There aren’t too many cowgirls in Jersey City. But it’s probable that everybody in Jersey City has an idea about what a cowgirl acts like. A cowgirl is strong, resilient, direct, and maybe righteously impertinent, too. She’s is nobody you’d want to mess with, lest you get tangled up in a lasso or threatened with […]
Jersey City Visual Arts
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Art Fair 14C Moves to Liberty State Park, Absorbs JCAST
For its fifth year, Art Fair 14C has a new home. The rapidly expanding fair, which ran at the waterfront Hyatt in 2020, the Glass Gallery at Mana Contemporary in 2021, and the Jersey City Armory in 2022, moves to another picturesque setting in 2023: the CRRNJ Terminal in Liberty State Park. If you follow the […]
Posted inColumns
Six Rewarding Gallery Shows on View in Jersey City
If you attended JC Fridays, you know: we’re currently in a time of riches. There are rewarding shows on view all over town. It won’t always be this way. So in the interest of getting you out on the town while the offerings are hot, I’m breaking this down as simply as I can. Why are these […]
Posted inOpinion
JC Fridays: Our Picks
2022 was not kind to Jersey City artists. It was defined by hesitancy, half-measures, and a doozy of a pandemic hangover. 2023, by contrast, is off to a roaring start. Our early-blooming shows have been glorious. If the first JC Fridays event of the year is often a survey of the scene and an indication […]
Posted inVisual Arts
A Jersey City Artist Paints His Way Through Cancer Treatment
Three and a half months ago, Thomas John Carlson, of the Jersey City Art School, shook up Art Fair 14C with a wallful of historical paintings distinguished by their sensitivity, energy and imagination. The paintings were full of drama, struggle, and acute observations of human beings under duress. His turn at the fair reminded local […]
Posted inLatest News
Friends Grieve Downtown Artist Lost in House Fire
Friends of Downtown artist Scot Rienecker have been sharing their memories today following the announcement that Rienecker succumbed to injuries sustained in a house fire on Sunday. Rienecker’s dog died as well, according to Hudson County Prosecutor Esther Suarez. Rienecker, 50, had been moved from Jersey City Medical Center to the burn unit at Cooperman […]
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Deep Space Looks Into the Future With “The Art of Divination”
Even if Pamela Coleman “Pixie” Smith and A.E. Waite hadn’t designed the modern prototype of the Tarot deck in 1909, people would’ve still used cards to tell fortunes. It just wouldn’t have been as fun, or as illuminating, or as spooky. The Rider-Waite deck (which really ought to be called the Smith-Waite deck) concentrated mystical […]
Posted inVisual Arts
Strong Shows in Tight Corners at 150 Bay Street
There’s nothing inside Gallery number 265 at 150 Bay Street. It’s still easy to see into the room — those doors are made of glass — but these days, the only things visible in there are white walls and a brown cement floor. The blank space is a reminder of one of the more unfortunate occurrences […]
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Anthony E. Boone Thrills at Commuter Gallery
I hope that Anthony E. Boone will not take it as a grievous offense when I suggest that his artwork could easily hang in a corporate atrium. (Perhaps it already does somewhere.) The sinuous quality of his lines, the soothing feeling of his juxtapositions of color, and his studied sense of composition add up to a […]
Posted inVisual Arts
Jersey City Artists Show at Manhattan’s Ivy Brown Gallery
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 […]