Hunterdon Art Museum

New Jersey Star-Ledger reviews Nathan Skiles: The Clockmaker's Apprentice

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 18:24:49 +0000

Read what Dan Bischoff from the New Jersey Star-Ledger had to say about Nathan Skiles: The Clockmaker's Apprentice:

60th Anniversary Celebration Photos

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 18:21:30 +0000

See photos from our 60th Anniversary Celebration, courtesy of the Lehigh Valley Express-Times. And more coverage from our birthday party from the Hunterdon County Democrat!

Winter 2012 Exhibitions

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 16:07:40 +0000

Nathan Skiles: The Clockmaker's Apprentice January 22, 2012-March 25, 2012 Click here to learn more

Nathan Skiles: The Clockmaker's Apprentice

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 15:59:52 +0000

Golem #1, foam rubber, 2011. Courtesy of the artist Golem #14, foam rubber, 2011. Courtesy of the artist Nathan Skiles combines recognizable iconography, such as woodworking and drafting tools, with cuckoo clocks and birdhouses to directly influence our traditional perceptions. With his innovative use of foam rubber as the only material in his works, Skiles tricks the eye and confuses our sense of immediate recognition, further challenging the viewer to look beyond the obvious and discover the detailed and meticulous process to which he is attached. For his exhibition at the Museum, Skiles has installed 100 never-before-seen pieces throughout the first floor. He embraces the unique architecture of the first floor gallery, painstakingly creating an experience in which viewers can participate. Some of the pieces are tucked away in hard-to-find places. Others are grouped together in families created in the method of Frankenstein -- three clocks, each divided into three sections, and each section combined with sections of the two others to create a completely new object. The Clockmaker's Apprentice is an effort in duality. Entering the gallery, it's hard to decide if you have walked into a clockmaker's workshop that has been taken over by a crazed scientist, or a historical tribal mask exhibition. The exhibition is the culmination of a partnership of abnormal architectural elements with the creative construction of Dr. Frankenstein. These beautifully grotesque amalgamations involve themselves in a narrative that focuses on the strange and often stressful relationship between a creator and his work. It's hard to resist reaching up to touch the clocks, testing the artist's statement that the sole material used is foam rubber. To satisfy that curiosity, we've placed a box filled with sample pieces just outside the entrance the gallery. Feel free to take a sample, look for others like it throughout the exhibition, and take the sample home with your memories of the visit.

Fall 2011 Exhibitions

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 15:47:04 +0000

2011 Members Exhibition October 2, 2011- January 7, 2012 Click here to learn more Leslie Pontz: Shaping Space October 2, 2011- January 15, 2012 Click here to learn more Ann Tsubota: A Passion for Clay December 4, 2011 - January 29, 2012 Click here to learn more Deconstructing Nature Chris Ballantyne, Gregory Euclide, Kim Keever, Dean Monogenis, Voshardt / Humphrey
October 2, 2011- January 29, 2012 Click here to learn more

2012 winter class calendar

Sun, 18 Dec 2011 20:18:52 +0000

social media

Sat, 17 Dec 2011 15:15:33 +0000

Ann Tsubota: A Passion for Clay

Sun, 27 Nov 2011 21:14:41 +0000

Ann Tsubota, Rococo, 2000, Raku, 11 1/4 x 6 1/2 inches, Collection of the artist, Photo by Craig Phillips

Ann Tsubota: A Passion for Clay, includes diverse groups of work by this well-known ceramic artist. Ann Tsubota is the Chairperson of the Department of Visual and Performing Arts at Raritan Valley Community College, NJ. She is an honored and respected teacher, known for her high standards, and has sent many ceramic artists out into the art world. Tsubota is represented by galleries in New York and New Jersey; her work has been shown in numerous exhibitions from the 1970s to the present day. She holds an M.F.A. from Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University, where she had the opportunity to study and work with Ka Kwong Hui, an esteemed and innovative ceramic artist. Ann Tsubota works in several clay materials: raku, stoneware and porcelain, and does low-and high-fire reduction in her studio kiln. A master of ceramic technique, she takes particular interest in investigating surface and glaze possibilities, often using traditional functional vessel forms for inventive and unexpected treatment and motifs. The surface becomes a skin for richly varied drawings, paintings, incision and relief. Tsubota's interests in history, politics and the contemporary world are reflected in the texts and images found on her vessels. Literature and poetry have frequently been inspiration for themes and series. Ann Tsubota's work is informed by her extensive knowledge of the ceramic traditions of many ancient and modern societies. Viewers may recognize this artist's sometimes witty response to venerated forms and shapes, as well as her deeply serious concern with today's issues. In conjunction with this exhibition, the Museum's education department will offer a workshop titled Form & Surface: Ceramics Workshop with Ann Tsubota. This two-day workshop taught by Ann Tsubota is offered in partnership with Raritan Valley Community College and will take place at RVCC on January 8 from 10 am to 3 pm and on January 15 from 10 am to 1 pm. The focus of the class will be handbuilding and glazing. Tuition is $155 or $135 for museum members (plus $30 clay and firing fee). Ann Tsubota, Shadow Map: Gagarin, Shepard, Glenn, 2011, Raku, Collection of Eileen Abel and Bill Luyster, Photo by Craig Phillips

2011 Members Exhibition

Wed, 28 Sep 2011 21:51:57 +0000

Amy Becker, Carny Series: Viking, 2008, Archival Pigment Inkjet, 14 x 11 inches, Courtesy of the artist

Craig Matthews, Black & Blonde, 2009, Fiber, 43 x 42 inches, Courtesy of the artist

Edward Evans, Disseminating, 2010, Acrylic on linen, 54 x 68 inches, Courtesy of the artist

Leslie Pontz: Shaping Space

Wed, 28 Sep 2011 21:47:04 +0000

Floating (Basket), 2011, monofilament, silk, thread, iron, 69 1/2x 15 1/2 x 13 1/2 inches, courtesy of the artist
The art of Leslie Pontz clearly transcends the traditional boundaries of fiber art. This artist pursues dichotomies in her sculpture with materials that, by nature, are usually antithetical. Pontz works with crochet and other fiber techniques on silk, monofilament and metal wire. In the artist's own words, she has been intrigued by "elements that are far more exciting existing together than independently." Contrasts of texture and color in environments she has experienced have had a strong impact on her art, as has her awareness of the interaction of light and form in penetrable structures. Bodies of work have thoughtfully investigated these oppositions until they are resolved in multi-dimensional sculptures. Many of the artist's works are suspended with metal attachments and hooks that allow gravity to shape sack-like containers. Openwork crocheted "sacks" frequently hold objects of contrasting texture, color and density; cores of wood are wrapped in multiple layers of metal wire. The tensile strength of silk and filament evokes a visceral response; we sense the holding power of structures that appear fragile but are surprisingly strong. Some expand gracefully in space while others are shaped by what they contain. Metal attachments appear aged by time and use, but many have been fabricated for specific pieces and their patinas created by the artist. The body of work in this exhibition reflects a very reasoned, personal approach to color; several sculptures have a pale translucency, a quiet, meditative quality. Pontz uses a slightly coarse silk thread along with colorless monofilament for many of the pieces. No dyes have been used: color on some is introduced by crocheting a polyester thread along with the monofilament. The artist has deliberately used the natural color of silk and linen and the neutral color of filament to focus our response on form. The title of the exhibition tells us what it is about: space, surrounded by varied hanging and resting shapes that respond to their internal and external environments. We are invited into a gentle, unexpectedly subtle organization of space, shape, weight, and the volume of air contained and displaced as it flows through the work. Support in part provided by the Bloomingdale's Fund of the Macy's Foundation. Collapsed Basket 1 (detail), 2010, Monofilament, silk, iron, 13 3/4 x 14 x 4 inches, courtesy of the artist

Seed Pod 2, 2010, Crocheted wire, wood, paint iron, 39 1/2 x 33 1/2 x 18 inches, courtesy of the artist

Deconstructing Nature

Wed, 28 Sep 2011 21:43:23 +0000

Chris Ballantyne, Gregory Euclide, Kim Keever, Dean Monogenis, Voshardt / Humphrey Gregory Euclide, Capture #1, 2009, Acrylic paint, paper, paint can, pencil, pine needles, moss, sedum, sponge, stone, 11 x 13 x 16 in., Collection of Deborah and Peter Smith

Kim Keever, Summer: Blue, Yellow and Gray, 2004, C-print, 51 1/8 x 68 1/8 in., Edition 1/3, Courtesy Kinz + Tillou Fine Art

Chris Ballantyne, Pool Overgrown, 2010, Acrylic on panel, 36 x 48 in., Courtesy Steven Zevitas Gallery

Deconstructing Nature is a contemporary interpretation of the modern landscape. By examining the essential qualities of nature through an updated lens, new possibilities emerge. The contemporary landscape is less concerned with a strict portrayal of a beach or a mountain and more concerned with a narrative about nature, regardless of the format. Deconstructing Nature features five artists; all with unique points of view on what happens when nature is dissected in order to return it in a different form. The artists in Deconstructing Nature share an interest in nature, but take distinct approaches to capturing it in their work. Chris Ballantyne fuses nature and suburban development in his paintings, finding unusual ways to make these two adversaries interact gracefully. Gregory Euclide uses landscape as a springboard to ethereal and delicate dioramas that befuddle the mind with their complexity. Kim Keever incorporates cotton, twigs, plaster, rocks and pigment to make environments that are submerged in water and then photographed, revealing fictitious landscapes never before seen. Dean Monogenis updates the traditional landscape by including architectural elements in his paintings that comment on the fast-paced need for urban growth, which often intersects with nature. The videos of Robyn Voshardt and Sven Humphrey provide a new commentary on environmentalism while questioning whether the pursuit of the sublime in nature is still able to elicit a visceral response. Sometimes the need to know how something works requires that it be taken apart and examined before putting it back together. When it comes to nature and specifically to the landscape in art, the artists in Deconstructing Nature have begun this process. With great deference to the phenomenon that is nature, these artists have reconstructed landscapes in ways that are visually more challenging, as well as more representative of what nature means to them. While their work varies in medium and context, it is linked by familiar content that is made new by the artists' singular perspectives. The artists in Deconstructing Nature have developed their own narratives that bring the viewer to a new place; a place they are unable to find in our natural world.

Summer 2011 Exhibitions

Tue, 27 Sep 2011 10:26:28 +0000

Kiyomi Baird: Spheres October 2, 2011- November 27, 2011 Click here to learn more Up & Coming:
New Printmakers Make their Mark June 19 - September 18, 2011 Click here to learn more Art of Adornment: Studio Jewelry June 19 - September 18, 2011 Click here to learn more

Kiyomi Baird: Spheres

Mon, 26 Sep 2011 21:48:13 +0000

Kiyomi Baird, Autumnal, 2011, Mixed media and oil on canvas, 48 x 108 inches (triptych), Courtesy of the artist

Kiyomi Baird uses basic geometric forms to express her perceptions of the fundamental nature of physical matter and spiritual being. These forms, often circles and spheres, are given texture and color to create spaces that seek to reflect the cosmos. Spheres is an artistic manifestation of Baird's inner journey through the vastness that encompasses this physical and spiritual embodiment. Kiyomi Baird began her interest in the elements of matter after first looking through an electron microscope into the invisible universe of atomic particles. She then combined this scientific interest with spiritual reflection shaped by her Japanese ancestry and Buddhist upbringing to start an artistic process that continues to enlighten her. After living most of her life in the United States and Berlin, Baird moved to Tokyo and found a connection with Japanese culture and aesthetics that she had not previously recognized. This newly found cultural duality created an inner tension that drives her to create visual expressions of harmony and balance. Autumnal and Renewal are representations of this cultural duality. Autumnal is dark and celestial, an indication of deep space and an enigmatic world. Renewal is refreshing and delivers a sense of regeneration through its varied textures and colors. Together these works form the yin and yang of Kiyomi Baird. They are opposite forces, but when seen together they complement each other and give rise to a more powerful dynamic. Kiyomi Baird seeks to open the viewer's understanding through her paintings. The themes of harmony and balance graciously interact with the subjects of chaos and struggle creating a context for Baird to transform the viewer's own feelings and insights. Spheres is not just a celestial meditation, it is a personal journey to a meaningful consciousness.

Jessica Lenard

Thu, 01 Sep 2011 23:03:54 +0000

received her BFA from the Boston Museum School of Fine Arts. She has exhibited extensively in the US and Europe, including but not limited to: De Zaaijer Gallery in Amsterdam, Musee de Napoleon in France, and the Folk Art Museum in Moscow. Her work is part of many public and privately held collections including NYU Hospital Langone Cancer Center, St. Vincents, The Newark Museum, Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University, the Zimmerli Art Museum, Hunterdon Art Museum, the Noyes Museum, and that of former NYC Mayor Rudy Guiliani. Jessica was the Rutgers Center 2005 grant recipient for Innovative Paper and Printmaking and a featured guest on Philadelphia's Artbeat, a PBS production. She is currently the artist-in-residence at NYU's Cancer Center where she works with outpatients, helping them to create art while they are receiving treatment. Jessica has been an artist her whole life.

Erica Lescota

Thu, 01 Sep 2011 22:57:46 +0000

has been an art educator for three years, teaching children ages 3 through high school. She currently teaches at Spruce Run School in Clinton township and is well versed in many media from teaching a variety of art classes such as advanced Honors Art IV, Ceramics & Crafts, and general art courses. Erica studied Secondary Education and Fine Art as an undergraduate at Seton Hall University, graduating Cum Laude. She also completed graduate course work on the track of Museum Professions at the same university.