Taking in local art and culture is a great way to beat the winter blahs. Pro Arts, the non-profit group dedicated to promoting the visual arts and the advancement of the rights, welfare and economic well-being of professional artists, has sponsored several events that will keep your mind off those gray skies above.
Art for Black History Month. “Filler Up,” an art exhibition in celebration of Black History Month, will be open until Feb. 25 in the Brennan Gallery, in the Theodore Conrad Rotunda of the Hudson County Justice William J. Brennan Court House, 583 Newark Ave., Jersey City. The exhibition features artwork by some of the most prominent African American artists of the 20th century and is being presented in collaboration with the Jersey City Museum. All work is from the museum’s permanent collection of works on paper. For more information please contact Eileen Gaughan egaughan@hcnj.us or Meredith Lippman mlippman@hcnj.us.
New Jersey City University Galleries Presents: “FLESH ART” until March 4, an exhibition simultaneously presented within both the Harold B. Lemmerman Gallery and Visual Arts Gallery, and featuring work by a dozen artists that employ flesh as subject-matter and demonstrate the realm of possibilities in negotiating figuration and abstraction. Curated by NJCU art historian Dr. José Rodeiro, this multimedia exhibition explores how selected artists delve into the meaning and implications of flesh on many levels through painting, sculpture, photography, installation, and video.
This unique exhibition features three never before seen paintings by renowned painter Joan Semmel, who, since the early-1970s, has created innovative flesh-based paintings and is considered a pivotal figure in Flesh Art.
Also featured are NJCU’s eminent retired professor Ben Jones, who is a prominent figure in African-American art, and NJCU professor and acclaimed sculptor Herb Rosenberg.
The exhibition is greatly diversified, with original works by Rutgers professor and internationally active painter, Hanneline Røgeberg; strikingly visceral installation and multimedia works by Babs Reingold of Bayonne; intimate oil paintings by Jen Mazza of Brooklyn, N.Y.; cityscapes incorporating flesh in media by John Hardy of New York, N.Y.; video art by Giuseppe Satta of Italy; works by NJCU alumni Matthew Lahm, Williams Coronado, Sandra Silva and Olga Cruz.
The Harold B. Lemmerman Gallery is at 2039 Kennedy Blvd., Hepburn Hall, Room 323, and The Visual Arts Gallery is at 100 Culver Ave., both in Jersey City. The galleries are a half-block away from each other. Gallery hours for both are 11 a.m. – 5 p.m., Monday through Friday. For other days and times, please contact them to schedule an appointment. For further information, please visit http://www.njcu.edu/dept/art/galleries/ or contact Midori Yoshimoto, Gallery Director, at (201) 200-2197.
Jean-Paul Picard, Photographer, has been hired by the Hudson County Schools of Technology to teach digital photography for the Adult and Continuing Education Program. This 90 hour course will cover how to use the digital camera and learn the photographic skills and techniques that are used in portraiture, studio photography, photo-journalistic and fine art photography. Students will become literate in Adobe Photoshop on Apple Computer workstations, enabling them to transfer and work on their digital files to create works of art.
The course runs Monday and Wednesday nights from 6:30 – 9:30 p.m. until May 18 at the Jersey City Center, Earl W. Byrd School, 525 Montgomery St., Jersey City. The cost is $299, payable by cash, money order, Discover, Visa or MasterCard only.
For more information call HCST at (201) 662-6792 or 6791.