If autumn museum and gallery visits are on your mind, look no further than the following offerings of new work in some of the region’s most interesting venues.
“Somewhere Special” is regional artist and Lawrence High School instructor Sean Carney’s exhibition at the Hutchins Galleries at the Lawrenceville School.
As Carney says during an interview for U.S. 1, his paintings of places in the region “are all about positive energy and fond memories. I find it therapeutic to focus on the good times in life and revisit these moments through my paintings.”
Carney also provides some details regarding his personal approach. “I create my paintings using only Minwax water-based wood stain and sometimes a Dremel engraving tool. I have painted with just about every medium, and Minwax stain is by far my favorite, it is just so wonderfully versatile. I honestly can’t imagine painting with anything else.”
He says his choice of stains comes from the fact that he has “worked in restaurants since the age of 15, and I used to create paintings with coffee, tea, and eventually wine. I had a professor at New Jersey City University (Ray Stadtlander) who used to say ‘if it stains your teeth, it will stain the paper.’ Now I paint solely using Minwax.”
Somewhere Special, Hutchins Gallery, Lawrenceville School, 2500 Main Street, Lawrenceville, through Saturday, December 3, Monday, 1 to 4:30 p.m.; Tuesday, 9 a.m. to noon and 1 to 4:30 p.m., Wednesday, noon to 6 p.m. , Thursday and Friday, 9 a.m. to noon and 1 to 4:30 p.m., and Saturday, 9 a.m. to noon.
“An Entanglement of Time and Space” is the new show by noted Princeton photographer Ricardo Barros. It’s at the Friend Center on the Princeton University Campus.
Barros says in a past interview that his “art isn’t about being safe. It’s about stepping into the unknown, going all-in on a search without necessarily knowing what one is searching for. It is about growing comfortable with fear, about failing, and about a momentary sense of accomplishment when one reaches the proverbial summit. Challenge is wind in the artist’s sail.
“I work with a ‘project’ framework. My projects typically span five to seven years, then I move on. Past projects have included graffiti writing culture, industrial landscapes, and feminist truths expressed through a male gaze. I discover projects by following my curiosity, by uncovering something of interest that I know very little about. I stay with a project until the learning slows, until it becomes difficult to avoid repeating myself. Right now I am working with 360-degree panoramas that suggest an entanglement between space and time. The photographs visually bend space, and sequential events are presented as concurrent. It is still a young project.”
An Entanglement of Time and Space, Friend Center for Engineering Education, William and Olden streets, Princeton University. Through Saturday, December 31, weekdays, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., when classes are in session. ricardobarros.com/entanglement.
“Reemergence” at the New Jersey State Museum showcases 127 works by 95 artists recognized by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts
The title is both a nod to the fact that it was the first such venture in two years and an opportunity for the participating artists to address their time during the pandemic and their subsequent return to “an altered landscape” caused by the “ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, political and ideological polarization, and a collective reckoning with systemic racism.”
The works selected by NJSM Assistant Curator of Fine Arts Sarah Vogelman are expert, cover a great variety approaches and mediums, and demonstrate the overall strength of the state’s artistry — an important visual statement for the NJSCA.
Reemergence, The New Jersey Arts Annual, New Jersey State Museum, 205 West State Street, Trenton. Through April 30, 2023, Tuesday through Sunday, 9 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. Free. 609-292-6300.
“The 2022 Mercer County Photography Show” is on view at the Trenton City Museum’s Ellarslie Mansion through Sunday, November 27.
Organizers say the biennial juried show displays 72 artworks by photographers from all municipalities in Mercer County.
Drexell Hill, Pennsylvania, curator, photographer, and installation artist Amie Potsie juried the show that resulted in the following awards: Best in Show, Anita Bhala, of Pennington; Juror’s Award, Samuel Vovsi, Princeton; Honorable Mentions to Heather Palecek of Ewing, Mark Stermer of Ewing, and David W. Timothy of Trenton.
Mercer County Division of Culture & Heritage also selected the following for purchase awards: Cheryl Bomba of Pennington, Judy Filipponi of Robbinsville, Joseph Gilchrist of Hamilton, Dominic Guarino of Hopewell, Heather Palecek of Ewing, Asia Popinska of Pennington, Barbara K. Suomi of Princeton, and Jennifer Tungol of East Windsor.
“The 2022 Mercer County Photography Show” is co-sponsored by Mercer County Culture & Heritage Division, through a grant from the NJ State Council on the Arts, and Trenton City Museum. The museum is located in Cadwaladar Park, Trenton, open Fridays and Saturdays, noon to 4 p.m., and Sundays, 1 to 4 p.m. Free. 609-989-1191 or www.ellarslie.org.
“THE Question” at Gallery 14 in Hopewell is the thematic question being used for the exhibition organized by photographer Larry Parsons. A longtime member of the nonprofit photography collective, Parsons’ marketing materials says that in his current exhibit, he “takes the viewer on a photographic journey in search of the answer. A young boy and his water buffalo constitute our guide through this narrative series, and we follow the questioner as he encounters many different characters and answers. Both Mr. Parsons’ tale and the images that narrate it evoke a childlike inquisitiveness which echoes classic storytelling traditions. Is there an answer to THE Question?”
Accompanying Parsons’ exhibition is “Watercolor Women of Gallery 14,” featuring the work of a group of watercolor artists who use the gallery. The exhibiting area artists are Janet Bacon, Julie Cavallaro, Nancy Gardner, Jean Parsons, Joyce Reynolds, and Aimee Viola.
Both exhibitions are on view through Sunday, November 20.
THE Question, Gallery 14, 14 Mercer Street, Hopewell. Saturday and Sunday, noon to 4 p.m. Free. www.gallery14.org.
“Bold Will Hold” is the tattoo-inspired exhibition on view at Artworks Trenton through Saturday, November 19. Curated through the coordinators of the Trenton Punk Rock Flea Market, the exhibition features roughly two dozen artists who approach the concept from various angles and media. The Artworks exhibition uses the current interest in tattooing as the attraction and leaves the viewer to draw the lines that connect what appears to be original designs to photographs to works of art based on tattoo images or inspired by them.
Bold Will Hold, Artworks Trenton, 19 Everett Alley, Trenton. On view through Saturday, November 19, Tuesdays through Saturdays, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Free. 609-394-9436 or www.artworkstrenton.org.
“Nightforms: Infinite Wave” is the latest version of the popular outdoor night installation launched last year by Philadelphia artist Ricardo Rivera and the Klip Collective at Grounds For Sculpture in Hamilton.
Rivera says the frame of the project fits with his evolving aesthetic of working with nature and art to create video-light images for actual three-dimensional spaces, rather than only on a screen.
For the GFS exhibit, he says he “started conceiving a cyberpunk dystopia — but a beautiful one,” a feat that was enhanced via a soundtrack from Klip musical producer Julian Grefe.
“The site-specificity of our work drives what we do. The music and color are being driven by the sculpture. The conversation between the existing sculpture is paramount,” says Rivera, whose other work has included a light and sound installation at Longwood Gardens in Pennsylvania and Philadelphia’s City Hall.
For this expanded installation, GFS says “visitors will be able to interact directly with and manipulate the illusory landscape [by] using a joystick feature at one installation that will allow visitors to control the visuals there,” as well as “a musical instrument that visitors can play to create corresponding reactions.”
Nightforms: Infinite Wave by Klip Collective. Thursdays through Sundays from sunset to 11 p.m. with the last ticket at 9:30 p.m. $14 to $28. www.groundsforsculpture.org/night-forms-tickets.
“Roberto Lugo: The Village Potter,” also at GFS, examines the work of the nationally recognized Philadelphia-area ceramicist who melds tradition, urban life, and something new.
“I approach art from the place I know — hip-hop culture,” he says in a U.S. 1 interview. “I’m referencing and making connections, but I’m not trying to own that culture as an identity; my work is trying to synthesize, combine.
“Both of my parents are from Puerto Rico. Culturally, I’m from the Indigenous people from Puerto Rico, [as well as] Portuguese and Spanish. It’s a huge part of what I paint and draw.”
Roberto Lugo: The Village Potter. Through, January 8, 2023. Wednesday through Monday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. $15 to $20.
“That’s Worth Celebrating: The Life and Work of the Johnson Family” isn’t exactly new art, but it commemorates GFS’s late founding artist, J. Seward Johnson, his family, and the artists who brought the sculpture grounds to life.
Curated by Seward Johnson Atelier collection manager Lynn DeClemente Losavio, the exhibition consists of several thematic units featuring photos, films, and texts connected by living room-like seating areas and displays of Johnson’s painted serving trays, plastiline models, such as Albert Einstein, and finished works — including a popular life-sized sculpture of Marilyn Monroe.
Also on view are works that highlight Johnson’s career: the 3-D sculptural translations of Van Gogh’s bedroom that had been on display in the retrospective; the abstract “Stainless Girl” sculpture that launched his sculpting career in 1969; and “Double Check,” the World Trade Center-located life-cast of a businessman that survived the 2001 Twin Towers attack and became a makeshift shrine where others registered their pain and hopes.
Grounds For Sculpture, 126 Sculptors Way, Hamilton . Wednesday through Monday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. $15 to $20. www.groundsforsculpture.org.
