SMI Academy Square Gallery
33 Plymouth Street
Montclair, NJ 07042
HOURS: Mon – Fri, 7am – 7pm
or by appointment
The exhibit is comprised of three series of photos depicting the vanishing worlds of Strother’s childhood in 1950s Newark as well other venues that suffered a similar decline. These documentary-style photos—a testimony to both change and the dignity of everyday work–provide a visual record of times past that were characterized by a sense of community and personal responsibility. According to Strother, “My practice as an artist and teacher has always been rooted in the past. Each of my three series is a study of transition: a visual record of worlds in the act of passing away. I work documentary-style, attentive to place and to the gestures of labor, looking for the moments when objects and people reveal larger stories about value, endurance, and loss. The photographs are not nostalgic fantasies; they are testimonies to change and to the dignity of everyday work.”
“Last of the Hawks” is a series of photographs of newspaper vendors who sold the Sunday Star-Ledger on the streets of Newark, able to earn a living wage from their work. “Tire Series,” a metaphor for the universal journey of transition and transformation, comprises images of tires in shops that repair and recycle used tires. “Steel Stacks” depicts the decaying Bethlehem Steel complex in Pennsylvania, a monument to industrial decline and the communities reshaped by it. Says Strother, “Across these series I am drawn to thresholds—corners, shop floors, factory stacks—places where labor, material, and time intersect. My work is a record of transition bearing witness: to the people and processes that sustained communities, to acknowledge what has been lost, and to consider what endures. The photographs are small acts of preservation, asking viewers to look closely at the ordinary work that once sustained our world.”
The exhibit expands SMI’s commitment to displaying art that reflects the concepts of freedom and democracy. While the America of today appears to be teetering on the edge of a precipice, these photographs portray our country and its people through an insightful lens of loss and renewal that perhaps offers hope for a better future.
Artist’s Statement
I have never wanted to be anything other than a teacher and an artist. My granddad used to say, “Find something that you’re good at, something that you like to do, and you will never have to work.” Well, don’t believe it! Both teaching and creating art demand dedication and hard work. Still, I can say as an artist that I love what I do. As a teacher, I get to share that love with others.
All this fits nicely into my personality. I like to talk a lot. I enjoy sharing what I have learned. I was born in the right place at the right time for my chosen path. Brick City in the 1950s and 1960s was a cultural mecca, an amazing place to be for a Black artist. There was Spirit House and Mosque, the Newark Museum and the Newark School of Fine and Industrial Arts, and the Bamberger’s Department store. I saw the art of Romare Bearden and Michelangelo’s Moses, before it was taken to the 1964 World’s Fair. (Newark was da Bomb!) Music in every variety filled the city; I couldn’t wait to be a part of it. As soon as I was old enough, I attended Saturday Junior Art School, Arts High, NSFIA, and Rutgers University. Along the way, I have had the opportunity to teach and show artwork in many of these institutions. In my own way, recording, teaching, and remembering – I can give something back.
About The Artist
Onnie Strother maintains an art studio at Riker Hill in Livingston NJ.
His life’s work has been inspiring and teaching young people about art as well as educating people of all ages about the Black experience in America. He is a former art and art history teacher with degrees in fine art, art education and administration and supervision. He has had a storied career of 24 years as an art instructor at Columbia High school in the South Orange Maplewood School District. Onnie grew up in Newark attending art classes at the Newark Museum on Saturdays at the age of nine, and later attending Barringer High School. Upon graduating from high school, Onnie attended the New York School of Visual Arts on a scholarship. Afterwards he attended Rutgers University and became certified as an art teacher which led to being hired at Columbia High School in Maplewood, NJ. There he had a storied career for 24 years. At the invitation of Newark Arts High School principal, Eleta J. Caldwell, he became art department chair there. It was a position he held until retiring in 2008. Since that time, Onnie has focused on curating and also exhibiting his own art at many venues in the region. He currently teaches printmaking at the WAE Center, a facility for the developmentally disabled in Livingston, NJ. while continuing to create and exhibit his art. The subjects of his work in various styles are derived from the media, popular music and political and social issues.
His primary focus is print making consisting of lino cuts and monoprints, photography, and mixed media pieces, which at times combine these multiple elements. This has led him to create various series. Some of these are Gospel Divas, The Tire series, Newspaper Vendors, and his current photographs of the closed site of Bethlehem Steel. Onnie has received grants from The National Endowment for the Humanities and The Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation. He is an acclaimed historian and lecturer of art history and Black history.