied at USL, has created a body of work, titled Fort Crèvecoeur, or “fort broken heart,” in response to the BP oil spill. The name references the Illinois fort where the French explorer LaSalle took refuge before his famous expedition down the Mississippi River in 1682.
Sonnier’s work is much more likely to be exhibited in New York or Munich, where his light instillations welcome travelers to the Munich International Airport. Thus it’s really an event when the artist mounts a major one-man show in Louisiana.
The Friday night, Oct. 8 opening is also the 25th Annual LASM Gala, beginning at 7 p.m. The $50 per person ticket to the cocktail attire affair includes drinks and a lavish buffet by some of Baton Rouge’s finest restaurants.
The show opens to the public on Sat., Oct. 9. Check the website for hours and admission fees.
There will soon be a whole lot of shakin’ going on at Benny’s Sportshack Supplement Depot, a new concept by Opelousas native Benny Nele. Located at 2002 Johnston St., the supplement shop, smoothie bar and café, featuring hot off the press paninis and wraps, plans to open in late May.
Philip deMahy Sr., a once respected New Iberia ad exec, was sentenced May 2 to spend the next two years (he faced up to 100 years) in a state penitentiary after state and federal investigators found dozens of images depicting children engaged in lewd sexual acts on his personal computer.
This year’s Cool Town issue is all about people who are not native to South Louisiana but made a conscious decision to be here, to be among us, to participate in our culture and contribute to it.
A shelved ordinance transferring $200,000 from a northside drainage project to a south Lafayette development may not break any laws, but it stinks to high heaven.
An effort to restore a shuttered dancehall and document other vacant or razed honky-tonks could serve as a model for saving an endangered species of entertainment.
Lafayette’s gene pool has been host to a long line of eccentric characters who have blurred the lines between crazy, genius, disturbed and curiously entertaining.
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