Visual Art
Receiving his B.F.A. from Maine College of Art and M.Ed. from the University of New Orleans, Terry DeRoche works digitally, making images that typically blend photography, painting, and text. Terry is a fellow of the Surdna Art Teachers Fellowship Grant and also a recipient of a Louisiana Division of the Arts individual project grant. Mr. DeRoche has also presented at national education conferences, co-authored a paper published in the Teaching in Higher Education Forum, and published photographs in the Gambit, the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, and Greater Portland magazine. Moving from Maine in 1992, Terry has been teaching at NOCCA since 1997.
Receiving her B.F.A. from Bath College of Higher Education (England), Nikki Jackson came to the United States in 1990 to study with artist Paul Soldner at Scripps College in California via a Gane Travel Scholarship. She has taught students from elementary school age to college level in California, Alabama and New Orleans, and in workshops across the United States. She is the recipient of several “National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts” awards for teaching, a Surdna Foundation Fellowship and is included in “Who’s Who of American Teachers,” 2004 and 2008. Ms Jackson has exhibited nationally and internationally and her work is collected in Great Britain and the United States. She is represented in New Orleans by D.O.C.S. Gallery, and has taught at NOCCA since 1998.
Based in New Orleans, Jennifer Odem has exhibited her work both locally and abroad. Jennifer Odem’s most recent one-person exhibition titled, “A Discourse in Abstraction: Jennifer Odem and NOMA’s Permanent Collection,” was organized by curator Miranda Lash at the New Orleans Museum of Art in March 2009. Her 2008 and 2009 exhibitions include a solo show at 511 Gallery in New York and group shows at the Winkleman Gallery in New York, the Front Gallery in New Orleans, and Tulane University’s Newcomb Center for Women. She has drawn a great deal of inspiration from her seven artist residencies abroad in locations including Ireland, England, Austria and Poland, as well as from her 2007 residency at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts. Odem is the creator of several outdoor sculptural installations, including Blue Fence, a site-specific sculpture presented in collaboration with AORTA projects, Wheels of Fortune (1999), sited in the salt flats of Utah for the Center for Land Use Interpretation, Island, produced for the Center for Polish Sculpture in Oronsko, Poland (2004), and the St. Rose Project, a private commission in St. Rose, Louisiana. In October of 2008, Odem was the recipient of The Joan Mitchell Foundation’s New Orleans Career Opportunity grant and was short listed for AWAW (Anonymous Was A Woman) grant in June, 2009. Her work has been written about in Sculpture Magazine (Dec. 2001) and reviewed in Artnews (Jan. 2003). Her work is also included in “Playa Works: The Myth of the Empty,” by William L. Fox, University of Nevada Press, 2002.
Mary Jane Parker received her B.F.A from Louisiana State University, M.A. and M.F.A. Studio Art with Printmaking emphasis from Illinois State University. Her work is mixed media combining printmaking and painting techniques with glass and bronze sculpture. She was awarded a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Fellowship in 2007, a Louisiana Division of the Arts Fellowship in 1990 and 2001, a National Endowment for the Arts/Southern Arts Federation Award for Excellence, an NEA Independent Study Fellowship, a Surdna Foundation Arts Teacher’s Fellowship and mini-grants from the Louisiana Division of the Arts. Ms. Parker’s work is part of the permanent collection of the New Orleans Museum of Art, the Center for Book Arts in New York and numerous private collections. Mary Jane has taught at NOCCA since 1998 and has received recognition from the Foundation for the Advancement for Teaching in the Arts and the Scholastics Art and Writing Award for Teaching. She is represented in New Orleans by Arthur Roger Gallery. Her professional website is http://www.maryjaneparkerart.com.
Keith Perelli received his B.A. from the University of New Orleans and his M.F.A. from the University of Cincinnati. Mr. Perelli, a visual artist working in painting, is a native of St. Bernard Parish. He has participated in numerous national and international invitational and juried exhibitions. Mr. Perelli has been a recipient of a Surdna Foundation Arts Teacher’s Fellowship, a Liquitex Inc.’s Excellence in the Visual Arts Award, and a Foundation Ratti Arts Fellowship. He exhibits his work at D.O.C.S. Gallery in New Orleans and Found Gallery in Los Angeles. His work was selected for the Foundation Ratti Corso Superiore, Como, Italy, Alan Kaprow Invitational, Milan, Italy, and UNO 3 Person Alumni Works on Paper, Innsbruck, Austria. Most recently, his work was selected for “A Culture of #####: A Tribute to J.B. Harter,” exhibited in New York, and a traveling exhibit entitled “Katrina, Catastrophe and Catharsis,” at the Fine Arts Center, Colorado Springs, Colorado. He has received numerous professional development grants and a fellowship from the Louisiana Division of the Arts.
Ann Schwab works in photography, mixed media and installation. She received a B.F.A. from Maryland Institute College of Art, and an M.F.A. and Art Education Certification from Tulane University. Ms. Schwab has received numerous awards including: a Louisiana Division of the Arts Fellowship, a Maryland State Arts Council Fellowship, a Surdna Foundation Fellowship and professional development grants from the Louisiana Division of the Arts and the Louisiana Cultural Economy Foundation. She has been honored three times in Who’s Who among American Teachers, has presented at the Network Conference for Arts High Schools, and twice conducted forums at the Getty Southern Conference on Education in the Arts. Ms. Schwab has exhibited nationally and internationally and her work is in numerous private/corporate collections. Ann Schwab is a NOCCA alum. Her professional website is http://www.annschwab.com.
Ersy has a B.F.A. from Cal Arts and attended Bard College and the Cooper Union. She taught at the Cooper Union for 20 years prior to her joining the faculty at NOCCA in 1999. She has studied with sculptors William Ludwig and Enrique Alferez independently. She received and executed a commission for the One Percent for Art Program on the entrance gate for the New Orleans Museum of Art in collaboration with artist George Dureau. Ersy received a Surdna Arts Teacher’s Fellowship in 2005 to work with Modern Art Foundry in New York. She was recently commissioned to create bronze handles for the International House Hotel. In 2008, the Ogden Museum of Art acquired her sculptural installation, “Homage to the Society of St. Anne Parade,” and it is part of the permanent collection. Her work is shown at Arthur Roger Gallery, where she participated in the recent exhibit, “Catastrophe and Catharsis” in conjunction with the Prospect.1 International Biennial.
Receiving her B.A. from Loyola University of New Orleans and M.F.A. from Tulane University, Michel Varisco’s artwork includes photography, mixed media assemblages and installations. She has been awarded grants and fellowships from the Louisiana Division of the Arts, Surdna Foundation, Louisiana Cultural Economy Foundation. Michel has also received a commission from the Joan Mitchell Foundation through the Arts Council of New Orleans. A native New Orleanian, Michel has taught photography at The New Orleans Center for Creative Arts since 1997 and has been awarded honors by the National Foundation for the Advancement in Teaching in the Arts and The Scholastic Art and Writing Award for Teaching. Her work has been published widely in periodicals, poetry journals and books. She exhibits nationally and internationally and is included in various public and private collections. Locally she is represented by Heriard-Cimino Gallery and in Nashville by Richter Gallery.