6/2 – 28, 2012

Opening Reception:
Friday, June 7, 6–9pm

Montclair Public Library
50 South Fullerton Avenue, Montclair, NJ

HOURS:
Mon: 10 am – 6 pm, Tues, Wed, and Thurs: 10 am – 8 pm, Fri: 10 am – 6 pm, Sat & Sun: 1 – 5 pm

973-744-1818
studiomontclair@aol.com

“Art: Transitions” highlights five artists who work in traditional media–painting, ink, photography, encaustic, and pastel–in very idiosyncratic ways, often combining techniques from art history with their own experimental interpretations. What unites them for curator Bonnie Maranz is the magic of seeing the work unfold in new and surprising ways in the exhibition.

“It’s 2012, and as always, the art world continues to explore and rethink its current temperature and posture,” says Maranz. “Modernism is history. Post-Modernism is becoming part of our art resource vocabulary. Today, many critics and art commentators view the visual arts in terms of an “International Trans Avant-Garde,” a way of encompassing and including past art movements, all sorts of combinations of media, as well as current technological advances. It encourages and fosters contemporary artists to create individual work in a unique and inclusive way, almost giving them “permission” to abandon the “rules” (as if artists ever really needed permission!).”

The artists featured in this exhibit are Susanna Baker, Ron Brown, Buel Ecker, Michael C. Gabrielle, and Alison Golder.

Bonnie Maranz is an exhibiting fine artist working in oil painting and drawing whose artwork over the past 30 years has focused on contemporary issues. Her work will be the subject of a one-person show next year at Kean University. Maranz is also an educator, certified as a NJ art teacher and currently teaching at the Newark Museum and serving on the Advisory Board for the Arts at Kean University. She has a B.A. in Fine Arts/Education and a M.A. in Painting.

Buel Ecker "Untitled"

Susanna Baker, "U6, variation1"

Ron Brown, "Approaching Broadway"

Michael C Gabriele "Iris Study"

5/18 – 8/14, 2012

Opening Reception:
Friday, May 18, 6–8pm

SMI Virginia S. Block Gallery
33 Plymouth Street (2nd Floor)
Montclair, NJ 07042

HOURS:
Monday-Friday

7am-7pm

973-744-1818
studiomontclair@aol.com

“Go Figure,” curated by gallery directors, Virginia S. Block & Karen Nielsen-Fried, presents artwork showing figures in interior spaces and landscapes The exhibit explores the human figure as interpreted by artists in both realistic and abstract forms. Artwork in several mediums is included.  Please join Studio Montclair on May 18th from 6-8pm at the SMI Virginia S. Block Gallery for the reception that coincides with Montclair’s annual gallery walk.

Featured Artists:

Marjori Abramson, Ron Brown, Rodriguez Calero, Brian Croshaw, Andrea Geller, Barbara Greaux, Lissanne Lake, Arlene Lieberman, Michele LoManto, Rudy Martin, Nancy Ori, Catherine Schmitt, Ludlow Smethurst, Linda Streicher, Brian Stymest, and Laurie Waite-Fellner.

Arthur Paxton, "Anisa"

5/18 – 8/14, 2012

Opening Reception:
Friday, May 18, 6–8pm

SMI Gallery @ Academy Square
33 Plymouth Street (1st Floor)
Montclair, NJ 07042

HOURS:
Monday-Friday

7am-7pm

973-744-1818
studiomontclair@aol.com

“Portraits: Beneath the Surface,” curated by Janet Boltax, encompasses a broad interpretation of what portraiture is. Artworks in the exhibit span a wide range of media and extend from traditional to contemporary art. According to Webster’s dictionary, a portrait is a likeness, a painted resemblance, or that which is copied from some example or model. Yet today, technology is transforming both the medium and subject matter of portraiture, as well as how we think of human identity. To portray the essence of a person, do we focus on the face? The DNA? How much of the artist’s nature should be reflected in a portrait?

Boltax believes that a compelling portrait should reflect the character and inner life of both the sitter and the artist. Several portraits in the exhibit are autobiographical—the many faces of photographer Bill Westheimer, the torso of sculptor Monica Litvany, expressive of the hardships she has endured due to physical illness, and the witty representations of Ruth Bauer Neustadter’s inner life. More traditional are the drawing and paintings of Brian Stymest, and the paintings of Andrea Geller, all exuding sensitivity, strength, and a skilled hand. In the vein of the great expressionist painters is the work of Paul Weingarten and Alaine Becker. Neil Korn’s drawings merge traditional draftsmanship with experimentation, his use of crumbled paper adding unexpected interest to his work. Monoprints, assemblage, and photography, both traditional and computer-based, further expand the parameters of portraiture.

“I believe that one thing all of these portraits have in common is the capacity to illicit feelings of awe and wonderment and that slightly unsettled feeling that comes with perceiving the world in a novel way,” says Boltax.

Artists featured in this exhibit are: Marjori Abramson, Alaine Becker, Ron Brown, Marcie Cooperman, Marilyn Deitchman, Andrea Geller, Joyce S. Hollander, Peter Jacobs, Neal Korn, Freyda Lazarus, Julie Levine, Monica Litvany, Clarence Mather, Ruth Bauer Neustadter, Anne Oshman, Arthur Paxton, George Saj, Karen Shala, Linda Streicher, Brian Stymest, Heidi Sussman, Paula Sweet, Paul Weingarten, Bill Westheimer, and Jodi Csaszar Zielinski.

Janet Boltax is a portrait painter, figurative artist, and printmaker. She has had several solo exhibitions in New Jersey and Virginia and her work appears in private collections throughout the United States. She also teaches painting to adults at the Montclair Museum, the Newark Museum, the Adult School of Montclair, and Studio Kids Art, and mixed media to children at the JCC of West Orange.

Opening Reception for “Viewpoints 2012″ SMI Annual Juried Exhibit

Leslie, Milton, Self Portrait, digital photography

SMI’s 15th Annual Exhibition

3/26 – 4/20, 2012

Opening Reception:
Saturday, March 31, 3-5pm

William Paterson University Galleries, 300 Pompton Road, Wayne, NJ  07470

HOURS:
Monday-Friday 10am – 5pm or by appt.

973-744-1818
studiomontclair@aol.com

Studio Montclair (SMI) announces its 15th annual juried exhibition, “Viewpoints 2012,” which opens on March 26 and continues through April 20, 2012, at the University Galleries in the Ben Shahn Center for the Visual Arts at William Paterson University in  Wayne, N.J. An opening reception will take place Saturday, March 31, 2012, from 3 to 5 p.m. at which time awards will be presented. On Thursday, April 12, from 12:30 to 2 p.m., SMI will sponsor a discussion with exhibition juror Alexandra Schwartz, Curator of Contemporary Art at the Montclair Art Museum, and William Paterson University Professor David Shapiro, who will discuss the imagery, ideas, and techniques explored in the exhibition. Both the reception and panel discussion are open to the public.

The exhibit features the work of 43 artists from around the country who have used an array of media and techniques to offer diverse perspectives on contemporary life. “The exhibition offers a slice of what contemporary artists around the country are finding most compelling in their worlds, and in so doing, offers a representative sampling of larger preoccupations in contemporary art,” said Schwartz.

Schwartz goes on to say, “This is perhaps most evident in the remarkable amount of portraiture in the exhibition, often set within the domestic sphere.” She points out that many of the artists’ works also span art history, the contemporary landscape (both natural and manmade), and contemporary popular culture and politics. Says Schwartz, “More than anything else, these artists seem absorbed in the everyday: the images, people, objects, and issues that make up the fabric of contemporary life. At a time of great uncertainty in this country and across the globe, artists appear to be looking close to home, both literally and metaphorically, for their subject matter, finding a mix of comfort and uneasiness, reassurance and disquiet.”

Schwartz is the Curator of Contemporary Art at the Montclair Art Museum (info mentioned earlier), where she is organizing a series of solo exhibitions of contemporary artists, beginning with Marina Zurkow:  Friends, Enemies and Others and a major traveling exhibition, New Order: Art and Politics in the 1990s (Fall 2013).  She was previously the coordinator of The Museum of Modern Art’s Modern Women’s Project and curator of Mind and Matter: Alternative Abstractions.

Studio Montclair Inc. is a non-profit organization of exhibiting professional and emerging artists and others interested in the visual arts. The mission of the organization is to promote culture and education in the visual arts.

Special thanks to all our award sponsors.

The artists featured in this exhibit are:

Liz Adams-Jones, Peter Aldrich, Laura Atria, Michal Barkai, Douglas Barrett, Amy Becker, Sarah Becktel, Beth Blake, Tressa Croce Breton, Ron Brown, Jeanne V. Campbell, Robert Cullinane, Tracy Deer, Matthew Feuer, Dail Fried, George Garbeck, Robin Gibson, Alison Golder, Joan Goldsmith, Victoria Goro-Rapoport, Beth Gouldin, Jeanne Heifetz, Patricia Horing, Reneé Lachman, JC Lenochan, Yvette Lucas, So Yoon Lym, Dave Magyar, Paho Mann, Betty McGeehan, Leslie Milton, Rita Noe, Christopher J. Piccinich, Gail Postal, Claudia Samper, Sylvia Schwartz, Merrill Steiger, D.B. Stovall, Michael Teters, Peter Tilgner, Andrew Verhoeckx, Jenny Wiener, and David Witten.

JC Lenochan, Unfinished Business Page 21, chalk on paper

Jeanne V. Campbell, At Rest, digital photography

Laura Atria, Monetary Comfort, queen size bed & pennies

Amy Becker, Carny Series: Four on a Bench

SMI’s 15th Annual Exhibition

Panel Discussion:
Thursday, April 12, 12:30-2pm

William Paterson University Galleries
in the Ben Shahn Center for the Visual Arts
300 Pompton Road, Wayne, NJ  07470

Gallery Hours:
Monday-Friday 10am – 5pm or by appt.

973-744-1818
studiomontclair@aol.com

SMI will sponsor a panel discussion with exhibition juror Alexandra Schwartz, Curator of Contemporary Art at the Montclair Art Museum, and William Paterson University Professor David Shapiro, who will discuss the imagery, ideas, and techniques explored in the exhibition. Both the reception and panel discussion are open to the public.

The exhibit features the work of 43 artists from around the country who have used an array of media and techniques to offer diverse perspectives on contemporary life. “The exhibition offers a slice of what contemporary artists around the country are finding most compelling in their worlds, and in so doing, offers a representative sampling of larger preoccupations in contemporary art,” said Schwartz.

Schwartz is the Curator of Contemporary Art at the Montclair Art Museum (info mentioned earlier), where she is organizing a series of solo exhibitions of contemporary artists, beginning with Marina Zurkow:  Friends, Enemies and Others and a major traveling exhibition, New Order: Art and Politics in the 1990s (Fall 2013).  She was previously the coordinator of The Museum of Modern Art’s Modern Women’s Project and curator of Mind and Matter: Alternative Abstractions.

The artists featured in this exhibit are:

Liz Adams-Jones, Peter Aldrich, Laura Atria, Michal Barkai, Douglas Barrett, Amy Becker, Sarah Becktel, Beth Blake, Tressa Croce Breton, Ron Brown, Jeanne V. Campbell, Robert Cullinane, Tracy Deer, Matthew Feuer, Dail Fried, George Garbeck, Robin Gibson, Alison Golder, Joan Goldsmith, Victoria Goro-Rapoport, Beth Gouldin, Jeanne Heifetz, Patricia Horing, Reneé Lachman, JC Lenochan, Yvette Lucas, So Yoon Lym, Dave Magyar, Paho Mann, Betty McGeehan, Leslie Milton, Rita Noe, Christopher J. Piccinich, Gail Postal, Claudia Samper, Sylvia Schwartz, Merrill Steiger, D.B. Stovall, Michael Teters, Peter Tilgner, Andrew Verhoeckx, Jenny Wiener, and David Witten.

Maria Lupo, "Greenman"

GO FIGURE

Submission Deadline: Friday, April 6, 2012

Exhibition Dates: May 18 – August 14, 2012

SMI Virginia S. Block Gallery

33 Plymouth Street, Montclair, NJ 07042

Jurors:
Academy Square Gallery Directors,
Virginia S. Block and Karen Nielsen-Fried

This is an exhibition of figurative artwork in all mediums. The exhibition will explore figures presented in interior spaces and landscapes; it will explore the human figure as interpreted by the artist in both realistic and abstract forms. Figures may be 2D and/or 3D in nature. Nude images are not eligible for selection in this public exhibition space.

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Alison Golder, OchreWall, Encaustic, 18x18

SMI Member’s Exhibit
1/20 – 4/11, 2012

Opening Reception:
Friday, Jan 20, 6–8pm

SMI Gallery @ Academy Square &
SMI Virginia S. Block Gallery
33 Plymouth Street (2nd Floor)
Montclair, NJ 07042

HOURS:
Monday-Friday

7am-7pm

973-744-1818
studiomontclair@aol.com

Studio Montclair announces “State of the Art 2012,” an exhibit on view from January 20 to April 11, 2012, featuring the most recent work of SMI members. The exhibit will take place in Studio Montclair’s galleries at Academy Square, 33 Plymouth Street in Montclair. All are invited to the opening reception on Friday, January 20, from 6 to 8 pm. The galleries are open to the public 7 am to 7 pm Monday through Friday.

This year we are pleased to have as curator Robert Koenig, Director of The African Art Museum of the SMA Fathers in Tenafly, N.J., and former Director of the Montclair Art Museum. In a related program, Koenig will give a curator’s talk Thursday, March 8, from 6 to 9 pm at the main branch of the Montclair Public Library, 50 South Fullerton Avenue in Montclair. This promises to be a lively and enlightening evening, offering a glimpse into the mind of the curator and his process. There will be time for Q and A and discussion afterward. A reception will follow.

The artists featured in this exhibit are:

Owen T. Ambrose, Catherine Meier Asher, Susanna Baker, Michal Barkai, Amy Becker, Marcia Miele Branca, Ron Brown, Jeanne V. Campbell, Rita Marie Cimini, Pam Cooper, Marcie Cooperman, Marilyn Deitchman, Maryann Didriksen, William Dunnell, Marilyn Dupre, Fran Eber, Buel Ecker, Noel Farese, Donald M Felber, Leslie A. Ford, Michael C. Gabriele, Ritika Gandhi, Danielo Garcia, Andrea Geller, Madeline Giotta, Alison Golder, Joan M. Goldsmith, Orna Greenberg, Betty Guernsey, Joyce S. Hollander, Charles Hunter, Katherine Y. Jennings, David M. Johnston, Ilona Kennedy, Anne Kerr, Catherine Kinkade, Rita Klachkin, Karen Kruger, Lissanne Lake, Milton Landman, Carole Lane, Lauren Lehman, Eric Levin, Yvette Lucas, Maria Lupo, Valerie Lewis Mankoff, Fernando Mariscal, Clarence Mather, Roberta Millman-Ide, Edith M. Munro, Karen Nielsen-Fried, Nancy Ori, Maria Papale, Arthur Paxton, Sharon Pitts, Isabella Pizzano, Mary Reach, Ruby Reichardt, Connie Legakis Robinson, George Saj, Ellen Sawicki, Judith Shneyer, Stefanie Silverman, Linda Streicher, Brian Stymest, Heidi Sussman, Theodosia A. G. Tamborlane, Del Turgelsky, Claudia Waters, Debbie Weber, Diane Whitebay, Jodi Csaszar Zielinski.

David Johnston, Pale Yellow, Acrylic, 24x24

David Johnston, Pale Yellow, Acrylic, 24x24

Curator’s Talk

Thursday, March 8, 6–9 pm

Montclair Public Library
50 South Fullerton Avenue
Montclair, NJ 07042

973-744-1818
studiomontclair@aol.com

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Robert Koenig, curator of “State of the Art 2012,” an exhibition of Studio Montclair Inc. (SMI) members’ recent work, will give a talk Thursday, March 8, from 6 to 9 pm at the main branch of the Montclair Public Library, 50 South Fullerton Avenue in Montclair, NJ. Koenig will offer a glimpse into the mind of the curator and his process. The evening will include Q and A, discussion, and a reception. The presentation will begin at 6:30pm.

“Montclair was an art colony in the nineteenth century. To judge by this exhibition and the spread of the membership of SMI, it remains one in the twenty first,” says Koenig. Koenig is Director of The African Art Museum of the SMA Fathers in Tenafly, N.J., and former Director of the Montclair Art Museum.

“State of the Art 2012” includes the work in a variety of styles and media from 75 SMI members. The exhibit is on view through April 11 at the SMI Gallery @ Academy Square and the SMI Virginia S. Block Gallery, located on the first and second floors of Academy Square, 33 Plymouth Street in Montclair. The galleries are open to the public 7 am to 7 pm Monday through Friday.

On December 8, 2011 SMI members enjoyed a lively Holiday Party at the Van Vleck House and Gardens. Food, drinks and entertainment were sponsored by the SMI Board. Thank you to all who worked hard to make this party so much fun! Special thanks to Bartlett Greenhouses and Florist . The Holiday Party  was a lot of fun for all who attended. It was wonderful to see so many members at this event in the beautifully decorated building. We enjoyed music by SMI member Michael Gabriele and Matt Wilson, a slide show of work by SMI members, and exciting news from Eileen Sheehan and Merwin Kinkade, SMI’s Co-Presidents, and Bob Ambrosi, CEO of ARC Properties, Inc., and owner of Lackawanna Plaza. Mr. Ambrosi has generously offered SMI 2,500 square feet of space to be used to create the Studio Montclair Art Gallery at the Lackawanna Station Shopping Center, as part of his proposed plan to revitalize the property. SMI is thrilled about this opportunity and we will provide more information to SMI members as it becomes available.