Jonathan Carver Moore is pleased to present What’s Left, Never Left, a solo exhibition by New Orleans-based artist Auudi Dorsey. The exhibition features a new body of work developed during Dorsey’s six-week residency at the gallery and features his largest works to date. The artist continues his research into the history of African American communities and water, a subject he began exploring in 2022.
Drawing on archival photographs and records, Dorsey highlights the once-vibrant history of leisure spaces central to African American communities—spaces that fostered joy, community, and resilience, yet have largely been erased through systemic neglect, environmental shifts, and redevelopment. Through his research and artistic practice, his paintings reframe these histories to challenge contemporary narratives of distance between African Americans and aquatic life.
Centering the experiences of African women in particular, Dorsey’s work draws attention to the generational loss of swimming knowledge that has contributed to disproportionately high drowning rates within African American communities. Through this work, Dorsey also seeks to restore a sense of confidence, ownership, and belonging in aquatic spaces. What’s Left, Never Left reimagines the cultural relationship between African Americans and water, bridging past and present while offering a vision of reclamation and empowerment.
Auudi Dorsey (b. 1992, New Orleans, LA) is a New Orleans-based painter whose deeply intuitive practice is rooted in the everyday lives and cultural traditions of the American South. Drawing inspiration from the “day-to-day people and circumstances that exist in southern culture,” Dorsey elevates ordinary figures—celebrating ancestral heritage, ritual, and communal joy—through a visual language that bridges past, present, and future Black Southern experiences.
His work centers on narratives often overlooked by mainstream art histories: blue-collar workers, family gatherings, street scenes, and cultural symbols such as white tees, cars, and cigarettes serve as textured markers of identity, remembrance, and belonging. Painting with a controlled palette—often sepia, walnut, or darker tones—Dorsey underscores emotionally rich, familiar atmospheres that draw viewers into intimate, evocative scenes.