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.”

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.

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. 

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.

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!

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.

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.”

From time to time, a wise thinker comes along, helping us contend with existential mysteries. 

Liu Shiming, celebrated as a sculptor in his native China, thinks and speaks like a philosopher. "You should look at life like a child does,” he wrote in his diary in 1982. “When you take the perspective of an innocent child, all love and everything in life feels fresh and lovely." 

“LIU SHIMING: Life Gives Beauty Form” -- a retrospective on view at the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University through Sept. 22, with a public reception and panel discussion Sept. 6, 5-8 p.m. -- includes more than 80 sculptures made over the artist’s 60-year career, including 27 works that are being exhibited for the first time in the United States. Shiming (1926–2010) was one of China’s first modern sculptors, embracing a range of styles and approaches that reflected the changing culture of his era.