February 2022: Windows into Black History

Windows at Studio Montclair Gallery
127 Bloomfield Avenue
Montclair, NJ 07042

Work is viewable 24×7 in the Studio Montclair Gallery Windows adjacent to the Studio Montclair Gallery

Use our INSTAGRAM hashtags!

#STUDIOMONTCLAIR
#STUDIOMONTCLAIRGALLERY
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Contact smi@studiomontclair.org to purchase artwork.

Exhibition Dates:
February 2022

This special installation celebrating Black History Month is sponsored by the Montclair Center Bid as part of Fresh Air Montclair Exhibitions.

Fresh Air Montclair exhibitions is a township-wide initiative to promote and support art and artists in public spaces while enlivening empty storefronts for community enjoyment.

About the Artists

Kay Reese
Work that visualizes the African Holocaust, using abstraction as the narrative structure of this global historical and social phenomenon.

Click to read full statement

Witness to Captivity

All people possess intellectual, spiritual, moral qualities, social values, and physical properties. However, the one visibly distinct physical characteristic of Black people is their hair. It is notably the oldest and most genetically advanced, unique, and flexible hair on the planet. It represents who Black people are and have been for centuries. Yet, black ethnic characteristics have been the most consistent target for discrimination, abuse, rejection, and attempted holocaust by various societies.

The Crossing series visualizes the African Holocaust, using abstraction as the narrative structure of this global historical and social phenomenon. It uses Black people’s naturally textured hair as a central, unifying visual element.

The Crossing narrative consists of “scenes” or active landscapes which convey the experience of Black people struggling for freedom as they cross the world in ships as captives in pre-and post-colonial eras, crossing borders, languages, cultures, gods, and identities. It is well documented many rebellious captives were thrown overboard. However, many others committed suicide by throwing themselves overboard. Subsequentially challenging the concept of suicide as self-murder, rather than a requirement of spiritual freedom or a quest for life and redemption in response to the loss of “free will” a fundamental human right. And against the inherent evil of degradation, despair, and spiritual death in human captivity.

An award-winning visual artist/photographer, and curator, Reese came of age in the civil rights-era and became a Franciscan nun for several years before leaving in the Vietnam, moon-landing era. In 1999, learning of her great, great, grandmother’s emancipation from a Georgia plantation, and witnessing the NYC police killing of Amadou Diallo an innocent African immigrant in her Bronx neighborhood, her artistic practice became an exploration of socially relevant issues of identity, race, power, and other social constructs. Using photographs, objects and collaged digital and mixed media strategies allows Reese to explore, challenge and deconstruct social belief systems considered the norm in modern society. Her practice employs experimental techniques and innovative photographic processes enabling the juxtaposition of often contradictory relationships, and re-constructing them to question and reveal more humane truths. Reese has an active practice, and her works are in private collections throughout the U.S.

neumaaarts@gmail.com www.kayreese.com

Chuck Miley
Work exhibited is from two of his series, “Why Reparations” and “Black Lives Matter Martyrs.”

Click to read full statement

Why Reparations

These four wood block prints illustrate how slave labor built the economic wealth and development of this country. The big four, COTTON, SUGAR, RICE, and TOBACCO were the basis of the United States economic growth and individual wealth from the earliest days as a colony to the Civil War and beyond.
BLM MARTYRS: Say Their names….”
Along with the Covid pandemic there is a historic endemic of violence against unarmed men and women of color. Slavery, the original sin of our country, has left a poison in our society. As an artist, my art is my voice, I must use my art to draw attention to this hate and injustice. Picasso said, “Painting (art) is a weapon”. Therefore, I, “say their names…” in my “Martyr” series of woodblock prints. I honor those men and women’s lives and their memory.

Onnie Strother
Work from “The Scottsboro Series: An arts meditation on the treatment of African American youth in the legal system,” and “Big Boy Emmitt Till.”

Click to read full statement

The Scottsboro Series

An artist meditation on the treatment of African American youth in the legal system: The Scottsboro Boys were nine African American teenagers, ages 12 to 19, accused in Alabama of raping two white women in 1931. It resulted in a landmark set of legal cases, constituencies, and organizations. The story of the Scottsboro Boys brought together politics, racism, sex, fear, art, and drama. There were lynch mobs before the suspects had been indicted, all-white juries, rushed trials, intimidation, twists, turns, and the rise of the Communist Party as a force for justice. The experience of the Scottsboro boys is a prime example of how Black youths were treated in the Jim Crow Legal System. Their struggle for justice marked the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement in the twentieth century.
Big Boy Emmitt Till

Emmett Till, a 14-year-old African American boy, was brutally, tortured and murdered in August 1955 in a racist attack that shocked the nation and provided the catalysts for the modern civil rights movement. Emmett Till’s murder brought nationwide attention to the racial violence and injustice prevalent in America. Media coverage of the murder trial that led to the acquittal of the confessed killers galvanized a generation of young African Americans to join the Movement.

ABOUT: Onnie Strother is an artist, educator, lecturer, and curator with degrees in Fine Arts and Educational Administration and Supervision. Born in Newark, NJ, his artwork is often inspired by issues of race and power. Onnie’s artwork can be seen in exhibitions, galleries, and online. He is the founder of the JC White Creative Aging Project, an arts enrichment program for seniors in Newark Public Housing.

Oscar Peterson
Work shown is from the “We Too,” flag series.

Click to read full statement

Oscar Peterson’s “We Too” flag series (We Too, For Beautiful, MLK) speaks to the fact that some people (including a former president) say that we as Black people don’t love our country, and have no respect for the flag. The flag that waves for them/their family/their descendants is the same flag that waves for (and sometimes smothers) the oppressed peoples of America. We too, have fought and died for this country—our country, this flag, our flag—without getting the rights and benefits that others have received. We too, respect the flag and ALL it stands for. We just want the country to live up to its promises.

After Velasquez and Liberty illustrate the nobility, strength, and intensity of Black people.

ABOUT: Oscar Peterson was born in Harlem, New York, raised in Brooklyn, NY, and is currently a resident of Millburn Township, NJ. He has worked as a professional art director and designer/illustrator for various corporations and non-profits, and as a commissioned fine arts painter who specializes in portraiture. An alumnus of Pratt Institute and The Art Students League of NY, Peterson has studied with such leading realist painters as Nelson Shanks, Max Ginsberg, and Costa Vavagiakis. A winner of the prestigious Gonzalez-Edwards Travel grant, his work appears in corporate and private collections and museums across the country.

Peterson mostly paints from life, using traditional methods and techniques while incorporating new ideas and personal observations. His preferred medium is oil, although he frequently many mediums. Describing his paintings as “Contemporary Realism with an Impressionistic feel,” Peterson’s artistic style is inspired by the Impressionists and the Old Masters. His approach echoes a favorite quote from Alberto Giacometti; “The object of art is not to reproduce reality, but to create a reality of the same intensity.”
His work can be viewed at his website, www.oscarpetersonportraits.com.

RESUME
Selected Awards
Finalist, Jerry’s Artarama Self-Portrait Competition 2016, 2019
Strokes of Genius 6: The Best of Drawing 2014
Multiple Awards, Art Students League Concours Exhibition 2012
Gonzalez/Edwards Travel Grant, Art Students League of New York 2011 First Place, SOHO Painting Competition 2011
Best in Show, Paper Mill Theatre Gallery, MSHAC Juried Show, Millburn, NJ 2011
Award of Excellence, Morristown Community Theater, Morristown, NJ 2010
Red Dot winner (Best in-show), Art Students League Concours Exhibition 2009
Selected Exhibitions
Inspired by an Object, Montclair Museum, Montclair, NJ 2021
Farmstead Arts Center OP & Students Exhibit, Basking Ridge, NJ 2021
Tell Two, 10 Year Retrospective, Millburn Library (Online), 2020
The Curator’s Lens, SOPAC, South Orange, NJ 2020
If You Look Carefully . . . Selected works of Oscar Peterson, ARTfront Galleries, Newark, NJ 2019
Personal. Simple. Difficult. The Art of Oscar Peterson, HPL Gallery, New York, NY 2019
“Discovery in the Detail” Studio Montclair Group Exhibition 2018
“Unbound” (solo exhibition) Center for Contemporary Art, Bedminster, NJ 2017
Millburn/Short Hills Arts Commission Mentor’s Show, Millburn, NJ 2013 –Present
Paper Mill Theatre Renee Foosaner Gallery, Group Shows, Millburn, NJ 2010/11
The Art Students League Concours Exhibition 2009 – 2012, New York, NY
ISE Cultural Foundation Gallery, New York, NY, 2010
GE Corporate Headquarters Exhibition 2010, Fairfield, CT
“Mostly Paint” (solo exhibition) Millburn Library, Millburn, NJ 2010
Teaching
Drawing and Painting instructor, The Farmstead Arts Center 2016 – Present
Drawing and Painting instructor, The Hunterdon Art Museum 2016 – Present
Drawing and Painting instructor, The Center for Contemporary Art 2014 –Present
Summer Drawing Workshop, The Art Student’s League 2018
Teaching Assistant, Ephraim Rubenstein’s Drawing, Pastel, Oil Painting,Gouache Beginner’s Workshops, The Art Students League 2010 – 2016
Monitor for Nelson Shanks, Costa Vavagiakis, Dan Thompson, Max Ginsburg, and Brandon Soloff, The Art Students League 2009 – 2014
Memberships
Vice-Chair Millburn-Short Hills Arts Advisory Commission
Gaelen Gallery Art Show Committee member
Portrait Society of America
Studio Montclair

Window 3 features works from the Montclair African-American Heritage Foundation Traveling History. The exhibit is comprised of four large panels chronicling the township’s rich African-American roots from the early 1800s to the present day. Included are narratives about some of Montclair’s trailblazing business leaders, politicians, athletes, medical professionals, and civil rights champions. The exhibit also includes depictions of luminaries of Montclair’s flourishing arts and culture.

About the Montclair Center Bid: Representing more than 400 businesses and over 200 property owners in downtown Montclair, the mission of the Montclair Center BID is to create a visually appealing, prosperous and inclusive downtown through continuous cleaning and beautification, programming, marketing, economic development, and advocacy. For more information, visit montclaircenter.com
Fresh Air Montclair Exhibitions Presented by BDP Holdings/Bridget & David Placek and The Bravitas Group/Silver Family Foundation is a project from the Montclair Center BID and Studio Montclair. Generous support has been provided by Main Street New Jersey. Additional support has been provided by Whole Foods Market, Rao’s Homemade and Investors Bank.

February 2022: Windows into Black History

February 2022: Windows into Black History

Work is viewable 24×7 in the Studio Montclair Gallery Windows adjacent to the Studio Montclair Gallery

Use our INSTAGRAM hashtags!

Contact smi@studiomontclair.org to purchase artwork.

This special installation celebrating Black History Month is sponsored by the Montclair Center Bid as part of Fresh Air Montclair Exhibitions.

Fresh Air Montclair exhibitions is a township-wide initiative to promote and support art and artists in public spaces while enlivening empty storefronts for community enjoyment.

About the Artists

Our Mission

GALLERY LOCATIONS

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