Women abstract artists working in New York and Paris over the past 100 years tend to receive a lion’s share of the attention. The Ogden Museum of Southern Art in New Orleans highlights three women who expanded the boundaries of abstraction in “Vicinal Visions: Dusti Bongé, Ida Kohlmeyer & Dorthy Hood,” running March 21 through July 19, 2026. Though each of these Southern artists developed their own distinct visual language, their work shares a spirit of experimentation and Modernist sensibilities, refracted through individual lenses of personal experience and place.

Born between 1903 and 1918, Bongé (1903-1993), Kohlmeyer (1912-1997), and Hood (1918-2000) each responded to the global currents of abstraction in ways that were shaped by their specific geographies: the salty, storm-bent landscape of Mississippi’s Gulf Coast (Bongé); the diverse, vibrant and historic cultural fabric of New Orleans (Kohlmeyer); and the spirit of artistic optimism shared by both Mexico City and Houston (Hood). Together, these women testify to the power of artists who, working outside the traditional centers of New York and Paris, expanded the horizon of modern art and redefined what Southern Abstraction could mean.

“This exhibition is not only a focus on regional art history; it is a reconsideration of American abstraction itself,” Bradley Sumrall, Curator of the Collection at Ogden Museum of Southern Art, said via press release. “Bongé’s luminous introspection, Kohlmeyer’s fluid symbolism, and Hood’s cosmic expansiveness reveal a shared commitment to experimentation, intellectual rigor and spiritual inquiry. Together, they demonstrate that the story of 20th century abstraction cannot be told fully without including the vision, ambition and radical imagination of these Southern artists.”

Dusti Bongé

Dusti Bongé, widely considered Mississippi’s first Modernist painter, absorbed the lessons of Surrealism and Abstract Expressionism while remaining deeply rooted in the rhythms of the Gulf South. Her canvases oscillate between dreamlike figuration and gestural abstraction, drawing inspiration from the Gulf Coast’s natural and built environments as well as the inner worlds of dreams, visions, and the psyche.

More of her artwork can be seen at the headquarters of her foundation in Biloxi, MS. “Thinking in Color: Selections from the Vault,” through May 30, 2026, features 40 watercolor, ink, and tempera works by the artist that have never before been on public view.