Michel Varisco (1967 - ), a fine art photographer and a New Orleans native, has studied and worked at the Lacoste School of Art in France and holds an MFA from Tulane University. She has taught at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts since 1997. Since 1990, her work focused on different architectural forms such as New Orleans and Parisian cemeteries, abandoned factories, and portraits that explored the relationship between individuals and their environment. Her abstract work includes series based around the American Can Company and the McGinnis Cotton Mill in New Orleans and her documentary work has taken her to Guatemala, France, Germany, and Italy. Recent work explores post-industrial remnants of rural and urban areas mostly located in the south. She has received grants from the Louisiana Division of the Arts in 1998 and 2000 and a SURDNA fellowship in 2002. She has exhibited in Louisiana, New York, Memphis, Nashville, Mississippi, Washington, France, Italy and Czechoslovakia. Varisco is represented by Heriard-Cimino Gallery in New Orleans and Richter Gallery in Nashville. Varisco’s work has been published in Adbusters, USA Today, Common Ground Archeology, Cultural Vistas, New Orleans Review, Habitations and New Orleans River Region Renaissance.

Artist Statement:
As a native New Orleans artist, the city and region's loss and regeneration are primary to my art. Other inspirations for my work come from the poetry of Pablo Neruda, e.e. cummings, and the literature of Kate Chopin and Walker Percy.

Abandoned factories, rural areas of decay, and the parks and marshlands near New Orleans are the subjects of many of my works. I engage with these places through instinct. The work reflects the mood or wonder surrounding that site, my own state of mind, and the collective history there.

At Richter Gallery, included are photographs from distinct photo groups (or series) that show my specific progressions of thought and method.

“The Can Co” is a celebration of the abandoned factory, it's bustling past.
“The Cotton Mill Series” was provoked by the history of slave labor at the site and the haunted feeling of the remaining artifacts. “Ruminations” is a meditative study of the region in which I live, it’s changing economies, and it's future in the global market.
“Fragile Land” is a series of landscapes born of my feelings of hope and grief, for New Orleans and the wetlands that protect it.
Each series contains from 15-30 pieces and are limited edition archival photographs.

Education
Masters of Fine Arts- Tulane University 1995
Bachelors of Arts- Loyola University 1990
UGA Studies abroad in Cortona, Italy
LaCoste School of Art, through the Cleveland Art Institute, LaCoste, France 1991

Solo Exhibitions
2009 Shifting Landscapes, Heriard-Cimino Gallery, New Orleans, LA
2009 Fragile Land Revisited, Isaac Delgado Fine Art Gallery, New Orleans, LA
2007            “Fragile Land” Heriard-Cimino Gallery, New Orleans, LA
2005            “Ruminations” Southeastern Contemporary Art Gallery, Hammond, LA
2004       “Ruminations” Sylvia Schmidt Gallery, New Orleans, LA.
2003       “Blue” Sylvia Schmidt Gallery, New Orleans, LA
2001       “Visions in Silence” Galerie Lafayette, Lafayette, LA
1995       “Passages” Hall Barnett Gallery, New Orleans, LA
1994       “Observations” Lewis Gallery, Millsaps College, Jackson, MS
1990       “Abstractions” Dana Center Gallery, Loyola University, New Orleans, LA

Selected Group Exhibitions
2009 The Vestiges Projects Presents: LAND MARKS, The Opal Gallery, Atlanta, GA.
Southern Open, Acadiana Center for the Arts, juror Eleanor Heartney , Lafayette, LA
Muses, Heriard-Cimino Gallery, New Orleans, LA
2008 Environs/Examined, Louisiana Artworks, juror Rose Courville, New Orleans, LA
Sanctuary-Photographs from 5 New Orleans Photographers, from SohoPhoto Gallery, New York, NY, co-curator and exhibitor
Odd Works, juror David Rubin, The New Orleans Photo Alliance, New Orleans, LA
Loss. Ritual. Relic. Residue: The Archive a conceptual art exhibition, Newcomb College Center for Research on Women, New Orleans
2007 Vanishing Horizons, honorable mention, juror Raine Bedsole, Grande Isle Center
Identity: Contemporary Photographic Portraiture, juror Deborah Luster, The New Orleans Photo Alliance Gallery, New Orleans, LA.
co-curator and exhibitor
2007            “New Orleans Photography Exhibit, ”Sarrat Gallery, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN
2007            “Identity: Contemporary Photographic Portraiture” juror Deborah Luster, The New Orleans Photo Alliance Gallery, New Orleans, LA.
2007            “Industrial Identity, Developing the American South” curator Nick Nelson of Albany Museum of Art, Gallery RFD, Swainsboro, GA.
2007             “Photo/Object” Carroll Gallery, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA
2006            “Vision/ Re-Vision, Louisiana Photography 2006” The Contemporary Art Center, New Orleans, LA
2006            “December Exhibition Featuring Louisiana Artists” Heriard-Cimino Gallery, New Orleans, LA
2006            Group Exhibition, David Lusk Gallery, Memphis, TN.
2006            “Boomerang: Visual Arts Alumna Exhibition” Diboll Gallery, Loyola University, New Orleans, LA
2006            “Restoration” State of the Nation Art and Performance Festival, Barristers Gallery, New Orleans, LA
2006            “Rejoice: The images of the New Orleans Culture, A Photographic Exhibition Celebrating New Orleans Jazz, Culture and It’s People” Curator Don Marshall, New Orleans African American Museum, and The Jazz and Heritage Festival Grandstand, New Orleans, LA
2006            “Katrina Exposed” New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans, LA
2006            “Persephone’s Spring: Return from Exile” Carroll Gallery, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA
2006            “Women of Focus” Bassetti Gallery of Photography, New Orleans, LA
2006       “Debris-gulf Coast regional juried art exhibition” Jurors: William Fagaly, Doyle Gertjejansen and       Libby Johnson. LSU School of Art, Shaw Center for the Arts, Baton Rouge, LA
2006      “A celebration of N.O. Artists” The Warehouse, Washington, D.C.
2006            “SLU Visiting Artist and Faculty Show” Southeastern Contemporary Gallery, Hammond, LA
2006            “Carnival-a photographic retrospective” Juror: John Lawrence, The Darkroom, New Orleans, LA
2006            “Sustained Winds” Acadiana Center For the Arts, Lafayette, LA, traveling to New York, New Jersey,     Boston, Chicago, Dallas/Houston, Pheonix.
2005      “Water Mark” Oculus Gallery, Baton Rouge, LA
2005             “SLU Visiting Artist and Faculty Show” Southeastern Contemporary Gallery, Hammond, LA
2004            “One earth, passionate voices” Duque Art Center, New Orleans, LA.
2003       “Riverfest Show” Alexandria Museum of Art, Alexandria, LA.
2003            “The Louisiana Purchase Dis-Mantled: Revisions of Our History” Barrister’s Gallery, N.O., LA
2002       “Displaced” Barrister’s Gallery, New Orleans, LA.
2001       “Traces of Provence” The French Institute Alliance Francaise through Bard College, N.Y., NY
2001            “Vaclav Hollar School of Fine Arts Exchange Exhibition” Prague, Czecholslovakia
2001               “New Orleans Seen” curated by William Greiner - Preservation Resource Center , N.O., LA
2000       “Animal World” E3 Gallery, Juror Harvey Stein, New York, New York
2000        “Mixed Messages” Crescent City Brewhouse, New Orleans, LA.
2000        “No Dead Artist’s Juried Exhibition” Jonathon Ferrara Gallery, 841 Carondelet St., N.O., LA
2000        “Cemeteryscape” curated by Sandra Russell Clarke, Hotel Inter Continental, New Orleans, LA

Selected Bibliography

“Art critic Doug MacCash's guide to 19 pieces of outdoor New Orleans art”, The New Orleans Times Picayune-States Item, April 5th, 2009
"Muses: Recent Work by Female Artists” D. Eric Bookhardt, New Orleans Gambit Weekly, January 20, 2009/volume 30/ number 3
“Highwater Mark for Arts” Forecast public art, Dec 2008
“21 Public Art Projects” Dan Tague, Art Voices, June, 2008
“Sanctuary” Newark Star- Ledger, August, 2008
“Art in the Ruins” D. Eric Bookhardt, New Orleans Gambit Weekly, September 27, 2007
“On Course” Doug MacCash, The New Orleans Times Picayune-States Item, September 28, 2007
“People to Watch 2007,” New Orleans Magazine, September 23, 2007
“Vanishing Horizons: The fifth Annual Grande Isle Juried Exhibition”, Eric Bookhardt, The New Orleans Times Picayune-States Item, Lagniappe, April 10, 2007
“PhotoNola hopes to draw attention to city’s photo scene,” by Doug MacCash , The New Orleans Times Picayune-States Item, Lagniappe, December 8, 2006
“Femmes Fatales: Photo shows celebrates the work of some of the city’s finest” Doug MacCash, The New Orleans Times Picayune-States Item, March 24, 2006
“The Shapes of Things to come from Varisco” by Doug MacCash, The New Orleans Times Picayune-States Item, April 16, 2004.
“Brassy Color, Sacred Moments,” by Thomasine Bartlett, The New Orleans Art Review: A journal of analysis, Vol XX (02-03), No 5 May/June 2003, p. 40.
“Between and Betwixt” D.Eric Bookhardt, New Orleans Gambit Weekly, March 4, 2003/volume 24/ number 10.
“Best of New Orleans Arts Listings,” D.Eric Bookhardt, New Orleans Gambit Weekly, Feb 25, 2003
“Hot Seven” by D. Eric Bookhardt, New Orleans Gambit Weekly, July 9, 2002.
“Neighborhood Project”, by Doug MacCash, The New Orleans Times Picayune-States Item, June 28, 2002.
“Images show life before demolition” Sheila Stroup, The New Orleans Times Picayune-States Item, New Orleans section, Thursday, July 11, 2002.
“Art at a glance” Mary Tuwiler , 24/7, Lafayette, La., Sept 7 2001.
A Note on Michel Varisco’s Cotton Mill Series,” essay by Tom Whalen, The New Orleans Review, Volume 27 Number 1, Spring/Summer 2001, cover photograph, pgs 96-107.
“Building Blocks: Architectural-photo show pieces together heart of the city, ” Doug MacCash, The New Orleans Times Picayune-States Item, December 15, 2000.
“Dog Stars and cat skills” by Faith Dawson, New Orleans Magazine, July 2000 p 22-23.

Catalogues, Books and Journals

Ed Skoog’s: Mister Skylight, Copper Canyon Press, November of 2009, cover
Sustained Winds Exhibition Catalogue- the Acadiana Center for the Arts 2006
“Jeff Davis and Earhart, The Mayonnaise Triangle,” Jill Marquis, Intersection|New Orleans, Copyright 2006 Press St., New Orleans, LA, p.15.
“The return of Gilgamesh” by Brad Richard, Meena-A bilingual journal of Arts and Letters, New Orleans, LA, 2005, p.11, 102, 117, 119, 122.
“Are you in denial?” Refqa Abu Remaileh, Adbusters: Journal of the Mental Environment, March/Apr 2003 No 46, p. 114.
Habitations, Portels Press, Brad Richard 1st edition, Nov 2000, cover
“Anatomy of a Fever” by Anne Gisleson, Desire, summer 1999, p 4-5.
“Native Voices” by Penny Jessel, Common Ground Archeology Magazine, Volume 1, number 1/ Spring 1996, p 27-29

Honors

2009 Publishing Initiative Grant awarded by the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities

2008 Public Arts Commission awarded by the Arts Council of New Orleans on behalf of the Joan Mitchell Foundation

2008 Fellowship Award from Louisiana Division of the Arts

2008, 2006 Cultural Economy Foundation Grant

2008 Guest Lecturer: Loyola University, New Orleans, “The Artist Entrepreneur” AIGA

2007 SURDNA Foundation Grant

2007 Honorable Mention, “Vanishing Horizons” exhibition curated by Raine Bedsole

2007 Contemporary Art Center, “PhotoSpeak” Moderator

2006 Cultural Economy Foundation Grant

2006 New Orleans Photography Society, Guest Lecturer

2005 Contemporary Art Center, “Artspeak” Guest Lecturer

2005 Southeastern Louisiana University, Guest Lecturer

2004 Loyola University, “Urban Explorers: Photographers in the American City” Guest Lecturer, sponsored by the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities

2003 SURDNA Foundation Fellowship

2002 Grant from Active Element Foundation

2001 National Foundation for the Advancement in the Arts award for teaching

2000 The Scholastic Art and Writing Award for teaching

2000 Distinguished Recognition Award- Juror Janet Koplos, Fresh Arts Festival, N.O. LA

1994 Millsaps College, Guest Lecturer

2000 Best of show -New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival

1998 and 2000 Mini-grants awarded by the Louisiana Division of the Arts

1999-05 Louisiana State Artists Roster