The Arthur Roger Gallery is pleased to present "Word Queens," an exhibition of recent work by Lesley Dill. The exhibition will be on view at the Arthur Roger Gallery at 432 Julia Street from November 3rd - 24th, 2007. Ms. Dill will lead a walk-through of the exhibition on Saturday, November 3rd at 2:00 pm, and will be in attendance at the opening reception hosted by the gallery later that evening from 6 to 8 pm.

Lesley Dill is creating a vivacious and intense "Word Ballroom" installation in the main gallery of the Arthur Roger Gallery on Julia Street. The gallery will be occupied by "Word Queens" complete with dresses and crowns that inhabit what the artist terms a "Space of Language."

Because the exhibition is in New Orleans, Dill is consciously making the gallery space into a "Word Party" with the entire viewing area including the ceiling and walls bedecked with "Word Garlands" and "Suspended Crowns."

Each of Dill's seven Word Queens is made of either copper letters or wrapped wire words. She also employs white painted metal words as well as silver and black ones. Two of the Queens are composed of random letters and the rest are made of words from the poetry of Emily Dickinson, Salvador Espriu, Neruda and Tom Sleigh. The language of Dill's pieces is difficult to read because of the dense layering process in the making of each dress. As a result, the dresses and personas represent, in the artist''s words, the "inner thought language" with which we clothe ourselves.

Each of Dill's female figures is a Queen – the intent being to give dignity and metaphorical importance to this gender. The suspended crowns represent the head energy that we have rising up off us as human beings. The gowns of metal are also intended as "Word Armor" conveying strength as well as protection.

Dill works in sculpture, photography and performance using a variety of media and techniques to explore themes of language, the body and transformational experience. Her work can be found in the collections of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY, The Cleveland Museum of Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Museum of Modern Art and The Whitney Museum of American Art. The artist's first museum retrospective, Lesley Dill: A Ten Year Survey, was organized by the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art at SUNY New Paltz in 2002, and traveled to the Colorado University Art Galleries in Boulder, Colorado, the Chicago Cultural Center, the Contemporary Museum in Honolulu and the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C.

Lesley Dill was born in Bronxville, New York in 1950 and grew up in Maine. After graduating from Trinity College in 1972 she completed an M.A. at Smith College in 1974 and received an M.F.A. in 1980 from the Maryland Institute of Art. The artist currently lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.

For additional information please contact the Arthur Roger Gallery at 504.522.1999 or visit our Web site www.arthurrogergallery.com.