Rainbow in the Dark: Jessica Bizer
Altar Ego: Danya Smith

Opening: Saturday September 8, 6 - 10 pm
Performance at the opening by Three Brained Robot, 10 pm

Exhibition Dates: September 8 - October 7

Two-part artist talk: Oct 7, 3:30 pm, begins at The Front, (4100 St. Claude), ends at Good Children.
Join us for a two-part artist talk featuring Jessica Bizer and Ryn Wilson. The artists will discuss the shared themes between their current exhibitions— Bizer's Rainbow in the Dark, at Good Children, and Wilson's MIRRORIA, now showing at the Front. ---> Please note: The event begins at The Front (4100 St. Claude, across the street from GC)<---


Rainbow in the Dark: Jessica Bizer
My work investigates the complex energy of the contemporary landscape, a space in which digital technology brings a layer of fantastical experience to the most ordinary actions. With glowing screens, seamless graphics and promises of limitless functionality, the digital world immerses viewers in an environment that is simultaneously magical and utilitarian. The tension between these sensibilities is a source of drama, tension and ambiguity in my work.

Jessica Bizer is a painter and installation artist living and working in New Orleans. Her recent exhibitions include a group show in Los Angeles, a collaborative project at the New Orleans Museum of Art and a solo show at the Foundation Gallery in New Orleans. She has also been in group shows in New York, Atlanta and San Antonio. Her work has appeared in Pelican Bomb, Nylon, Hyperallergic, and on National Public Radio's Studio 360. She has paintings in the collection of the Benetton Corporation and the New Orleans Museum of Art.

She is a 2009 graduate of the MFA program at the University of New Orleans and is originally from St. Petersburg, FL.













Altar Ego: Danya Smith
To be African American is to be African without memory, and American without privilege.

Altar ego is an exploration of the cultural practices of the artist's blended, bi- racial, “tri-cultural” identity. Her work investigates areas of overlap within these conventions while re-imagining them as a part of the universe of Moodi Judi (the perpetual 12 year old), Desteny (the floating prophetic mouth), and her poster. Cultivated over multiple years, these characters signify parts of a whole, representing the artist’s isolated experience of having a split cultural identity and the liminal aspects of being and non-being. While re-contextualizing these traditions, the artist attempts to understand the history that was lost through immigration and the transatlantic slave trade, while simultaneously fusing these practices with Americana and pop culture of the West.

Danya Smith lives and works in Richmond, VA as a multidisciplinary visual artist. She studied Sculpture and Extended Media at Virginia Commonwealth University, receiving a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts in 2015. Since graduating, Danya has attended the Lighthouse Works residency in Fisher’s Island, New York, the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Skowhegan, Maine, and The Shandaken Project in New Windsor, New York. Her work incorporates sculpture, video installation, as well as painting and sound installations.