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Publications

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Waltzing The Muse
Waltzing The Muse
2022
As for today, there is perhaps no living artist more deeply tied in the mind of the public to the visual landscape of New Orleans than James Michalopoulos.
The Two Worlds of James Michalopoulos
The Two Worlds of James Michalopoulos
2022
Michalopoulos paints with a palette knife, creating dense layers that are tactile—even from a distance. Perhaps it’s not surprising that writers and critics also use the verbal equivalent of a palette knife to layer adjectives when describing his work.
Architecture in Art
Architecture in Art
2019
As the son of an architect, James Michalopoulos likely thinks and sees in architectural terms more than others. Even in his deliberate distortions of building appearances he underscores their essence with certain concern for proportion, balance, rhythm and detail.
Architecture in Frozen Music
Architecture in Frozen Music
2019
His meanderings through the Ninth Ward, Bywater, Marigny, Mid City, Central City, Garden District and Algiers Point—often late at night on a Vespa scooter—in search of interesting architectural subjects led to the creation of a singular body of work that he has invested with personality, color, rhythm, and movement.
Interview with James Michalopoulos, 2017
Interview with James Michalopoulos, 2017
2019
The following interview was conducted by William Pittman Andrews, Executive Director of the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, and the artist James Michalopoulos in his Elysian Fields Avenue studio in New Orleans on January 3, 2017.
Joie de Vive
Joie de Vive
2019
It is in just such a context that we find the work of James Michalopoulas. His preferred medium is oil, ancient and revered. The drawing style is Giacometti meets Raphael, with a stealthy nod to Thomas Hart Benton. Texture comes from the Fauvists or, perhaps, Van Gogh on a particularly altered day. Color comes from God and the Devil and the Dance of the Hours.
Ogden Museum of Southern Art Waltzing the Muse: The Paintings of James Michalopoulos
Ogden Museum of Southern Art Waltzing the Muse: The Paintings of James Michalopoulos
2019
Waltzing the Muse brings together over sixty works to weave the narrative of Michalapoulos’ life with paint. It is the story of a thirty year relationship with the city of New Orleans, and a wild affair with the French landscape.
Rapt in Color
Rapt in Color
2019
Despite the fact that he studied painting at the New Orleans Academy and University of New Orleans, James Michalopoulos considers himself a “a self-taught artist who never stopped learning.” 
The Essence Beneath
The Essence Beneath
2019
Urban landscapes twist in time but don’t decay; a building isn’t rendered so much as its spirit is revealed. This is more than a painting; it is sculpting light with paint. A Michalopoulos painting is psychohistory in pigment.
The Picture is the Boogie and I'm the Boogieman
The Picture is the Boogie and I'm the Boogieman
2019
This essay appeared as the artist’s afterward to Michalopoulos (1997)