FERRARA SHOWMAN GALLERY is pleased to announce the sixth gallery solo exhibition of New Orleans-based artist Gina Phillips entitled Don’t You Mind People Grinning At Your Face. This new body of work marks a return to the artist’s characteristic studio practice in two-dimensional textile work. Four narrative, mixed media fabric works are accompanied by three plein air, landscape paintings and two, limited edition prints which depict the under-paintings of the textile pieces. In addition to these two prints, this exhibition unveils five other limited edition prints of the artist’s acclaimed Fats Domino Series in 2009. The exhibition will be on view 23 April through 31 May 2025 with an artist reception on 3 May from 5 – 8 PM in conjunction with the Arts District New Orleans’ monthly First Saturday Gallery Openings.

The exhibition also coincides with the approaching 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. As such, the gallery will be presenting various exhibitions throughout the year to highlight artists who have recovered, rebuilt and are committed to the evolution and continued rebirth of New Orleans and the creative community it inspires. On August 29th, 2005, Phillips had just finished renovating her shotgun home in Holy Cross, in the Lower Ninth Ward, when Hurricane Katrina hit and devastated her community, home and art studio.

In the aftermath, Phillips found herself forging deep connections with her neighbors, bonded by shared loss, resilience, and renewal. Reflecting on this experience, she expressed, “The longer I stay here, the harder it is to imagine living anywhere else.”Further bolstering her recovery and artistic evolution, Phillips received a grant from the Craft Emergency Relief Fund in December 2005, enabling her to acquire an industrial long-arm quilting machine. This transformative tool liberated her from the limitations of traditional sewing machines, significantly expanding the scale and expressive potential of her textile-based artworks. Phillips describes her creative process as equally driven by “a desire to tell a story and a love of the materials,” a philosophy vividly reflected in the intricate narratives woven through her vibrant, layered compositions. Phillips’ uses all kinds of fabrics for work including clothes that her friends, family and neighbors give to her;  this repurposed material imbues her work with personal narratives.

In 2008, after living in a FEMA trailer for almost two years , Phillips moved back into her re-renovated home, she created the Fats Domino Series—inspired by her neighbor in the Lower Ninth Ward, legendary musician Fats Domino, and some of the first artworks she produced in the new home. Over the course the next 10 years, Phillips continued to create large scale works and her work was exhibited at several museums and institutions across the country including Crystal Bridges Museum in 2015.

Phillips continued (and does still to this day) to work on her property and be active in her neighborhoods rebirth   In Fall of 2023, Phillips achieved another milestone by completing a new studio built in her backyard, providing a dedicated and inspiring space for her continued artistic exploration. Additionally she created a community gathering space where friends and neighbors can come together for concerts, picnics, community meetings and general “get togethers” that continue to foster a sense of belonging and identity. She also actively contributes to the neighborhood’s vibrant cultural scene by hosting an annual music event called Sister Street Fest on her corner lot, celebrating community, music, and creativity. As one very few residents to have lived through Katrina and stayed in Lower Ninth Ward, Phillips is a beacon for her community and city.

Phillips discusses her new work . . .

Don’t You Mind People Grinning at Your Face

—Son House (lyrics)

Return to Narrative

Following my last body of work, Shape Memory—a deep exploration of abstraction in both 2D and 3D form—I found myself drawn back to my roots in visual storytelling. Using the rich stories and mythologies surrounding early jazz and blues musicians, I began to build layered visual narratives.

What surprised me most was how much joy I found in imagining the secondary characters—the ones who often linger at the edges of the historical record. In fleshing out these supporting roles, the compositions came alive with emotional weight and speculative history.

“Jelly Roll Plays for the Girls Upstairs on a Slow Night”

I imagined what a quiet evening in Storyville might have looked like. Jelly Roll Morton plays upstairs in what feels like the private quarters of the “girls.” While he appears as the central figure, the true stars are the women lounging around the piano—bored, reflective, maybe tired of the act. The ornate wallpaper and homey decor form multiple mini-compositions within the image, turning the background itself into a character. Jelly Roll looks off to his right, distracted—lost in thought, or maybe just playing the same tune he’s played a hundred times before.

“Down Home Diva: Memphis Minnie Plays for Family in Walls”

Here, Memphis Minnie—aka the Down Home Diva—takes center stage in a lime-green lamé dress, glitzy and radiant against a gritty rural backdrop. In reading about her life, I learned she often stopped in Walls, Mississippi, where her family lived. I imagine her holding court, playing her latest songs down on the farm, surrounded by people who knew her long before she became a legend.

“Son House (Ain’t Gonna Work on Carrie’s Farm No More)”

This scene is drawn from an early story in Son House’s life. He married an older woman from New Orleans who swept him off his feet and brought him to her family’s farm. There, she put him to work. In this piece, Son appears at a crossroads. His expression suggests resignation—or maybe the quiet realization: “This woman’s using me. I gotta get off this farm.” Carrie, his wife, stands as a strong anchor on the left, while her critical mama hovers in the background. Two younger brothers fill out the right side of the composition, reinforcing the sense of pressure and entrapment.

“Borrow Pit”

This large textile landscape acts as a kind of supporting character in the series, echoing the surface/sub-surface theme of the exhibition title. Things are not always what they seem. Here, the land is carved out—a hollowed section of Delta riverbank filled with the layered detritus of generations.

This motif of above/below, seen/unseen, is one I return to often. Many of the depicted objects are based on actual fragments I’ve unearthed in my own yard—when planting a tree or setting a post—at my home in the Lower Ninth Ward. These bits and pieces feel like remnants of untold stories, silent but present, testifying to the lives that came before me on this land.

Plein Air Landscape Paintings

These observational works support the color palette and compositional choices within the textile pieces. They serve as visual grounding—land-based studies that inform the textures and rhythms of the narratives woven throughout the larger series.

Archival Print Series

For the first time, I’m offering a glimpse into the underlying process behind my textile work. Each piece begins with a series of sketches that gradually evolve into the final composition. The last sketch is projected onto muslin and painted using Golden Fluid Acrylics. These under-paintings often carry a power of their own—raw, gestural, and deeply expressive. I’ve created a series of archival prints that celebrate this often-unseen stage of the process. They offer viewers a rare look into the visual foundation and emotional energy that informs the finished textile pieces.

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GINA PHILLIPS is a mixed media, narrative artist who grew up in Kentucky and has lived in New Orleans since 1995. The imagery, stories and characters of both regions influence her work. She started her career as a painter, but over the years, has increasingly incorporated fabric and thread into her work. She begins a piece with a simple under-painting in acrylic paint on canvas or muslin…then finishes the piece by appliquéing fabric and thread on top. Phillips uses a communal gathering process to source her fabrics, as neighbors, friends, family often donate to her artistic process. Phillip’s work is characterized by a raw, narrative quality. The people and animals telling the story often embody a magical realism.

Phillips has a BFA from the University of Kentucky and an MFA from Tulane University’s Newcomb College. Her work has been exhibited in galleries and museums across the country including Pepperdine University, Ballroom Marfa, The Ogden Museum of Southern Art, the 21c Museum in Louisville, KY, the 21c Museum in Bentonville, AR, and Mason-Scharfenstein Museum of Art at Piedmont College in Demorest, GA. In addition, her work has been presented at numerous art fairs including PULSE LA, PULSE Miami, Texas Contemporary, VOLTA Basel, Miami Project for Art Basel Miami Beach, Seattle Art Fair, and Art Market San Francisco. Phillips’ work has been featured in Art in America, Oxford American, The Times-Picayune and ARTNews, among others. She was selected as one of twenty-seven international artists featured in the Prospect.2 Biennial of Contemporary Art curated by Dan Cameron and her collection of fabric portraits was exhibited as a solo project at VOLTA8 as part of Art Basel in Basel, Switzerland. In 2014, Phillips' work was featured in a mid-career retrospective at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art in New Orleans, LA and at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, AR in a group exhibition of 102 artists from across the country, entitled, “State of the Art: Discovering American Art Now”. She recently completed a 5 month residency at the Joan Mitchell Center, sponsored by the Joan Mitchell Foundation.

Her work is in numerous collections including: Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville New Orleans Museum of Art; Ogden Museum of Southern Art; 21c Museum, KY; the Drake Hotel, Toronto; The Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation; Tulane University and House of Blues (various locations across US.); Fidelity Investments Corporate Collection; Josh Rechnitz, Thomas Coleman, Ellen and Cooper Manning, Lyn and John Fischbach, and the collection of Marilyn Oshman.

For more information, press or sales inquiries please contact partner and gallery director Matthew Weldon Showman at 504.343.6827 or matthew@ferrarashowman.com. Please join the conversation with FSG on Instagram (@FerraraShowmanGallery) via the hashtags: #GinaPhillips, #FerraraShowmanGallery, and #ArtsDistrictNewOrleans.