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
View work by Peter Allen, Kay Miller, Susan MacQueen, and Carol Nussbaum
About the Artists
Window 1: Peter Allen
Peter Allen is a Harding Township resident with works spanning three decades, who has exhibited from Canada to Mexico. He has a BA from Brandeis University and an MFA from the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan and completed an apprenticeship in casting bronze sculpture at the Johnson Atelier in Hamilton, NJ.
I want my work to show feelings. Because my material engenders a sad nostalgia for our old industrial America and the subject and method of working show a reverence for the quickly disappearing pristine landscape in the Northeast, I hope to see my work transcend any connection to being viewed as yet another unfelt sculpture.
Window 2: Kay Miller
Over the pandemic I painted some of my favorite musicians. I have seen many of them in concert. Robert Randolph and Bruce Springsteen are both based in New Jersey. I’ve honored quite a few women musicians in my work. Music has brought me much joy and so has painting some of my favorite music makers.
Bio
Art and design are in Kay Miller’s genes. Her architect father built and designed the cliff hanger house Kay grew up in. The Cincinnati Enquirer featured a two-page spread of the Miller home. Kay’s mother was a fine artist and her grandmother started the first interior decorating company in Cincinnati.
After graduating with a fine art degree, Kay moved to New York City because she was drawn to the music coming out of CBGBs and Max’s Kansas City. Her new home was on Saint Marks Place in the East Village, the year was 1978.
One of the first shows Kay attended was the B52s at CBGBs. She was especially impressed with the cool, kitschy style & harmonies of Kate & Cindy.
Kay worked several jobs and then decided to go into teaching. When Kay was in sixth grade she tutored a younger African American student in reading as a volunteer and she really enjoyed the experience. As a NYC public school teacher she was teaching on the Lower East Side on 9/11/2001. Kay was horrified when the Twin Towers were attacked and then collapsed but she didn’t reveal her angst. She took care of her students just like all the other dedicated teachers. Several years after retiring, the COVID pandemic hit the US. Kay used the time at home to paint some of her favorite musicians.
Window 3: Susan MacQueen
Susan MacQueen’s childhood was a blend of both suburban and rural. Weekends were spent on her Dad’s farm in Northeast Ohio, riding their ex-racehorse Dusty and working in the barn. This love of horses would later display itself in her current series, Equine Encounters.
At Windham College in Putney, Vermont, she found a home in the arts, particularly painting. She earned her BFA there with a minor in early childhood education. The combined activity of art and teaching has been a source of satisfaction for her throughout her life.
Susan has had studios in Charleston, South Carolina, Soho in New York City, Cold Spring ,New York and most recently in Hopewell, New Jersey at Highland Design Farm where she maintains an active studio practice.
She has shown her work extensively both in the South and regionally. Her work is included in the State Collection of South Carolina as well as the New Jersey State Museum. AT&T, the headquarters of NRG, Jacob’s Pillow, and the Tenacre Foundation.
Susan is a mixed media, multidisciplinary artist whose preference is to move freely from one medium and subject to another as need/interest dictates. There are of course pivot points, often deeply personal, propelling these shifts. Within the body of her work is a diverse range of images all pointing to an artist with a restless and inquiring nature seeking to understand.
Window 4: Carol Nussbaum
Carol Nussbaum’s artwork, Mandalas, begins with a series of photographs that are then woven and repeated into a “mandala” or circle. From children’s plastic toys to candy to flowers, subjects catch her attention for their graphic textures, their lines as well as their color combinations. Using photographs from around the world as her palette, she sees new, magical possibilities for the mundane and the ultimate weaving she will do as she raises her camera to snap the image.
Found in every culture and faith, a mandala is structured around a unifying center and represents both wholeness and the universe. Mandalas can be found in the circles of the sun, earth and moon but also in our circles of family and friendships. While typically used as a meditation aid, mandalas can also serve to center living and working spaces.
This limited edition exhibition series of mandalas are printed on metal. Following a successful career in advertising, Carol Nussbaum’s original mandalas, can be seen numerous gallery exhibitions, as well as private collections. She has three adult children and lives with her husband in New Jersey.