Untitled (Invisible Identities)
Untitled (Invisible Identities)
“UNTITLED (Invisible Identities)”
UNTITLED (Invisible Identities)is an exhibition and abolitionist call to action challenging institutional practices of exclusion, invisibility, and extraction within the arts. Featuring the spellbinding work of twelve visual artists employed at the Contemporary Arts Center, UNTITLED (Invisible Identities) brings attention to the ways artists working at art institutions are rarely offered opportunities to exhibit their work or expand their artistic practice. The entrenched biases and conventional policies of art institutions often limit exhibition and professional development opportunities of artists working at museums and galleries due in part to the positions they occupy as gallery assistants, museum guards, front desk receptionists, art preparators, or patron services staff. Often pigeonholed into preparatory work for other artists, while their own artistic practices are seldom recognized by the very institutions that they work in, UNTITLED (Invisible Identities) offers a disruption of such policies and practices. Led and curated by Patron and Visitors Services Manager DiQuan Forcell, UNTITLED (Invisible Identities) showcases thirty-three works of art across a variety of mediums, including drawings, paintings, sculpture, mixed media collage, photography, sound, and installation. Moving beyond the roles of gallery assistants, museum guards, front desk receptionists, art preparators, or patron services staff, artists in UNTITLED (Invisible Identities) invites the public to engage with their artistic practices apart from the complex identities and hierarchical structures of museums and other art institutions.
11:11
11:11
Antenna Collective is proud to host a special exhibition “11:11 (New Member Exhibition)” featuring new members of the 2023 Antenna Collective cohort. Curatorial support by new member, DiQuan Forcell.
Pass it On!
Pass it On!
The annual John Scott Festival edition of Pass it on Open Mic. Special Guest include the Congo Square Preservation Society, Louisiana Poet Laureate Emeritus Dr. Mona Lisa Saloy, and esteemed Xavier University of Louisiana alumni and artists Charmagne Andrews and DiQuan Forcell.
16.15.17
16.15.17
Growing up as a person of color forges resilience amid constant vigilance. From early on, rigid gender norms dictate how we should behave, penalizing any deviation from the norm. Navigating a world where self-expression feels restricted, we may feel boxed in by societal expectations. With a central focus on quelling the traumas associated with Blackness and Black hair, “16.15.17” explores the transformative power of breaking these barriers and reclaiming our authentic selves. “16.15.17” is a meditation on comfortability and being one’s authentic self.
Drawing inspiration from Samson’s supernatural strength being inexplicably linked to his hair, and ultimately his faith, this exhibition invites viewers to exhale, unwind, and embrace their truest self. Step into a space free from societal pressures, where you can shed outdated teachings and reclaim your authenticity. This exhibition celebrates liberation, inviting you to relax and own your identity unapologetically.
Curated by DiQuan Forcell and John Alleyne, the exhibition features a range of works from six artists: A’mya Mcknight, Brikarri Williams, DiQuan Forcell, JaTaiRee Hudson Jr., JESSC.X, and John Alleyne.
Untitled: Beyond Opacity
Untitled: Beyond Opacity
Illustrating a commitment to addressing the harms of the past and present, the Contemporary Arts Center (CAC) proudly presents the second annual exhibition showcasing the work of artists within its ranks. Untitled: Beyond Opacity features the artwork of twelve emerging artists working within and independent of the CAC. Their diverse artistic practices encompass a wide range of voices, disciplines, mediums, and approaches.
Moving beyond mere bodies, props, objects of information, and directional support to visitors, the artists in Untitled: Beyond Opacity invite the public to engage with their artistic practices apart from the complex identities and hierarchical structures of museums, galleries and related art institutions.
Led and curated by DiQuan Forcell with curatorial assistance from Shana M. griffin, this exhibit is a significant part of the CAC's broader goal of helping to change how galleries and museums engage with artists, the public, supporters, and the communities we call home.
30°/-90° "It's Not Where Ya From, It's Where Ya At"
30°/-90° "It's Not Where Ya From, It's Where Ya At"
“It’s not where ya from, it’s where ya at.”
Curated by Angel Perdomo, DiQuan Forcell, and Ryan Leitner
This is the Antenna Collective’s second group exhibition since our renewal of active members in 2023. In planning for this presentation, we have updated our mission statement and curated our work together in its response. All artists are based in the New Orleans area, formerly known as Bulbancha, and are presenting works that best show our studio practices. 30°/ – 90° (the geographical coordinates of New Orleans) focuses on having cross communications between our histories, ideas, cultures, and identities as artists who were either born here or have come here from other places.
Untitled: Unified Presence
Untitled: Unified Presence
Now in its third year, this internal exhibition reflects the CAC’s ongoing committement to acknowledging and addressing past and present harms, while reimagining how cultural instituitions operate. Curated by DiQuan Forcell, Untitled: Unified Presence is part of the CAC’s broader efforts to transform how galleries and museums engage with artists, communities, and the publics they serve - with dignity, equity, and intentional care.
Proximity Index
Proximity Index
Proximity Index is an exhibition that drifts between what is visible and what remains quietly held beneath the surface. This exhibition is an homage to the teachings of artist Ron Bechet, an artist whose practice roots itslef in the material and metaphoric life of trees, and whose charcoal and chalk drawings return wood to it own origins. Within Bechet’s work, the landscapes, branches, and tangled ecologies he renders are inseparable from the very substances used to depict them. Each drawing becomes a gesture of returning.
The artists gathered in Proximity Index: DiQuan Forcell, Gabrielle Tolliver, and Irvin Washington Jr., bring forward their own responses to Bechet’s influence. As former students, mentees, colleagues, or collaborators within the Contemporary Arts Center, their works carry traces of shared lineage while asserting distinct creative vocabularies. Paintings, poetry, scenes of nature, works on wood, and sound-based environments all become avenues through which his approach is echoed and reimagined. Each artist charts a path that is both connected to and distinct from Bechet’s. Each piece becomes a continuation, reinterpretation, or gentle divergence from the sensibilities that shaped their artistic foundations.
Proximity Index invites viewers to consider how influence is absorbed, transformed, and passed on, how trees seed forests, how mentorship shapes practice, and how the materials and relationships that ground an artist’s work extended outward in unexpected, ever-branching ways.
30th Anniversary National Conference of Artists Martin Luther King Jr. Commemorative Art Exhibition
30th Anniversary National Conference of Artists Martin Luther King Jr. Commemorative Art Exhibition
“Love In Action: African Roots - American Fruits”
This year's theme, "Love in action: African Roots-American Fruits," focuses on the deep connections between African heritage and American culture, showcasing their enduring impact. This event will feature a blend of art exhibitions and insightful discussions designed to engage and inspire. The exhibition is on view at Ashé Cultural Arts Center (1712 Oretha Castle Haley Blvd) and the Ashé Power House Theatre (1731 Baronne St).
Featured Artists: Roderick Anderson, Darlene Biggs-Dohehy, Jess Coleman, David Cotton, Justice Dalce, Melody Daniels, Montrell Dent, Clifton Faust, DiQuan Forcell, Ravyn Ford, Barianne Franks, Merry Nell Fullmer, Richard Gerber, Rickey Henry, Theresa Herrera, Vandorn Hinnant, Barbara Hodges, Leroy Hodges, Charlie T. Johnson, Louise Mouton Johnson, Pat Jolly, Kevin Jones, Richard V. Keller Sr., Noah Kinigstein, Lauryn Landers, Britani Landry, Lauren Landry, Dyan Law, Cy’Nya Lewis, Kathleen McKinney-Franks, Angela McMillan, Don Nicholas, Juanita Nolosco, Angel Omoike, Valentine Pierce, Alma Powell, Antoine Prince, Nettie Roché, Marcus Rosser, Andrew Sheldon, Charles Simms, Karel Sloane-Boekbinder, Trinity Smith, Carlos Talbot, Clarence Talley, Cecelia Taplette-Pedescleaux, José Torres-Tama, Brandon Tate, Michel Varisco, Maria B. Victoire, Eric Waters, Ivan Watkins, Kyle Wilson
The MLK Commemorative Art Exhibition (MLK Exhibit) celebrates the life and legacy of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the Civil Rights Movement, and those working to further peace and human understanding. Through the arts and related educational and cultural activities, it gives recognition to people around the world who work tirelessly to fight for peace, justice, and responsible environmental cohabitation. The exhibition is a partnership between the National Conference of Artists, Ashé Cultural Arts Center, New Orleans Martin Luther King Jr. Exhibition Council, and the New Orleans Tourism and Cultural Foundation.
IN UNDERTOW
IN UNDERTOW
IN UNDERTOW is an exhibition shaped by what already surrounds us. Rather than presenting a fixed interpretation of water, IN UNDERTOW invites artists to work from their own disciplines, experiences, and sensibilities, allowing water to surface gradually and deliberately across the works. What emerges is not a singular definition, but a shared attentiveness to water as a condition that informs how we see, remember, labor, and exist.
Water functions here as both subject andorganizing principle. It is mutable and omnipresent, capable of holding contradiction: nourishment and destruction, stillness and force, memory and erasure. Across IN UNDERTOW, water becomes a lens through which artists examine: place, identity, spirituality, and time. Water appears materially, metaphorically, and structurally, shaping rhythm, sound, movement, or process. Like water itself, its presence shifts from work to work, binding difference through continuity rather than uniformity.
Majority of the participating artists are based in Louisiana, a region inseparable from water’s influence. In New Orleans, water is not a distant concept but a daily negotiation. Rivers, canals, levees, ports, and coastlines shape the city’s physical form and its cultural imagination. The language of the city itself is organized around water, from Eastbank to Westbank to boundaries defined by flow and containment. Here, water is lived rather than symbolized, experienced as both sustenance and threat.
By tracing water as a connective force, IN UNDERTOW reveals how a single element can move through geography, practice, and lived experience. IN UNDERTOW positions water not only as material or metaphor, but as a shared condition that quietly shapes the artists, the region, and the works brought together in this space.