Curator (and busy man) Jerome China cooks up an engaging sequel to his excellent 2023 show at Novado Gallery

Face forward: Mikel Elam’s Nocturnal Conversations

Jerome China breaks chains. That sounds like a metaphor, but it isn’t: China, a sculptor of brawny statues in iron and steel, often includes metal links in his work. Allusions to bondage, the middle passage, and resistance to oppression are hard to miss. Yet China is also drawn to the aesthetics of force. He likes applications of practical physics, and he’s sensitive to dramatic gestures. A shattered chain looks cool. It means something strong has met something stronger.

Signs of a titanic struggle were visible all over “Black’ity Black,” the emotional exhibition of abstract pieces by African American artists that Jerome China curated at Novado Gallery (110 Morgan St.) in winter 2023. That show was nonfigurative, but it sure wasn’t noncombative. Almost exactly two years later, China returns with “I Said What I Said,” another bruiser fitted into a room distinguished by its brick-faced beauty. The art that China has brought with him isn’t all abstract, and the creators of these pieces aren’t all African American. Nevertheless, in tone, theme, and attitude, this show feels like a sequel.

To what can we attribute this continuity? It’s mostly down to China himself, whose tastes reflect a few strong preferences. He appreciates muscular expression: bold colors and thick lines that simultaneously suggest spontaneity and decisiveness. He responds to bursts of energy, loops, tangles, and vectors of motion. An undercurrent of defiance runs through his own work and the work he showcases. That which was fettered has broken free. It’s bruised and square-shouldered against adversity. It might be exhausted. But it’s on the loose.

Click the link to read the entire article

https://www.eye-level.net/post/i-said-what-i-said

The post Tris McCall Eye Level Post first appeared on River View Observer.

Artist Theda Sandiford and her piece Tag 1 on view at A Condo JC

by Sally Deering

 Womenâ€s faces are a myriad of feelings and emotions artist Theda Sandiford conveys in the mixed media paintings on view in Fragmented Identity, her solo show at ‘A†Condo on Washington Street in downtown Jersey City. The show opened Friday, June 8, and runs through July. 

 Sandifordâ€s show features 13 mixed media pieces that represent the many masks she wears throughout the course of a day, she says, either in her Jersey City studio or at her desk at Island Records in Manhattan where she works as a publicist.

“For me, the mask is who I need to be in the moment,” Sandiford says, as she gets ready to travel to Los Angeles for the record company. “I wear different ones for certain occasions and circumstances. Each of the masks are time frames of my life.”

Minerva by Theda Sandiford

Sandifordâ€s mixed media piece Headache looks like a womanâ€s head exploding into tiny little bits & bobs, and its inspired by the headaches Sandiford experiences in real life, she says. Itâ€s obstacles like headaches, and dyslexia that Sandiford has lived with, but keeps private and doesnâ€t let get in the way of her work as an artist and publicist.

 â€œHeadache is my visual representation of the headaches I get,” Sandiford says. “Iâ€m also dyslexic. These are elements of me that people donâ€t know about. The reality is that I have real things Iâ€m dealing with that in many ways, the part of me that wants to be powerful, is taking steps to overcome.”

Headache by Theda Sandiford

A Jersey City resident, Sandiford has an exceptionally large piece, a digital photograph she took which she had transferred onto a huge drape of material. The piece is a dramatic showpiece that viewers canâ€t help notice as soon as they enter A Condoâ€s lobby. Sandiford says she got the inspiration for the piece while riding the bus.

“I was riding the No. 123 bus from Jersey City to Manhattan,” Sandiford says. “A graffiti tag was on the window of the bus. I took the photo and then I started to manipulate that image.”

Masking Fear by Theda Sandiford

Going back to the meaning of masks, Sandifordâ€s piece Masked Fear represents the mask she wears when she hears nasty gossip. To Sandiford, masks are a necessary part of everyday life. 

“We all wear masks,” Sandiford says. “Masks to pretend, to hide, to celebrate or just to put our best face forward in a selfie. I construct masks for protection. What may start off as an ugly statement, in the end, becomes something beautiful.”

If you go

Showing through July

Fragmented Identity

Theda Sandifordâ€s Solo Show

@ A Condo

389 Washington St, JC

www.thedasandiford.com 

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By Sally Deering

Three women artists make the walls of the Center for the Arts at Casa Colombo in Jersey City their own in OF THE MIND, an exhibit of dreamy Italian landscapes, whimsical wood sculptures and moody photographs of the Manhattan Skyline.

Artists Abby Levine, Alina Oswald, and Jacqueline Falconiâ€s art works reflect their personal interests, things that inspire them and that also have a little whimsy, like Levineâ€s painted wood sculptures. Levine, who resides in Union City, is a graduate of the Tyler School of Art, Temple University, and has exhibited her art work throughout the U.S.

For the past three years, Levine has been creating a series of wood sculptures seen in the OF THE MIND exhibition, collecting pieces of wood, painting them and creating playful and intricate swirly labyrinths of wooded shapes and color. Once completed, Levineâ€s wood sculptures become “layers of life” she says.

“Thatâ€s the way I look at the world, as an interconnected web,” Levine says. “I think when I die Iâ€ll be part of the ground. Iâ€m hoping they plant me like a tree.”

Levine shares the exhibition space on the second floor with Oswald, a Jersey City artist exhibiting two different groups of digital photos she took, black & white shots of a ‘vampire†and images of the Manhattan Skyline at different times of day. Oswald calls her series of photos “unconventional expressions of reality”.

“Iâ€m from Romania,” Oswald says, “and I speak vampire.

Oswald has published several books of photographs and she enjoys taking candid shots, catching people when their guard is down, she says.

“Photographing people is also about capturing the essence of the person,” Oswald says, “and sometimes itâ€s just a lucky accident.”

Falconi, who was raised in Paris fills the third floor of Casa Colombo with her oil paintings of Italy and flowers. One of her paintings “Explosione in Blu” is a burst of flowers in oil on canvas.

“Iâ€ve been painting all my life,” Falconi says. “This is my first time here. Iâ€ve always exhibited in Italy and Rome.”

Falconi attended the Academy of Fine Arts in Manhattan.

“I do things people are not used to,” Falconi says. “As my teacher told me at the academy, Iâ€m one of the rare artists that can do anything.”

Director of the Museum of Art at Casa Colombo is Giuseppe Munafo, an architect who also designed the renovation of the exhibition spaces. As museum director, Munafo helped decide the artists for the OF THE MIND show, which runs through December.

“We interviewed many artists, Jersey City artists mostly,” Munafo says. “The reason is simple: the quality of work by Jersey City artists is amazing.”

The Center for the Arts at Casa Colombo is an historic building built by Italian immigrants in 1936. For many years the building served as a social center for Italians who settled in Jersey City. Over the years, the interior of the building underwent several transformations, but the exterior of the building remained virtually untouched since its original construction. Included on the third floor of Casa Colombo is Heritage Hall which houses artifacts brought to America by Italian immigrants.

In its mission statement, the Center for the Arts at Casa Colombo now strives to serve as a cultural multi-media link between the past and the future of the American and Italian communities. It seeks to inspire contemporary visual arts exhibits, performing arts presentations and concerts, literary expositions, education programs, workshops, and cultural exchanges and to make them available to the people of Hudson.

According to Chairman of the Board of Casa Colombo Lou Iozzi and his wife Fran Iozzi, a board member, the building received a Community Development Block Grant to renovate the second and third floor to accommodate visual and performing arts groups. The space features exposed red brick, wood laminate floors and has its original tin ceiling tiles, making it a beautiful, modern and welcoming space for all types of artists.

“At Casa Colombo, the programming was strictly Italian, but not anymore,” Lou Iozzi says. “We changed our focus to become an arts center.”

If you go:

Tues & Thurs, 10 am-3 pm, through December

“OF THE MIND”

The Center for the Arts at Casa Colombo

380 Monmouth St.

Jersey City

201-963-6332

For more info: www.casacolombo.org

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A FREE Self-Guided Walking Tour All Weekend

JERSEY CITY – Mayor Steven M. Fulop , the Municipal Council, and the Jersey City Division of Cultural Affairs , in partnership with Pro Arts, and the Hudson Reporter, present the 2013 Jersey City Artists Studio Tour , a FREE self-guided walking tour featuring galleries, artist studios and ad hoc exhibition sites. The tour will take place from noon to 6:00 p.m. throughout the city on Saturday, October 5th and Sunday, October 6th.

In its 23rd year, the Annual

Jersey City Artists Studio Tour is a weekend celebration of Jersey Cityâ€s diverse art scene that features hundreds of artists, dozens of exhibitions, galleries, museums, live music and performances, food, drink and parties – all located just five minutes from Manhattan.

Every year, hundreds of artists participate in the tour attracting thousands of visitors during its two-day

run. The Jersey City Artists Studio Tour is widely considered New Jerseyâ€s premier art and cultural event, and is free and open to the public.

“Jersey Cityâ€s artists are a vital part of our community and we encourage everyone to join us in celebrating their creativity and supporting the arts,” said Mayor Fulop. “We recognize how important the artists are to the vibrancy of our city, and not only do we embrace the arts, we are working to expand the role of art in our community. The administration just launched a citywide mural program and we are exploring additional ways to expand opportunities for our visual and performing artists.”

Group exhibitions will also be held at Panepinto Galleries at 371 Warren Street, The Drawing Rooms at 180 Grand Street, and at the new downtown gallery Freshly Printed at 383 Monmouth Street.

Also not to be missed is this yearâ€s Hispanic Heritage Month group exhibition show at City Hall, which features several local artists and celebrates the contributions of Hispanic Americans to our great nation.

At 150 Bay Street, art will be showcased at two dozen open studios, and the site will also be host to this yearâ€s Studio Tour Closing Party featuring a performance by blues rocker Eliza Neals on Sunday, Oct. 6th, from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m

Tour Maps can be obtained from our Tour Welcome Tents at Grove PATH and City Hall during the weekend. Shuttle busses will also be available at City Hall, 280 Grove Street.Other Studio Tour Highlights:

888 Newark Avenue / Mana Contemporary

Pop Culture: Selections from the Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation explores the roots of the Pop Art movement in the 1950s and ‘60s and its continuing influence. Iconic works such as all 10 of Andy Warholâ€s variously hued Marilyn Monroe silkscreens, as well as prominent works by Keith

Haring, Jenny Holzer, Yayoi Kusama, Roy Lichtenstein, Edward Ruscha, and others.

125 First Street / City Life

“Pro Arts Photo Salon” / group exhibition curated by Aileen Bassis & Leona Strassberg Steiner featuring: Aileen Bassis, Kay Kenny, Ed Fausty, Aliza Augustine, Susan Evans Grove, Trix Rosen, Mike McNamara, Charlie Steiner, Leona Strassberg Steiner.

371 Warren Street / Panepinto Galleries

Group exhibition featuring : Doreen McCarthy, Carolyn Salas, Glenn Garver / painting, sculpture

80 Grand Street / The Museum of Russian Art

Group exhibition

380 Monmouth Street / Casa Columbo

“Organics – Three Artists†Journery Through Intaglio Prints” / Group exhibition featuring: Melida Rodas, Tatyana Shayevich, Patricia Kelly.

383 Monmouth Street / Freshly Printed

Group Exhibition

121 Newark Avenue/ Indiegrove

Miguel Hernandez / “Angels Under Water” / painting, drawing, conceptual art, performance art

424 Ocean Avenue / Nuradeen Gallery

“Visions of Greenville”

Group exhibition featuring Darin DeField, Nuradeen and others Photography, painting, collage

91 Harrison Ave., btwn Bergen & Monticello Aves.

/ “Love Yourself “ / presented by the good vibes coalition /

musical performances by: Kiwi, Debra Devi, The Audiobodies / sculpture works, live art and drumming by local artists

Gallery 58

Thomas John Carlson / “Bird Boat†/ painting 158 Brunswick Street / The Brunswick Window

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