ACADEMY of FINE ARTS

Non-objective artist Aimée Farnet Siegel works with color and line through the medium of hand painted and manipulated paper. Her works inhabit space outside the two dimensional plain of paint on canvas, have a depth beyond collage and are closer in nature to assemblage.

American painter and author Alex Beard is best known for his elaborate wildlife compositions created in his signature style of gestural painting, which he has coined “Abstract Naturalism.”

The Executive Director of the New Orleans Academy of Fine Arts, Andrew Rodgers, is an arts administrator, arts educator, and artist. He sits on the New Orleans Arts Council and is a passionate champion of the arts who has worked with arts institutions throughout the Gulf Coast to improve the lives of people through the arts.

Arturo Perez has has been teaching for over 25 years (K-12 to adults to seniors), has a Bachelor Degree from UNO in both Fine Arts and Science, has a Master of Fine Arts degree from Pratt Institute, and also volunteers at WWOZ, Creative Arts New Orleans (CANO) and Creative Industries. He continues to be involved in art and dance education teaching classes, workshops, private lessons, exhibiting work, and performing.

Ash Gaude is a portrait painter and printmaker. Having lived all over the United States and in the West Indies, Gaude is captivated with human experiences, including her own.

Manipulating language and cultural objectswith the element of RITUAL: collecting/bundling of detritus,often working directlyinor wit hnature, Babette Beaullieu creates a sense of ceremony in her arrangements and performances.

Belinda Flores-Shinshillas is a visual artist born in Mexico City and a resident of New Orleans. Her artwork has been of a contemporary nature using the figure and representational elements as an important component in the visual narrative, merging it with abstract concepts and techniques as a way to move through space.

Ben Hamburger is a painter and art educator based in New Orleans, LA. Hamburger holds a bachelor’s degree in visual arts from Eckerd College and a Master of Fine Arts Degree in Community Arts from Maryland Institute College of Art

Blainey Kern grew up immersed in Mardi Gras culture and honors her heritage in her use of materials and wild color palette, mining it for its innate ability to transcend the ordinary. Blainey's focus includes sculpture, painting, drawing and video and performance pieces.

Brooke Howell is a multi-media artist and sculptor that creates soulful, whimsical character-based artworks. She commands a range of traditional and modern mediums including clay, bronze, silicone, resin, foam, and digital sculpting/3D printing.

The work of Carol Peebles focuses on portraits and figures, drawn from life, to celebrate the people in her immediate environment.

Chad Serhal grew up in north central Indiana and northeast Kentucky. Coming from music, film and then cartooning background, his work centers around the collaged recycling of materials and information (printed, video, and sound).

Cybèle Gontar is an American art historian with an MA in the History of European Decorative Art & Design from Parsons School of Design/Cooper-Hewitt, and M.Phil/Ph.D. from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, who then returned to New Orleans and opened Degas Gallery.

Dave Hotstream is a professional illustrator who has produced work for The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation, The U.S. Peace Corps, and Wizards of The Coast/Magic The Gathering.

Emre Karaoglu, a contemporary figurative artist from Turkey, now based in New Orleans, uses oil, pastel & charcoal portraits to capture the profound layers of human experience within everyday life.

Erin Orlowski grew up in rural Illinois. As a child, she loved to create. That passion continued throughout her life, leading her to an Art degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Garth studied at the University of New Hampshire and teaches Advanced Still Life Oil Painting at the Academy.

Gus has shown his work all over the country; most notably in Philadelphia, New York, and New Orleans. His most recent solo show was at the Blue House in New Orleans. Most days you can find Gus somewhere around Bayou St. John painting on site.

Hazel Tebbe-Crump is a visual artist native to New Orleans and NOCCA alumnus.

Heidi is a mixed-media sculpture and installation artist trained in traditional figure sculpting techniques.

Helen Reed is a passionate local photographer and educator specializing in portraiture. Helen’s commitment to both her craft and her students continues to shape her artistic path and the community around her.‍

John Stephens is an accomplished art instructor and artist with a deep commitment to making art accessible and meaningful for all.

Jonathan's themes often reflect the strength of the human spirit in the face of adversity, perhaps best illustrated by his paintings of Hurricane Katrina that devastated his hometown of New Orleans. He believes not only in the power of art, but its ability to move people.

Through printmaking and painting Jono’s work has been shown across the globe and is a part of private collections worldwide.

Kaori Maeyama is an urban landscape painter born and raised in Fukuoka, Japan. A New Orleans resident since 1994, she worked as a focus puller and a digital audio editor before devoting herself to analog image making.

Kathleen Matthews is a New Orleans native. She concentrates on oil painting, mainly still life and interiors. Her work includes realism, impressionism, and alla prima.

Louisiana native Lyle Colombo paints portraits, landscapes, and works of abstract realism in oil on panel using traditional techniques. She continually seeks new ways to make representational painting, particularly the figure, relevant to the contemporary world.

Nell Curtis Tilton is a New Orleans native who has been immersed in the visual arts all of her adult life. Experimenting with materials and subject matter, she is continually building knowledge from her explorations and observations. Intuitiveness and response are the essence and joy of her process.

Nicole's paintings are very textural and built up over long periods of time. The superimposition of textures, images, words, loose, watery washes of paint and veils of translucent fabric or paper, creates a visual threshold in her work which is something to look at as well as to look through.

Nurhan Gokturk is a multidisciplinary artist and urban designer. Born in Istanbul, Turkey, Nurhan immigrated to New York City at the age of three. His projects have been featured worldwide.

Patti Adams is a professional artist and musician who has lived and worked in New Orleans since 1982. Her work is defined by her wide-ranging interests in calligraphy, gilding, painting in watercolor and oils, book illustration, and color theory.

Peter Frauenfelder is a visual artist, sign painter, musician and native San Franciscan who has lived in New Orleans since early 2020. Since a teenager, Peter has worked in the arts and education with a focus on fine art, mentorship, and community development.

Phoebe is a sculpture and mixed media artist new to the New Orleans area. She is excited to continue teaching, learning, and creating with others at NOAFA.

Piki is a Cuban-born artist, painter who has participated in over fifty group exhibitions across the United States and Europe.

Rebecca earned Bachelor Degrees from University of Texas at Austin in both Fine Arts and Liberal Arts as well as a post-graduate certificate in Non-Profit Management. She has a Master of Liberal Arts from Tulane University.

Reid Nicholls is a ceramic artist and sculptor whose body of work uses symbolic imagery paired with figurative elements to create abstract forms that are hand-built and wheel thrown.

Ren Watson is a multidisciplinary artist and educator specializing in painting and ceramics. Her work explores the intersection of reality and the surreal, engaging themes such as nostalgia, dreams, liminal spaces, and distorted memories. She is drawn to imagery that feels both familiar and uncanny; scenes that may evoke warmth and comfort for some, yet unease or tension for others.

Richard Vallon Jr. was born and raised in New Orleans. A graduate of ASU with a BFA (photography), he has enjoyed teaching photography since 1981. He has taught the UNO Metro College photo classes and classes at Lakeside Camera since 2004.

As a plein air oil painter, Sabrina connects deeply with her surroundings, focusing on light, atmosphere, and subject. Guided by exploration, connection, and design, she captures the emotional essence of a landscape rather than its every detail. Her work emphasizes mood and feeling, using naturalistic colors and stylized, representational mark-making.

Sara Madandar is an Iranian multi-disciplinary artist and educator who explores migration and the human experience of living between cultures, using the aesthetics of language, clothing, and bodies to study the complexities of cross-cultural experiences.

Sara Nyquist is a multidisciplinary artist living in New Orleans. She taught this summer in our Fine Arts Summer Camp, and she now joins our faculty.

Sean Friloux lives and works in New Orleans and is accomplished in watercolor, graphite drawings and acrylic. His work has been featured in Plein Air Magazine and Watercolor Artist Magazine.

Teresa is a realistic painter who has studied extensively at the New Orleans Academy of Fine Arts. Working primarily in oil paint from life, her artwork reflects a deep understanding of subtle nuances of line, shape, value, and color.

Zona blends natural colors into undefined forms that tend to please the eye and tantalize the viewer's interpretation.