NEW ORLEANS, LA.- The Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans announces that New Orleans native Rashaad Newsome returns for his interdisciplinary presentation of Mélange. Figuring a series of films and works on paper in conversation with Newsome's upcoming performance of FIVE, this interdisciplinary presentation of genre-bending works frames Newsome's live performance and studio practice through the history of collage. Using layered constructions of formal material to investigate layered constructions of social identity, Mélange borrows from dance, technology, gaming, and hand-crafted collage for a transformative presentation of art in motion.

The visual arts exhibition will be on view in the CAC Galleries January 14–February 12, 2017 with a free opening reception taking place on January 14 from 7–9pm.

Rashaad Newsome was born in New Orleans, LA in 1979. He lives and works in New York City, NY as a multidisciplinary artist whose work blends several practices together including: collage, sculpture, video, music, computer programming and performance, to form an altogether new field. Best known for his visually stunning collages housed in custom frames, Newsome’s work is deeply invested in how images used in media and popular culture communicate distorted notions of power. Using the equalizing force of sampling, he crafts compositions that surprise in their associative potential and walk the tightrope between intersectionality, social practice, and abstraction. Newsome’s work opposes cultural essentialisms—they lead us into a realm of uncertainty, in which the symbols presented transform, but are nonetheless made tangible.

The Contemporary Arts Center (CAC) is a multidisciplinary arts center dedicated to the presentation, production, and promotion of the art of our time. Formed in 1976 by a passionate group of visual and performing artists when the movement to tear down the walls between visual and performing arts was active nationwide, the CAC expresses its mission by organizing world class curated exhibitions, performances, and public programs that educate and enlarge audiences for the arts while encouraging collaboration among diverse stakeholders composed of artists, institutions, communities, and supporters throughout the world.