With so much to do in New Orleans, many forget that the city’s art scene is just as vibrant as the food and music. Check out the highlighted exhibits below and search our calendar to find even more art in New Orleans. 

Robert Gordy, Rimbaud's Dream #2, 1971. Acrylic on canvas, 82 x 64 inches. Collection of New Orleans Museum of Art, 71.23. © The Estate of Robert Gordy.
Robert Gordy, Rimbaud's Dream #2, 1971. Acrylic on canvas, 82 x 64 inches. Collection of New Orleans Museum of Art, 71.23. © The Estate of Robert Gordy.
"Robert Gordy: Outside the Mainstream"
Robert Gordy, Rimbaud's Dream #2, 1971. Acrylic on canvas, 82 x 64 inches. Collection of New Orleans Museum of Art, 71.23. © The Estate of Robert Gordy.
Robert Gordy, Rimbaud's Dream #2, 1971. Acrylic on canvas, 82 x 64 inches. Collection of New Orleans Museum of Art, 71.23. © The Estate of Robert Gordy.
"Robert Gordy: Outside the Mainstream"

"Robert Gordy: Outside the Mainstream" 

Louisiana native Robert Gordy (1933–86) achieved national recognition for masterly compositions that revealed a sophisticated and disciplined interplay of space, line, and color. Although best known today for his prints and late monotypes, Gordy worked in a range of media throughout his career. This exhibition, the first in-depth presentation of the artist’s work at NOMA in over four decades, shares selections from Gordy’s career from the 1950s until his premature death from AIDS in 1986. This exhibit is on view until October 11, 2026 at the New Orleans Museum of Art.

“In the Beloved”

Ogden Museum presents, “In the Beloved,” a new body of work by Alexis McGrigg, that merges fluid abstraction, spiritual inquiry and an exploration of Blackness as both a physical and metaphysical space. Influenced by dance, film, literature and spiritual philosophy, including the writings of Octavia Butler, Malidoma Patrice Somé, Gary Zukav and Christina Lonsdale, this series investigates the origin and transcendence of the soul from a third space McGrigg calls “The Beloved.” This realm is in constant metamorphosis, allowing Black souls to exist in continual transition and transformation. Multidimensional in nature, “The Beloved” is a space where time can simultaneously collapse and expand, opening possibilities for alternate realities of the soul. Like the soul itself, esoteric and intangible, this body of work imagines a spiritual realm connected to ancestral lineage that transcends time and space, where the viewer is invited to venture beyond the physical plane. See it on view until July 19, 2026.