Hudson County is a place defined by spectacular views. Nothing impedes our apprehension of Midtown Manhattan—there it is, right across the river, monumental and breathtaking. Seen from the top of the Palisade, our own tall buildings and tidy downtown neighborhoods are pretty impressive, too.
Visual Arts
Ricardo Roig: Local Color
Two decades ago, no artist would have depicted Jersey City like this. Hudson County was resistant to glamorization. Instead, artists who engaged with the town— photographers Ed Fausty and Shandor Hassan, for instance—favored a stark realist approach so keenly and meticulously observed that it attained the alien quality of dystopic science fiction.
Green Villain: #LightOverDarkness
Green Villain, a creative platform that uses public art to drive community engagement throughout Jersey City, has partnered with Rabbi and artist Yitzchok Moully, a New Jersey-based artist, and with Rabbi Shmully Levitin of Chabad Young Professionals of Hoboken & Jersey City to produce an interactive public art project located outside the Buy Rite Liquors store at 575 Manilla Ave, Jersey City, NJ.
Updated: Fifteen Places in Town to See an Art Show
As long as anybody around here can remember, Jersey City has been a visual-arts town. We’ve had a long history of art shows in warehouses, art shows in cafés and restaurants, art shows wherever we can fit them basically. The annual Jersey City Art and Studio Tour turns the entire town into a giant open gallery. While there are plenty of other cultural events on the calendar, JCAST still feels like the anchor of local culture.
Four Options for JC Fridays
Hudson County applauds abstraction and bold, passionate, macho gestures of individual self-expression.
Art Review: The Hudson County Post-Industrial Style
“Eye Level,” Tris McCall’s new review column for the Jersey City Times, will be outfitted with a new post each Friday morning.
Art Review: Slow Art
“Slow Art” asks the viewer to pause and reflect, respect the inner rhythms of the works on view, and indulge in the luxury of contemplation.
Art Review: Mindshapes
Just as realism is frequently touched by the fantastic, abstraction is rarely total. Even non-figurative art is made from materials, and materials often have strong connotations. Art House Productions is calling their new abstract show Mindscapes, which suggests a private, insular experience, something quiet, untethered to the rhythms of the practical world.
Art Review: Maps Everywhere
Maps tell lies. Oh, they may get you where you want to go, but they’ll whisper distortions in your ear as you travel. The Mercator Projection of the earth — perhaps the most famous map in history — has misled millions by exaggerating the size of land masses at polar latitudes and diminishing the tropics.
Art Review: Cosmic Love
Nothing about this uncommonly welcoming group exhibition feels rigid or cold: These seven artists might have their minds on the distant skies, but their collective version of space is nothing like a void.