NEW ORLEANS, LA.- Ogden Museum of Southern Art announced its slate of exhibitions for spring 2026. Featuring work drawn from the permanent collection, new major donations and significant portfolios in Southern photography, abstraction and Visionary art, these four exhibitions amplify the story, strength and excellence of Southern art. Opening in January 2026 are Burke’s Delight: The Stacey and Michael Burke Collection and Herman Leonard: Images of Jazz, presented by The Helis Foundation. Opening in March 2026 are Vicinal Voices: Dusti Bongé, Ida Kohlmeyer & Dorothy Hood and I Am The Face.
Presenting work that challenges traditional notions of artistic value and aesthetics, Burke’s Delight: The Stacey and Michael Burke Collection will be on view January 17, 2026 through January 10, 2027. The exhibition features a significant recent donation of more than 80 works by over 50 artists from across the American South. Generously gifted by Stacey and Michael Burke, this collection underscores the profound contributions of self-taught and Visionary artists to our region’s cultural heritage and expands the Museum’s holdings in this genre.
Opening January 29, 2026, Herman Leonard: Images of Jazz, presented by The Helis Foundation, features thirty selenium-toned silver gelatin prints capturing legendary jazz musicians of the 1940s and ’50s. Widely regarded as the preeminent photographer of postwar jazz, Herman Leonard (1923–2010) chronicled an era that defined American music. Born in Allentown, Pennsylvania, Leonard received his first Kodak Brownie at age eleven, sparking a lifelong passion for photography. After serving in World War II and studying at Ohio University, he apprenticed under renowned portrait photographer Yousuf Karsh before opening his own Greenwich Village studio in 1948. There, he photographed the icons of the Bebop and Cool Jazz movements, many of whom became close friends. In 2005, Herman Leonard was working with Ogden Museum on a major retrospective and publication as Hurricane Katrina headed toward the city. The Museum agreed to store Leonard’s massive negative archive, saving it from the storm’s destruction and the flooding after the levees failed. The flooding destroyed Leonard’s home and studio in Lakeview, including most of his massive photography archive. The exhibition will remain on view through July 12, 2026.
Highlighting three visionary women who expanded the boundaries of abstraction in the American South, Vicinal Voices: Dusti Bongé, Ida Kohlmeyer & Dorthy Hood will run March 21 through July 19, 2026. Though each of these Southern artists developed their own distinct visual language, their work shares a spirit of experimentation and Modernist sensibilities, refracted through individual lenses of personal experience and place.
Drawn exclusively from the permanent collection of Ogden Museum of Southern Art, I Am The Face is a meditation on the history of portraiture within Southern Photography. Beginning with the early twentieth century to the present, I Am The Face highlights ever-changing ideas, trends, methods and technologies that define the photographic portrait. Capturing the human condition, the relationship between photographer and subject, and the inherent power of perception that the camera possesses is addressed throughout the exhibition. The exhibition will be on view March 28 through August 30, 2026.
Curator of the Collection, Bradley Sumrall, shares, "These four exhibitions, considered together, demonstrate Ogden Museum of Southern Art's expansive vision of our region's visual and cultural landscape by challenging traditional art canons, embracing diverse perspectives and connecting various disciplines and time periods, all in the context of place."
Ogden Museum’s spring exhibitions present and expand the story of art of the American South, strengthening the Museum’s leadership in the field, and deepen public engagement with Southern art and artists.
