Exhibition
Proposals

Sponsored by The Northeast Louisiana Arts Council 

Exhibition on view Feb 26 – May 2, 2026
Public Reception: February 26, 2026 from 5:30 – 7:30 PM

This year’s juror: Benjamin Hickey

Juror Bio: Ben Hickey is the Executive Director for the Center for Exploratory and Perceptual Arts in Buffalo, New York. Previously he was curator of exhibitions and Emily Cyr Bridges Endowed Professor of Art at the Hilliard Art Museum, Earlier in his career, Hickey held positions at the Masur Museum of Art, California Museum of Photography, Buffalo AKG Art Museum, and the Arts Council of Buffalo & Erie County. He is an active member of the Association of Art Museum Curators, having served as a trustee from 2015 to 2020. He earned his master’s in art history from the University of California Riverside and his bachelor’s in history from Canisius University.

Hickey’s most recent writing can be found in Beili Liu: Mend, a monograph published by the Art League Houston in celebration of Liu’s 2024 Texas Artist of the Year Award. Other essayists include Bridget Bray, Annette DiMeo Carlozzi, Eddie Chambers, Katie Pfohl, and Kay Whitney.

In 2023, Hickey received a Samuel H. Kress Foundation Travel Grant to co-present research related to Marais Press on-campus collaborations at the 51st Annual Art Libraries Society of North America in Mexico City. Earlier in his career, he presented Reshaping Our Programming: The Artist in Residence Program at the New York Historical Society in conjunction with an Association of Art Museum Curators annual conference. He has also served as a panelist or consultant for Villa Albertine, the Joan Mitchell Center, Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, PhotoNOLA, and the San Antonio Art League.

About the Exhibition
The Masur Museum of Art’s Annual Juried Competition showcases contemporary artists throughout the United States of America working in any medium. First started in 1964, the Annual Juried Competition is the Masur Museum’s longest-running tradition and one of its best-reviewed exhibitions each year.

Full Accepted Artist List:

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Masur Museum of Art presents a solo exhibition by Monroe-based artist Drék Davis, Trismegistus: In the Garden.

About the Exhibition:

This exhibition has several points of origin. There is the myth of Hermes Trismegistus (The Thrice Great), a Jazz song by the same name (Zane Rodulfo), and a meditation on how existence is the process of transmutation. We grow by transforming life’s lessons into something substantive.

Birth, death, relationships, and the acquisition of knowledge are all portals through which we travel. Those of us that identify as “creatives” have the ability to alchemize pain into purpose. Ideas into objects. Dreams into reality. Much in the way many have attempted to turn lead into gold, the works presented here aim to turn the heavier things of life into points of light. Reflections on the political, spiritual, familiar and familial act as a mirror for the possibilities that stretch before us. Knock three times. Watch the closing doors.

About the Artist:

A native of Monroe, Georgia, Rodrecas Davis is a 2006 graduate of the University of Georgia Fine Arts program – with an emphasis on drawing and painting. Primarily a mixed media artist, Davis is also a former columnist for the Athens Banner-Herald and Code Z Online: Black Visual Culture Now. Davis has presented papers at several academic conferences, including the HUIC Conference (Hawaii University International Conferences) Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences, for which he discussed manifestations of Hip-Hop culture in the visual arts. His work has been featured in the Politics Issue of Callaloo: A Journal of African Diaspora Arts and Letters, ColorLines, and over sixty exhibitions. Mr. Davis is Professor, and Head of the Department of Visual & Performing Arts at Grambling State University, in Grambling Louisiana. A recipient of the Take Notice Fund Grant, awarded by the National Performance Network (Ford Foundation). He recently served as juror of the 77th Annual Wabash Valley Exhibition, at the Swope Art Museum (IN).

Mr. Davis’ area’s of specialization are Conceptual Art & Design, Mixed Media Assemblage, Soft Sculpture, Installation Art, Digital Media, and Photography. As an educator his courses cover studio-based subjects, art history, and professional practices & career development for Studio Art majors. Davis has exhibited in numerous shows, and curated several. He is a frequent participant at academic regional, national, and international conferences where he presents lectures on the various intersections of Popular Culture and Visual Art.

www.akaprofessordavis.com