Serious artists hope that their work will be influential. Few artists, however, would call themselves influencers. In 2023, we’ve come to understand the term as a bit of a slight. An influencer isn’t necessarily a creator. She’s a person who uses new media to compel her following to make a particular choice — a consumer choice. […]
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 inVisual Arts
Images of the City from Jim Fischer and Project Greenville
Jim Fischer loves snow. Pictures of it at least; the Jersey City artist may not appreciate shoveling it, but he’s a sure hand at depicting it. Snow swirls through the pleasantly proletarian “Forty-Eight Views of Brownstone Brooklyn” — a show that is exactly what it sounds like it would be. It lays heavily on the […]
Posted inVisual Arts
The Sacred Heart Beats Fiercely at the Curious Matter Holiday Show
True Christianity is not for the squeamish. Even the tamest versions of the faith ask believers to contend with a gruesome event: a human being nailed to a cross and left to suffocate in the sun. From the Pieta to the Passion to “The Last Temptation of Christ,” many famous works of art make Jesus’s suffering manifest […]
Posted inPerforming Arts, Uncategorized
Rogue Waves January: Joe Bataan, CR and the Nones, Tom Barrett, Debra Devi, and More
Though it’s been imitated plenty of times since 1967, “Subway Joe” remains unique. Everything on the record jostles for attention like buskers in the subway. The piano and the Caribbean drums are blown out, distorted, and gleefully shoved into the red. Trumpets blare with impatience like car horns in rush hour traffic on Fifth Avenue. […]
Posted inFood and Fun
Liberty Science Center Resurrects the Musical Laser Show with “Laser Taylor Swift”
Taylor Alison Swift cannot be called psychedelic. She traffics in concrete scenarios and writes and performs with an emphasis on clarity. There’s not a lot of fluff in her songs, nothing is loose, and nobody jams. Everything exists to serve the story and the star. Swift has become world famous by matching tales of young […]
Posted inNarrate
Nimbus Reimagines “The Nutcracker” for a Jersey Audience
There are three restaurants at the intersection of Grove and Mercer Streets — one Mediterranean, one Pakistani, and one American. Also, there’s City Hall. I mention this because it’s here that “Jersey City Nutcracker,” our version of the seasonal dance favorite, locates a magic manhole that allows its inhabitants a glimpse of the city as […]
Posted inVisual Arts
The Jersey City Arts Awards Continue to Confuse and Confound
Onstage at White Eagle Hall, a woman read a poem beside a flock of white birds. The birds were statuettes: pigeon-sized trophies given to the winners of the 2022 Jersey City Arts Awards. The woman was Professor Ann Wallace of the English Department at NJCU, cancer survivor and long COVID sufferer, and the newest Jersey […]
Posted inLatest News
Jersey City Arts 2022 — What Happened?
On some mornings, we bound out of bed. On others — especially if we’ve been under the weather — it takes a while to get going. Perhaps we stretch, perhaps we blather. We may knock a glass off the end table. Though we’re technically up, we may feel we’re still in a dream. Such was […]
Posted inLatest News, Performing Arts
The Pop/R&B Ensemble Takes the Stage at NJCU Tomorrow
Two weeks ago, New Jersey City University held a two-day jazz festival. The event, which featured Jersey City percussion hero Winard Harper, the unclassifiable, frequently brilliant Gabriel Alegria Afro-Peruvian Sextet, and many other artists, was distinguished by its excellent lineup of attractions. Its location was just as noteworthy. NJCU didn’t throw their party on campus. […]
Posted inVisual Arts
The Eleven Best Jersey City Art Shows of 2022
If an art show was mounted in Jersey City in 2022, I caught it. I didn’t write about everything I saw, but I hit this space every week with a reaction to a different exhibit. Comprehensive coverage doesn’t guarantee insight, but it does give the benefit of perspective to the person who put in the time. You, […]