Auseklis Ozols (born September 22, 1941) is a

Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...

n-born American artist and professor based in

New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

. Ozols has been active in the fields of

oil painting Oil painting is a painting method involving the procedure of painting with pigments combined with a drying oil as the Binder (material), binder. It has been the most common technique for artistic painting on canvas, wood panel, or oil on coppe ...

watercolor painting Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (Commonwealth English; see spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin 'water'), is a painting method"Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to the S ...

ink Ink is a gel, sol, or solution that contains at least one colorant, such as a dye or pigment, and is used to color a surface to produce an image, text, or design. Ink is used for drawing or writing with a pen, brush, reed pen, or quill. ...

, and photography.

Biography

Auseklis Ozols was born in Strenci, Latvia in 1941. He moved to the U.S. with his family in 1950. Ozols graduated in 1961 from the Trenton School of Industrial Arts. In 1965, Ozols went on to earn a

Bachelor of Fine Arts A Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) is a standard undergraduate degree for students pursuing a professional education in the visual arts, Fine art, or performing arts. In some instances, it is also called a Bachelor of Visual Arts (BVA). Background ...

from the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

and the

Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) is a museum and private art school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1805, it is the longest continuously operating art museum and art school in the United States. The academy's museum ...

, before receiving a

Master of Fine Arts A Master of Fine Arts (MFA or M.F.A.) is a terminal degree in fine arts, including visual arts, creative writing, graphic design, photography, filmmaking, dance, theatre, other performing arts and in some cases, theatre management or arts admi ...

in 1969 from

Temple University Temple University (Temple or TU) is a public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related research university in Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. It was founded in 1884 by the Baptist ministe ...

. Ozols moved to New Orleans in 1970, where he married Gwendolyn Laan; they had three daughters. Gwendolyn Laan Ozols died in 1980. Inspired by

Thomas Eakins Thomas Cowperthwait Eakins (; July 25, 1844 – June 25, 1916) was an American Realism (visual arts), realist painter, photographer, sculptor, and fine arts educator. He is widely acknowledged to be one of the most important American artist ...

and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Ozols founded the New Orleans Academy of Fine Arts in 1978. Ozols also designed The Academy Gallery, located inside the New Orleans Academy of Fine Arts. The school is still in operation today. Ozols’ works have been included in public and private collections internationally. In New Orleans, he has received the Delgado Award from the

New Orleans Museum of Art The New Orleans Museum of Art (or NOMA) is the oldest art museum, fine arts museum in the city of New Orleans, Louisiana, New Orleans. It is situated within City Park (New Orleans), City Park, a short distance from the intersection of Carrollton ...

, the Strength in Age Award, and the Community Arts Award from the Arts Council of New Orleans. His works have been displayed at the Louisiana Governor's Mansion, the New Orleans Museum of Art, the

New Jersey State Museum The New Jersey State Museum is located at 195-205 West State Street in Trenton, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The museum's collections include natural history specimens, archaeological and ethnographic artifacts, and cultural history and fin ...

, and the Latvian Museum of Art in

Riga, Latvia Riga ( ) is the capital, primate, and largest city of Latvia. Home to 591,882 inhabitants (as of 2025), the city accounts for a third of Latvia's total population. The population of Riga metropolitan area, which stretches beyond the city lim ...

. Ozols lost the sight of his right eye in 2012, but continues to paint and teach. He retired from his work with the New Orleans Academy in 2020. Noteworthy students of Ozols include Kate Samworth and Matt Rinard.

External links

New Orleans Academy of Fine Art

Article about Auseklis Ozols at online magazine 64 Parishes

Article about mural by Ozols

Work by Ozols: ''Demar’s New Dawn''

Arts Council of New Orleans 2009 Community Arts Awards

Mural by Ozols

Audio interview

Article about Ozols in ''New Orleans Art Review''

Announcement of lecture by Ozols

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ozols, Auseklis 1941 births Living people 20th-century American painters American male painters 21st-century American painters Artists from New Orleans Latvian World War II refugees Latvian emigrants to the United States 20th-century American male artists

Biography

Further reading

External links