Katrina

Viola Burley Leak, Katrina, 2012, cotton fabric and batt, lame, metallic threads, and acrylic paint, 76 34 × 72 in. (194.9 × 182.9 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Fleur S. Bresler, 2023.40.25

Artwork Details

Title
Katrina
Date
2012
Dimensions
76 34 × 72 in. (194.9 × 182.9 cm)
Credit Line
Gift of Fleur S. Bresler
Mediums
Mediums Description
cotton fabric and batt, lame, metallic threads, and acrylic paint
Classifications
Subjects
  • Disaster — storm — hurricane
  • Architecture Exterior — domestic — house
  • Disaster — flood
  • Figure group
Object Number
2023.40.25

Artwork Description

Viola Burley Leak 
born 1944, Nashville, TN; resides Washington, DC

???Katrina Wreckage and Tears . . . And Still We Rise
2012
cotton fabric and batting, lamé, metallic threads, and acrylic paint

Viola Burley Leak conjures the physical and emotional intensity of Hurricane Katrina, the deadliest storm to strike the Gulf Coast of the United States since 1928. After making landfall, the storm quickly overwhelmed the levees in New Orleans and claimed more than one thousand lives. 

Leak taps into the upheaval and dispossession that primarily Black and working-class communities in New Orleans experienced during and after Katrina, with silhouetted figures and hand-painted faces expressing despair. She placed an American flag “amidst the chaos,” she says, “to indicate the neglect by the federal government to act quickly to the plight of the citizens of New Orleans.” The event laid bare what some have termed environmental racism and the precarity of life at the edge of climate catastrophe.

Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Fleur S. Bresler, 2023.40.25


We Gather at the Edge: Contemporary Quilts of Black Women Artists, 2025

Works by this artist (231 items)

Sean Scully, Maesta, 1983, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase through the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment, 2004.1A-C, © 1983, Sean Scully
Maesta
Date1983
oil on canvas
On view
Sean Scully, Pomes Penyeach (by James Joyce), 1993, book, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the artist, 2001.79.44.1-13, © 1993, Sean Scully
Pomes Penyeach (by James Joyce)
Date1993
book
Not on view
Sean Scully, Untitled (print # 4), from the portfolio Five Unions, 1996, etching, aquatint, sugarlift, and spitbite on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the artist, 2001.79.66.4, © 1996, Sean Scully
Untitled (print # 4), from the portfolio Five Unions
Date1996
etching, aquatint, sugarlift, and spitbite on paper
Not on view

More Artworks from the Collection

Claire Falkenstein, City is Man, 1941-1952, linocut, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of The Falkenstein Foundation, 2019.27.14, ©1997, The Falkenstein Foundation
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Date1941-1952
linocut
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Claire Falkenstein, Untitled, 1976, embossed paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of The Falkenstein Foundation, 2019.27.18, ©1997, The Falkenstein Foundation
Untitled
Date1976
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Claire Falkenstein, Mandala, 1977, lithograph, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of The Falkenstein Foundation, 2019.27.19, ©1997, The Falkenstein Foundation
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Date1977
lithograph
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Les Quais de la Seine a Paris
Date1917
hand-colored etching on postcard
Not on view