JERSEY CITY, N.J. / August 7, 2013 — Although it was founded just seven years ago, the Hudson County Community College (HCCC) Foundation Art Collection now includes more than 500 works of art. The Collection includes highly respected paintings, sculptures, photographs, limited edition prints and American craft pottery and ephemera from some of Americaâ€s and New Jerseyâ€s finest artists.

The works, which have been acquired as a result of the generosity of many donors and the astute direction of the HCCC Foundation Fine Arts Acquisition Committee, are permanently installed throughout the public areas of the Collegeâ€s buildings in Jersey City and Union City.

“The intention has always been to provide our students and our neighbors in the Hudson County community with opportunities to have their lives enriched by beautiful artwork, and to provide a point of reference and inspiration for everyone, but most especially for our Fine Arts students,” said HCCC President Dr. Glen Gabert.

The Hudson County Community College Foundation Art Collection was established in 2006 to coincide with the initiation of the Collegeâ€s Fine Arts studies program. Since its inception, several pieces have been directly donated by individuals, estates, corporations and other organizations. Monetary donations for art purchases are maximized by matching funds, and donations are given not only for acquiring works of art, but also for special events, and items in kind, such as art books for the College Library.

Throughout the HCCC Journal Square campus and North Hudson Higher Education Center, there are works by American artists and a strong, growing collection of emerging and established New Jersey artists including Arman, Richard Artschwager, Jo Baer, Will Barnet, Ricardo Barros, Mark Beard, David Beck, Siona Benjamin, Chakaia Booker, W. Carl Burger, John Cage, Elizabeth Catlett, Christo, Chuck Close, Willie Cole, Edward S. Curtis, Marcel Duchamp, Louis Eilshemius, Dahlia Elsayed, Larry Fink, Frank Gehry, April Gornik, Owen Kanzler, On Kawara, Rockwell Kent, Adolph Konrad, Joseph Kosuth, Hiroshi Kumagai, Valeri Larko, Hughie Lee-Smith, Barry Le Va, Sol LeWitt, Maya Lin, Robert Mangold, Sylvia Plimack Mangold, Reginald Marsh, Agnes Martin, Bruce Nauman, Don Nice, Claes Oldenburg, Yoko Ono, Gordon Parks, Jon Rappleye, Man Ray, Faith Ringgold, Ed Ruscha, Carolee Schneeman, Ben Shahn, Kiki Smith, Joan Snyder, Doug + Mike Starn, Myron Stout, Michalene Thomas, William Wegman, and Lawrence Weiner.

In addition to the already famous artists, the College adds two works each year to the permanent collection that have been produced by HCCC students as part of its Heritage Collection, celebrating emerging talent in the community.

Dr. Andrea Siegel, Coordinator of the Collegeâ€s Permanent Collection of Art, said that the collection is remarkable on several levels. “I donâ€t know of any other county or community college that is doing what weâ€re doing, which is turning all the public areas of the College into an educational art museum,” she stated. She also noted that there has been a generous amount of community input — from students, faculty, staff and community members — regarding suggestions for acquisitions and placement, and that the Collegeâ€s facilities department has been extraordinary in installing work.

In conjunction with the Collection, the College publishes a page in its monthly newsletter, “HCCC Happenings,” that provides information on new acquisitions and correlates the works in HCCC Foundation Art Collection with exhibits and articles on artists whose works are included in the Collection. The College also hosts a series of “Foundation Art Talk” sessions throughout the year which feature noted artists. The first session of the 2013-2014 series is scheduled for Friday, Oct. 18, 2013 at 11 a.m. with Kimberly Camp, a Camden, New Jersey native and former Director of the legendary Barnes Collection. Her paintings and dolls have been shown in more than 100 solo and group exhibitions through the United States. (The event will be held in the Follett Room of the Collegeâ€s Culinary Conference Center.)

“There is a presence of the Foundation Art Collection in every building on our two campuses,” said HCCC Vice President for Development Joseph Sansone who explained that several pieces have already been acquired for the Collegeâ€s new Library and Academic Building, currently under construction on Sip Avenue in Jersey City.

“We are extremely proud of the Foundation Art Collection. It is a testament to the generosity of our benefactors, and to the appreciation the people of Hudson County have for art,” Dr. Gabert said.

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Opening Reception: Friday, March 1, 2013, 7–9 p.m.

The Majestic Theatre Condominiums 222 Montgomery Street Jersey City, NJ 07302 201.435.8000

Exhibition on view in the lobby from March 1, 2013 to May 31, 2013

SILVERMAN AND MAJESTIC THEATRE CONDOMINIUM ASSOCIATION present “Margaret Murphy: Dollar Store Divas,” curated by Brendan Carroll. The exhibition presents a series of acrylic and watercolor paintings on paper. Murphy draws inspiration from her native Baltimore and her adopted hometown of Jersey City, with its diversity, blue-collar neighborhoods, and dollar stores.

For the last decade, Margaret Murphy has developed her own genre of portraiture: sentimental, pensive, abstract, and matter-of-fact. Murphyâ€s “sitters” are a collection of mass-produced figurines that she purchases in 99¢ stores. The collection includes girls, princesses, mothers, and whores, and the occasional family of bunny rabbits.

To see her pictures of girly figurines as saccharine would be easy but limited, and dead wrong. Murphy is indebted to the critique of how women are objectified in American society. She writes: “The female figurines represent the ‘woman†in a post-feminist analytical arena, one that has been objectified on many levels.” In her work, Murphy is constantly returning to issues regarding gender, class, and consumerism.

The subjects in Murphyâ€s paintings occupy the center of the composition like religious icons. In this matter, they borrow specific tropes from art history. They exist in fields of pure color, nondescript settings, and decorative backgrounds. The effect is jarring, as it thrusts her models into the viewerâ€s space. From this vantage point, the viewer can see how Murphy uses harsh side lighting to illuminate each model. This tactic, which contrasts light and shadow, suggests volume, form, depth, and weight. It is as if Murphy wants the viewer to feel as though he reach out and grab the model.

Murphy does not depict the faces of her sitters, but their backsides, from head to toe. The tactic is not arbitrary but full of cheek, so to speak. If these figurines operate as surrogates for women, is Murphy suggesting that society perceives women as nothing more than a nice derrière? A thing to be ogled, squeezed? As viewers, where do we stand, as we eyeball the backside of countless statuettes?

Murphy is constantly pushing herself as a painter—experimenting with medium, color, composition, light, and shadow. The paintings of figurines owe as much to the 19th-century French painter Manet, or the 20th-century American Alex Katz, as to kitsch.

What is most interesting about Murphyâ€s work is how she is able to balance the “serious” and the “playful,” without allowing one to undo the other. She is often cited as working in the tradition of Pop Art, which is true, but itâ€s not the whole truth. Like Warhol, she is concerned with making art about banal objects of mass consumption. But where Warhol was cool and ironic, Murphy is discriminating and judicious.

Margaret Murphy is a painter, curator, and professor. Her work is included in many national collections, including the Deutsche Bank, Jersey City Museum, and Hudson County Community College Foundation, as wells as numerous private collections. New Jersey City University, Ramapo College, Rosenberg Art Galleries, Real Art Ways, Visual Art Center of New Jersey, Pentimenti Gallery, and HPGRP Gallery have organized solo exhibitions of her work. The New York Times, ArtInfo.com, Art Fag City, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and The Star-Ledger have reviewed her work, to name a few. Murphy is the recipient of many awards, including New Jersey Print and Paper Fellowship, Pollock Krasner Foundation Individual Artist Grant, New Jersey State Arts Council Fellowship, and P.S.122 Studio Residency.

Murphy earned her Bachelor of Science from Towson State University, and she earned her Master of Fine Arts in Painting from Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University in 1992. Currently, she teaches at Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, MD and New Jersey City University in Jersey City, NJ. She was born in Baltimore, MD. She lives and works in Jersey City, NJ.

The exhibition will be on view at The Majestic Theatre Condominiums through May 31, 2013. For further information, please visit us at SilvermanBuilding.com or call number (201) 435-8000.

Margaret Murphy: Dollar Store Divas the thirteenth exhibition that Brendan Carroll will organize for SILVERMAN.

For additional information, go here: Margaret Murphy.

This event is part of JC Fridays.

SILVERMAN has presented the works of Valeri Larko, Tenesh Webber, Glenn Garver, Jennifer Krause Chapeau, Michelle Doll, Tim Heins, Megan Maloy, Laurie Riccadonna, Thomas John Carlson, Tim Daly, Ann Flaherty, Scott Taylor, Jason Seder, Sara Wolfe, Beth Gilfilen, Andrzej Lech, Hiroshi Kumagai, Tom McGlynn, Victoria Calabro, Asha Ganpat, Darren Jones, Ryan Roa,Laura Napier, Risa Puno, Nyugen E. Smith, Amanda Thackray, and Kai Vierstra.

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