The vibrant colors of fall are on full display, both in the leaves falling from the trees and in these three new art exhibits, all recently arrived to regional galleries and all free and open for the public to view and enjoy.
Gallery at MCCC
Mercer County Community College’s Gallery hosts “Tim McFarlane – Black Drawings and Other Things You Didn’t Know About,” through Wednesday, December 18. An opening reception takes place Wednesday, October 16, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Light fare and refreshments will be served, and Mercer’s faculty jazz band ensemble led by Scott Hornick provides musical entertainment.
The exhibit features 17 pieces by Philadelphia-based artist Tim McFarlane and allows the viewer to imagine ongoing changes to human-made environments as emphasized through fluid, multi-layered systems, color, and process. Using mostly mixed media or acrylic on canvas, McFarlane captures his observations of human-driven changes in everyday life such as the remaking of public and personal spaces, the remnants of old buildings at construction sites, public spaces changed through continual use, and more.
For more information about Tim McFarlane, visit: https://timmcfarlane.com/work/about.
Gallery at Mercer County Community College, Communications Building Room 250, 1200 Old Trenton Road, West Windsor. Open Mondays and Wednesdays from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.; and Tuesdays and Thursdays from noon to 7 p.m. www.mccc.edu/gallery.
Silva Gallery of Art
The Silva Gallery of Art at the Pennington School hosts “From North Africa to North America,” an exhibition of work by Alia Bensliman, through Friday, December 13. A public reception takes placeThursday, October 17, from 6 to 7:30 p.m. with remarks at 7 p.m.
A statement from the gallery describes Bensliman’s art and inspiration:
Growing up in Tunisia in North Africa, Bensliman’s art reflects a fusion of East and West with a passion for North African, Islamic, and Amazigh art. Her drawings are full of symbols and meaning that illuminate milestones in her life and draw from both her past experiences and her everyday life. The intricate level of detail in each piece allows the viewer to discover additional details and make new interpretations each time they view a piece.
In “From North Africa to North America,” Bensliman’s work mirrors her view of life and her sentiments about the current state of our world: socio-political issues, taboos, religious views, relationships, health concerns, and human rights. Using combinations of intricate lines, shapes, and repetitive patterns, Bensliman enhances her designs with color, ink, gold and silver paint, and handmade, environmentally friendly watercolors that she creates herself.
Focused on sharing her art in academic settings, Bensliman’s recent exhibits include shows at the Lawrenceville School and the Princeton University Art Museum.
During the pandemic, Bensliman felt trapped and grew very nostalgic about her origins and her roots. She decided to create a series of Amazigh and North African women’s portraits with backgrounds of arabesque geometric patterns and Arabic calligraphy that echoed the architecture, colors, and landscape of her childhood and early adulthood in Tunisia. Creating this series, which is included in the show, made her feel closer to home, evoking happy sensations and memories from that time and place.
Silva Gallery, Pennington School, 112 West Delaware Avenue, Pennington. 609-737-4133 or email SilvaGallery@pennington.org.
New Jersey State Museum
The State Museum in Trenton presents a new exhibition and accompanying publication featuring the work of an artist who spent the latter part of his life working in New Jersey. “Robert Duran,” opening Saturday, October 19, offers visitors the opportunity to trace the arc of Duran’s evolutions and experiments in painting, drawing, and watercolor from roughly 1967 to the late 1990s. The exhibition will be on view in the first floor gallery through March 16, 2025.
At statement from the museum explains the following about the artist and the exhibit:
Born in Salinas, California, to a Filipino father and Shawnee mother, Robert Duran (1938–2005) arrived in New York in the early 1960s via San Francisco, where he soon became part of the artistic milieu associated with Bykert Gallery. Originally a sculptor, Duran and his approach to painting offer an alternative to both the hard-edge geometric abstraction and minimalism that dominated much of the 1960s and ’70s in New York. Duran’s acrylic wash surfaces and “color shapes,” as critic Carter Ratcliff called them, at times resemble petroglyphs, and at others take on cartographic or even geological qualities.
Despite a critically successful career in the New York art world, around 1980 Duran moved with his family to Hillsdale, New Jersey, where he privately continued to develop his painting style. Much of what we know about Duran is limited to exhibition history and anecdotes from friends, family, and acquaintances who can only begin to flesh out certain contours of the artist’s life, often leaving more questions than answers.
Sarah B. Vogelman, the museum’s acting curator of fine art, became aware of Robert Duran and his artwork while researching lesser known New Jersey artists. “I was immediately drawn to Duran’s unique sensibility when it comes to form and color. His experimental and playful approach to both acrylic paint and watercolor set him apart from contemporaries of his era, and still feels fresh in today’s landscape.” Vogelman continues, “He was part of an artistic community that included some of the most important American artists of the twentieth-century, and based on the quality of the work alone, Duran deserves be to part of that art history, too.” The exhibition seeks to reintroduce this artist to the public primarily through the most significant record of his life available to us: his paintings and works on paper.
New Jersey State Museum, 205 West State Street, Trenton. Open Tuesday through Sunday, 9 a.m. to 4:45 p.m.; closed on all State holidays. www.statemuseum.nj.gov.
