Attendees for the Seldom Seen 5 opening got an up close look of the privately owned pieces. Sarah Hess/The Lion's Roar

President of the Hammond Art Guild Nancy Lowentritt desribes the symbolism of the materials used in her mother's piece "Frozen Feelings, Too Hot to Handle." Sarah Hess/The Lion's Roar

The Hammond Regional Arts Center held its opening exhibition for “Seldom Seen 5,” an exhibit that allows the public a viewing of privately owned art. Pieces shown in this exhibition include works by internationally known Ida Kohlmeyer and installations that were on display in the New Orleans Hyatt Regency Hotel in the 70s.

“Seldom Seen 5” is an exhibit that not only shows off the work of the artist but also gives its viewers an inside look of the art collectors. HRAC held the opening exhibit for this series Friday Oct. 6. From 5-8 p.m. HRAC Executive Director Maureen Joyce describes the appeal of this exhibition.

“You can see every element, principle and design at work here,” said Joyce. “You can speculate about what the art is saying, about the collector or the community. There’s just so much to see.”

Some of the collectors whose art was showcased proudly viewed and explained their acquired pieces. One collector, Lynda Kats, a member of the HRAC who previously taught ceramics and art history at the university, as an artist, explained how she acquires much of her collection’s artwork and offered tips on how to begin art collecting.

“Most of the pieces are pieces I’ve traded,” said Katz. “I’m an artist, and I’ve traded with other artists for their work. If you collect wisely, you can collect on a small budget and live with things that you love.”

Kats explained how beginner collectors can identify pieces to add to their collections.

“Something that pulls at my heartstrings and that the handling of materials is wonderful,” said Katz. “Collect what you love. Don’t try to collect because it’s going to increase in value. Buy things you want to live with.”

Brothers Uriah and Nahum Ochs, who are university employees at the Mane Dish, attended the opening and enjoyed that the artwork came from private collections.

 “That it is from people’s homes,” said Uriah Ochs. “Their own private collection, that they decided to let all of us see.”

The Ochs grew up in a family of artist, are natives of New York and have traveled all over the country viewing the different styles of art in each state they lived in.

“Ever since we were babies, we remembered coming to these openings with wine and cheese,” said Uriah Ochs.

Traveling from New York, California, New Mexico, returning to New York, then onto Arizona and finally settling in Louisiana. Nahum Ochs describes how he believes the Hammond art scene is different compared to others and why people should view this exhibit.

 “There’s some sort of southern, Louisiana flavor I guess,” said Nahum Ochs. “Most definitely people should attend this show, everybody needs more art in their lives.”

President of the Hammond Art Guild Nacy Lowentritt, a native of New Orleans has been a resident of Ponchatoula for 12 years had three of her pieces featured in this year’s Seldom Seen exhibition. The pieces from her collection that was chosen all have sentimental family connections to Lowentritt to the piece that were chosen for exhibition from her own private collection. She explains those three were chosen for this exhibit.

 “When the two curators Pat and Denise came to my house to look around,” said Lowentritt. “I was inviting them there to see my collection of my mother’s artwork. She did wood, steel, bronze and marble was her final thing before she died. She’s an amazing woman. So when they came they just looked all over my whole house and got one piece of hers and then they picked the Ida Kohlmeyer piece and the ‘Beach Chair.’”

 The piece “Frozen Feelings,” Too Hot to Handle holds a special connection to Lowentritt since its artist Dorthy Oray is her mother. Lowentritt discussed how she obtained this particular piece.

“It’s from 1982 during her wood period,” said Lowentritt. “She was in a one woman show, she lived in the Boston area in Cambridge and she was invited to do a show. She loved constructing things. That particular piece I bought that night. I flew up from New Orleans to surprise her, because I was so proud of her, so I bought it.”

The second artwork from her collection is the painting “Cluster” by Ida Kohlmeyer, who Lowentritt knew well because they were related through marriage. Lowentritt is especially proud of this piece because it was the first real art piece she had bought when she began collecting. The final piece from her collection is “Beach Chair” by Jack Clift. She had inherited this piece and discovered afterwards that its artist graduated from the same school as Lowentritt’s mother and was a professor of hers.

Lowentritt herself is a representational artist who was always surrounded by art even into her early childhood as her mother, Oray, was an artistic women who loved to create art and even had her own studio in Italy. She talks about the type of woman her mother was and her artistic journey.

“She was always artistic,” said Lowentritt. “We went to Europe when I was 12 years old. Mom had saved outside of the grocery money to take the three kids to Europe and when we came home, we had a white wall in the entrance to this little house, the first house my parents had bought in New Orleans, and she just came home and did this huge painting of the Pompeii ruins from Italy. She was always doing stuff like that and then finally, after we were all grown and out of the house, she went to school in Boston. She went to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts School and graduated when she was about 60.”

The opening night was a special time for Lowentritt because not only did the public get to see her mother’s work, but the opening night also coincided with an important date related to her mother.

 “I’m just completely thrilled,” said Lowentritt. “Today would have been her 95th birthday if she was still alive, and here, this is the first time she is being publicly shown in Louisiana.”

Joyce shared how this exhibit is special due to the fact that there is so many forms of media to be seen in one exhibition.

 “As someone who might collect art, you get to see all the diversity of all the different types of collections and all the different options that are out there, and I think that as a younger audience you can see that art is what sticks around even when we’re not here and says something about who we were and who we are,” said Joyce. “So it’s a great opportunity to think, ‘This is what my community is saying about us.’”

Joyce explained how university students can benefit from attending this exhibition that will be on display until Oct. 27.

“When students can connect with that and not see art as some other thing,” said Joyce. “Whether they want to be artists or not, they get to see that it enriches their lives beyond and increases the quality of their life when they can have that deeper experience, and that is what we want. We want people to see that and recognize, ‘Just like this building is still here and says something about the people that were here before the art, that we create will still be too.’”