In 2023, when you look in the mirror, what do you see? Are you sanguine? Or is the fatigue from recent happenstance heavy on your face? Are the marks of exhaustion evident? Has tragedy dug its claws into your cheeks? What’s reflected in your eyes? In the era of the endlessly retouched digital photograph, the […]
Jersey City Visual Arts
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Artist Ben Fine Grapples with History, Family, and Portraiture
Olivia Neel’s eyes are famously expressive. The young Olivia stares from the frames of several paintings by her grandmother Alice Neel, one of the great humanizing portraitists of the twentieth century. In “Olivia With the Rubber Plant,” a remarkable 1977 painting, the subject slings herself across a purple chair, dangles one bare foot over an […]
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MANA and City Collaborate on Wednesday’s Day of Fashion
Jersey City is an informal place. We don’t need to get dressed up to roll into our best restaurants. Most of our big events feel — and look — casual. Civic leaders often appear in public in jeans. Is this the right place for a festival dedicated to fashion? MANA Contemporary is betting that it […]
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“Polygon” Dazzles at Commuter Gallery
Clarence Rich and Mustart go together like beats and rhymes. Mustart supplies the gorgeous melting shapes in sherbet-colored aerosol; Rich answers with hard-edged, hallway-like designs inspired by the crystals of a chemically complex metal. A Mustart piece is often populated by gonzo characters pulled from popular media and marinated in bright paint; Clarence Rich brings […]
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“Vivid Visions” Comes to 150 Bay Street in Powerhouse Arts District
You’d be forgiven for thinking that the artists with works on display at “Vivid Visions” will also be showing at this year’s Art Fair 14C. The 14C logo is right there on all the official communications about the show. Curator Kristine Go is the Exhibitions Director for the Fair (she’s also one of the founders […]
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Letter: Jersey City Doesn’t Need Pompidou x
Note: The writer submitted this longer version of his letter subsequent to the letter’s original publication. To the Editor: Pompidou x is a waste of money. Jersey City does not need some ‘out-of-town’ entity (The Pompidou Center) to makeit’s case as a center of the arts in the New York metro area (time and again, […]
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With “777,” Deep Space Gallery Deals Another Winning Hand
As every crapshooter knows, sevens are not always fortuitous. Stepping up and throwing one is usually profitable. But when you’re deep into the game and you’ve got bets all over the table, a seven can wipe you out. Dice gamers quickly learn to respect and fear the seven: the weirdest and most capricious of the […]
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At the CoolVines ArtWall, Kim Bricker Chases the Sun
Kim Bricker’s work is a dare. Not a loud or boastful one, and certainly not an aggressive one, but a challenge nonetheless. Hers is the quiet, measured voice at the party that is somehow heard over the din. What she asks of you is to step close and concentrate. She wants you to use your […]
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Amelia Shields Floors It at Deep Space
Amelia Shields paints cars that look like hot dogs. Fairground hot dogs, mind you; nothing upmarket. Her roadsters have two puffy outer wings that swell like the halves of a split bun, and a narrow interior where the driver sits. In the mixed-media show “Joy Ride,” which closes amidst fanfare and special events at Deep […]
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Child’s Play and Earth Magic at Evening Star Studio
The word clay rhymes with play. That’s an illustration of the deep associative wisdom of the English language. There’s a reason that child artists are often given clay to fashion. Clay begs to be manipulated. It’s more forgiving than working in stone, and more elemental than synthetics. A sculptor in clay is encouraged by […]