To most people in Weehawken, Ben Goldman is the civic-minded, outspoken and opinionated member of the Friends of the Weehawken Waterfront, a man with an extensive career in public service and government, an advocate with a doctorate in public administration.
However, there’s another side to the 40-year-old Goldman, a talented and innovative side.
Goldman is an accomplished artist who has a distinctive and unique style of painting that isn’t readily seen elsewhere. His contemporary pop art has drawn rave reviews from galleries and critics all over the nation, and his work has been displayed in countless galleries since he became a full-time artist, walking away from public life nearly six years ago.
After carving out a career in public policy, climbing to a level where he served on some of President Bill Clinton’s subcommittees and acted as an advisor to the Environmental Protection Agency, Goldman just decided to walk away.
“I was very successful, running many organizations, and I received many appointments to different committees,” said Goldman, who served on Clinton’s Subcommittee on Sustainable Development. “I was involved in public policy since I was in college and figured I was taking the practical route with my life. And I shot up the career ladder pretty quickly. But when I got to the top, I found out that I didn’t enjoy what I was doing.”
Ever since he was a youngster, Goldman had always dabbled in art. He loved to paint and sketch and draw and create.
“I guess it was self-taught, although I did have a smattering of training,” Goldman said. “But I was always involved in art and art-related things.”
Goldman, a native of Philadelphia and a graduate of Vassar College (undergraduate) and New York University (doctorate in public administration), decided to concentrate on art as his full-time profession.
That decision has finally paid off, because Goldman is enjoying January as the artist in residence at the Newark Museum, given the opportunity to create new works while working at the prestigious museum, located at 49 Washington St. in Newark.
Thursday at 6 p.m., Goldman will present a lecture/slide presentation of his work, with the lecture providing the visitors a chance to see the motivation behind Goldman’s impressive works.
On the following Thursday, there will be a reception honoring Goldman and the other two artists in residence for the month, namely printmaker Valeri Larko and doll maker Daniel Jackovino.
“This is the biggest honor I’ve had in my career,” Goldman said in the artist’s studio at the Newark Museum. “It’s the best museum in the state by far and has so many resources. This is a great opportunity for me, giving me the opportunity to paint for eight hours a day with so much at my disposal.”
Goldman said that he read an advertisement in an artists’ trade magazine last year, with the Newark Museum seeking New Jersey artists for their Artist-In-Residence program.
“I basically apply for every opportunity out there,” Goldman said. “I spend a lot of my time marketing myself. I’m very aggressive to get my name out there. Because of my background, I know how to be aggressive. But of the 50 shows I apply for, I get rejected about 49 times. I was fortunate to get selected this time.”
Goldman has a host of paintings already on display and he was working on about eight others last week.
‘Disorienting iconography’
His paintings, which he describes as “disorienting iconography,” create images that are filled with ideas most artists wouldn’t dare touch. For example, some of the work on display includes “Comfort,” a colorful painting of an old couch, with several little creatures hovering around the couch.
For separate paintings, he used an image from a New York Times article on toxic waste removal, an advertisement for carpeting, and an actual boom box that he painted pink because his daughter liked the color. “I use crime photos, nature sources, anything that catches my interest,” Goldman said. “My work is finding humor in things that other people might not and give some life to it. People see different things in my work. Not everyone has the same image.”
Another painting, “Alter Ego,” features vivid cartoon action figures peering through a window.
It’s safe to say that there’s a lot of Andy Warhol in Goldman’s work.
“I can’t not be influenced by Warhol,” Goldman said. “He’s the most influential American artist since World War II. I’m not an expert and I can’t define pop art, but I’m somewhere in that lineage. I’m a popular artist, but I’m also reaching into classical art now as well.”
Goldman said that he has entitled his slide presentation “Fighting Chance.”
“I feel that’s what I’m doing with my work,” Goldman said. “I’m fighting with chance. There’s a randomness that’s very important in my work. I try to do things that others don’t and let the element of chance take over. I think that’s a reaction of my past career, trying to take fairly complex statistical analysis and achieve some meaning out of those numbers. Now, I make a jumble out of imagery. I’m able to play with photography and change the way we see things.”
Added Goldman, “I want my work to be somewhere between the abstract the representation. I want people to say, ‘What is that?’ and see different things and conjure different images. There’s a liberation with that, a sense of awe.”
Goldman hopes that the presentation at the Newark Museum only goes to help his attempt to open more doors. His work will also be displayed at the New Jersey Center for the Visual Arts in Summit as part of their 2002 International Show, and he will sit on a panel discussion with William Zimmer of the New York Times on Sunday, Feb. 24 as part of that show.
His show, “Reactions,” will be displayed at Exit Art on Broadway in New York with a reception on Saturday night, Jan. 26. Goldman’s work will be shown there until March 30.
And Goldman’s work will also be part of the Meridian International Center’s presentation of “True Colors: Meditations on the American Spirit,” from Feb. 19 thru April 15 at the center in Washington, D.C. That presentation will come to New York in April and then will embark on an international tour through September.
Goldman will also remain active with the FWW, doing his best to improve the quality of life in Weehawken.
“I’m a homeowner, a parent, an artist, a professional, an author and a neighbor,” Goldman said. “I take pride in Weehawken and I seriously participate in all aspects of my life, which includes being very civic-minded. I’ve spent decades in public service. I don’t participate in activities in Weehawken just to cause problems. I want to see beautiful things in Weehawken, which is what I want to do with my art, create beautiful things.” Ben Goldman’s “Fighting Chance” presentation and the reception honoring the Artists-In-Residence program are free of charge to the general public at the Newark Museum, 49 Washington St. in Newark. For more information, call 1-800-7-MUSEUM or visit the website at www.newarkmuseum.org. The New Jersey Center for the Visual Arts is located at 68 Elm St. in Summit. For more information, call (908) 273-9121. Exit Art is located at 548 Broadway in New York