“The Rex 2026 Proclamation is an original painting by New Orleans artist Saskia Ozols. She is the daughter of the late Auseklis Ozols, a renowned portraitist, landscape painter, and founder of the New Orleans Academy of Fine Arts in New Orleans who painted several beloved Rex proclamations in years past.
Saskia is a practicing artist and independent curator with a 30 year exhibition record which includes regional, national, and international venues. She is the founder of the Fine Arts Preservation Society of New Orleans. Saskia has an MFA in painting and specializes in practicing and teaching historical painting techniques. She has taught at schools including Boston University, Tulane University, and Loyola University. “
2026 Rex Proclamation
Description of the Artwork
The 2026 Rex theme of “Rebirth and Renewal,” provided an artistic point of departure for both symbolic and technical inspiration. Combining moments in history with the forthcoming celebration offered a beautiful opportunity with which to look forward while maintaining parts of tradition in both art and culture.
Celebrating our city as an ever-evolving work of art in itself, the honor and challenge of creating this image required research, time, and collaboration.
I utilized oil painting and drawing techniques of the 14th -19th centuries. methods established by artists such as Leon Battista Alberti in the Renaissance, The Van Eyck Brothers in 14th century Flanders, and the infamous Thomas Eakins of American Realism. The combination of specific flowers were grown in private New Orleans gardens and refer to the Victorian (and earlier Turkish) Language of Flowers in their meaning and symbolism. The painting itself contains layers of drawing, passages of alla prima painting, transparent veils of color, and handmade paints made with pure pigments.
The genre of painting is inspired by the Flemish Vanitas paintings of the 17th century. These were images for meditation on life, mortality, vanity, the intellect, and transformation. They were explorations and celebrations of cycles in our universal search for meaning, often including objects, flowers, and insects as symbols.
Each object in the proclamation painting is a piece of history in itself. Borrowed from private museums and collections, they range from antique Rex collectibles to Newcomb Pottery and hand-made contemporary vessels by New Orleans artists.
I connected each art historical reference to an object or flower from New Orleans and set them all up together in a traditionally designed north lit studio. I worked on this painting for almost a year- replacing flowers as they wilted and adding certain blossoms as the seasons turned.
The final image is the result of collaboration with the organization historian and his team, their willingness to allow an arrangement of historical artifacts in an off-site location, and the desire to continue and revere the process of rebirth and renewal, not just in our city-but in our shared universal experience.
(Saskia Ozols)
