Paintings don’t move. This, once, must have felt like a dare for visual artists. Some of them devised clever ways to tell viewers that what they were looking at was meant to be in motion, even though it wasn’t. Then movies were invented, and painters ceded that territory to the people with the cameras. They […]
Visual Arts
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Centre Pompidou’s Finances are Unsustainable Say Auditors
Renovations, a new branch, stagnant ticket sales, and inflation are straining the finances of Paris’s Centre Pompidou, according to a report from France’s Court of Auditors. News of the audit, released on Tuesday, was first reported by Le Monde and picked up by ARTnews. In 2021, Mayor Fulop announced a controversial plan to open a […]
Posted inVisual Arts
What to See at the Year’s First Art Crawl (Everything)
No galleries on Newark Avenue will be involved. Neither will the Elevator building on Hamilton Park. Even the Canopy Hotel will be on the sidelines for this one. The first Art Crawl of the year is strictly a Powerhouse Arts District affair. The Crawl, a night of open studios and gallery shows, will visit several […]
Posted inVisual Arts
Last Call For ‘Vinyl Dreams’
When was the last time you had fun at an art exhibition? Real fun, not just enjoyment, and no, I don’t mean the reception party or art as a play date background. I mean the exhibit itself, unhurried, uninterrupted, filled with laughter and surprise and sweet, sweet melancholy. As I walked into the record store, […]
Posted inVisual Arts
An Artist Walks Through ‘A Night of Ideas’ and Reflects on Pompidou x
First announced on January 30th, the much-anticipated late-night event on March 1st was billed as a ‘Night of Ideas’, one of more than twenty nationwide signature events by Villa Albertine, a New York City-based international cultural institution fostering “exchanges in arts and ideas between the United States, France and beyond.” Co-hosted by Centre Pompidou, the prestigious Paris-based global […]
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New Shows at SMUSH Gallery and Drawing Rooms Evince Paranoia and Persistence
Houseplants are guilt generators. They ought to come with a coupon for psychotherapy. Unless you are the rare urban gardener with a knack for keeping things verdant, your houseplant will perish, leaving you with difficult questions to answer. Did I water it too much? Did it get sufficient sunlight? Are my squalid living quarters poison to organic things? Do […]
Posted inVisual Arts
Two New Shows in the Powerhouse Arts District Look to the Sky
If you’re old enough, and you’ve been in Jersey City long enough, you know: the Downtown skies used to look different. The closer a visitor got to the waterfront, the more likely it was that the block was entirely dark. Illumination was an angled, furtive, and indirect thing. It came from the big light across […]
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Artists, Weavers, Quilters, Etc. Are Invited to Woolpunk’s Gimme Shelter Stitch-In at Liberty State Park
Not every fiber artist is political. But there’s something about cloth and thread that attracts creators with a robust sense of social justice. Flag-makers and emblem-stitchers drive their needles through fabric with pointed intent and a sense of purpose. Attendees at sewing parties often form bods as they pull strings together. Most importantly, fiber artists (mostly […]
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BIPOC Artists Featured at MANA Contemporary Show
If a poacher was looking to stash an elephant somewhere in Jersey City, MANA Contemporary [888 Newark Ave.] is one of the buildings he’d consider. In a town where property owners sometimes worry about the presumption and indelicacy of scale, MANA is big, unashamedly so, with high ceilings, wide windows, air, light, and cubic feet […]
Posted inVisual Arts
In the Powerhouse Arts District, Two Feisty Shows
On a whitewashed supermarket wall in the middle of McGinley Square — right across from the Crema cafe and the fire station — there’s a musical mural. It’s not one of the town’s best-known pieces of outdoor art, but it sure makes an impression on me. In attitude, design, and relationship to the city, Lawrence Ciarallo’s […]