Every Second Counts, Yet Nothing Matters

Saturday, November 14, 2026
6:00 – 9:00 PM
Baywater Wonderland
3405 Royal Street
New Orleans, LA70117
Featuring artists Max Herrlander, Bilal Amjad and Nikhil Shah
Presented by HOPLA, New York
During New Orleans Fringe Festival
More information: hopla.gallery · @_____hopla

About the Event
For one evening during the New Orleans Fringe Festival, New York artist-run project HOPLA comes to Baywater Wonderland.
Artists Max Herrlander and Bilal Amjad bring work from New York into the courtyard — Amjad’ s hand-knotted rugs and Herrlander’ s Wisdomhairs — and let the work exist in direct relation to the place, the people and the evening around it. Rather than creating a conventional exhibition space, HOPLA is interested in what happens when art is placed somewhere it does not quite belong: a courtyard, a sauna, a restaurant, a street. The setting changes how the work is encountered, and the people who happen to be there become part of that encounter.
Come before or after a Fringe performance. Come out for a drink, a cigarette, a conversation, a closer look — or simply because you are curious.
Every Second Counts, Yet Nothing Matters is not meant as a statement of hopelessness. It is a reminder that time is finite, while what we do with it remains open. HOPLA is interested in making room for that uncertainty — following curiosity, taking a chance, and seeing what happens.

About HOPLA
HOPLA is an artist-run exhibition project founded by Max Herrlander and Bilal Amjad in New York. HOPLA makes exhibitions outside the usual conditions of the gallery. The work remains at the center, but so does the situation around it: the architecture, the people, the conversation, the unexpected things that can happen when an exhibition is not sealed off from everyday life. HOPLA looks for places and circumstances where art can be encountered differently — not because the gallery is obsolete, but because there are other ways for an artwork, an artist and an audience to meet. For HOPLA, the exhibition is not only what is on the wall or in the room. It is also the moment in which it is encountered.

Artists
Max Herrlander
Max Herrlander is a Swedish-American artist based in New York. Working across painting, sculpture, photography, film, fashion and exhibition-making, his projects often place contemporary art in unexpected social or architectural settings. His work has been presented at Fotografiska in Stockholm, the C.G. Jung House Museum in Zurich, and independent exhibition spaces in New York, Mexico and elsewhere. His approach to exhibition-making is built around finding unusual ways for art and people to meet.

Bilal Amjad
Bilal Amjad is an artist whose practice moves between visual art, textiles, design and exhibition-making. His hand-knotted rugs form a central part of his recent work, combining traditional textile processes with unexpected imagery and contemporary cultural references. His work has been presented through HOPLA exhibitions and projects in New York and beyond. His approach to exhibition-making treats it as a flexible space for experimentation, collaboration and encounters outside traditional gallery settings.

Nikhil Shah
Nikhil Shah is a New York-based artist working across film, photography, and participatory encounters. His projects create space for conversation and turn what emerges into a tangible record. For HOPLA New Orleans, he presents The Office of Unfinished Business: ten-minute appointments for one unresolved matter, administered with stationery, stamps, and careful attention.

Every second counts, yet nothing matters.

Saturday, November 14, 2026 · 6:00 – 9:00 PM
Baywater Wonderland, 3405 Royal Street, New Orleans, LA 70117
hopla.gallery · @_____hopla