Willie Birch, Memories of the 60’s, 1992, papier mâché, mixed media 53 x 93 x 82 inches courtesy of Arthur Roger Gallery, New Orleans
Upcoming Exhibition

Willie Birch: Stories to Tell

The first ever career retrospective of renowned artist Willie Birch (American, born 1942), this exhibition brings together groundbreaking works from the early 1970s to the present that chronicle Birch’s unique vision of the Black American experience and explore the interconnected nature of global art forms. Birch, raised in New Orleans and trained in Europe, Baltimore, and New York, often speaks about “retentions,” a term he uses to describe cultural evidence of another culture’s traditions in Black American life.

Throughout his career, Birch has explored how African traditions have been retained in music, art, and culture in America and beyond. As he manifested his ideas over the years through a wide variety of media from wood and papier-mâché sculpture to large-scale works on paper, Birch has applied this same insightful philosophy to all cultural production. Birch’s work as an artist, community organizer, and cultural provocateur questions why certain things are retained and not others, unearthing uncomfortable truths about American identity, but also offering possibilities for greater cultural awareness. 

The exhibition is organized chronologically and in three major sections, beginning with Birch’s earlier work in the early 1970s, continuing through his shift towards papier-mâché in the 1980s, and closing with large scale charcoal and acrylic works on paper. Major installation works will be interspersed in these major sections, ideally separated in their own small gallery spaces. Most of the work comes directly from the artist or his representatives at Fort Gansevoort Gallery in New York, New York, with key loans of a few specific works from institutional collections, namely the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Delaware Center for Contemporary Art, and the Baltimore Museum of Art.

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ITINERARY

Spring 2026
Fall 2026
Spring 2027
Fall 2027

BOOKING

For booking information, contact Interim Director of Exhibitions and Curatorial Initiatives, Naomi Huth, at nhuth@amfedarts.org 

CO-ORGANIZER

New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA), the city’s oldest fine arts institution, opened on December 16, 1911 with only nine works of art. Today, the museum hosts an impressive permanent collection of more than 40,000 objects.

PUBLICATION

Willie Birch: Stories to Tell will be the first major retrospective catalogue about this important artist. Co-published by the AFA (American Federation of Arts) and a publisher TBD.

CURATOR

Russell Lord is the Chief of Curatorial Affairs at the Norman Rockwell Museum. Previously the Freeman Family Curator of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs at NOMA, Lord has exhibited and written about the work of Willie Birch on three occasions: as one of six artists in the exhibition Ten Years Gone (2015) at NOMA, in Changing Course: New Orleans Artists Reflect on the City’s Histories (2018) at NOMA, and in Two Versions of the Same Story (2021) at the New Orleans Fine Art Academy. His interest in supporting a diversity of artistic histories is foregrounded in projects ranging from the exhibition and book Gordon Parks: The Making of an Argument (2013) and Called to the Camera: Black American Studio Photographers (2023).

CREDIT

Co-organized by the American Federation of Arts and the New Orleans Museum of Art