“How can we remake our relationship with monuments?” This is the question posed to both artists and visitors of the new exhibition at Grounds For Sculpture entitled “Slow Motion.”
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“How can we remake our relationship with monuments?” This is the question posed to both artists and visitors of the new exhibition at Grounds For Sculpture entitled “Slow Motion.”
I love an "a-ha moment" – that point when timing, circumstance, and cognition meet – and within minutes of stepping into the opening reception for Camden FireWorks current exhibition, "Storytelling Quilts: Celebrating Communal Textile Traditions," I had one of those moments.
Artist Judith Bernstein “gained prominence for her distinctive series of biomorphic screw drawings, initiated in 1969,” according to exhibition materials. “These expansive artworks boldly appropriate the screw as a symbol of phallic oppression, challenging its association with the colloquial expression ‘being screwed’ while exuding a foreboding sense of power.”
Our clothing makes a statement. It tells the world who we are at any given moment and allows for a sense of expression that words cannot convey. Newark has a storied history within the fashion world and the Newark Museum of Art is honoring that history with their latest exhibition, "The Story of Newark Fashion: Atelier to Runway."
The Pattern & Decoration (P&D) movement emerged in the 1970s as an “irreverent upstart movement,” to borrow the words of New York Times art critic Roberta Smith. It offered an alternative “to the general manliness of modernism,” and elevated women’s work. It looked to decorative traditions across the world, to surfaces like textiles, and to wallpaper, manuscript illuminations, mosaics, glassware, embroideries, and architectural flourishes, writes Tess Thakara at Artsy.net.
Art featuring faces holds a unique allure because it taps into our intrinsic human desire to connect and understand others. The Just Faces juried exhibition features works that are windows to the soul, conveying a depth of emotion and story without the need for words. They reflect the complexity of human experience, from joy and love to pain and despair, allowing viewers to engage in a silent conversation with the artist and the subject.
Driving from central New Jersey to the Gallery at Stockton University on a late February day in which the sunshine hinted at spring, I became aware of the changes to the landscape. Trees gave way to tall grasses, the earth seemed sandier, and the Shore was not far away. There were signs for rivers and other bodies of water.
It’s an all-star lineup of artists’ names, from Faith Ringgold and Howardena Pindell to Emma Amos, Romare Bearden, Jacob Lawrence, Willie Cole, Bettye Saar, Joyce Scott… 59 in total! These are among the best of the best of contemporary artists, who just happen to be Black. And who just happen to be in the collection of the Montclair Art Museum.
Paul J. Stankard is an internationally acclaimed artist and pioneer in the studio glass movement. His lifelike, nature-based glassworks have changed the paperweight world over his forty-year artistic career. Having begun his career working in scientific glassblowing, it was through this industry that he found creativity and learned that he was indeed an artist.
As soon as the banner announcing the retrospective of Freda Williams hung from the red brick façade of Artworks Trenton, the excitement began. “She has so many stories to tell,” Artistic Director Addison Vincent said of the 86-year-old artist who has lived all but the first five years of her life in Greater Trenton.
Alonzo Adams has been using his paintings to tell stories of the contemporary Black experience for over 25 years. In his first solo museum exhibition at Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers University, his own story as an artist is being told, from his very first painting to pieces that have not been seen publicly for years. We went to New Brunswick to speak with the artist about putting this exhibition together, and how it feels to return to Rutgers, where he once studied. “Alonzo Adams: A Griot’s Vision” is on display through February 25.
It may be the middle of winter, but two exhibitions on view at ArtYard in Frenchtown connect us to the world of plants, living things, and the lightness of being. Kendall Buster: What Blooms is on view through January 21, and Lucia Monge: While a Leaf Breathes can be seen through January 28.
As we near the end of the 2023 calendar year, the Discover Jersey Arts team decided to take a look back at the things we've accomplished. We've published a wealth of content this year, but these five pieces are the ones we're most proud of—these exemplify the Discover Jersey Arts mission most.
We want to tell exciting, unique stories that will pull you in and seat you in the theatre, dance hall, concert venue, or museum floor. We aim to provide a platform for voices to be heard in a space where they may not normally be seen, and above all else, we're here to help you discover (New) Jersey arts.
The Center for Contemporary Art in Bedminster has, as part of its mission, a diversity policy "emphasizing its commitment to creating a safe and welcoming space where all voices and perspectives are heard and valued." To achieve this goal, the Kendra exhibition shines among the rest!
How do women artists take up space and scale in their work? That’s the primary question asked in the new exhibition, “Taking Space: Contemporary Women Artists and the Politics of Scale,” at the Montclair Art Museum (MAM) on view through Jan 7, 2024. Inspired by a 2021 show at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA), the exhibition offers twenty-three works in a range of media including paintings, sculptures, paper, photographs, and more. Among them are ten alluring artworks from PAFA alongside thirteen foundational works from the Montclair Art Museum’s collection of American women artists. The exhibiting artists represent a range of ages and diverse cultures in their work, demonstrating how to take up space with stories of their identities and cultural heritages.
Nearly three decades ago, Michael Joseph founded the New Jersey Book Arts Symposium. A writer of everything from poetry, comics, children’s books, and novels, who has created 14 one-of-a-kind, limited-edition artists’ books, he is just the sort of person who would start such an annual daylong event.
Now in its 29th year, the NJBAS, under the auspices of Special Collections and University Archives, Rutgers University Libraries, “distinguishes itself by looking at work in all aspects of the book arts… such as typography, book-binding, paper-making, calligraphy, illustration and book-design, alongside the innovative production of artists' books, bookworks, or book objects," according to its website.
This year’s event, “Taking a Breath,” will be held at Rutgers’ Alexander Library, 169 College Avenue, New Brunswick on November 3 from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Attendance is free, and guests may register by emailing hperrone@rutgers.edu. A continental breakfast and sit-down lunch will be provided, thanks to the Rutgers University Libraries and a grant from Middlesex County.
If you’re looking for something special to do on the first weekend of October (Oct 7 and 8 from 10 AM to 5 PM) how about an outing to Wheaton Arts in Millville for the annual “Festival of Fine Craft?” On any given day, WheatonArts is a place where creativity, culture, and history flourishes. And during the crowd-favorite festival, the place positively shines.
The “Festival of Fine Craft” showcases more than 125 artists and craftspeople, displaying and selling their handcrafted works, including clay, fiber, glass, jewelry, leather, metal, mixed media, painting, and more.
And while you are strolling through Wheaton’s 45-acre campus, you will have the opportunity to see and participate in a wide range of craft demonstrations and hands-on art-making activities.
There are also two exhibitions on view now at WheatonArts. In the Museum of American Glass, visitors will see “Amber Cowan: Alchemy of Adornment,” and the Down Jersey Folklife Center is presenting “The Good, The Bad, and the Funny: Ritual & Mask Dance of Latin America.”
The festival also features a Beer and Wine Garden, specialty food truck and food vendors, live music, and the nothing-quite-like-it Glass Pumpkin Fundraiser.
Hudson County’s Jersey City is known for its vibrant arts scene. There are many events celebrating the diversity of local artists throughout the year, however, this year local officials have taken the celebration of visual arts one step further and have created the first ever Jersey City Art Week, which will run Oct. 12-15 in various neighborhoods throughout the city. This event combines the already existing Art Fair 14C and Jersey City Art and Studio Tour and puts them under one umbrella; one that city officials hope will bring even more visitors in to explore what Jersey City has to offer.
For those not familiar with The Brodsky Center, the exhibition panel describes it well: “Rutgers Distinguished Professor Emerita Judith K. Brodsky, a visionary artist and advocate, arts administrator and entrepreneur, printmaker, and scholar, recognized that women and gender non-conforming artists, as well as artists of color, were excluded from the art world in the 1980s. Brodsky’s pioneering vision set out in 1986 to rectify the situation by establishing a print- and papermaking residency center for these artists, now known as the Brodsky Center.”
“From its inception,” continues the panel, “the Center strategically placed itself at the vanguard of art making [...] The Brodsky Center, with state-of-the-art facilities, was the site of experiments with concepts that emerged in the 21st century as dominant concerns of artists in the contemporary art world: race and ethnic identity, non-conforming gender issues, climate and the environment, social justice, the politics of language, feminism, and immigration.”
This year marks the 50th anniversary of Hip Hop, with celebrations planned nationwide. Keeping the momentum going this fall is New Jersey’s largest city, as the Newark Arts Festival (NAF) 2023 will feature arts and culture events spanning all five wards of Newark from Wednesday, September 27 through Sunday, October 1. The free four-day festival is produced by Newark Arts in association with The Newark Museum of Art and is expected to attract thousands of artists, collectors, aficionados, and creatives.
A signature event at this year’s Newark Arts Festival is a celebration of 50 years of Hip Hop on Saturday, September 30 at 8 p.m. in The Newark Museum of Art. This one-night-only experience, called “Strings and Stanzas,” and sponsored by Audible, will honor not just the music genre, but also Newark-area pioneers who paved the way in Hip Hop. Some of the famed rappers who hail from Newark include Redman, Lords of the Underground and Rah Digga.