New Orleans Museum of Art (New Orleans)

1 Collins Diboll Circle. 10 a.m.-4:30 p.m., Wednesdays-Sundays. For more info: (504) 658-4100.

“Kara Hearn: One Thing After Another”, through May 24. A video by Houston-based artist Kara Hearn. Recreating the “head space” of dreams and reverie, Hearn takes her viewer through a series of vignettes, casting herself in all the character roles. An interdisciplinary video artist, Hearn makes what she describes as: “quiet and absurd work about the way tragedies reside in the head; the way heroisms play out in the mind’s eye, the inside place where stories get conjured, dreamed, remembered.”

“A Discourse in Abstraction: Jennifer Odem Encounters NOMA’s Permanent Collection”, through May 24. This exhibition creates a dialogue between the sculptures of Jennifer Odem (a native of New Orleans) and works of art in the museum’s permanent collection. The paintings and sculptures on view were chosen in consultation with arts based on stylistic and formal resonances of her work.

“Expression, Innovation and Design: Studio Ceramics from the Permanent Collection,” through June 7.

“Evening in Paris: NOMA Celebrates the City of Light with Posters and Photographs from the Permanent Collection.” through June 28.

“Author and Subject: Murasaki Shikibu and the Tale of Genji,” through June 29.

“Women Artists in Louisiana, 1825-1965: A Place of their Own,” through Sept. 13. the first in a two-part series at NOMA showcasing the contributions of women artists through the permanent collections of both institutions

“The Art of Caring: A Look at Life through Photography,” May 16-Oct. 11. This traveling exhibition of 175 photographs explores how key life events are celebrated and honored, and how pivotal life decisions are made by different world cultures. The exhibition will be composed of seven themes: Love, Children and family, Wellness, Disaster, Healing, Aging and Remembering. The works will be amassed from a number of institutions, private collections and the Time/LIFE Picture Collection. Contemporary artists represented include Tina Barney, Nan Goldin, Sally Mann, Larry Sultan, Tatsumi Orimoto and Nicholas Nixon, while selections from the Time/LIFE collection include the works of legends such as Alfred Eisenstadt, Gordon Parks and W. Eugene Smith. Famed photographer Annie Leibovitz will lend a number of her iconic works, which will form a preface to the exhibition and several relevant HBO films will accompany each section.

“The Mind’s Eye: Without Subject Matter, What Does the Artist See?” May 16-Oct. 11. The New Orleans Museum of Art presents this new exhibition of abstract prints and drawings.