Call it coincidence or call it causal. Either way, it can’t be denied that the neighborhoods of Manhattan that are most saturated with art, and art galleries, are the easiest ones to access from Jersey City. The PATH train stops in Chelsea twice. The first platform in Manhattan is right on Christopher Street. Depending on […]
Columns
Posted inEye Level
Color and Influence at New Shows at Firmament Gallery and Hamilton Square
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. […]
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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 […]
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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, […]
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A Theater is Missing at Art House and “Are You There?” at SMUSH
During the 2022 Studio Tour, the Gallery at Art House Productions was, ever so briefly, open to the public. Curator Andrea McKenna put together a crisp show that highlighted many of the Art House Productions’s favorite creators, including several who’d exhibited strong work at the organization’s old gallery on 17th Street. Here was a reminder, in […]
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Rogue Waves December: Jersey City Nutcracker, NJCU Jazz, Fascinations Grand Chorus, more
Certain holiday traditions don’t budge. Mistletoe, for instance: that stuff comes out in December and gets retired once Santa returns to the North Pole. Nobody drinks egg nog in May. And if a dance company mounts a production of “The Nutcracker,” you know Christmas is right around the corner. Hudson County has its own “Nutcracker.” […]
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The Pompidou Centre is Unnecessary
A European star was coming to Jersey City. Rem Koolhaas, a Pritzker Prize-winning architect and one of Time Magazine’s 2008 picks for the world’s most influential people, announced his intention to build a fifty story tower on the lot that was once home to the Arts Center at 111 First Street. Architecture News wrote that Koolhaas’s interest […]
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“Pompeii: The Immortal City” at Liberty Science Center
Pompeii is gruesome. There, in the terrible shadow of Mount Vesuvius, thousands of imperial Roman townspeople asphyxiated under a ten-foot blanket of volcanic ash. Two millennia later, archaeologists are still reconstructing the city and refining what we know about the cataclysm. We know Pompeii residents tried to escape and were unsuccessful. Centuries-old impressions of bodies trapped in agony […]
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How to Protect Your Small Child Over the Holidays
Parents just cannot catch a break. Right now, we’re experiencing something unprecedented, what doctors are calling the “tripledemic”: RSV, flu, and Covid. These outbreaks have parents extremely concerned, and with the holidays looming, they’re asking how can we keep everyone protected? Below are some guidelines and information. RSV (respiratory syncytial virus) is a common-cold virus that can […]
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Drama, Anxiety and Beauty at Art Fair 14C
On the lacquered floor of the gigantic Jersey City Armory (678 Montgomery St.), scores of participants set up for a crowd of spectators. But despite the overhead scoreboard, wooden bleachers, and anticipation in the air, this is no sporting event. Instead, painters, sculptors, photographers, multi-media dreamers, and creators of unclassifiable what-is-its — most from the […]