Cochran Gallery

Interesting Times
Sculpture and Paintings by Duane Paxson
Comes to the Cochran Gallery
Opening Reception Friday, January 23, 2026
6 til 9 PM, EST
4 East LaFayette Square
LaGrange, GA

Interesting Times
Growing up in the rural south, I was surrounded by nature, whose steady rhythms lend stability to daily life. I collected turtles, frogs, lizards, bugs, and even alligators. My siblings and I dug up arrow heads. Everyone on our road had a fig tree. Some had pear and plum trees as well. This seemingly idyllic existence is now, however, a mere memory, distant from contemporary reality. It goes without saying that the Biblical prophecy of “wars and rumors of wars” has now materialized. Stability has given way to uncertainty. The predictable social backdrop we took for granted a few decades ago seems to be tottering toward desolation.
The dread-both conscious and subliminal--engendered by these uncertain times has become the inspiration for my sculpture. I think of my works as “ghost marks,” mere glimpses of a once more stable existence. Surfaces covered in soot suggest the aftermath of war. Burlap and twine encircling some pieces infer restriction, indeed duress. Fragmentary figures bespeak violent dismemberment. Splintered forms indicate structures now decimated. At the root of this devastation, furthermore, is the destructive guile of pride-- what the Greeks termed hubris or overweening pride in defiance of the gods.
The exhibition might, furthermore, be seen as analogous to an opera, in which individual sculptures could stand alone as discrete works – like distinctive arias--but at the same time they work together as a whole.
Duane Paxson

Closing Reception for “That Thing Out in the Desert” SATURDAY, January 10, 2026!
💥4 til 7💥Artist talk 6 PM💥

That Thing Out in the Desert
(...The Burning Man Project)

Burning Man Project - Documentary Team Member Mark Mennie - will be featuring some unique moments from his multiple years of capturing the event held in the Black Rock Desert. His artistic collaboration with Carrollton artist Gordon Chandler will also be on display. Lata Fields, local chalk artist, will be creating a chalk art piece on site. Please join our special guests, Mark Mennie, Gordon Chandler, Lata Fields, and his fellow "Burners" the Trehal family during the opening reception.

Opening Reception for
"That Thing Out in the Desert"
Saturday, November 8, 2025
6 to 9 PM, EST
COCHRAN GALLERY
4 East LaFayette Square
LaGrange, GA

Celebrating 22 Years of History!