On a Different Page, 11/9/17 - 12/14/17, at Visual Arts Gallery, NJCU

by Megan Klim
11/12/17

The current exhibition on view at the Visual Arts Gallery reminds us that a book can be a cherished object not only for its story, information or message but as an intriguing piece of art that commands close inspection. Curator Eileen Ferara has smartly assembled a diverse group of artists that has interpreted the book by either altering them, paying homage to a classic, making a statement or re-imagining what possibilities a book can hold. 

Books are usually mass-produced; but artists' books are mostly one of a kind objects removing that aspect, therefore punctuating their individuality and uniqueness. I was curious to see this exhibition for a couple of reasons: I like the work of the artists chosen and am drawn to the idea of a book as a sculptural item. This exhibition is a well-rounded representation of the various ways a book can be viewed that also celebrates the book as object.  

Participating Artists in the exhibition are Aileen Basis, Kate Dodd, Asha Ganpat, Jaz Graf, Carole Kunstadt, Winifred McNeill, Ibou Ndoye and David Sandlin.

Read the rest of the review here.

A Rag, A Bone, A Hank of Hair, 9/6/17 - 10/18/17, at Harold B. Lemmerman Gallery, NJCU

by Samantha Garcia, Reporter
The Gothic Times, The Official Student Newspaper of New Jersey City University
10/16/17

Caroline Burton

On October 3, the Harold B. Lemmerman Gallery in Hepburn Hall held an artist reception for Caroline Burton’s A Rag, A Bone, A Hank of Hair.  The gallery was filled with curious students, professors and visitors, as well as familiar admirers of her work.  The gallery was lit with amber lighting, which combined with the light of the setting sun cast the works in a golden, glow—an almost magical atmosphere.

Read the rest of the article here. 

Sup-A-Genius: The Five Guy Show, 9/22/17 - 11/11/17, at Drawing Rooms

Harvest/Time

by Kate Dodd

10/11/17

All of the works in Sup-A-Genius, a show of five installations currently at Drawing rooms, deal with aspects of harvesting and time. The artists were all selected because of their tendency towards work that “works”, that labors and produces, as any good invention will. These are makers making something make something else, and as such, it is worth looking at both their process and their product.

Joe Chirchirillo

Joe Chirchirillo has been making heavy-duty sculpture for a long time. Here he puts his collection of implements to use to create a water cycle, aka a gravity-fed fountain that fills the room with a sort of creaky bucket brigade made up of old farm containers. In one corner, a separate mechanism spins sporadically, marked by a propeller wing labeled water on one side and wind on the other. Its laconic movement, along with the complex arrangement of the aged vessels, creates a sense of abandonment, as if the resources of wind and water have dwindled to a trickle, and all that’s left is the labor of this mechanism, determined to continue regardless of the existence of any resources, while the repeated sound cycle marks the ceaselessness of time passing.

Anthony Fisher

Anthony Fisher has drawings and a video showcasing his process, along with some of what might be his drawing tools, on display. The black and white drawings range in scale; all feature mysterious marks, some made up of several drawings that are inlaid into each other. Delicate lines wrap around themselves on a ground that looks tough, grey, pocked by grit. This toughness connects to the brutish tools nearby, made up of weights and wheels on brooms. The video of Fisher arduously pushing heavy implements over paper on his studio floor supplies the link that reveals his process. Jackson Pollock meets Chris Burden. One could consider these drawings machine-made, albeit with significant labor on the manufacturer’s part, with the traces of the tools’ movement as the product being created; Fisher then “harvests” the raw material he has cultivated and fashions it into drawings and collages, elegant records of sheer willpower.

Roger Sayre

Roger Sayre actually uses his room as his portrait photography studio, complete with a refurbished clinical chair for clients and a large pinhole camera. The challenge here is to sit still enough, long enough, while staring at oneself in a mirror Sayre has rigged up, to result in a fixed image. A conflated Warhol Screen Test of sorts. Portraits done in this manner line the walls, in both black and white and color, each seeming to reveal its subject as if through a long journey from a distant place. The color portraits, in particular, refer to the myth of Narcissus, with the liquid-y backdrop suggesting that we’re actually peering through water at the subject floating beyond us, a reflection but not the real thing. These are the opposite of selfies; they require an attempt at introspection on the part of the subject rather than the masked pose marking one’s non-present presence at places or events of note. Sayre is distilling the essence of time spent with a disciplined will.

Kurt Steger

Kurt Steger’s work asks participants to give freely and endlessly of their time as well, although one would not know it by looking. His drawings of perfect circles in rich earthy hues on immaculate white paper make one think of a highly singular force.  The controlled drops of toxic water that create these rings contradict the purity of form, but don’t reveal the communal process required to manage such exactness. To create these, Steger asks participants to tend to the melting drips at the end of a swinging plumb line by rotating the paper surface that they land on; he hopes to create a communal experience reminiscent of tending a fire while sharing stories and wisdom. He has set up a contraption to illustrate this, although its diorama-like scale leaves it functionless, making the connection between the vagaries of people’s informal communal abilities and the refinement of Steger’s circles hard to reconcile.

John Morton

Fittingly, John Morton’s audio installation challenges us to not only participate in this harvesting of human will, but to believe in it as an action that will yield results. Belief is the subject of Fever Songs, a series of recordings of spiritual ecstasy from cultures around the world. As with other proximity sensor-driven pieces, this one requires experimentation and patience. Without enough movement around the room, aka participation on the part of the viewer, the sounds retreat to silence, possibly beckoning you back only as you walk out the door. The absence of voices prompts one to try again, to actually have faith that one’s presence is the thing that initiates action, a clear parallel to engagement with spiritual practice. The sensor acts as a god, reflecting back whatever one is willing to invest.

Each “Sup-A Genius” invention in this show suggests that a process will produce a product. Whether Sisyphean or hopeful, all of these works evoke a sense of effort, of sheer will, of “I will make this happen despite all odds” adding up to a mood of eloquent desperation in a world where effort doesn’t necessarily determine the outcome.

Sup-A-Genius: The Five Guy Show, 9/22/17 - 11/11/17, at Drawing Rooms, features works by Joe Chirchirillo, Anthony Fisher, Roger Sayre, Kurt Steger and John Morton. The exhibit is curated by Anne Trauben.

Kate Dodd is an artist and an art teacher in public and private schools for 25 years. Read Kate's bio here and view her artwork here.

Honoring Margaret: The Work of Margaret Weber, 9/22/17 - 11/11/17, at Drawing Rooms

by Midori Yoshimoto, Ph.D.
10/6/17

The birds are embodiments of the threatened world of nature and a spiritual aspect or projection of humans, an alter ego, in a sense: knowing and vulnerable.

                                                                       - Margaret Weber

Dark Passage #1, 18” x 18”

Intaglio ink, Caran d’Ache neocolor crayon on paper.

In the over thirty works by Margaret Weber which are on view at the Drawing Rooms, certain over-arching themes emerge. Nature, as well as man’s interaction with it, and concerns over environmental and human destruction predominate. In the first room, a hawk is hailed as a harbinger, carrying a small human skull on a stem over what appears to be a deluge. According to the artist’s statement, this series of intaglio prints from 2013, entitled, Dark Passage, asks a question: “Will nature carry on despite human destruction?” The question is even more poignant now that politicians and corporations do not even acknowledge the effects of global warming and the fact that it is largely caused by human destruction and pollutions. Weber titled her 2013 catalog, published by Victory Hall Press, “Birds of Pray,” turning the usual predatory birds—hawks, falcons, owls— into prophetic seers of human destruction, while still holding out a hope for some force behind man, a divine force, delivering us from ourselves.

Birdcage

Birds are part of several recurring motifs throughout this modest, yet thought-provoking retrospective exhibition - dedicated to Weber, who unfortunately passed away last year due to cancer. Since Weber moved to Jersey City from New York City in the early 1970s, she completed both undergraduate and graduate studies in Fine Art at the Jersey City State College (now New Jersey City University), and taught art at Jersey City’s public schools for nearly three decades. Because of her devotion to art education and art advocacy for the emerging artists’ community in Jersey City (including co-founding of Drawing Rooms), she is honored by this posthumous exhibition.   

The Flea and The Mortal

Painting, Collage, and Intaglio, 2007

Weber repeated her favored motifs, of birds, birdcages, helicopters, and various body parts because she ran an intaglio studio and was able to utilize the same intaglio plates to create multiple impressions. She would often cut out her prints and collage them with found paper, textile, feathers, and other materials. In one of the largest works in the exhibition, a diptych entitled, Song of Icarus, helicopters emerge out of the body of a goddess-like figure who has actual bird feathers for hair, while a large hawk covered with human hair is falling into the ocean as Icarus did in the Greek myth. By exchanging some of human characteristics with those of a bird, Weber sought to evoke both the “bond and rupture” between human and animal nature. (Weber, p. 46). By creating a warm tonality of bright colors in this diptych, however, she embedded elements of hope in an otherwise fatalistic scene.

 Double Feathered Eye

Weber’s interest in Greek myths and her ability to connect them to contemporary social and political concerns recalls Nancy Spero and her drawings/collages. Like Spero, some of Weber’s work centered on the symbolism of female bodies, visualized as fragmented body parts. Mixing personal and political concerns echoed the strategy of the feminist art movement as well. A couple of her works also contain the motif of fists, expressing the power to resist and fight. An exhibition like this will hopefully inspire younger audiences who are distraught in the current political climate to find their own voices and the means by which to express them.

Red Fist

Reference: Margaret Weber, Birds of Pray (Jersey City: Victory Hall Press, 2016).

Honoring Margaret: The Work of Margaret Weber, 9/22/17 - 11/11/17, features drawing, collage and prints by Margaret Weber. The exhibit is curated by Anne Trauben.

Midori Yoshimoto is Gallery Director and Associate Professor of Art History at New Jersey City University. Read more about Midori here.

New Jersey and You, 9/7/17 - 11/12/17, at Village West Gallery

view Megan Klim's review on her blog

Power Pop Trio, 8/1/18 - 8/30/17, at LITM

view Megan's review on her blog

NJCU MFA Dress Rehearsal, 7/28/17 - 8/12/17, at Drawing Rooms

by Megan Klim

8/11/17

The concept of a “Dress Rehearsal” exhibition is somewhat novel for candidates working towards their MFA, since usually, it is after a thesis is completed that the work is exhibited. This approach, which was deftly curated by Anne Trauben and hosted at  Drawing Rooms in Jersey City, offered not only a glimpse into the artists’ current thinking, but also offered a sneak peek into their developing processes and in one case, to an already established artist. As an MFA candidate, it can be a vulnerable time for finding your voice. Here, some artists were more on target than others, yet, as a whole, the exhibition showed depth and promise. Regardless, it was a welcomed opportunity to see these artists during this personal period of exploration. The candidates are: Alejandro Rubin, Duda Penteado, Marco Cutrone, Maria Tapia, Michael Barreto, and Rachel Kehoe.

Michael Barreto

Michael Barreto’s work spoke to uncertainty yet fortitude at the same time. His layered somewhat chaotic backgrounds were punctuated with clean looking stenciled text with catchphrases heard often.

Polarized statements such as “Believe you Can and You’re halfway There” lived on the same picture plane as “Post No Bills” adding a contradictory slant. The artist also used objects with text, with one having 5 very worn-out work gloves, man-sized, with the word DEADBEAT stenciled at the bottom. I found this piece to be the most visually pleasing with its earthy undertones, while being intriguing as I tried to make connections to the very used gloves and to the text that perhaps suggested otherwise. I am curious to see where he brings his interplay of text, object, and surface next.

Alejandro Rubin

Alejandro Rubin’s work was intimate and personal without much fanfare. A swimmer, I could easily see his direct connection to his digital prints of the sea in his homeland of Venezuela. Some photos were cropped and some filled the whole frame. The images were seductive and took on a material feel; almost like an eraser drawing with the blurred edges of the changing sea with areas of depth. One could get lost looking at the subtle tones of the water and it’s immense power through the stopped action of its movement, while also bringing the viewer to a quiet veneration. Rubin also had an installation across the hall, which invited the viewer to sit in a welcoming leather chair facing an old-school small TV looking monitor that showed his sea pictures in an almost imperceptible loop forcing the viewer to take an even closer look. There was a wind-like sound in the background, which turned out to be a passing train– perhaps a nod to urban life vs. the solitude one feels staring at the vast sea. Directly in front of the chair on some sand, a large metal bin filled with water was placed to soak your feet as you ruminated on the pictures. Rubin created a relaxed, yet controlled environment for us to honor his images, while inviting more of our senses.

Rachel Kehoe

With Rachel Kehoe’s work, I was intrigued and perplexed simultaneously. Kehoe took old paintings, the kind you find in a thrift store, and altered them by painting in her own imagery. For example, one landscape had a flying saucer (added by her) in a wooded area. In another, she added the famous “Starry Night” sky by Van Gogh to an already thickly painted landscape. There was no real attempt to integrate the already given style of the original paintings which only separated the additions further.  She states “kitsch” in her statement, but I saw no solid commitment to that stance. Also, in some paintings, the original artist's names were either lightly blurred out, crossed out more fully or not at all. I couldn’t see a connection to why this changed from piece to piece. There were, however, notable attempts to use famous imagery (Van Gogh, Toulouse-Lautrec). Some imagery felt random– as if she was simply taking an already existing painting as her “ground” and inserting things without any clear direction or connection to the original. But, in one she had great success. The colorful post-modern crisply painted dots placed over a drab mono-toned still life soared. Here, she created tension while having a conversation with what existed underneath. This piece considered the original and played off it in a visual, formal and historical way. I hope she continues in this direction.

Maria Tapia

As can happen when an artist seems to be exploring their work, I saw two different approaches in Maria Tapia's gallery space. The left side of the room had some imagery (crosses, symbols), mixed media (yarn), while the other had mostly simple, painterly abstractions which were where my eye was held. Tapia writes that she wants to create “Narrative Atmospheres” and with these 4 pieces, she has. These pieces looked like she had fun while making them with the creamy patches of paint, touches of color and brush marks dancing the plane as visual stepping stones to carry us through. These paintings offered us a tactile experience– simply and without fuss. I think Tapia hasn’t made the decision just yet which route to take, but I hope she trusts her instincts to have the materials speak on her behalf.

Marco Cutrone

As soon as I entered Marco Cutrone's room, the words “The Male Gaze” came to mind. These skillfully, realistic and carefully crafted paintings all showed beautiful women in various poses with mostly sparse Hopper-esque backgrounds. What I found immediately interesting was the fact that of all 8 pieces– only one woman looked at the viewer. The others were turned inward, looking away pensively or to our backs. There was a voyeuristic quality to this work– as if someone uninvited was the careful observer to women unaware, yet also a quiet interplay of honoring the subjects. One in particular, “A Bed of Roses”, caught my attention. The space Cutrone created was awkward and unsettling. Is she sitting? Laying down? And why were her hands placed in that manner? The highly rendered floral background really showcased the figure here. Overall, these pieces felt somewhat staged, punctuating a sense of detachment as one retreats into their own thoughts.

Duda Penteado

As an already established and successful artist, I was really curious to see how Duda Penteado’s work would shift under the framework of an MFA program. Having been familiar with this artist’s previous work, I saw the same palette and energy, yet this work seemed more pared down and singular. Penteado’s shapes teeter between biomorphic and structured that live in that un-named space in between. His stacked shapes reminded me of a Jenga game tower that was more writhing and unstable, yet would stay standing with the strength of its determination. Penteado is a master of offering up a color experience mixed with shiny metallic areas and black outlining. His shapes are his own– a mixture of body parts, architecture and pattern with portals into them. Penteado’s work tackles big ideas of humanity and purpose resounding with joy and angst which provide a full experience.

NJCU MFA Dress Rehearsal at Drawing Rooms, 7/28/17 - 8/12/17, at Drawing Rooms, features drawing, installation, painting, photography and sculpture by Alejandro Rubin, Duda Penteado, Marco Cutrone, Maria Tapia, Michael Barreto, and Rachel Kehoe. The exhibit is curated by Anne Trauben. Megan Klim is an artist. Read her bio here and view her website here.