Arts Council of Princeton
Arts Council of Princeton, 102 Witherspoon Street, Princeton. Open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, and 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Sunday. 609-924-8777 or www.artscouncilofprinceton.org.
“Transversing Nostalgia,” a joint show by Onome Olotu and Chanelle René, is on view through Saturday, March 9.
Olotu was born in Nigeria and studied painting at the University of Benin. She now splits her time between Nigeria, where she is based at the Universal Studios of Art in Lagos, and New Jersey, where she served as Artist-in-Residence at the Arts Council in spring 2023. Her works have been exhibited across Nigeria and Canada
She works primarily in charcoal and acrylics and uses personal and institutional archives to respond to social and political events. Learn more at onomeolotu.com.
Of her work in “Transversing Nostalgia,” she writes in a statement:
“In this Postcards subseries, my artistic process involved the idea of exploring time and memory by recomposing figures, objects, and landscapes from personal archives and sourced archives from the Historical Society of Princeton and Residents of the Witherspoon-Jackson community in Princeton and with that, I was able to interact, interview and hear stories of black families who have lived in Princeton, going back four generations and more. I have had the opportunity of being part of their history by inserting parts of myself into the lives of these families through my paintings.”
René is a New Jersey-based painter who creates portraits in oils and mixed media focused on women of color. Prior to becoming a full-time paper, she worked in digital marketing. Learn more at chanellerene.com.
In a statement for the current exhibit, she writes:
“My Grant Street Beach series debuts over ten paintings that journey the segregated beach of Cape May, New Jersey. Working from my own family’s photographs and those of other Black families, these works depict joyful, everyday moments of African-American beach goers in Cape May from the 1920s through the 1960s. Energetic mark making in stark contrast with detailed figures dressed in dual-tone color done in oil and mixed media allow the past to speak to the present. Each work explores the complexity and nuance of the human spirit while celebrating generations of Black beach goers as they transition from segregation to making Grant Street Beach a tradition of choice.”
Opening on March 9 is “Heroes: Women Artists Who Influence and Inspire.” An opening reception and book signing takes place Saturday, March 16, from 3 to 5 p.m., for the exhibit on view through March 30.
The exhibit shows the original works that comprise Serena Bocchino’s new publication of the same name.
“These ‘Poem-Paintings’, as I have deemed them, interrelates free verse poetry that I have been writing since 1982, with my studio practice,” the artist writes in a statement. “My methodology is to create in layers: each line, mark, pour and brushstroke defines the next and maintains the basic qualities of abstraction. These visual layers of metaphor combined with each free verse poem combine to create the ‘poem-paintings’. They are created with cut and drawn text along with oil paint and graphite on vellum paper. Together, these materials work to pay homage to 37 women artists who have inspired me.”
Bocchino is an American artist who has been exhibiting her work since 1986. She earned a bachelor of arts from Fairleigh Dickinson University and master of arts from New York University. Her work focuses on the interpretation of music and movement in two- and three-dimensional forms.
Also opening with a March 16 reception is “Shifting Perspectives: Capturing Moments in Ceramics and Watercolors,” a joint show by Barbara Kaiser and Elisabeth Quatrano on view through April 13.
The show features Kaiser’s watercolors “created during a period of time touched by tragedy, uncertainty and fear” that explore “remembrance, resilience and hope. Through depictions of motion and upward-looking compositions, and sharing the common threads of blue sky and flight, the works represent a shift from melancholy to brightness, possibility and joy.”
Ceramicist Elisabeth Quatrano, who moved to Princeton in 2021 after completing a MFA in ceramics from Cranbrook Academy of Art, “explores memory, language, and loss, while challenging the sculptural limits and precious nature of porcelain.”
An installation by Valerie Huhn will be on view in the Arts Council’s main lobby from April 8 through June 1.
According to a statement from the Arts Council her work “reflects on identity — personal, cultural and collective — while introducing themes of freedom, imprisonment, neurodiversity, and acts of defiance in the presence of power.
“Huhn’s mixed media artworks range from sculpture to installation and works on paper, frequently incorporating repurposed or unorthodox materials such as metal fencing, books and furniture. She often reconstitutes unusual materials into vignettes that introduce new narratives while evoking the cultural residue of the materials to achieve overlapping meanings. Working in a repetitive fashion, she meticulously applies paint with her fingertips in sweeping arrangements of lines and shapes, or affixes pins and sequins to found objects to fully cover the surfaces.”
The ANEW Artists Alliance, a COVID-era evolution of the A-TEAM artists from the Trenton Area Soup Kitchen and HomeFront, exhibit works at the Arts Council from April 20 through May 25. More information about the collective and the artists is available at anewartists.com.
“Making Do,” featuring works by Karla Carballar, Heather Cox, Shannon Curry Hartmann, Mollie Murphy, Rachel Perry, and Emna Zghal, is on view from April 27 through May 24 and opens with a reception on Friday, May 3, from 5 to 7 p.m.
A statement from the artists explains the premise of the exhibit:
“To ‘make do’ is an idiom. Grammatically, it is a phrase. It means to work with what one has on hand or to persevere through difficult circumstances.
“Each artist in this show makes work that exemplifies this term. Some of us have always worked in this way: gleaning the metaphor from the world, finding meaning in everyday objects, and excavating the strange beauty we perceive in the cast-offs in the street, field, and forage.
“Others found our way to this kind of work during the pandemic: forced into isolation, we questioned, examined, played with and discovered new and fruitful ways of working.
“Ultimately, though, the way in which each of us collects, destroys, re-enlivens, manipulates, and rearranges the materials and objects we work with comes from a common place: we are not depicting these materials; rather, the artists are using the materials and objects to make the work itself. They are making do with what they have or find around themselves: newspapers, fruit stickers, fiddling objects, snapshots, staples, tangerine peels, grape stems, and much much more.
“Each artist finds resonance in this stuff of life, from Shannon Curry Hartman’s brooding pandemic era newspaper collages to Rachel Perry’s obsessive, beautiful and weirdly funny fruit sticker drawings. From Karla Carballar’s collection of fidgeting objects, arranged into a minimalist grid of maximal anxiety, to Heather Cox’s sculptural celebration of the snapshot era in all its mundane and yet somehow mysterious glory. Emna Zghal’s wood/print/collage conversations yield beautiful and haunting abstracted landscapes, and Mollie Murphy takes the small sculptures that emerge out of the stuff she scavenges and relocates them among wall hangings inspired by the original making- do mother-of-it-all: the hand made quilt.”
Artworks Trenton
Artworks Trenton, 19 Everett Alley, Trenton. On view through March 16, Tuesdays through Saturdays, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. www.artworkstrenton.org.
“Freda Williams: A Retrospective” remains on view through March 16 in Artworks’ main and community galleries.
Self-taught artist Mabel “Freda” Williams has been a resident of the Trenton area and Ewing Township for more than 70 years. A native of North Carolina, she has been expressing her love of art since the age of 10. She attended Rider College and retired after serving 20 years in the steel industry as manager of employment and 25 years as manager of affirmative action with the State Department of Education.
This retrospective offers a variety of styles and themes, including florals, politics, African American history, Trenton historical sites, southern themes, landscapes and cityscapes; also included is the, “To The Left Series,”( a personal journey). Williams’ work is heavily inspired by African American history, which is an attempt to remind people of the importance of history.
Princeton Public Library
Princeton Public Library, 65 Witherspoon Street, Princeton. On view through March 15. www.princetonlibrary.org.
“Anthropomorphic: Photos and Stories,” an exhibit by photographer Darren Sussman, is on view through March 15. It features a selection of photographs and text from the book of the same name and explores the human tendency to assign human emotions and characteristics to animals.
Sussman is a self-taught photographer who has been taking pictures since 2015. Not limited to one style, he creates images of landscapes, wildlife, street photography and special events. He lives in New Jersey and travels extensively throughout the United States to fine new places to photograph.
New Jersey State Museum
New Jersey State Museum, 205 West State Street, Trenton. On through September 15. Open Tuesdays through Sundays, 9 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. 609-292-6464. www.nj.gov/state/museum.
“Discovering Grant Castner: The Lost Archive of a New Jersey Photographer” is on view through September 15, featuring a recently discovered archive of photographic negatives that once belonged to a prolific, but long-forgotten, local photographer.
The exhibit celebrates one New Jerseyan’s passion for photography — from the 1890s through the 1910s — and is curated from the museum’s extensive collection of the photographer’s original negatives that it received as part of a 2019 donation.
The 200 images featured in the exhibition reflect Caster’s artistic talent and illustrate numerous aspects of New Jersey history, from close-up portraits of family and friends to the marvels of turn-of-the-century transportation, to the flurry of excitement and activity at the famed Inter-state fair in Hamilton Township.
Other photography subjects include faces of New Jersey; railroads and canals; the shore; leisure and recreation; adults at work and children at school; famous landmarks; floods, fires, and other disasters; and nature.
Art@Bainbridge
Art@Bainbridge, 158 Nassau Street, Princeton. Open Tuesday and Wednesday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Thursday and Saturday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Friday, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.; and Sunday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. artmuseum.princeton.edu/artbainbridge.
“Reciting Women: Alia Bensliman & Khalilah Sabree” remains on view through March 31. Materials from the museum describe the exhibit as follows:
“Alia Bensliman (born Tunis, Tunisia) and Khalilah Sabree (born Macon, GA) deliberately disrupt conventional divides between tradition and modernity and the sacred and the secular. As Muslim-American artists and educators deeply rooted in the Trenton community, their imagery grapples with human rights struggles and the challenges of cultural belonging.”
Opening Saturday, April 13, is “Denilson Baniwa: Under the Skin of History,” a collaboration with Princeton University’s Brazil LAB and Department of Anthropology that will remain on view through September 1.
The exhibit features the works of Brazilian artist Denison Baniwa, born in 1984. Materials from the museum explains that through his pieces in media including drawing, painting, sculpture, and performance, he “grapples with legacies of colonialism in the Americas and highlights Indigenous knowledge and resistance. His work addresses themes ranging from early Indigenous encounters with Europeans to ongoing environmental destruction and cultural erasure. Baniwa often draws on historical imagery from European sources in order to critique colonial fantasies while incorporating references to pop culture and technology that reflect contemporary Indigenous experience. The exhibition will include work that Baniwa made in response to objects that he examined in the collections of the Princeton University Art Museum and Princeton University Library Special Collections.”
Art on Hulfish
Art on Hulfish, 11 Hulfish Street, Princeton. Open Monday through Wednesday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Thursday and Friday, 10 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; and Sunday, noon to 5 p.m. artmuseum.princeton.edu/arthulfish.
“Christina Fernandez: Multiple Exposures” is on view through Sunday, April 28.
The exhibit, per museum materials, is “a survey of work by Christina Fernandez, a Los Angeles-based artist who has spent more than 30 years conducting a rich exploration of migration, labor, gender, and her Mexican American identity through photography. The exhibition’s title, Multiple Exposures, refers not only to a photographic technique but also to the artist’s revealing of that which is often hidden away, including fraught racial histories and the mistreatment of vulnerable communities. Whether staged or candid, Fernandez’s photographs record touch and mark making, engaging the medium’s distinct ability to convey surfaces — the surfaces of bodies, architecture, and the images themselves. Multiple Exposures traces the development of the artist’s work from the late 1980s to the present.”
Zimmerli Museum
Zimmerli Museum, Rutgers University, George and Hamilton streets, New Brunswick. Open Wednesdays and Fridays, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Thursdays 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.; and Saturdays and Sundays, noon to 5 p.m. zimmerli.rutgers.edu.
Marking the centennial of George Segal’s birth in 1924, the Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers welcomes visitors to experience more than 60 works: some familiar, others rarely seen. The exhibition highlights not only the breadth of Segal’s work, but also the people and the state that helped to shape his career. “George Segal: Themes and Variations” is on view through July 31.
With works drawn from the Zimmerli’s collection, as well as loans from the George and Helen Segal Foundation and private collections, the exhibition offers the unique opportunity to view Segal’s less well-known paintings, drawings, and photographs alongside his renowned life-sized plaster cast figures. In addition, photographs by Arnold Newman and Donald Lokuta capture Segal in his studio, providing insights into the artist as not only maker, but also curator who arranged the sculpture in his studio to convey connections across time and theme.
Considine Gallery
Stuart Country Day School, 1200 Stuart Road, Princeton. Gallery open Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., while school is in session. On view through March 8. www.stuartschool.org.
The winter art exhibition in the Considine Gallery at Stuart Country Day School celebrates the all-girls independent day school’s 60th anniversary and features artists from within the Stuart community and is on view through March 8.
“This special anniversary exhibit represents the wonderful vision of the founders of Stuart and the creative legacy of the architect Jean Labatut in a historic space,” said Andres Duque, the gallery director and Stuart art teacher whose work is featured. “With artwork in different formats (paintings, drawings, sculptures and photography) that represent contemporary dialogues, we will continue to bring the spirit of love and art to all at Stuart.”
Gallery 14
Gallery 14, 14 Mercer Street, Hopewell. www.gallery14.org.
On view through Sunday, March 3, is the annual members’ show, featuring works showcasing the variety of styles of the members of the art photography gallery.
On view from March 9 through April 7 are photographs by John Clarke and Samuel Vovsi in the main gallery, with images by Nanci Hellmuth in the Goodkind Gallery.
The gallery is open Saturdays and Sundays from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. and by appointment.
West Windsor Arts Council
West Windsor Arts Council, 952 Alexander Road, West Windsor. www.westwindsorarts.org.
The West Windsor Arts Council presents its “2024 GR8 Works Art Show” from March 5 through April 6. An opening reception takes place Friday, March 8, from 7 to 9 p.m.
For the show, artists of all ages were invited to create an original eight-inch square arwtork to raise funds to support a diverse and accessible art program with a focus on community. The GR8 works can be made by artists of all ages.
WWAC’s annual member show, with the 2024 theme “Leave Your Mark,” will be on view from April 9 through June 1 with an opening reception on Friday, April 12, from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Artist-in-residence Fiona Clark will serve as juror.
The following thought explained the theme to prospective contributors to the exhibit:
“As artists, we all have the desire to leave our mark on the world by sharing our artwork. With that said, all artwork is built up through many different techniques of mark-making and each artist has their own version of it. It could be the brush strokes we see in a landscape painting, the pencil marks of an initial sketch, the fingerprints in the clay of a sculpture or the repetitive pattern of weaving fiber. It’s inspiring to see the artist hand in their artwork.”
Princeton University Library
Ellen and Leonard Milberg Gallery, Firestone Library, Princeton University. Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. library.princeton.edu
“Ulises Carrión: Bookworks and Beyond” is on view through June 13 with free guided tours available on select dates.
Materials from Princeton University Library explain the exhibit as follows:
“Ulises Carrión Bogard was one of the most influential of all modern artists engaged in the book, and this new exhibition will be the largest United States retrospective exhibition of his work to date. It will explore Carrión’s pioneering reinvention of the book as a material and social platform, primarily featuring Princeton’s extensive holdings, drawn from the Marquand Library of Art and Archaeology and PUL’s Special Collections. PUL is steward to one of the most substantial collections of Carrión’s book and mail art in any American library.
“The exhibition will also incorporate key audio-visual, performative, and printed works on loan from the Institute for Studies on Latin American Art (New York), and LIMA (Amsterdam) …
“Born in San Andres Tuxtla, Veracruz, Mexico, in 1941, Carrión emigrated to Amsterdam in 1972 and joined a dynamic multinational community of artists pushing the boundaries of artistic practices. He eschewed conventional galleries and museums in favor of collaborative ‘artist-run spaces’ such as his own bookstore-gallery Other Books and So. Carrión also became heavily involved in mail art, a participatory and network-driven practice rooted in the exchange of artworks through the postal system and premised on questions of authorship and originality, that was also an important avenue of communication for artists living in countries governed by authoritarian regimes. Carrión’s community-driven practice fostered extensive cross-cultural exchange between experimental artists working in Latin America and Europe.
Tulpehaking Nature Center
157 Westcott Avenue, Hamilton. Open Wednesdays through Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. 609-888-3218.
The nonprofit Friends for the Abbott Marshlands features a new art quilt exhibit, “Nature Captured in Fabric,” from March 3 through April 30 at the Tulpehaking Nature Center in Hamilton.
The exhibit features quilts crafted by Hamilton resident Deb Brockway, a volunteer and executive board member of Friends for the Abbott Marshlands with a professional background in education research and STEM education.
An opening reception takes place Sunday, March 3, from 2 to 4 p.m. Register at https://tinyurl.com/mr3pa2fn to attend.
A statement from exhibit organizers notes:
“The exhibit combines Deb’s love of the marsh, the outdoors, and art quilting. Inspiration for her ongoing quilting series comes from her many outdoor activities on preserved land throughout New Jersey and across the country. Kayaking, hiking, and traveling bring the landscapes she encounters into focus on her quilts. Her quilts have been exhibited in quilt and art shows in five states, from New Jersey to Georgia.
“It all began in 2002, when Deb created her first traditional quilt. She soon discovered that she preferred instead to imagine and create her own designs. Her quilts range from pictorial designs that represent the textures and details of the natural world to more abstract designs that evoke a sense of being in nature. Working with hand-dyed and commercial fabric, thread, natural dyes and acrylic paint, Deb experiments with materials and techniques that put her artistic touch to her designs.
“In this exhibit, quilts range from depicting close-up aspects of nature, to artful landscapes; but occasionally there is another purpose. “‘Nosing In’ expresses my concern over the unintended impact we have on wildlife, whereas ‘Enjoying Spring Ephemerals’ was created to simply evoke a sense of place,” Deb said.”
