Current Exhibitions
Gallery 600 Julia features talented Louisiana artists in curated monthly shows in the front room. With a superior and varied selection of artistic style and technique, the gallery always has an impressive and changing inventory of fine paintings. Art Walk is hosted by all the galleries in the Arts District in the evening on the first Saturday of each month. Gallery 600 Julia hosts the artist reception with refreshments on the First Saturday from 6:00pm – 8:00pm, unless otherwise noted.
The Gallery will be open from 9:30am – 4:00 pm and odd hours by appointment.
Please see Visiting Artists for the ultra realistic food art of Ralph Songy. Also two New Orleans passions, food and Mardi Gras, each have a special EXHIBITION page. (2 & 3)
ART WALK 2025: First Saturday 6:00-8:00 PM unless otherwise noted
January 4: Linda Lesperance All Things New Orleans February 1: Spencer Schulz Electric Palette March 8 Marne Meynig Cajun Country April 5: Stephanie Reed, Pedestrian Pleasures,Scenes from local meanders May 3 Carol Hallock Swamp and Circumstance in May June 7: Ralph Songy Larger Than Life July 5 Linda Lesperance Louisiana Roots August 2: White Linen Night: Carol Scott Crystal Rising September 6: Chuck Broussard October 4: Don Reggio November 1: John Killeen December 6: Will Smith, Jr.
JULY 5, 2025 LINDA LESPERANCE Louisiana Roots
Linda Lesperance began her career in New York City as a portraitist and was selected by the prestigious, and then all-male, Salmagundi Club for an award in this subject. After pursuing journalism and public relations in the East, she moved to New Orleans to reconnect with painting on a full-time basis.
Her media is usually oil, chosen for its transparency and richness. My paintings are always about people and places so they are by default representational. I am a people-watcher. I love to observe and analyze humans and imagine what they are thinking. For many years I only did portraits, hundreds and hundreds of them before making the jump to painting scenes on canvas.. This training gave me the insight to see body posture, head carriage, facial expression, movement and intent. I like to observe people’s interactions with each other and try to tell their stories. I’ve come to believe that is my job, one I enjoy and one that compels me to share with others. I don’t like to be squeezed into any art categories. I did not study with masters and I don’t have lists of workshops and mentors. I have been in lots of galleries over the 25 years of my art career where I’ve had many solo shows. I have been a Jazz Fest visual artist for 24 years and that’s where most of my collectors have met me in person. I don’t teach. I don’t follow. I just paint.
This show Louisiana Roots tells the story of the spiritual side of Louisiana’s history. People, hearts and spirit take on a much more important role in the lives of Louisianians. Even they themselves are quick to point out that they are different. The South is a region that is hard to understand without living here for a long time, or at least staying long enough to soak up the essence. There is an emphasis on people and place; and where a person’s place is in this world. There are different standards of measure that are used: family, religion and community roots run deep. It’s not just a family reunion, or porch-sitting, or a crawfish boil, or a funeral second-line. It could be hearing a gospel choir singing joyously, or the sound of the streetcar swaying down the line or the drowsy heat that causes the somnific attitude towards life in general; but there is something different. It’s that ephemeral moment in Southern time that I hope to capture in my paintings. Hopefully, they will tell you a story and show you a glimpse of the spiritual side of Louisiana’s history, people and the emotional connections that we all seem to share with one another.
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