Some of Jim Steg’s art, created during WWII, is traveling with the Ghost Army Exhibit, created by the National WWII Museum. The exhibit is currently on view at the National Veterans Memorial and Museum in Columbus, OH now until August 24, 2024 before it moves to the Missouri History Museum in St. Louis from Sept 23rd to January 12, 2025.
The long-awaited ceremony to present the Congressional Gold Medal to the Ghost Army veterans, the secret WWII units that used creative deception to fool the enemy, took place at the U.S. Capitol on March 21, 2024.
House Speaker Mike Johnson hosted the special event, along with House and Senate leaders, and sponsors of the legislation passed in 2022 authorizing the award. The Gold Medal is Congress's highest expression of national appreciation for distinguished achievements by individuals or institutions.
There are only seven surviving members of the Ghost Army, now aged 100. Three were able to attend the event, along with the families of many other Ghost Army veterans.
Jim Steg, who would have been 101, attended in spirit. His medal was accepted by his widow, Frances Swigart-Steg, pictured here at the ceremony with her son, granddaughter, and Louisiana Congressman Troy Carter.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, the Representative for Louisiana’s 4th District, gave a wonderful speech about Jim Steg’s service. You can view his segment of the Gold Medal Ceremony below:
Jim Steg: Polaroids presents a selection of Jim’s late-career instant photography explorations.
The exhibition, co-curated by Russell Lord and Jennifer Shaw, will be on view at UNO St. Claude Gallery from Dec 10, 2022 through Jan 8, 2023, in conjunction with the PhotoNOLA Festival.
In the late ‘80s and ‘90s Jim took pictures with an SX-70, often from the television screen, then deftly altered them. They’re manipulated both by surface pressure to affect the internal chemical development, and external processes including cutting, drawing, painting, and collage. The work exudes a raw, punkish energy, interspersed with moments of tenderness. The collection frequently references art history, reflecting themes that Steg explored throughout his career.
An opening reception will be held on Saturday, December 10, from 6-9 pm.
Gallery hours are 12pm – 5pm Saturday and Sunday, and by appointment. (Closed Dec 24 + 25)
Read more here.
Jim Steg – Becoming, 1959, woodcut
Amanda Winstead Fine Art is pleased to announce the forthcoming exhibition "The Orleans Gallery: 65 Years Later." Presenting the work of eight of the artists of this groundbreaking artist cooperative, which opened at 527 Royal Street in 1956, this exhibition will focus on some of the unsung artists of the Orleans Gallery. Included will be over 30 works by Franklin Adams, Katherine Choy, Marilyn Conrad, Lin Emery, Shearly Grode, Robert Helmer, Jim Steg, and Mildred Wohl.
The exhibition opens at 400 Julia St., New Orleans, LA from 6-8 pm on Saturday, December 3rd.
The Orleans Gallery was founded in 1956 by a small group of New Orleans artists. A non-profit, community-oriented gallery, its objective was to foster contemporary art in New Orleans and to make other cities aware of New Orleans as a creative art and cultural center. The gallery displayed and sold the works of its permanent exhibiting artists. It also exhibited the works of guest artists, student artists, and artists of national and international renown, until its closing in 1972.
LENSCRATCH, an online platform dedicated to supporting and celebrating the photographic arts, included work by Jim Steg in their Polaroid Week programming. The feature focused on his rarely seen, late-career Polaroids. Read it here.
New Orleans Academy of Fine Arts presents a printmaking exhibition in celebration of their newly launched printmaking program. The exhibition compiles the work of famed artist Jim Steg - with a concentration on his abstract studies - juxtaposed with the work of several New Orleans contemporary printmakers who are each exploring their own vision through one of the oldest mediums of production.
Printmaking in NOLA features Wayne Amadee, Tish Douzart, Jono Goodman, Ken Nahan, Sarah Nelson, Frances Swigart, and Meg Turner, with an entire gallery dedicated to the abstract studies of Jim Steg. Curated by NOAFA Director Andrew J. Rodgers, the exhibition serves as an exploration of and introduction to the medium of printmaking at the Academy.
Jim Steg: Abstractions features prints created by Steg in the 1970’s. The works display a range of printmaking techniques from soft ground and photo resist etchings to marbling, monoprints, multi-plate prints, and even hand-sewing. Many of the images evoke astral planes, and the orb is a recurring presence in his works of that era. In Jim’s own words:
“The printmaker… has a basic empathy for surface and texture. His reaction and interaction with the materials is perhaps more visceral than cerebral, often resulting in a sensual vitality. The hand-made, hand-pulled print is a defiance of the machine – an anachronism with the aura of intimacy.”
Opening reception:
Saturday, September 17, 5-7pm
On view through Oct 1
Gallery hours:
Mon - Sat 10am-4pm
Tue - Thur 6-9pm
The Academy Gallery
New Orleans Academy of Fine Arts
5256 Magazine Street
New Orleans, LA 70115
The Ghost Army Exhibit originally created by the National WWII Museum opened on June 16 at the Illinois Holocaust Museum in Skokie, Illinois, just outside Chicago. The exhibit will stay there until January 2. After that it moves to the Nevada Museum of Art in Reno, Nevada, where it will be on view from March 4.
Partners in Print - Closing Reception
Saturday, March 5, 12-2pm
Please join us for a SPECIAL TALK on the life of artist JIM STEG, his artwork, his professorship at Tulane, and his service in the WWII Ghost Army.
Frances Swigart Steg will share slides of Jim’s early works, created while he served as a member of the top-secret Ghost Army during WWII, along with images made later in his career that reflect upon his war experiences. Debra Howell will share a selection of prints that she produced during graduate school at Tulane University and speak about Jim’s influences on both process and subject matter.
Please join us for coffee and conversation! This will be the LAST DAY for the gallery exhibition Partners in Print: Frances Swigart and Jim Steg. The event is free and open to the public, at Studio Waveland & Gallery on Saturday, March 5 from 12-2pm.
Jim Steg - White Figural Abstract with Blue, Green, and Black Abstract Composition, 1991
on view March 7 - April 4, 2020
By appointment: 504-822-0725
Curated & Hosted by Amanda Winstead Fine Art
Carbine Motorcars: 3113 Tchoupitoulas St, New Orleans, LA 70115
Opening Reception: March 7, 2020, 6-8pm
Ghost Army: The Combat Con Artists of World War II
On view March 5 - January 3, 2021
Opening Reception: March 5, 5-8pm (WWII Museum Curator James Linn and Ghost Army Legacy Project President Rick Beyer will give a curator talk. Free and open to the public, but please register to attend: Register here.)
National World War II Museum (US Freedom Pavilion)
945 Magazine St., New Orleans, LA 70130
The National WWII Museum’s groundbreaking new exhibit, Ghost Army: The Combat Con Artists of World War II, explores the story of the US Army’s 23rd Headquarters Special Troops, known as the “Ghost Army,” who elevated battlefield deception to an art form during World War II in order to fool Adolf Hitler’s forces. Artworks and ephemera from the Jim Steg Ghost Army Collection are included in the exhibit.
We are thrilled to announce that the Smithsonian Archives of American Art in Washington, DC has acquired a group of Jim Steg’s reference material. The selection includes Steg’s curriculums and teaching materials gathered over his 42 year teaching career, a series of original sketches, and various correspondence and documentation collected by the artist during his lifetime. This material will join two artworks by Steg already in the permanent collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum along with countless other treasures in the Smithsonian collection.