I was finally able to make it up to Newark today to see the City Without Walls show which includes six of my paintings.  Here’s a photo of the overall installation — you can click on the image to get a higher res version.

I’m very pleased with the way my paintings look in the lighting of this atrium — a nice, neutral light with very even illumination.  If you’re thinking of going to the show but nervous about going to Newark, it’s incredibly easy to get to by train or car.  I’ve posted directions by train in a separate blog post.  By car, you can follow the Seton Hall law school’s directions, which work very well; today I used the GPS which took me via Turnpike exit 13A through Newark and that was perhaps even easier.  There’s a parking garage right next door at 103 Mulberry St (it’s not cheap, but it’s easy).

In addition to my own paintings, the show includes the work of three other artists.  David French, who happens to also be from Carnegie Mellon (where he graduated from the fine arts school just before I got there as an engineer), exhibits a number of large sort-of-Richter-esque abstractions.  Using mostly subdued tones and a wide-open composition, French perhaps uses large palette knives or squeegies to apply the paint to canvas in ways that pit horizontal versus vertical (I found this image, though I don’t think this one is in the show).  Sonya Chusit, who happens to be from Teaneck — where I lived for 8 years growing up and still consider my “home town” — hints at representation in otherwise large fields of color with expressions of hands, foliage, and streams of “0″ digits running across the canvas.  Finally, Karim Marquez (no serendipidous connection, as far as I can tell) exhibits a variety of works ranging from a bright and bubbly blue meditation on color and depth to a dark, monochromatic mixed media expression.

I’m very happy to report that six of my Embodiment paintings will be included along with the works of three other artists in a show at Seton Hall University School of Law.  The exhibition is being curated by Evonne M. Davis from Newark’s City Without Walls Gallery.  Here are the details:

Real or Otherwise Around
Seton Hall University School of Law
One Newark Center (1109 Raymond Blvd for your GPS)
Newark, NJ  07102
January 5, 2009 – April 24, 2009
Monday – Friday, 10am-5pm

The six paintings of mine that will be included in the show are:  Cartesian Question, Dance, Journey, Perceptual Present, Stormy Thinking, and Strange Loops 5.

Unlike many of the previous shows I’ve been in, this show is easily accessible by public transportation from New York City.  Take the PATH (Newark Line) or NJ Transit to Newark Penn Station.  Walk from Penn Station by taking the street-level exits to Raymond Plaza West.  Turn right and go 1/2 block to Raymond Blvd.  Turn left and cross McCarter Highway at the next intersection.  Seton Hall is across Raymond Blvd to your right and the Law School entrance is mid-block on Raymond Blvd.  Click on the map below for an interactive version on Google.

I’m very happy to announce that three of my paintings will be on display in a large group show of portraits — yes, portraits — at The Bernardsville Library as part of an exhibition by the local chapter of the Portrait Society of America.  In addition to my recent representational Self Portrait, I’ll also be exhibiting two pieces from my Embodiment series that include figurative/portrait elements:  The Self (2004) and Introspection (2005).  Here are the details:

Ambassador’s Show 2009
January 3, 2009 through January 31, 2009 (hours of operation)
Opening Reception:  Sunday, January 11, 2009 2-4pm
The Bernardsville Library
1 Anderson Hill Road, Bernardsville, NJ

I just got back from the reception for the Absolutely Abstract 2008 show at the Philadelphia Sketch Club, where my painting Figment received an honorable mention award.  There were 125 pieces in the show, seven honorable mentions, and three top prizes.

(Award winners, from left-to-right:  Daniel Buchler (?), Deborah Riccardi (co-chair), Ben Cohen (?), Michelle Marcuse, David Foss, Lisa Lawinski, Hunter Stabler, Andrew Werth, James Moss (?), and Don Brewer (co-chair))

I’m happy to report that one of my paintings, Figment, has been accepted into the Absolutely Abstract 2008 juried group show at the Philadelphia Sketch Club.  The exhibition is up through the end of November and the gallery is open Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday from 1-5pm.  The Sketch Club is located at 235 South Camac Street in Philadelphia.

I’m happy to report that I have recently joined Artists’ Gallery, an artists’ co-op in Lambertville, New Jersey. If you’re not familiar with the area, Lambertville is a small town on the Delaware River across the water from New Hope, PA, that features art galleries, antique stores, and other shopping and dining goodies. Artists’ Gallery has been around since 1996 and exhibits the work of some eighteen area artists working in a diversity of styles. I’m very excited about this opportunity to show my work more regularly, both as part of member shows each month as well as in a yearly featured two-person show (my first two-person show will be in September 2009).

This month (Nov 7-Nov 30) I’ll be exhibiting two of my “Strange Loops” paintings (Strange Loops 3 and Strange Loops 4) as part of the group show in the rear gallery space. Artists’ Gallery is located at 32 Coryell Street, Lambertville, NJ, and is open Fridays through Sundays from 11am – 6pm. The opening reception for this month’s two featured artists, Carol Sanzalone and Bonnie Schorske, is this Saturday, November 8, from 6-9pm. For more info, check out the Artists’ Gallery web site at

http://www.lambertvillearts.com/index.php

My painting, Arising, will be on display in a group show at Gallery 125 in Trenton from September 12 through November 8, 2008.  There will be an opening reception this Friday, Sep 12, from 5-9pm.  I should be there starting around 6pm if you’d like to stop by and say Hi.  Gallery 125, at 125 South Warren Street in Trenton, always has fun openings with a strong turnout plus food and drink and usually some live music.

I have one painting, Having in Mind, in the upcoming group exhibition “Inside/Out” at Ellarslie:

The Trenton City Museum @ Ellarslie
Cadwalader Park, Trenton
August 2 – September 14, 2008
Opening Reception: Saturday, August 9, from 5pm-8pm

Brooklyn-based artist John Zinsser, whose (highly recommended) New School class on Viewing Art Intelligently I have taken many times, will be giving a lecture this Wednesday on “The Fate of Painting.”  Here’s the info:

The Fate of Painting
A slide lecture by John Zinsser

Wednesday July 2, 2008
6:30 p.m. on the 6th floor
Mid-Manhattan Library — The New York Public Library
40th Street and 5th Avenue, New York, NY 10016
212-340-0871

Elevators access the 6th floor after 6p.m.
All events are FREE and subject to last minute change or cancellation.

Contemporary art and its audience are moving into ever new and challenging territory. Yet painting, as a historically-established medium, always remains central to the dialogue. John Zinsser will provide a larger art historical context to frame the current paradigm shift. He argues that we have entered a time of increased “lexical crisis” as artistic practices collide freely with viewer responses. Modernism, and its attendant painting developments-cubism, expressionism, geometric abstraction, pop and minimalism-have launched a hybrid visual genealogy. And its recombinant qualities have only just begun to be explored. The lecture will move forward from the European model of Picasso and Mondrian to the American response of Pollock and Warhol. Now, we see a 21st Century aesthetic forming from the likes of painters Luc Tuymans, Karen Kilimnik, Anselm Reyle and Wade Guyton. What marks this movement? And where will it take us?

At the opening reception of the Mercer County Artists show at The Gallery @ Mercer County Community College. (3/5/2008)

Photo courtesy Tom Maslowski.