Jazz Smile

Walking through Washington Square Park, not yet late to where I’m going. There’s a larger than usual crowd forming around a quartet –banjo, trumpet, saxophone, bass – some kind of old timey jazz. The song ends, there’s applause.

Starts up again – some claps of recognition – when you’re smiling, the whole world smiles at you – a warm autumn day – there had been cold rain, a drop in temperature earlier in the week – but today was one of those beautiful fall afternoons when the sunlight is tinged in gold. The trumpet rips into a jolly solo. I pause, worth it to be in the moment with the music. Crowds in the park around buskers are rarely mistaken. Smiles by definition are fleeting, disappear soon after they’re acknowledged. I realize that in spite of some realities arguing otherwise, optimism can be irresistible when there’s a park and sunshine and jazz.

 

Artists Showing at Fish with Braids

 

Few art galleries are as emblematic of the Downtown Jersey City vibe and art scene as the Fish With Braids Gallery.

In July, Gallery founder and curator, Uta Brauser, enlarged and evolved Fish With Braids into an expansive former warehouse space, the opening event dislocated here.

With so large a space to realize her whims, ideas and gallery ambitions, Uta showcased multiple artists or the Jersey City Artist Studio Tour. A group show only due to circumstance – they were all in one space – the artists were able have a distinct show within the group umbrella that featured a specific though ample selection.

 

 

Abstractions

Olivia Wilber described her paintings at Fish With Braids as video paintings – which are also performance pieces but I wasn’t able to attend the one planned later that evening – in fact, this was one of the first exhibitions of the outcomes of those performance paintings. She projects video on the canvas and then paints the video – tracing meets inspiration – she paints the movement of the image, not – or not just – the projection. Credible abstract art results – as does a kinetic energy and a frantic suggestion of movement.

 

Fine Art By Olivia Facebook Page

 

 

 

Binary Dreams

Binary Dreams is a collaboration between Vincent Zambrano and Kaliptus. You need a smart phone to view this melding of and technology. The pictures are of actual code and if you scan the pictures, the corresponding video appears on your smart phone.

 

 

 

 

 

It was pretty cool and a very clever and 21st century idea. I have an old fashioned cellphone and cannot scan so Vincent demonstrated. Try it at home.

Vincent Zambrano Website

Kaliptus Website

 

 

Abstract Geometry

Is the title of this collection a contradiction or is the essence of geometry actually abstraction? Peter Bill is a well known, long time veteran of the Jersey City Art Scene. The interaction between subtle shades of bright color and the precision of the geometric patterns created an interesting shimmer effect to the work.

According to his website: “Since I first began painting in the 1970s, my work has explored the relationship between color, geometry, and the flatness of the picture plane.”

Peter Bill Website

 

 

Night Crawlers

Divine lives. As does John Waters and Fritz the Cat and the cult that followed Pink Flamingos. Night Crawlers by Stephanie Riggi recreates, in a vibrancy so bright you almost have to squint, the Post-Warhol underground icons of the 70s in a reimagined, though still tawdry, glory. The paintings capture a counter-intuitive notion: the humanity of these familiar, once notorious images from a bygone era is weirdly enhanced by the retina-singeing palette.

Stephanie Riggi Website

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ribbons of Hope

Autumn afternoon, sunny and crisp; a Sunday in an entire city celebrating art… cynicism just does not seem an option. Even such an over-used symbol as the ribbon evades sarcasm.

 

 

Ribbons of Hope was one of the stops on the Jersey City Arts Tour, one I really wasn’t planning to see, just happened to pass by. My eyes rolled at first, it seemed sort of mawkish but that passed. The amount of the ribbons, all affirmations, gradually encouraged a sharing of sentiment.

 

 

Called an “interactive” art installation, the simplicity of the concept was irresistibly endearing. A message of hope is written on a ribbon, tied to these tall racks – panels really, all fluttering alongside each other.

The project started on 9-11-2011, the 10^thanniversary of you know what. It has travelled throughout the five boroughs and apparently around the world and this year it was a stop on the Jersey City Artist Studio Tour. 

Go to thiswebsite to find out more about Ribbons of Hope.

 

I wrote:

Be Not Afraid Love Conquers All.

It just came to me.

More wish than message but I can dream can’t I?

 

 

 

Here’s a Facebook page.

 

New Angle of Repose

 

 

Repose – rest, tranquility, composure, peace of mind. Modified by Vertical, indicates a lengthwise angle, which seems almost like oxymoron, or at the very least, a more active repose.

Vertical Repose was a collection of abstract paintings and sculpture that tended towards length rather than width. The work was compelling and moody, appropriate for lobbies or similar spaces, which is not a criticism. I wonder if vertical also worked as a tip off for interior decorators as art that potentially inhabit a specific shape of area or dimension.

 

 

The showroom was a large, sparse space and there was a palatable vibe of a total absence of clutter. The walls were far apart, some sculpture –metal and abstract were also featured – and a pillar or two, but they did little to disperse the emptiness. This enhanced the Vertical Repose experience. Abstract art does not dictate interpretation and defies intellectualization. How you feel is more up to you, because all the references are internal, as opposed to more realistic depictions that rely on less subtle recognition to convey the thoughts and feelings expressed. The atmosphere in this gallery space (371 Warren Street/4^th Floor) encouraged one to fill in the blanks, examine their own experience of the art displayed. It was clean and airy. Perhaps because of this physical ambiance so conducive to seeing art, as well as the shared expressionistic mode in the selected work, I felt more affected by the culmination of the collection than by any individual piece exhibited.

The show was curated by Emily Santangelo, whose website is here

Vertical Repose was presented by Panepinto Galleries. Here is their website.

 

According to the Panepinto Galleries website:

Vertical painting is a process of high drama, finishing in a crescendo, simultaneously exhausting and exhilarating us in its formal orientation. Its theater of aspiration, the sense of reaching vs. acceptance and surrender, the act of jumping and diving or traveling up and down in our eye movement, the unknown above us as well as the somewhat better known at or below our feet, all play a critical role in the process, the creation and the experience of the vertical work. Unlike horizontal imagery, which inescapably speaks of landscape and the reclining figure—in which the observer holds a passive role—the vertical image demands active participation. It pushes back at the viewer,“mirroring” the body, creating an internal space for that audience to engage in a reciprocal dialogue, one that mirrors the surface while allowing the projection of one's individual history onto the image.

The work exhibited in Vertical Repose aims to elicit such articulations of verticality. Pulling from a variety of mediums and artistic approaches, the exhibition does not seek to fuse together an underlying conceptual premise geared towards a contextual narrative but rather, to use the orientation of the frame as a staging area for a particular and predetermined type of aesthetic contemplation. It is through this vertical dimension that we experience the work of art and in turn, ourselves.

Featured artists include John Baldessari, Andrea Belag, Kate Carey, John D'Agostino, Rachel Friedberg, Stephen Gross, Charlie Hewitt, Alison Hildreth, Elizabeth T. Jones, Chris Pelletiere, Kara L. Rooney, Anthony Roselli and Richard Serra.

 

Vertical is an angle so I thought about Wallace Stegner’s Angle of Repose.

“What do you mean, ‘Angle of Repose?’ she asked me when I dreamed we were talking about Grandmother’s life, and I said it was the angle at which a man or woman finally lies down.”

Seems Vertical Repose imagines a new angle of repose.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sugar & Light

 

Surrounded by shadows, illuminated only by a television screen… what was the broadcast that was so interesting that it interrupts their intimacy; some dire news or maybe, their intimacy has become as routine as their lives and their feelings for each other that it is now easily interrupted by such a minor occurrence as the end of the commercial break. Whatever they see only seems to come from an outside source; in reality they are seeing what they’ve become. I love how his lines suggest multiple layers of light within the shadows

 

Michael Meadors – his website: MichaelMeadors.com  – had his studio opened, showing “paintings, drawings” during the Jersey City Artist Studio Tour, which included work in charcoal, pencil, ink.

Also sugar. Yes, using water and sugar he was making a socio-political statement. This portion includes “Big Brother” like meta-capitalism proclamations, such as “Let’s Do a Little Shopping Today,” which were featured next to brownish images of famous wealthy men – these were “Sugar Daddies” – and made with sugar as the medium. Look closely and you can see the granular texture of the strokes. Women – both nudes and clothed – were alongside the cluster of sugar daddy images on the wall. The statement on consumerism could not be avoided.

 

 

 

‘Around Waldo’ – Neighborhood Dualities

 

“Around Waldo” immediately bestows a context for the gallery show by a pair of artists, a “realist” and an “abstractionist.” Waldo is Waldo Lofts, an apartment building in downtown Jersey City, near the waterfront, and the realism was represented by photographs of this very specific part of town. This led one to consider that perhaps the abstract work represented an internal expression of the same location.

 

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The “realist” Christopher Boyle is a photographer and was exhibiting vivid, wide-angle, color photographs of the power house/water front district of Jersey City. His images captured the jagged geometry of re-purposed industrial structures surrounded by the Newport Shopping Mall and sleek glass and steel high-rises on both sides of the river. They remind us of how all of the 20th century (and bits of both the 19th and 21st) collides in this neighborhood of our fair city. The photographs were taken from rooftops – indeed from “around Waldo,” and combine a within/ without duality. You are far enough above the ground to see the vastness of this unique collection of diverse architecture and skylines but you are always aware that you have not left the neighborhood

 

 

Erin Pasch, painter, dancer, and performance artists, was presenting her abstract paintings and a video performance/dance piece.

 

Her Website: erinparsch.com

 

Filmed on a roof top “Around Waldo” – the colors are stark and pallid— bone-gray roof top, cloudy sky – and Erin, in white, performs with a wide roll of thick white paper. The paper is bulky. Her moves are smooth and graceful, the elegance of her body makes the stiff material conform, until it gradually encompasses her and she is entirely concealed, from which she then emerges like a primordial hatchling from what has become a cocoon. Against an industrial skyline, she slides her body across the stark rooftop, an embryonic life form, not yet able to walk but still a statement of rebellion against her de-humanizing environment. The sequence of dance and performance seemed an abstract re-enactment of a birth and re-birth ritual and reminded me of Maya Deren.

 

 

 

The duality of the exhibit was further reinforced by the fact “Around Waldo” took place – at least during the J.C. Artists Studio Tour – in two separate, though nearby locations – the lobby of the Waldo Lofts, and at the their nearby studios on 123 First Street.
In addition to another loop of her performance piece, albeit on a smaller screen, Erin’s abstract, emotional paintings were on display.

 

While I was at the Studio portion of Around Waldo, a man bought one of Erin's paintings. After the happy customer left, Erin looked sad, nearly on the verge of tears.

 

I asked her if she was all right.

“I’m going to miss that painting. You become attached to them.”

Chris was understanding, and suggested. “Put up another one in its spot.”

Erin opened her portfolio case. It was leaning on the wall and contained several additional paintings. Her partner’s suggestion was the best solution to her emotional conflict, but I couldn’t help but wonder if her selection was based on what she thought could best sell or what she could most easily part with on that particular afternoon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Laurie Kammer’s Geometry

Hyper- colorful, geometric patterns, abstract symmetry. The large and small pieces were by Laurie Kammer, an artist/instructor with RUG –Rise Up Gallery.

Rise Up Gallery is a collection of artwork created by artists living with paralysis. This fund raising program helps: Fund an Adaptive Art Therapy Studio; Create Employment Opportunities; Issue Quality of Life Grants; Support Medical Research; Raise Public Awareness

Website: www. Riseupgallery.com

 

Well that stuff was on the back of her card. Laurie is a charming young woman; her enthusiasm about her art is irresistible. She’s a former dancer and a spinal injury survivor. Her well-ordered images have a hypnotic grace and provocative sense of purpose.

She told me that RUG was a founded after a paralysis fund raiser found that selling art made by artists living with paralysis was the most successful. I keep thinking about that. RUG is not yet a brick and mortar gallery, and Laurie Kammer’s exhibit at the Jersey City Art Studio Tour Kick Off party was indeed a rare appearance