Luis Muñoz Marin Boulevard is not considered a place where pedestrians go on purpose. Nevertheless, there’s a new Australian bakery just north of Morgan Street, and a café, open air seating, and a bandshell outside of the big tower on the northwest corner of the Bay Street intersection. Right in between the two, Art House Productions has […]
Tris McCall
Tris McCall has written about art, architecture, performance, politics, and public culture for many publications, including the Newark Star-Ledger, the Bergen Record, Jersey Beat, the Jersey City Reporter, the Jersey Journal, the Jersey City Independent, and New Jersey dot com. He also writes about things that have no relevance to New Jersey. Not today, though.
Posted inOpinion
Cheryl Gross Comes Out Swinging at Lemmerman Gallery
There aren’t too many cowgirls in Jersey City. But it’s probable that everybody in Jersey City has an idea about what a cowgirl acts like. A cowgirl is strong, resilient, direct, and maybe righteously impertinent, too. She’s is nobody you’d want to mess with, lest you get tangled up in a lasso or threatened with […]
Posted inColumns
Art Fair 14C Moves to Liberty State Park, Absorbs JCAST
For its fifth year, Art Fair 14C has a new home. The rapidly expanding fair, which ran at the waterfront Hyatt in 2020, the Glass Gallery at Mana Contemporary in 2021, and the Jersey City Armory in 2022, moves to another picturesque setting in 2023: the CRRNJ Terminal in Liberty State Park. If you follow the […]
Posted inColumns
Six Rewarding Gallery Shows on View in Jersey City
If you attended JC Fridays, you know: we’re currently in a time of riches. There are rewarding shows on view all over town. It won’t always be this way. So in the interest of getting you out on the town while the offerings are hot, I’m breaking this down as simply as I can. Why are these […]
Posted inOpinion
JC Fridays: Our Picks
2022 was not kind to Jersey City artists. It was defined by hesitancy, half-measures, and a doozy of a pandemic hangover. 2023, by contrast, is off to a roaring start. Our early-blooming shows have been glorious. If the first JC Fridays event of the year is often a survey of the scene and an indication […]
Posted inPerforming Arts
Rogue Waves March: Musical Events in Jersey City
This column is designed to call your attention to live music. Multimedia installations with recorded sound are a completely different kind of experience— usually one involving less moshing and fewer bottles of beer. But some art shows with musical dimensions are so weird and intriguing that they barge into the conversation about local musical events […]
Posted inPerforming Arts
Two New Jersey Albums: Kena Anae and American Watercolor Movement
Kena Anae Hold On! Electric Songs of Protest Vol. 1 Study Group Records What sort of revolution is Kena Anae after? Certainly not a bloody one: this is a soul man with a disposition so sugary that he’s inclined to take political advice from a fortune cookie. Though Hold On! Electric Songs of Protest Vol. 1 lays on […]
Posted inVisual Arts
A Jersey City Artist Paints His Way Through Cancer Treatment
Three and a half months ago, Thomas John Carlson, of the Jersey City Art School, shook up Art Fair 14C with a wallful of historical paintings distinguished by their sensitivity, energy and imagination. The paintings were full of drama, struggle, and acute observations of human beings under duress. His turn at the fair reminded local […]
Posted inPerforming Arts
“The You Voice” Closes at MANA With a One-Of-A-Kind Multimedia Performance
In the middle of a circle of black chairs, a woman struggled with an imaginary object. She pulled it toward her, and then pushed it away, and then brought it back to her body. With each shove, she inched one foot closer to her invisible target. The other remained fixed. Her muscles tensed, and her […]
Posted inColumns
Deep Space Looks Into the Future With “The Art of Divination”
Even if Pamela Coleman “Pixie” Smith and A.E. Waite hadn’t designed the modern prototype of the Tarot deck in 1909, people would’ve still used cards to tell fortunes. It just wouldn’t have been as fun, or as illuminating, or as spooky. The Rider-Waite deck (which really ought to be called the Smith-Waite deck) concentrated mystical […]