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In 1978 Arthur Roger opened his gallery at 3005 Magazine Street in New Orleans' Garden District. A year earlier the Contemporary Arts Center had opened in downtown New Orleans. The artistic scene in the city was beginning to burgeon. The Arthur Roger Gallery moved to the forefront of galleries in the city. The gallery attracted a number of New Orleans' most prominent artists including Robert Gordy and Ida Kohlmeyer.
In 1988 the Arthur Roger Gallery moved to a new carefully planned 5,100 square foot space with three separate exhibition areas in the historic Warehouse District in downtown New Orleans. The space, designed by architect Wellington Reiter, one of the gallery's artists, was described by the Times-Picayune art critic as "establishing a world class standard of excellence for new art galleries in New Orleans." A tribute to the new gallery was published in Architecture and the gallery also received an Alpha Group Award for excellence in interior design. In both 1988 and 1989 the Arthur Roger Gallery originated and hosted the Art Against AIDS Ornament Exhibition, which in its first year became one of the top ten fundraisers in New Orleans. The Ornament show received the 1991 Mayor's Arts Award.
In the early 90's artists receiving one person exhibitions at the Arthur Roger Gallery in New Orleans included Charles Arnoldi, Derek Boshier, Roger Brown, Robert Colescott, R. M. Fisher, Peter Halley, Robert Hull, Leonard Koscianski, Clarence Laughlin, Peter Saul, James Surls, Bruce Weber, Joel-Peter Witkin and Philip Wofford. Throughout its history the gallery has presented several superb photography exhibitions including in recent years Debbie Fleming Caffery, Herb Ritts, Bruce Weber, Tom Bianchi, Joel-Peter Witkin, and John Dugdale. In both 1997 and 1998 the Arthur Roger Gallery was selected for inclusion in Richard Polsky's Art Market Guide as one of the 36 most influential galleries in the contemporary American art market. The author of the guide who is a contemporary art dealer in San Francisco described the Arthur Roger Gallery as striking, "just the right balance between showing local artists and artists of national repute." Polsky referred to the gallery as anchoring the New Orleans art scene. In August 2003, the Arthur Roger Gallery opened a second gallery, the "Project Space,” located in the Arts District in the new Renaissance Arts Hotel. In August 2005, Hurricane Katrina took an enormous toll on New Orleans but largely spared the Arts District and almost totally spared both Arthur Roger Gallery venues in the city. As a result of a rescue mission just four days after Katrina, the great preponderance of the artwork the gallery had in storage in the flooded mid-city area of New Orleans was saved. Several of the gallery artists, however, endured enormous losses of artwork and personal possessions. The Arthur Roger Gallery was the first gallery to re-open in New Orleans after the storm and is now actively involved in promoting the cultural rebirth of the remarkable arts scene that was flourishing in the city prior to Katrina. At the beginning of 2003, Douglas Bourgeois had a major retrospective at the Contemporary Arts Center. John Scott had a highly successful and critically well received retrospective at the New Orleans Museum of Art which ended just a few weeks before Katrina. In 2006, the Gallery participated in Art Chicago, The Toronto International Art Fair, and Scope-Hamptons. Exhibitions planned for the 2006-2007 season include John Waters, Mark Flood, Douglas Bourgeois, Allison Stewart, Dawn Dedeaux, Jim Richard, Blake Boyd, Ed Whiteman, Gene Koss, and Jesus Moroles. In
January 2007, Michael Klein, executive director of the International
Sculpture Center is curating “New Urban Visitas,” an
important exhibition of major national and international photographers
who employ urban settings as the focus of their imagery. |
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As
interest grew rapidly in the galleries in uptown Arthur Roger played
a leading role in forming the New Orleans Gallery Association and
in arranging the remarkably successful coordinated exhibition openings
which would transform the art scene in New Orleans. The gallery
was selected to assist in assembling several major corporate collections
including the Hotel Inter-Continental in New Orleans, the Pan- American
Life Insurance Company and the Aquarium of the Americas. By 1984
the gallery was gaining national recognition and was selected for
participation in the Chicago International Art Exposition where
it has continued to exhibit each year. The gallery has also been
included in the Los Angeles, Miami and Seattle Art Fairs. In 1984
the Arthur Roger Gallery played a central role in arranging the
large Louisiana Arts exhibition at the World's Fair in New Orleans.
The exhibit was regarded as one of the most successful at the Exposition.
In 1985 the Arthur Roger Gallery presented a successful month long
group show in New York at the Exhibition Space at 112 Greene St.
in SoHo.
Arthur
Roger opened a New York Gallery from 1991 until 1994. Artists from
Louisiana who received their first New York exhibit included Douglas
Bourgeois, George Dureau, Gene Koss and Ersy Schwartz. Willie Birch,
Clyde Connell, James Drake and Richard Jolley also exhibited at
the Arthur Roger Gallery in New York. The gallery continues to present
curated exhibitions. One of the most successful past exhibits, "Fear
of Painting," was curated by Dan Cameron and featured the works
of Lee Gordon, Jane Hammond, Deborah Kass, Marilla Palmer, Lari
Pittman, Archie Rand, Alexis Rockman, David Sandlin, Megan Williams
and Sue Williams.